Professional Development

I was struck by a few items that came up when we looked at professional development today. The first was the notion that having elementary, middle and high school teachers together for PD leads to better PD. My experience where I'm at seems to point to the contrary--at Pleasant Valley there is a 1/2 day difference in contract time involving parent teacher conferences and professional development days. The elementary teachers resent this and some have even gone to having friends watch the high school parking lot to make sure high school teachers aren't being released too early. There are a few groups that meet across the school (teachers and administrators from all levels are included) and it seems that the elementary teachers always group together and share common problems that high school people can't relate to. Since the majority of each building's PD comes out of paperwork/ legislation handed down by the Iowa government (model core curriculum for the high school and something quite a bit different for the elementary) the goals of what needs to happen in PD are so different that combining forces seems pointless. However, the more I look at the question of reading that was brought up in class makes sense--we all, regardless of level, have a role to play in teaching reading and literacy.
The second thing that struck me about PD was the fact that although one shot PD is known not to work, it seems to still be regularly used. We have an AEA (area education association) in Iowa staffed with people who are begging to come in to do PD presentations--and they seem to be all one shot deals. There knowledge has been useful with the new state guidelines, but the lack of vested interest and follow up from the AEA individuals makes it an "in one ear out the other" experience for most teachers. I hope this changes--I know with the model core and looking at this year's PD things have gotten better. A few years ago, it was ridiculous and a bunch of committees cut into other committees that had minutes, but accomplished nothing.