This week I will be involved in facilitating my first Improving Teacher Programme (ITP). I recieved the facilitation training for both the ITP and Outstanding Teacher Programme (OTP) back in July.
I will be blogging about my experience of facilitating the programme. This will give me the essential opportunity to reflect on the programme and my facilitation of it. But I believe it will also provide food for thought for anyone involved in staff development but not necessarily this particular programme.
As a teacher who is in his eigth year of his career the chance to facilitate this sort of programme has come along at a good time. I have given several staff training sessions at my school over the years and I currently have responsibility for ensuring the smooth running of our TLC programme. I also deliver a day on the history PGCE at York University. Recently I have been involved in school to school work.
Despite that I believe the chance to facilitate this ITP is a step up. It is a programme that runs over six weeks and as such offers the chance to invest in the staff involved in. A way that one off training does not.
As I prepare for the first session the following themes are in my mind.
Facilitating not leading - the answers are in the room
One of the main things that struck me about the facilitator programme was that this is not a course where I will be asked to stand at the front and tell folk how to be good teachers.
This really pleased me as this programme is about providing the opportunity for staff to develop not telling them what to do.
Six or so years ago I heard Dylan William talk about staff development. He said that just telling teachers what to do doesn't work. In the same way that just telling students what to do doesn't work. If we just tell students what is good a small minority will get it but the vast majority of us require some support to get there.
Developing from this the answers and the ideas are in the room. We are not expected, or indeed allowed, to provide them. This has got to be a massive positive for the programme.
It seems to me that this programme is about creating the opportunities for staff to develop and excell. If I can manage to do that then I will have been successful.
Not affirming
One of the big challenges for me personally is the rule that, as facilitators, we are not allowed to affirm the comments or work of those on the programme. My standard response as a teacher to a well thought out response is to say something like "I really like that. Have you thought about....?" However the organisers do not want this type of affirmation as they believe that those on the programme should do things for their own affirmation and not affirmation from the 'teacher'.
I found this really hard on the facilitator training. Through this I realised the importance and central role of praise to my own pedagogy.
This obviously, links with the previous point of the answers being in the room and it is something I will have to work on throughout my role as a facilitator to ensure that those on the programme get the most from it.
It's a programme not a course
The ITP is not a course. This might sound like a bit of semantics naming it a programme instead but the point is to develop the theme that the progress will be both made by and come from those taking the programme. It's not down to me or anyone else.
This is something that sits well with me. As a teacher I've always tried to get that little bit better. I've always been open to trying new stuff to see if it works. I think this (very common) attitude has massively helped my personal development.
The aim of the programme is to help those taking it to develop in this way.
Check back later to see how the first session has gone.