from VCCA Journal, Volume 8, Number 2, Fall/Winter 1993, 44-48
© Copyright 1993 VCCA Journal
Good Intentions
In the last Journal I wrote that renewal is the guts of professional development and is largely an individual matter. Only individuals can determine what renews and develops them. Administrators must honor this idea when planning "inservice" programs and other professional development activities for faculty and staff. Otherwise, people may feel put upon, disgruntled, and overworked rather than renewed. After studying the new professional development plan for faculty (the plan is not yet completed for support staff) and talking with some of its originators, I'm convinced that this new plan offers opportunity for genuine renewal as well as development.
As I understand it, each college is expected to craft its own professional development plan, subject to review by a statewide committee. In turn, each member of the faculty is expected to develop an individual plan in consultation with the supervisor. (I hope the plan for support staff will be similar.) Contrived as it may seem at first, the notion has merit: individuals negotiate with their supervisor an annual (or biennial) set of goals for renewal and development. It's an opportunity for self-examination and self-determination, with personal and financial support from the college and VCCS. I want my supervisory evaluation to consider specific goals I have set for myself, in consultation with my division chair, because I want such evaluation to be more formative than summative. I want such evaluation to contribute more than it does at present to my well being and growth as a professional.
The question becomes, what might an exemplary plan look like? Allow me, if you will, to explore a plan for myself as an illustration. It will include professional issues to be resolved, specific goals for my teaching, and specific activities for professional renewal and development. Although I want to stress the individual nature of such a plan, I also want to foster your thinking about your own plan. If you're like me, you work fairly productively and you carry with you a number of unrealized good intentions. A professional development plan encourages us to "live deliberately," as Thoreau said, rather than in "quiet desperation."
Professional Issues
For the past several years, including summers, I've taught developmental writing and college composition exclusively. I used to teach American literature as well, which I gave up by choice to focus on the teaching of writing. I want to consider whether that decision continues to be best for me, my students, and the college. I'll discuss the issue with colleagues and make a decision for the next academic year.
And speaking of summers, whatever happened to my dream of extended time for writing, reading, and music? Now that my sons have completed college, can I afford, financially, not to teach in the summer session? I can think of nothing more renewing and critical to my professional development than extensive writing and reading, which deserve extended time. I need to set a goal about this, plan my finances accordingly, and work out at least a compromise (I'm still paying on one education loan--until 1997!). Another issue for me is how I divide my time between teaching and other professional activities. I've been very active recently in helping orchestrate the VCCA convention and in chairing the Southeastern Conference on English in the Two-Year College, not to mention committee work at PVCC and curriculum development for English 03 and 111-112. I haven't neglected my teaching or my students, as such, but I want and need to dedicate more time to my teaching and working with students directly. So one of my goals is to say NO more often to requests for my participation in non-teaching activities. It's hard for me to say NO to reasonable requests, and consequently I'll have to be vigilant. I also tend to be enthusiastic and not selective enough in undertaking professional projects on my own. I'll keep a written record of requests for my time and my responses. I'll record projects I undertake on my own and ones I choose not to undertake even though they may seem worthwhile. I'll also record contributions I make to my teaching in place of other professional activities purposefully not undertaken.
A final professional issue for me is to incorporate into my courses a component of "ethics in the classroom." A colleague in philosophy has been leading faculty discussions and suggesting ways we might integrate ethical considerations more fully, regarding both our own professional ethics and a greater ethical dimension in students' coursework.
Teaching
As to my teaching of English 111 and 112 (college composition), my heaviest need is to train students more effectively to work in writing response groups. Even after publishing a guidebook, with which I'm reasonably satisfied, I feel frustrated that they don't learn more readily how to provide reader-based (as opposed to criterion-based) responses. What I really need is videotapes of groups in action, tapes which feature my own students successfully responding to papers in progress at different stages of the writing process. (I've seen tapes produced elsewhere, some of which are very good, but I want to illustrate a set of specific procedures some of which other tapes don't include.) I'll produce videotapes specifically designed for English 111 and 112 for use next fall and spring.
