Thing is, the job is hard enough 5 days a week. And when you take into account teachers ALWAYS bring their work home, even if it is just mentally hashing out lesson plans if they are disciplined enough to not physically take it home, it is very much a FULL TIME GIG. So why add more to the workload?
Most teachers don't realize the power of good PD because they have never experienced it. Good PD takes away from the workload, even if it means giving more time out of your schedule. It connects you with people who have the same vision of student success. These people affirm your frustrations and show you how you can be bigger than your hurdles. You walk away with tools and resources to make your job easier. They make you feel like you are a rockstar teacher. You leave knowing your potential for greatness and the ambition to realize it. Good PD PUMPS YOU UP.
Why is it that most teachers don't have positive associations with PD? There are two types of PD: the PD you choose and the PD you are sent to. All teachers have been sent to bad PD. They have their prep times wasted on poorly run PD meant to indoctrinate or satisfy an administrator's checklist. Not maliciously, of course. Administrators (most) authentically want to help teachers and see PD opportunities as a way they can give the classroom teacher a hand while also fulling their district level responsibilities. Unfortunately, these PD session often lack a place for teacher voice, questions are not heard, and teacher concerns are not honored. Administrators don't realize the PD is really being built for them, not the people they are trying to help. Because these broken models are not built for teachers, they create a sense in the teacher attendees that PD isn't for good teaching, it's for good compliance. No one wants that. My most frustrating PD (and least useful) is typically that which I am sent to, not that I choose for myself.
Trainings are part of the job. Compliance is real and serves a purpose. We often can't escape bad PD, but we don't have to let it be the ONLY PD we ever experience. As teachers, we need to actively seek out good PD. Our practice and professional happiness depends upon it.
Good PD is the only reason I am still in the classroom. It helps me cope with the challenges of an imperfect system that sometimes makes my classroom a mathematics dumping ground. It connects me with people who understand good teaching is always in beta mode and NO ONE ever has it ALL figured out. It's not about certifications or resume building. It is about relationships. Relationships that remind you that kids matter. That the hard work is worth it. Most importantly, that it's OK to care that much. In fact, it's more than OK. It's critical to the advancement of the profession.
What was the last good PD you attended? As soon as you are feeling drug under by the current of reform and change, passive aggressive peers or communication frustrations with administrators, sign up for some good PD. Find something you love, or just something you are curious about. Find a group of people and run with that PD pack. There is a TON of low cost/no cost PD out there. Go to an edcamp (free), a Saturday seminar put on by your local university's school of education, a workshop offered by a professional organization or museum of science (cheap). Do an edchat (free). Get on twitter (free). Read blogs (FREE!!!!). Splurge on a regional conference, write grants or push admin to send you to a national conference. Get out and talk to people. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR TEACHING LIFE.
No one is going to send you to good PD. You have to get out and do it yourself. I go because I feel unstoppable when I am with my people. My peers build me up, celebrate my victories, and connect me with resources that help me be even greater. They see potential in you that people at your site might be overlooking and encourage you to dream big. I started by attending a Google Apps for Education summit because I was interested in making a Google site. Now I am hooked. I get to share my experiences by presenting at conferences. I swap lesson plans on twitter at crazy hours. I finally applied to grad school after working with a presenter who pushed me to take the plunge. Good PD has connected me with a network of professionals just waiting to hoist me up on their shoulders when I finally figure out how to do something right. I wouldn't be as successful in my classroom without it.
How long have you been a teacher? What activities are held during edcamp?
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