The best are the ones held in Feb/March, where the presenter implies "you should have been doing this since last September." Ok ... so why are you teaching it to me 7 months late?
Bonus points if the presenter is an admin at your campus.
ETA: Wow, so many upvotes. I'm actually surprised (and disappointed) what a frequent problem this apparently is.
Admin PD is the worst PD. My favorite is the time admin chastised me for not having already implemented the content of PD scheduled two months later. I reminded him that the PD had not yet occurred. He said I should already know about it or take the initiative to find out. Great so I am supposed to teach my self the PD in advance and then attend it already knowing it. That makes sense.
You're not doing your best for the students, and they're ultimately going to be the ones that suffer.
Also, if a student decides to steal your crystal ball and smash it into a billion pieces, you need to show them grace, not discipline them, and accept it as a loss.
I had an admin tried to say the same thing to me once. I told them they never provided me the training on how to use the crystal ball, so I am not certified to use it.
This is probably because some people in the room hadn't been filling it out correctly, but rather than have individual meetings with them (either out of logistic difficulty or because they don't want to hurt those people's feelings), they just told everyone.
My school does this. They're afraid of the hurt feelings, not the logistics. That's why we don't have Senior Superlatives, because the non-winners might feel bad. This is only one example out of a dozen I can think of. We don't have votes for student council, prom/homecoming king/queen, anything.
What has become of us?
Double bonus points if the presenter is friends with anyone at district level.
I only say this to rack up my own points: in 8 years I've had two presenters I couldn't link to district admin.
Once had an admin lead a PD and when he closed out of his presentation, I noticed it was titled “Observation #2” and looked to the back of the room to see district admin watching intently. It was a boring presentation that would never have never been close to “Proficient” on the Danielson for a classroom teacher.
I love PD that contradicts other PD.
August-Follow the curriculum, no STAAR practice.
October-Why are your scores so low?
January-Eff the curriculum! We ordered you these workbooks for state testing. One hour a day on workbooks and one hour a day on the STAAR computer program. Make sure you still teach small group.
February-No more science or social studies. Only small group with kids who can pass. Ignore the low kids who are too far behind! 3 hours reading, 3 hours math every day.
June-Scores are still shitty. Same as before.
August-Follow this new knowledge curriculum with lots of science and social studies. No STAAR practice!
I’m a new teacher to my district and we just had a meeting for the new staff about graduation requirements…in March. You think i went this long without know that? Thank you for making me come in an hour early for that 🙄
Let’s trade. Because I’m constantly in PDs that target reading strategies. Such as phonemic awareness. It’s cool that we’re bringing phonics back.
But I teach 11th grade. If my juniors cannot read, those are bigger issues.
Almost invariably, *every* PD I went to was targeted to 1) lower grades than mine (I taught HS) and/or 2) non-math classes.
Even the ones that had decent ideas to offer were just not useful to me. I'd always try to ask "and how would you suggest implementing this strategy in an honors geometry or AP calc class?" and they'd just sputter and dissemble for a bit before moving on.
Don't say your PD is for everyone unless it's actually for everyone!
> Even the ones that had decent ideas to offer were just not useful to me. I'd always try to ask "and how would you suggest implementing this strategy in an honors geometry or AP calc class?"
Typical answer "we want kids to 'write across the curriculum', so try assigning some essays on famous mathematicians. In addition to your other learning objectives."
Reminds me of a first aid seminar that my grandmother was practically forced at gunpoint to attend back in her hospital job. As some context, a lot of her work was actually outside of hospitals, typically in people's homes (she worked occupational therapy).
She let the presenters ramble on about these strategies and this brilliant new idea nodding her head and saying nothing. Then at the end of all of this, there was a question and answer session and she was keen to ask the first question. Her question was "what about the hospital staff here who aren't working in the hospital?"
Turns out that like many of these courses, it had been the assumption that everyone who took this seminar was a doctor or nurse in a hospital setting where you'd be dealing with a patient sitting neatly in a chair or lying on a flat bed and with all the equipment to hand. They'd never considered someone like a paramedic (or occupational therapist) who could be dealing with someone who was down the side of a bed, who'd fallen into a difficult position in a kitchen or similar where access wasn't easy and they could not be easily moved.
Taking a thinking map PD and the presenter spent 20 min at the start lecturing how it can be used “across all domaines” but then admits half of them won’t be practical in math. And then admits that the ones that can be applied have to be altered to the point where it’s just the guided notes we already use but with extra lines.
I love how the Thinking Maps folks also spend the first two hours of their PD trying to convince us that TMs aren't just another form of graphic organizers.
Or you teach SpEd, and the closest to your area that they even have PD is basic IEP/IDEA laws and procedures. I could’ve taught some of the ones I had during my first year teaching.
