It’s a typical day in the life of a teacher. Your lessons have been planned in advance. You drive to your building (and actually pull into the lot and not drive by it as everyone in the world–teacher or not–fantasizes about doing when they get to work). You arrive inside only to learn that your planning period or professional development period will be used to cover the class of another colleague who is out for the day with no substitute. You log into your email. You have several from angry parents; admin giving some random instruction about something which will need to be completed before noon; other teachers asking questions about someone or something; and maybe even students, if they are old enough, telling you what they need you to do, not asking. Your head is about to pop off your shoulders; however, the email you must open is from your teacher bestie. She/he is going to be out too, which you know from last night’s text message, asking if you could photocopy the materials sent in an email. You go to the copy machine and there is a line or it’s jammed–that’s okay, you think, my assignments can be done online, even though you know you’ll have a student or two who didn’t bring their required technology. That’s okay, you think, they can just copy the entire assignment onto lined paper–cause that will go over well. Oh, but wait, what about your friend’s lessons? You sprint to their room and jot all the instructions onto the board, hoping the supervising adult will see it’s written here. By this point, you’re running out of time…you’ve got bus duty, cafeteria duty, cellphone collection duty, or your room is about to be flooded by 25-30-35 students, some needing your immediate attention, some ignoring you completely. And whichever is the case, they’re really loud for the first thing in the morning. You’re just secretly hoping you can greet them with a smile…but then there is a fight; or drama from outside your room spills inside, I’m guessing social media related; some buses are late; the principal scheduled a first-period fire drill but refused to tell anyone because the reaction won’t be authentic…now just where is that fire drill attendance sheet you must fill out even though everything else is done online? Oh your aching head, and the day hasn’t really even started yet!

At some point during the day, you are required to attend some sort of professional development meeting–with your team, content department, something led by an administrator or a coach of some sort. Nine times out of ten, it’s a one-off. Depending on your district or school, it may be about SEL (Social Emotional Learning) or PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions Support) or Data-Driven Instruction or it’s admin’s reminder about how teachers are the reason for the fights in the hallways or problems with garbage in the cafeteria (you’re not standing in the doorway, shooing kids along, policing tables during breakfast or lunch) or Rituals & Routines to establish a culture of learning in your classroom (as if this is something you hadn’t thought of before) or some district-purchased program that a school board member saw at some conference. It is nearly irrelevant to your class, but you are now mandated to infuse it into your jammed curriculum because they purchased an entire district/school license for it. Facts are spouted out at you, perhaps there is a nifty set of slides found on YouTube, there is a 40-minute discussion of teachers not doing their job when it is just one person who should be addressed by the administration directly, yet they decide to make everyone feel guilty. No matter what the topic, most likely nothing necessarily will come of it again, and you know this because 1. It is the way all of the previous PDs have gone, 2. It is a reaction to something that’s happened. So it’s 40 minutes of utterly wasted time.

I figure there are three groups of folks reading this. The first group are those not in education. I have heard many times from friends and family that most everyone has a challenging job, that many in corporate America have managers/employers who waste their time with meaningless tasks and in meaningless meetings. I remind myself of that regularly, and my only retort is that what you do, most likely, does not have a direct impact on the life and learning of a child. Think of it this way, is there someone you work with who fails in some element of their job,and  is there a chance that this was a skill they should have received through their K-12 education?  So in some small way, maybe this does impact you and you should be just a little concerned about what is happening in schools (Don’t get me started if you have a child in public schools…).

The second group reading may be teachers in well-managed districts and schools. Districts who may not have trouble attracting substitutes, who have well-developed, meaningful, cohesive professional development. Who, for the most part, do not have to worry about classroom management before curriculum. To you I say, you don’t know how lucky you are. On your worst days in a place like this, do not take for granted what you get to do with your students each day.

The final group reading, nodded their heads, thinking, “yeah, sounds about right.” I see you. I have been you. 

I realize this seems intensely cynical and sometimes, I admit, I feel that way. But I actually think of myself as an idealist. I see what needs to happen to make systemic changes; I just can’t understand why it isn’t clear to others, and this frustrates me. Professional Development is given by an administrator or the district in an attempt to fix a broken system. A system many of us are caught inside of as it has deteriorated around us–out of our control. For so many, public education is flailing but no amount of patchwork Professional Development is going to put it back together again. In fact, it’s odd to me that school districts or administrators would expect results from these sessions. If we were to practice this way of mishmash pedagogy within our classrooms, we would know success would be extremely limited. Why then are the expectations for learning with a group of adults different? Under today’s teaching pressures, how likely is it that if I hadn’t fostered rituals and routines in my classroom from the beginning, that I will be able to internalize a 40-minute professional development in a meaningful and lasting way? And how can I all of a sudden implement it with fidelity in my classroom in the middle of the year? It is illogical. Moreover, this time suck is ultimately detrimental to our students. Even in the best case scenarios, when you participate in meaningful PD with a dedicated and supportive administrator, there must be an understanding of the time needed to implement the strategies suggested/taught. What all educators need within the confines of their day is time. I would be willing to bet time would be the number one response when asked what they needed more of–not supplies or money or fancy technology. Time to meaningfully assess student performance, time to understand and research best practices in regard to the data we have collected on our students, time to create lessons which will spark engagement and motivation within our students–the cornerstone of any well-managed classroom. We need time. 

 I have been a classroom teacher in various types of schools from the mid-1990s until now. I can say unequivocally, teaching has changed–fundamentally, in fact, in the last 15 years. The amount of pressure teachers are under today astounds me. I know administrators, school district personnel, and school boards actually know this because they have experienced a microcosm of the same pressures from the communities they serve. Simply being able to tell parents and stake-holders that the district is addressing the deep systemic, country-wide issues facing education today through the professional development of teachers is a somewhat ridiculous response. It’s time to leave teachers to do what they do best–teach. Instead of a top-down approach, where those not inside a classroom are doling out tips and trying to teach teachers; why not flip it? Allow teachers to tell administrators and district officials what they need to make things better?

As I sit here wrapping up my thoughts, what occurs to me is that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Professional Development. I could, in fact, go on and on about what should and should not happen during this time. What I will say is that despite what outsiders (and insiders, quite frankly) may believe, teachers are not the reason public education is failing. We are here. We are trained to do this. We are professional. We are intensely dedicated. I beg you, stop beating us up and beating us down. 

Future topics will include:

The Teacher Shortage

Education preparation programs

Literacy Education

Class size

Teacher observations

Standardized Testing