Today marked the first day of their three-day junket to Denver for the 2015 Teaching Learning Conference. The district paid for eight to attend at a cost of $4,400, a price that will go up once they return and submit their vouchers for travel, lodging, and food expenses.
Fortunately for the coaches, earlier this month they were able to prepare for the conference by attending a three-day institute for instructional coaches in Lawrence, Kansas, under the tutelage of Jim Knight, who delivered the keynote speech today in Denver.
During the morning session on the first day of the institute, the Joplin coaches learned "What Coaches Do," something which should come in handy for them after floundering for the past few years as upper administration alternately used them to push the latest initiatives and to spy on teachers.
The afternoon session was also on "What Coaches Do," either because they were not certain if the coaches understood during the morning or because the coaches had even more to do than could be handled in a morning session.
The second day's morning session dealt with "What Coaches Do," in case the coaches failed to understand what they do after one day of training. The afternoon session included another heaping helping of "What Coaches Do."
On the final day, the focus changed to "Mutually Humanizing Relationships."
The cost for the three-day institute was $3,300 for six R-8 teaching'learning coaches. That figure will increase when expense vouchers are filed.
How much of the $,3,300 was for "What Coaches Do" and how much paid for "Mutually Humanizing Relationships" was not revealed.
6 comments:
At East middle corrections center. Why do we have a Behavieral Support witch? She walks around and gives good marks and bad marks to students. On the bad marks she never warns or tells the student. All of this ends up in ClassDojo to tell you you have a problem child....
A call to Mr Weaver was a jack job of bull shit. He and the Bud need to get lost.... Totally worthless...
I could have saved the district thousands and answered that question! "What do coaches do?" They do absolutely nothing! Fire them ALL!
Since Jim Knight is a highly respected researcher in this field. He speaks frequently and constantly researches effective teaching and coaching. His three day institute should have been enough if they continued to follow up as a PLC. He is always willing to answer questions, free of charge.
This has been going on in school districts, cities, states, health care, and many more organizations for at least the last thirty years. The professional researcher\scam artist constantly convenes conferences across the country with professed new ways to improve whatever it is we are doing. We, as individual intelligent human beings can not improve ourselves with our own innovations and thought independently. We just don't have that ability. And, why would we even try when we have all these gurus that can tell us what we should be doing so that we can all be doing the exact same thing which is always better and at only a cost of a few thousand dollars per attendee. Well, there might be a few more thousand bucks per year needed to buy what the guru is selling, and believe me, they are selling something that never goes away. This is why cities across the country all have begun to look the same. Shopping centers, old downtown rebirths, housing, parks, street design, even radio is the same no matter where you go. The KOW radio station is in every city. It is scary to me, that my child's education will be based on a three day conference. My child will be educated to understand the importance of relying on a paid speaker to guide his life. It matters not whether the guru's teachings work or not, as the only way for him to continue to rake in the dough is to make something else up in a few years that will certainly be even better, since we can't think for ourselves. Today's management style is not tomorrows management style or I won't make more money. It is a circle game with the circle having no end.
Working in R8 is like being in a warped version of Ground Hog Day. The same thing over and over, no matter who is in charge. It stinks. This much he could have stopped, anyway. The coaching jobs are superfluous, and looking at the data provided through APR last week, they have failed as a concept. You need no data through a contracted middleman to tell you that, Dr. Ridder.
Quit wasting tax dollars. Get rid of the nonsense and start taking care of teachers and classified staff or be prepared for another round of turnovers this year. And this time, sir, it will be on you.
I agree with 8:47--if you want to make money, declare yourself to be a consultant, rent a hotel meeting room and run up a power point presentation. And this isn't just for governments and non-profits--businesses are easy suckers for this, as well. And how do I know--well, I used to do it for a living. And in a post-web world, with everything available somewhere on the internet, there is absolutely NO excuse for these jaunts on the taxpayers' dime.
Post a Comment