Everybody Loves Inservice

I had a love/ hate relationship with inservice.

And the only reason that I say, “had”, is because I no longer work for the public school system, and inservice is a thing of my past.

Now, I realize that I may have lost you when I said the words love and inservice to very close together, let me explain.

Just in case we don’t know each other super well, I tend to be pretty darn sarcastic, and when I’m frustrated it seems to get even stronger.

I”m all about being challenged and learning new things, but so often, aka, every time, art is left out of inservice. Well, we have to attend the meetings, but the usual conversation and training doesn’t usually pertain to the art teachers.

One of the last training that I went to was about writing SOL ( student learning objectives). This training was no different than others. The instructor was a nice person, but unprepared, and unsure about what they were presenting. It was painful, and when things get painful, I start taking notes… but not good notes…. notes about all of the funny things that are said during the meeting. ( that’s where the love part comes in)
Since I know that things vary from state to state, let me mention, that SLO’s basically are a way of tracking student growth. Which is pretty darn simple when you’re a subject that gives lots of written test, and pretty darn complicated when you’re a subject that is based on creativity ( which means there aren’t many right or wrong answers)

But you still have to find a way to show growth.

There are two tools that I developed and used ( that I still use and LOVE), that my boss also loved.

There two things that were a huge AHAH moment for both me and my students.

So grab these babies, hide them in your notebook during inservice, and dream about all the ways that you can use them.

My go to tools, are my class discussion cards ( admins love these as they are packed with higher order questions) Bonus, students love using them too, because it makes them feel smarter, and less afraid to chime in during class.

The other is my
progress assessment rubric.