In early spring of this year, the local chapter of my teacher professional development organization held our first in-person conference since the pandemic. In the weeks leading up to the conference, I obsessively checked our registration platform almost hourly to see if the number of confirmed attendees had increased beyond double digits. Unfortunately, I never received the confidence boost I was hoping for as our attendance numbers remained, and were, embarrassingly low.
In contrast to the chapter's heyday, when our annual conferences attracted hundreds of participants and speaker and presentation opportunities were competitive, the low participation at this conference felt agonizing and embarrassing.
You would think that after emerging from the pandemic, teachers and educators would be clamoring for the opportunity to interact with each other in person and share experiences and best practices. Ironically, that seems increasingly far from reality in our classrooms; If anything, it seems like the state of teacher professional development is dying at a time when we most need to engage and connect.
As someone who still values professional development (PD) and has seen this decline firsthand, I feel it is a symptom of the growing unrest I am now experiencing at my school and the growing helplessness of the local teaching community who should be standing by. vanguard of professional development. providing it.
Detachment and Disconnection Lead to Decline
I knew from the beginning that planning the conference would be an uphill battle. From securing a venue and recruiting speakers to advertising and promotion, it takes a dedicated group of leaders to make these professional development conferences happen each year. Having worked on the leadership team of our local professional development organization for many years, I planned numerous conferences and knew what needed to be done, but this year was different.
Despite many long, unnecessary and unproductive meetings, we struggled to find a focus for our conference, let alone a venue or an interested audience. The core teachers concluded that there was nothing new or relevant they could learn and instead opted to do something else on a Saturday morning. Even for newer, less experienced teachers, it was not that they felt their teaching was perfect, but rather that our meager offerings for professional development could not significantly improve their practice.
I believe this shift in mindset is emblematic of the growing gap between national professional organizations and local teaching communities. Without us local affiliates, there was no source of professional development for teachers in K-12 mathematics led by and for local teachers. Therefore, the only professional development many teachers receive are often uninspiring offerings presented by the district.
Pandemic burnout is real, too. While the classrooms in my building have returned to the bustling, lively places they were before 2020, I think many of us are still coming to terms with that experience. The increased expectations and scrutiny of teachers is staggering, and many of my colleagues simply do not have the energy to think about anything other than what is happening within the walls of their classrooms. As a result, leadership positions remain vacant and conferences remain unattended.
The post-pandemic retreat from active engagement with the broader community was evident everywhere, but it is especially affecting small local chapters, like ours. In terms of recruiting speakers, attendees, and workshop presenters, we rely primarily on professors to spread the word to their networks and professional departments to generate interest. When those connections are cut or clogged, we end up dead in the water before we even get started.
Since I was not the president or president of the conference, I did not want to be too bossy or aggressive about what I felt needed to happen for the conference to be a success. I wanted to make space for others to share their ideas and practice leadership. However, the hard truth remained that we were only operating at half our capacity and well below our capacity as a board of directors.
While I had previously been so eager and proud to participate in the chapter, I began to flirt with the previously unthinkable idea of leaving my position due to my growing frustration, feeling leaderless, directionless, irrelevant, and demoralized.
Static practice and static student performance
While none of us expected our conference to cause a stir in our local teaching community, the lack of impact was sobering and notable, even among the teachers who attended and gave favorable reviews to the workshop sessions.
After poking my head into the classrooms of the few attendees in my conference circle in the weeks following the conference, I saw almost no change in their classroom practice, not even aspects of their curriculum and instruction that went to the conference to improve. Similarly, those who attended our parent organization's largest national conference the previous year were excited upon their return, only to have their classroom practices remain unchanged in the long term. I began to suspect that the rumors might have had more to do with being away from home in an exciting new city and less to do with a desire to implement new best practices.
In the absence of vital, teacher-led, district-independent professional development, teachers do not have viable options for on-the-ground professional development that is raw, real, and addresses their specific needs and desires. The motivation teachers once had to make meaningful changes to improve student learning and engagement had become static and obsolete before my eyes. While I have my own feelings about how this influences morale among teachers, it is always our students (the ones receiving the final part of our professional development practice) who are ultimately let down.
Although the factors contributing to the decline of my beloved local chapter (the organization to which I have dedicated many years of service and from which I have received the inspiration and support to grow as a teacher) are beyond my control, I refuse to resign to which it still has the potential to be an important professional resource for teachers.
Revitalize local teaching communities
We are told that successful teaching is based on successful relationships. This not only applies to teachers who teach their students, but also to teachers who lead other teachers.
The camaraderie of a group of friends and colleagues who get itThe camaraderie that initially drew me to our chapter and made me want to give a big part of myself to it, is the same camaraderie that gives me hope for a more abundant future for local chapters and affiliates like ours.
Local chapters like ours must adapt and embrace the new realities of teacher professional development, including the digital landscape to which most professional development has moved since the pandemic. However, whether in person or virtual, the goal should be to enhance our desire to grow professionally and learn in community again, taking into account the specific needs we have in our local educational ecosystems.
Teaching is too difficult to do alone, and it is the strength of our local teaching communities that will dictate the quality of education our students will receive. Renewing these communities should be the mission of professional organizations, especially if they want to survive our new reality.