Taxpayer Money Down the Drain

Yesterday I attended a workshop. One good thing about all the fiscal mess the state is in is that the number of workshops teachers attend is a small fraction of what we used to just a few short years ago. Time out of the classroom is not good for student achievement. Even so, this workshop is one I asked to attend as the subject was one I expected to glean much information about. Sadly, it did not live up to its stated purpose.

One of the things I have begun to realize about myself is that I am so critical that once I find fault with someone, it is quite difficult to accept the “authority” that person has on the topic. With that in mind, I have tried to be less harsh in my initial comdemnation. Yesterday, I struggled mightily.

The session was to begin at 9:00 a.m. I arrived early. The presenter set up for her demonstration. In doing so she placed big piles of candy around in front of all the teachers. Candy is to make the audience like the presenter. Isn’t that a bribe?

Being there early afforded me the opportunity to catch up with colleagues of mine from other schools. One asked me how my son is doing. We chatted a bit. Apparently the presenter eavesdropped on the conversation. When she came by to disseminate some papers, she asked if the one-year-old was my first grandchild. Strike two.

It wasn’t long before she began the presentation . . . more than 10 minutes late. She began by saying, “Ladoes, . . . “. Strrrriiiiiiike three! There is no joy in Mudville.

The presentation went no better. For a lady who professed to have taught 19 years followed by a stint as a principal then as a curriculum director (usually lower in the hierarchy than an administrator), she didn’t present well. She reminded me of most of the graduate professors who would tell us not to lecture to a class, but then would turn around and lecture. She was even worse as all she had were two Powerpoint presentations that she read to us . . . for two and one-half hours. The slides had far too many words on it and when her laptop went to sleep (because she was not plugged in), we had to take a 10-minute break for her to figure out what had happened. Sigh . . .

I struggled not to be too hard on this woman. In the end, I failed. Unfortunately, I gained no helpful information about the topic of the day.

Also blogged on this date . . .

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