If you were told to give up vacation time during the summer for professional development outside of the adopted school calendar, would you show up? I have already told the admin in my school that we (my wife and I both teach in the same high school) that we will be gone most of the summer to spend time with our very elderly parents, all four of which are in their 80s and in not so good health.
Would you be paid? Personally, I hate being told that I must participate in something outside of my contracted hours, even though it may be something I may have participating in if it was presented as optional. When I lived in Georgia, I always gave up at least 2 weeks for professional development session, but I was paid to attend them. I believe it was $150 for 3 day sessions and $300 for 5 day sessions. It was an easy way to make spending money and we were always provided with teaching material to use in the classroom or teacher resources.
I attend some. Optional-but we get $12 an hour and I usually learn something! I signed up for a 4 day technology workshop in July.
It depends on what type of PD. I did a week long workshop for Responsive Classroom a four summers ago.
I most certainly wouldn't change my vacation plans. But if it wasn't a big deal in terms of the calendar, I would attend. I'm not real big on "their time" vs "my time." If it's something that will make me a better teacher, and I can get there without too much hassle I'll go.
Only if I got paid and was interested in the prof. development topic. And even then, I'd have to decide if the amount of money was worth giving up visiting with out of state relatives. In your case, I'd go visit with my parents.
I guess I should clarify that we will be paid. Admin is talking at least $100/day stipend and possibly as high as $300/day if the ARRA Title IID grant comes through. Not sure how I feel about this. Our district is seeming to want to infringe on my time a great deal lately. I'm afraid that this will turn into my time vs. their time issue.
Ours are optional and we get paid for them, usually $33/hour. I usually do it when it works into my schedule and doesn't conflict with any pre-existing plans. If I have something else going on, I don't feel bad saying that I'm not going.
Honestly, I thought everyone had to do that. Never took the time to consider rather that would be part of the 80 continuing service hours the state mandates for teachers each year or not though
I do that most summers-but then again I don't really travel or anything. I like knocking out some PD hours without having to do it during the school year when my kids would have to have a sub. Also, it's usually something interesting. My P just told me I'm doing 3 days sometime in July then bringing it back to the staff in the fall. I have no problem with that.
I actually try to schedule a week or two of PD every summer. We get paid for it and the extra money is nice. Plus, I get to spend time with fellow teachers that I don't see much during the hectic school year.
We don't get paid for any professional development, but I usually take 2 3-day workshops each summer. Our teachers' federation offers wonderful PD opportunities that are highly subsidized--a 3-day workshop (with materials and meals) costs about $75.
It doesn't bother me, but I don't travel or have a family of my own. If I did, that would be really annoying! We're encouraged to do some in-service hours, but they aren't required.
I need to have quite a few days of PD time to renew my certificate every 5 years. I just don't care to be told what I'm doing and when I'm doing it.
Do they keep track in your state? They gave up in NJ. The state didn't know what to do with the people that didn't make the 100 required hours. Our summer workshops are not mandatory, but they try to make them appealing. If we miss this summers, then we will be pulled from class during the year to go. If you go to the summer one, you get paid the thirty something an hour for your time. We are heading into a really bad contract negotiation year, and I think they'll cut the funding for the program.
Yes - you can check it online. They also have videos online you can watch to account for some of the hours. You have to fill out a questionairre at the end, but the questions are all the same so one could watch 5 minutes of the hour long video and still get credit (though you have to play the video in its entirety). I got my hours through earning a master's degree because I figured hey, if I need the equivalent of a master's degree, why not get one. And once I get established I plan on using a phd for my next set of 5 years. If you don't make your hours, and you've been teaching full time, you need to go look for a nonteaching job. I know of one person that happened to, who I guess, just assumed could avoid the requirement. All of the museums, zoos, science centers, etc offer programs that count for the hours but they've all seemed way to expensive for me to attend
If you have a union, you might want to run it by them even if you are willing and happy to go. There's presumably a teacher's contract, right? Well, contracts can be altered by the way the parties treat the contract. That means, it's possible that if the teachers do a lot of these mandatory, off-schedule PD's it could be interpreted by the courts that they contract requires it -- even when that may not have been the original intent of the parties. It's still possible to preserve the original intent, but you would want to take the right steps to do so (usually, giving written notice that you're making a one-time allowance).
unless i had family obligations i would show up - teachers want everyone to consider us professionals - professionals "work" even when they are not paid - we want our students to have intrinsic reasons for doing work but yet many of us hypocritically do not practice what we preach? ??? hmmmmm,
I love PD, and usually end up trying to get grants or scholarships so I can go. If the school offered it to me for free, or even PAID me for it, I'd be there for sure. But if I had plans to see my family and it was sprung on me, that would be the one exception. I don't get to see my parents near enough at all, so I would try everything to work around it.
I would go unless I had some travel arragements that I couldn't cancel. The way the economy is right now and since I only have 5 years of teaching, I want to keep my principal happy.
This summer I have a two day workshop to attend for some training. We were told in January that there would be two days in June for this training. Haven't heard the dates for sure but I know that I don't plan a weeks vacation in June until I know the dates! Last summer I didn't have to attend any workshops but the year before I did. We get a stipend so I'm fine with it. It is implied that it is mandatory.
