Look for the Union Label

Yesterday I spent my Saturday morning at one of the Strategies for Student Success sessions provided by my teachers' union, Duval Teachers United. Actually, the content is provided by AFT, the American Federation of Teachers, who trains local teachers to run the sessions.

The professional development (PD) session was about the brain and student learning and how to utilize good strategies based upon research to understand the development stages of students and use to maximum effect the current status of their growth to maximize learning.

Hmm, the paragraph probably needs some editing for clarity. I hope you get what I am trying to say.

It was very helpful to me as the session led me to think about acquiring vocabulary in a new way.

There is some frustration in teaching Geometry, which has an abundance of new words, theorems, postulates, etc. to learn, and seeing students struggle to cope with the demand. Now I have new insight: learning new words and associating meaning is a task for the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which we know from research is the last part of the body to mature. Not until age 25 is a human fully 'cooked' as far as having the entire capacity of the body.

Students have difficulty learning the technical vocabulary because their brains don't have the full capacity for it. That's not to say they can't do it, but we have to tailor our learning strategies to their capacities.

For that insight alone, it was worth 4 hours (unpaid) of my time. I have much to research and ponder, but now I am moving in the right direction.

"Look for the Union Label." I may sound silly, but I am seriously impressed with the quality of the PD available through my union as developed by AFT. It is much better than most of what the district provides, and the equal of anything I have ever received even when the Schultz Center was in full swing as the PD arm of the district.

Last Spring, I did another PD through the union: Managing Anti-Social Behavior. It was my first time. I only did it to satisfy the ESE 20 hour requirement for renewing my Florida Certificate. BUT! It gave me good information. I gained insight into why that difficult child I could do nothing with was so difficult. She matched the ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) profile.

I am not a psychologist; therefore, I am not saying she was ODD. But knowing that she matched the profile and I could understand her behavior that way helped me in dealing with her difficulties.

I was and remain impressed by the quality and just plain usefulness of the training available through the union.

Whereas DCPS is a hit-or-miss affair.

Teachers, when you're doing your IPDP (individual professional development plan), look for the union label! You won't find anything better.