Professional Development Blues…

Its summer, so every educators let’s rejoice . Let’s enjoy staying up late, sleeping in, not lesson planning, and enjoying  a “regular” life…whatever that looks like. Your getting a kick out of life…until you receive that email, training in the a.m. Your goals of eating Captain Crunch in your pajamas, while binge watching Law N Order: SVU and flipping through social media on your phone, have came to a screeching halt. Yeaaaaaa, another Professional Development training, what a wonderful use of my 5-8 hours, says no educator EVER. Now don’t get me wrong there are some training that are packed with useful information and tools that can be brought back to your campus, but then there are others, which I’m sure everyone has experienced.

Here are just a couple of hacks to Professional Development Blues:

• If possible, attend training that pertains to you, subject being taught, or school need. This ensures that the information received can actually be meaningful and useful.
• Post Its, Post Its, Post Its. This wonderful invention allows you to take notes and jut down important information to remember. But, the headache is we think EVERYTHING is a good idea. “I can use this in the class…”, “That’s a great idea…”. Let’s be honest we are not going to incorporate all 58 classroom management, teaching strategies, and math hacks, that we write down. NEVER!!! So, why do we do it?  Here’s a hack for that: take notes like normal but limit it to 5-10 Post Its, then at the end, rate and arrange your aha moments in order…when the school year begins incorporate the top three in the class, built routines, classroom culture, and perfect its’ craft. Then slowly trickle in Post It #4, #5, #6….or just focus on 3 that you want to use this year, then work on the others another year.
• Keep all books and tools. The books can be used for later reference and deeper research on how to use the material in your class.
• Use it as a networking tool. At every training there are going to be a plethora of people and educators that are from different walks in life, from administrators, instructional specialists, veteran teachers,etc. Use the collaborations and sharing activities to introduce yourself, pick their brains, and drop in some of aspirations in the future.
• Stay awake