Reflection on Better PD

Teachers get limited time to work wonders. We are stretched from lesson plans, differentiation, unit guide plans, parent emails, individualized education plans and I haven’t even mentioned where the magic happens: teaching students.

In order for us to balance everything that is required of us, it’s important that educators consistently engage in learning better pedagogy and practicing different tech tools that will help their students succeed. However, what is the best method of professional development that will help educators absorb best practices and immediately implement the best ideas in their own classrooms? During my EEND678 class in Effective Tech Integration into Lessons and Curriculum, we received an opportunity to design an agenda for PD that is engaging, concise, and teacher-designed. 

First, I choose to design my PD opportunity as a full day with teachers and students out of school. This way, teachers don’t have to worry about substitute plans. A full day of PD on the school’s site will also ensure that teachers will get enough time to implement the ideas they learned immediately into some of their lesson plans. Before I sign up for PD opportunities myself, I take a look at how far the site is from my own home and home school. Will I make it back in time to pick up my kids? Will I be stuck in traffic? Will there be enough parking at the conference? Even going to a conference that is a few miles out of the way can mess up a family’s daily schedule. Having the PD at your own school will eliminate some of the stress. 

Another frustration we can get out of the way is to keep the conference open-door. All the session rooms should be printed on the agenda and not hidden. If teachers feel like a session is not beneficial, they should be able to attend another. We attend to learn, not to fill up seats. 

Notice the schedule I constructed for the teacher-designed PD opportunity. There should be food and lots of it. Often, teachers eat at their desk and they rarely get to exchange pleasantries with their coworkers over lunch. During lunch at the conference, teachers will be able to connect with their department members and discuss the sessions and how to implement them in their own classrooms. Discussions lead to reflection and then action! 

Also, school budgets are often minuscule when it comes to PD opportunities. By setting up a virtual option, the school can save money on transportation and lodging costs for the speaker. You can also attain a diverse list of speakers from different backgrounds that will help our school community improve in an equitable fashion. Plus, if we have multiple sessions, all content teachers might receive an opportunity to learn something specific for their subject. It’s rare to find a Business teacher engaged in school PD opportunities. By having virtual sessions, there might be a business-oriented session that will directly benefit the Business teacher. 

Last but not least, teachers need time to process. They also need to be reminded of how to utilize the knowledge learned in the conference for their own classrooms. By creating a collaborative group that meets periodically after the professional development day, teachers can check in with each other and the speakers to observe and discuss their own progress. This can be done virtually through Google Meet or Zoom meetings for convenience in time and budget. Having these follow up conversations will help teachers truly practice what they learned and implement new ideas in the classroom for student success. 

This assignment for my grad school class made me reflect on how much time I have wasted at conferences listening to speakers that do not connect to me or my curriculum. How many times have I sat at conferences sleepy and hungry? How many times have I sat at conferences confused? All schools should ask their teachers how they learn best. It might not be the method I choose but teacher-designed PD leads to teacher-designed success for students. In the end, we all want to be the best, learn from the best, teach the best to make our students the best.