School Goals Work - Intro IV (We want effective PDs!)
What makes for an effective PD?
School Goals Work - Intro IV (We want effective PDs!)
In other fields, professionals invite management consultants into their practices to show them how to be successful for their clients, patients, and employees - and they perform miracles! They take flagging practices and convert them into efficient, high-functioning, data-driven operations. I know - they did this for me as a doctor. Surprisingly, practice management consultants do not teach doctors how to diagnose a cold better. They do not teach lawyers how to litigate a case better, and they don’t teach dentists which drill they should use for a particular cavity. If honest, they will never convince any professional how technology will make everything all better. But not surprisingly, almost all of today’s school technology PDs try do just that. They try to change how we teach, through the use of their “magical new and improved” computer program or app. Computer programs don’t teach children. Teachers teach children!
(*Note - I must add a qualifier here. I am old school and in 20+ years, have never written on a Smartboard, as I never found them all that smart. Go ahead and tell my principal - I’m retired. Like many of you, I treated Smartboards as glorified overhead projectors. And yes, I continued using ELMOs up into my final year. How great are ELMOs?!! When I taught high school chemistry I forbid my students from using calculators in my classes. I taught Goal Setting, Prioritization, Time Management all without computers. Nothing but paper and pencil, and you will too! In fact, laptops, IPads, IPhones or any technology are not permitted at any of my seminars. Nothing but pencil and paper.)
So yes, any bona fide practice management consultant will never sell you on how technology is going to solve your problems and make your teaching practices more productive. It won’t. You are the experts in your field! You know how to teach, but you are missing the “secret ingredient” (I do like Kung Fu Panda references.) That ingredient is Effective Practice Management!
In order for any practice management system, or any program we would ask a teacher to be utilized daily, it must be:
Effective - Not only has the School Goals Work program shown itself more effective than any other school “technology professional development”, but our students continue to use this unique system after they left our classrooms and went onto teachers who did not use the program!
Universal - School Goals Work will work for any teacher, school, or class!
Professionals in all fields see amazing results through practice management consultation. Under-graduate studies, post-graduate work and the conferring of a professional license all demonstrate you know how to perform surgery, litigate cases and teach students, but for teachers, all this schooling offers you almost nothing in the way of effectively managing your classroom. This is why so many of today’s teachers struggle in their first few years and why our attrition rate is the highest of any profession!
Today’s school professional development tells us very little – to nothing! – about how to effectively run our practices. Yes, your classroom is a professional practice and to be successful you must learn how to effectively run it!
The same holds true for our students, only a little different. While we can teach them math, science, and geography, they first need to learn how to learn. That is the idea behind the School Goals Works program for schools.
For students to learn, we require – above all else – that they
show up for class on time (Attendance) and are
ready to work (Preparation).
School Goals Work is designed to begin with cementing these two cornerstones of classroom management. Once these two criteria are in place, we can then begin the process of teaching them how to be better learners. After all, if they are absent or chronically tardy and/or showing up routinely unprepared, it is impossible for them to learn what you are teaching! To succeed, regardless of the content, students need to master four skills:
Goal Setting
Prioritization
Time Management
Scripting (one of the most exciting and life-changing parts of the program)
I’m excited at the prospect of you, your school, and your teachers, reading my posts and learning about the program. For newer teachers, having this information all in one place and using it will be a big help as the focus shifts from behavior issues and subsequent discipline to being free to develop your own brand of teaching. For more veteran teachers, while you may know some of the ins and outs that I will demonstrate, I guarantee you will learn new strategies that can be brought into their classrooms the very next day.
I look forward to connecting with you on Substack, exchanging ideas and showing you the professional development you have been missing all these years!
Best regards, Dr. Michael Cubbin