In teaching developmental writing, I meet often with each student and provide responses to writing in progress. Then they revise and/or edit accordingly. Sometimes in the flurry of brief conferences, usually in the computer lab, the students don't make notes on our interchange. It's frustrating and inefficient when the next day a student says, "I was working on my paper this morning, but I couldn't remember what we talked about." As a goal for the year, I want to shape my student conferences to include effective notemaking. Such will improve their work on papers as well as foster listening and self-reliance. At the end of the year I'll draw conclusions based on my observations of changes in their behavior as a result of this goal.
Another goal relating primarily to developmental writing is mastery of the new PLATO software for supplementing class work. It will arrive shortly, and I'll need to play with it extensively in order to tailor it to my English 03 classes and individual students. I would like to learn enough about it to refer students in the spring semester and to master the system by summer for more efficient use next year.
Reading, Research, and Writing
Even if I continue to teach full time in the summer (which I may have to for a few more years), I'm determined to carve out at least six hours per week year around for writing poetry and short stories--instead of writing merely catch as catch can. I consider this a professional activity and would like to be supported in maintaining it.
Likewise, for a while now I've been wanting to undertake a classroom research project and publish my findings in Teaching English in the Two-Year College. The one I have in mind involves case studies of three students' development over one semester as a result of weekly reading logs. Each week my students (in both developmental writing and college composition) select an article or essay from their college reader and freewrite a 500-word summary-response essay. I skim them to ensure they fulfill the components of the assignment. If so, I award credit. If not, I award no credit. I comment only if the student needs guidance in fulfilling the components of the assignment. The purpose of the logs is to improve reading, thinking, and writing (namely focusing, organizing, developing thought, and composing fluently). I believe such frequent practice does foster such improvement. Because logs are written freely, without much editing, and essentially ungraded, they provide a raw illustration of the student's performance in a type of reading, thinking, and writing required for success in many college classes. I want to analyze the reading logs of three students for a whole semester and see what conclusions may be drawn, perhaps leading to a more extensive study. In any case I would plan to submit an article to TETYC by the end of 1995. To help me make time for this project, I'll apply for a PVCC summer grant and perhaps for a VCCS grant.
As to ongoing professional reading, I want to recommit myself to five journals: SCETC Journal, VCCA Journal, College Composition and Communication, College English, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College. My goal is to examine each one cover to cover, reading selectively according to my interests and needs. At the end of the year I want to be able to articulate what I've learned--how my teaching or writing has changed--because of my acting systematically on this recommitment.
Professional Meetings
I've already participated in the VCCA convention, and I plan to participate in the Southeastern Conference on English in the Two-Year College. As chair of SCETC, I need to spend most of my time helping to orchestrate the convention, but even so, I want to make time to attend at least two sessions for my own professional benefit. Some of the most important contributions to my teaching have come from SCETC, and I'm determined for this year's conference to unsettle me in some useful way.
I'm also interested in the opportunity for regular discipline meetings sponsored by the VCCS--at long last. As part of the new professional development program, the chancellor is encouraging statewide and regional meetings planned by faculty, with local details (lodging, food, etc.) handled by Richmond. I look forward to being involved from the outset in meetings on topics in developmental writing, college composition, introductions to literature, portfolio assessment, and the like. One idea I discussed with the chancellor was that planning sessions for such discipline meetings might be held at the VCCA convention; I'll pursue that possibility for English.
Enough Already
I've learned already that preparing an individual professional development plan invites me to bite off more than I can possibly chew. It therefore invites me to be rigorously selective in choosing items for final inclusion. I assume my division chair and other colleagues will help me. Also, I'm noticing how important it is for division chairs and other administrators to be open-minded and supportive in their view of what constitutes professional renewal and development. Otherwise, we're likely to drift back to square one. For example, in academia, as in life, sometimes a worthy goal ought to be abandoned or postponed for a greater good. Demonstrating the sound judgement to shift gears when appropriate needs to be part of our evaluation, too. Personally, I'm excited about these prospects for working more "deliberately," and I hope you are, too. I'm also excited about learning to maintain a professional portfolio of my goals, my failures, and my accomplishments--a meaningful record of my professional renewal and development from year to year.
Dick Harrington, who teaches English at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, served as the first President of the Virginia Community Colleges Association.