Generally, I love professional development. Nothing is more awesome than hanging out with other teachers and talking about what excites us and makes us eager to teach and learn.
Yesterday was not one of those days.
The Ministry of Education released the final Curriculum a few months ago. The document has a front end that is vast and sweeping in its scope, with real room for change and transformation in the teaching and learning process. It's coupled, somewhat awkwardly, with a back end of learning outcomes that aren't much different to the existing curriculum.
I should state, straight up, that I believe in the transformation of education implied by the front end of the NZ Curriculum. It was disheartening to go to the professional development yesterday and listen to teacher after teacher dismiss the changes, stating "but we already do that", or "we're not actually going to change the way we teach, we'll just add a few ticky boxes to satisfy the inspectors".
Today, I feel kind of despondent about being a teacher, when my colleagues are so visibly unenthused about anything that threatens the comfortable practice they have built up.
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