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Session 5. A Year of Professional Learning on a Tiny Budget
Objective. Plan a school year of professional learning on one page, using the time, colleagues and free resources a school already has, with impact checks and a rule for what to stop.
Most schools say they have no money for professional learning, and many are right. But money is rarely the main resource. The main resource is the hours colleagues already spend together, and the knowledge they already hold. This lesson goes deeper than the key ideas: how to price a workshop in people-hours, how to decide what to stop, and how to make the plan survive a change of staff.
Key ideas
Start from what you already have
- Count the time first: for example 8 hours of staff or methodical meeting time in each of four quarters is 32 hours a year. Subtract time that goes on announcements and paperwork and you see what is really available.
- Then list people (colleagues with strong practice, teachers who attended outside courses, newly qualified teachers who bring fresh questions), places (your own classrooms) and free materials (printed guides, past pupil work, free reports).
- Money is the last resource: paper, printing and tea for a few sessions. Write the sums down so that the head can see the plan is affordable.
A year map with two or three priorities
- Take priorities from your needs analysis, no more than three. A school that starts six things embeds none. One thing at a time, with follow-up, beats many things once.
- A simple pattern for four quarters: Q1 diagnose and launch priority 1; Q2 follow up and embed, with a second session; Q3 deepen it or start priority 2; Q4 evaluate, celebrate and plan next year.
- Mark a review point at the end of each quarter: look at the evidence and decide to keep, change or stop. The plan must fit on one page.
Internal experts and cascades that work
- Make a 'who is good at what' list. A colleague whose pupils explain well can lead the session on questioning; a teacher who attended a course can lead one practical session.
- A cascade fails when slides are passed on. It works when the trainee runs a 40-minute session in which colleagues practise one technique, followed by a buddy follow-up.
- When no money is available, pay in recognition: let experts lead, mention their work to the head, and later invite them into peer observation (see course 11.9).
Make room, protect workload, sustain it
- Add one thing only if you stop one thing. Move announcements to a noticeboard or a short written note so the meeting time is for learning. Name your stop rule on the plan.
- Do not add paper: use the try-it card and the evidence wall instead of long reports. Give every plan item an owner so that it does not rest on one tired person.
- Present the plan to the head and staff in two minutes: the need, the plan, what you ask of them, and how we will know. Invite changes; a plan colleagues helped to shape lasts longer.
The year plan in five moves
Price a workshop in people-hours
A workshop of 2.5 hours for 28 teachers uses 70 teacher-hours. That is the real price, far larger than the cost of paper and tea. Keep a simple ledger: hours of staff time, hours of leaders' preparation, and money. Present all three to the head, in that order, because the hours are what you are asking for.
Then look for hours that already exist: methodical association meetings, staff meetings, the end of a staff day, free periods when two colleagues can meet. Often a third of meeting time goes on announcements that a noticeboard or a short note could carry. Free resources fill the rest: pupils' past work, printed guides, the colleagues who are already strong at one thing, and the readings listed in each NITEC course.
Choose, stop and make it last
A plan is as much about stopping as starting. Ask of every new item: what will we stop to make room? Check the load on each teacher in minutes per week and keep it small. Rank candidate priorities by evidence strength, number of pupils affected and effort, and take the top two. Say aloud what you are leaving out and when you will look at it again, so that colleagues who wanted it do not feel ignored.
Make it last. Write each routine on one page so that it survives a change of staff. Put a review point at the end of every quarter and treat the fourth quarter as the start of next year's needs analysis, using the evidence you collected. A plan that loops back to evidence becomes a habit, and habits last.
Examples from the classroom
The hours that were hiding
Scene. Dilnoza counts meeting time in her village school near Samarkand: 8 hours a quarter, 32 hours a year. She asks the deputy head how much goes on announcements, and together they estimate 12 hours. They decide to put announcements on a noticeboard and a one-page weekly note. The next day Dilnoza writes 'learning time: 28 hours' on the top of the plan, and the head, who had expected a request for money, asks what she needs.
Insight. Counting time first turns 'we have nothing' into a real number you can plan with.
A cascade of practice
Scene. Jasur returns from a two-day course in Bukhara region. Instead of forwarding slides, he runs a 40-minute session in which 20 colleagues practise one questioning routine in pairs and plan two lessons. Each teacher gets a buddy and a try-it card. Eight weeks later, buddy tallies show that 11 of the 20 are using the routine at least weekly. Jasur reports 'about half' and asks the group what blocked the others.
Insight. Passing on a practice with a buddy follow-up spreads the change; the shortfall becomes design information for the next step.
An evidence fair instead of a certificate day
Scene. In Fergana the head wants a certificate day in May for the year's training. Aziz proposes a 45-minute 'evidence fair': each team puts pupil work, tallies and one lesson idea on a table, and colleagues walk round and leave questions on sticky notes. The head agrees because it costs nothing and gives something real to show. The sticky notes become the first items in next year's needs analysis.
Insight. Replacing a ceremony with a sharing of evidence honours the head's wish and feeds the next cycle.
Common pitfalls
- Counting only money and concluding there is nothing to plan.
- Starting five or six initiatives in one year and finishing none.
- Adding new tasks and reports without removing anything, so that the plan becomes a burden.
- Making the plan depend on one enthusiastic person who then leaves or burns out.
One-Page Year Plan, Tiny Budget
- Open the Activity Kit: a SAMPLE school (28 teachers, 4 quarters, 8 hours of meeting time per quarter, a small yearly sum, two teachers back from outside courses) and a blank one-page grid. For your own school use your real figures. (5 min)
- Pairs (10 min): fill the resource inventory: hours of time (after announcements), people, places, free materials and money. Calculate the real hours.
- Pairs (20 min): fill the one-page year grid: two or three priorities, what happens in each quarter, who leads, hours, impact evidence at the four levels, cost, review points and your stop rule. The hours and the money must add up.
- Second short activity, the two-minute pitch (10 min): in trios, one pair member pitches to a 'head teacher' (need, plan, ask, evidence). The listener asks: 'What do you need from me?' and 'How will we know it worked?' Swap.
- Quality check (10 min): put plans on the wall. Walk around with the six-point checklist and put a dot against each point that is met. Leave one question on a sticky note.
- Close the course (10 min): alone, write a three-sentence commitment for the next month and the colleague you will tell. Then write your school-based task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- How many real hours did your plan have after announcements were removed, and what did you give up to find them?
- Which priority did you leave out, and how will you explain that to the colleagues who wanted it?
- What will you need from the head teacher in September, and what will you give in return?
Reflect
- What would a good year of professional learning look like for the teacher who has been in your school the longest?
- Where in your school does time go to things that nobody values?
- Which colleague could be your partner in leading this plan?
Try it tomorrow
- Count the real hours of meeting time in your school next quarter and write what share goes to announcements.
- Make a 'who is good at what' list of five colleagues and ask each whether they would lead one 30-minute session.
- Write the stop rule for your plan in one sentence and test it with your head teacher.
Further reading and links
A small, honest plan beats a big one: count your hours, pick two or three priorities, follow each one up, check the evidence and decide what to stop.