105 Assignment # 3How Teachers Learn

I made a mistake on the last blog title. I put it as assignment 1, but it was really assignment 2, and this is the third one for 105 "How Teachers Learn." I really enjoyed reading this article because it was information for me to digest about myself as a learner and as a teacher. Even though I loved all of the chapter, and I would say that through the years, I have been involved in many workshops and trainings to learn a curriculum or a new strategy like GLAD, but this is not the type of professional development that this reading is talking about. The reading gave an example about a teacher who participated in a Math Their Way workshop, and even though this training gave this teacher new techniques to teach math. However this particular teacher did not start the process of rethinking her knowledge of math. This art of the reading made me stop and think about the book that our principal had us math teachers read over the summer by Liping Ma. After reading that book, I started to rethink my knowledge of math and how that in turn has prepped me for how I might teach math to my students. The book by Liping Ma, Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics forced me to unlearn the old way I had been taught, and look at certain math concepts like regrouping in a fresh new way. So many workshops or training etc that we as teachers participate in do teach us new techniques and strategies, but do they tackle the deeper issue of challenging us to rethink our subject matter? For a teacher to step outside of their comfort zone and force himself to rethink his subject matter is indeed being vulnerable. I think it is hard for teachers to maybe grapple with the fact that maybe they do not know answers to some questions. Not until I read this book over the late summer, did I begin to take those steps to rethink my understanding of math, and how that translates into teaching my students. I think that process for teachers is very powerful.

I also found it interesting that districts spend only 1-3% of operational budget on professional development. The reading also mentioned that" this lack of investment is unheard of in leading corporations and other countries." I think that if we are to continue to make reforms in education and in teachers' professional developement this lack of funding must be addressed as well as the quality of the professional developments which need to target each teacher in a way that will best suit his or her needs for professional growth. Teachers are at different stages of their professional growth and to force each one in a district or school site to participate in the same one regardless of the necessity because it is dysfunctional.