I feel like an idiot

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I've just been on a pretty intensive 3 day professional development/training course for work. I'm a teacher.

I really can't figure out if I've totally missed the point, or if the point was so blindingly obvious (to me) that I just didn't feel the 'wonder' or difficulty in getting my head around the new ideas/methodology/language that the others did (we were given a new methodology for planning one particular aspect of the curriculum).

Although I understood the theory and methodology behind it perfectly well, I found that the tasks we were given were so woolly that I struggled in understanding what it was they actually wanted me to do. e.g. 'explain where you are yourself on this journey, rather than apply it to your pupils'. Journey?!? There was no journey! I understand the science behind the experiments we were to look at just fine! I can apply the new language we were given just fine! I can fit my understanding in to the framework just fine! I can apply this new framework to my practice and planning just fine! I'm not on any journey as far as understanding friction to a primary science level.

Anyway - because I asked for clarification as to what it was they expected me to come up with (several times throughout the course), it was assumed that I didn't understand the methodology. They treated me like some sort of a dunce - especially since I was the newest person to the profession in the group.

Being treated like an idiot has really made me worry that I really missed the point. I don't think I did. I'm usually one of the most 'intelligent' in any situation I find myself. It also didn't help that I had to spend the majority of my time over the few days with a group of strangers - including dinner, breakfast etc. Was I spending so much mental energy trying to be 'social' and 'undiscovered' that my intellectual capabilities suffered?

I'm dreading the follow-up session in which we report back how the lessons we've planned using the new methodology worked.

What if I really did miss the point?

(sorry - I know this really should be on the jobs board but I reckoned that people here may give more constructive advice and clearer insight to my worries)

in my opinion, YOU DID MISS THE POINT. The point of the excercise SEEMS to be that LIFE is a journey. That learning what you are teaching is PART OF IT for EVERYONE. Just because you're intelligent, doesnt mean you should skip over the basic definitions, the basic ideals. In fact, the basic ones, are the basis of what you're trying to learn, not the high and mighty intellectual parts. so you teach friction in basic science, you need to connect to your students and UNDERSTAND that not everyone is going to pick up the principals you're trying to teach. They're not going to understand why, and you have to RELATE to them(even if you dont). You want to teach, realize people learn at thier own rates and you're being TAUGHT that you need to empathize. That you need to see where they are "on the road to understanding"(aka a JOURNEY), and tell them how you got passed the "roadblocks"(what you couldnt understand).

Stop sticking out like a nail, it almost always assures you'll get hammered down

Then again, this is just my opinion, and Ive probably been "abrasive" speaking the truth. Deal with it.

I get what you mean there. Thank you. I can 'deal with' your comments just fine and I welcome them.

However - I'm actually a very empathetic teacher. I'm successful and have been recognised for my ability with those who have difficulty learning. I doubt there are many primary school teachers who are good (or at least OK) at their jobs who aren't.

Just because I was confused about the expectations doesn't mean I didn't understand or 'get' the learning intention. I was talking about the fact that because I asked for further clarification on the expected outcomes it was assumed that I didn't understand the basic principles of the new planning/language.

The course wasn't about understanding difficulties, it was about applying a new language for planning and assessment. To clarify - the particularly 'woolly' task was about *my* journey over the course of looking at one aspect of science as defined by the new methodology we had just been given, not the learning journey of the children in my class.

I don't generally 'stick out' - and it isn't something I would necessarily be proud of.


To be honest - I'm wondering if (hoping that) it's concievable that because I understood the language and could quite easily envision using it to inform my planning that I got the right end of the stick. Some people seemed to struggle fitting the language into conventional planning models.

(and that my social exhaustion DIDN'T make me stick out)

"Emperor's New Clothes"

You pointed out that the methodology didn't make sense, the developers know it's a load of carp, but they get to sell more training sessions if they make you look like the only fool out of an entire room of geniuses.

You've been pwned for being honest, and the rest are pwned for being gullible. Win-Win for the developers.

The methodology and language made a lot of sense and will be useful - but it didn't need 3 days enforced minutiae and social immersion.

That just made me worry I was wrong - and worry and worry and worry.. etc...

Eh, don't worry about it. It's not a big deal.

Maybe what they are trying to say is that teaching is a bit of a two-way street. Whenever you teach something, not only does the student learn, but you learn something as well. It may have to do with your own teaching style, or another aspect of the subject that you didn't really think of before, or some other thing. What I had heard from my own experiences in teaching was that one doesn't really understand something until he or she has to explain it to somebody else. It's like completing a circle of learning/teaching... if that makes any sense.

Or maybe that training course was trying to say something else? I don't know. It probably did not need three days to drive home the point, but maybe it was needed by the other attendees? They probably learned better from interpersonal exchanges and a more empathetic approach. You probably understood more than you thought you did, but it's just from a slightly different perspective and described in a different way.