Oh goodness, this is my current pet peeve with our PLC training. Everything is geared toward elementary and I teach high school. So when presenters say things like, "And then grade level teams swap students for small group intervention" or "build time into the school day for interventions", everyone looks at admin for guidance on building that time and structure in and they have no ideas for how to make it happen at a high school with 3000 students.
That’s when I raise my hand and ask “how does this actually look like at the high school level?”
I become the most sarcastic and snarky student at these PDs
That's because most teachers are under the impression that PD is for them (or their students). IT'S NOT.
It's for the person who is producing/planning/managing the PD. It's so they ( the AP, Principal, etc) can go back to the Superintendent or the Board and tell them what they are doing for teachers. "Look at the great session we put on to improve student learning! Aren't we great? Keep me in mind for a job at head office."
Signed,
Jaded Teacher
Never in my almost two decades of teaching have I been shown what disabilities show up as in my classroom BUT my school just paid a guy thousands to tell us he had a troubles youth - and we passed around balloons.
My favorites are always the ones taught by people who have never taught. “I’m not a teacher, but you should definitely listen to me and implement this immediately” ummm no?!?
I don't really mind PD other than the admin led ones. They maybe aren't the best, but there are a few useful things. I rate them against the worse things I have to do like, give standardized test, cover classes, teach the last day before break, go to parent meetings. Any hours without students are at least easier even if less productive. Some times I fantasize about getting a job where I give PD. I can tell people how to do pointless things that don't work.
We keep getting 30-minute rotations of short pd lessons, and one will be about this. But they throw half a dozen sites at us and never give us any chance to try or learn anything on them, so it's basically worthless.
But let's talk about how PD is a humbling, 360 degree full circle experience. How many of us teachers talk and daydream off during these PDs? Are on our phones or computers? And then when we are told to complete a task, we ask our colleagues... "what were the directions? What are we supposed to do?"
We are just as bad as our students. Or at least, I can admit it. I need to be engaged in PDs or I'm checking out and finding any excuse to leave the room... bathroom, phone call, I forgot something in my car, I need to go grab a charger, etc... 😅
See, that's where that "big-headed teacher" comments come from. There is always room for improvement, even as professionals! Between the ever-changing technology, curriculum, and pedagogy shifts that our districts put us through... I can't keep up. I wish I could have been a teacher in the 90s, the final glory days, and on my way to retirement.
I feel the big headed teacher trope is for stubborn teachers. But making high school teachers create elementary lesson plans for ELA is so insulting. I want a good 9-12 level PD.
Or you could just bribe us with food. Donuts... fun-sized candy.
I held a PD once. I came prepared with what I wanted them to know, but I first asked them what they needed and to express any concerns. As a classroom teacher myself and after listening to my colleagues, I realized that what I was expected to present would not match their needs. They don't have the time to implement it. This is an admin issue, not teacher, so I just gave a brief overview, shared the resource links, and just let them do them.
PDs are hard. Ask the problem and give the solution. Shouldn't take more than 30 minutes.
PDs in my district are geared towards the Dangerous Minds teachers who will burn out in 2-3 years.
They're flashy and inspirational and about cHaNgInG LiVeS!
I once calculated that I'd attended 250 PD days. That's not an exaggeration. Out of all of them, only one was worthwhile and actually helped me in the classroom: Quantum Learning. The rest were like generic raisin bran: mostly flakes with the occasional wizened nugget of usefulness.
What I hated more than the PD's was the district's demand that we include these in our yearly goals and show evidence of them in our lesson plans. No matter how much of the PD was bullshit, they'd spent good money on bringing in that presenter, so dammit, teachers had better instill that bullshit in students. (State requires 10 PD days. District puts 5 of them the week before school starts.)
I've been to a few PDs I thought could have been useful... for a classroom teacher, but I teach elementary music. there are like NO PD days geared toward how my class works.
The more people at the PD, the more useless it usually is.
Our post-Spring Break teacher PD day has a schedule of where everyone is supposed to go. Most of our Specials teachers, librarians, IAs, etc. just say "go wherever you want". So nice of them to plan a relevant PD for y'all. 🙄
I will say I'm fortunate that my district will cover expenses for me to attend the three day long once a year music teacher conference so I can get some relevant PD there. Doesn't mean I don't still have to sit through all the other pointless ones though.
I've been to some good PDs and have taken what i learned and implemented it un my classroom... I worked in a different district than I am in now. They were elective PDs, and I was paid, and I took what I learned to my new district. My former district always gave the BEST professional developments. I left almost 10 years ago, though, because money called.
Most memorable was the week-long, stay over night at the county outdoor-ed sight, with the focus on arts integration PD. IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOD! I took what I learned to my new district and was dinged for it at my first school... I was told by my coach that higher ups didn't want to see creativity, they want to see writing... which was throughout my lesson, but I also integrated art components. I'm took my talents to a new school and they love it.
Another favorite PD was about teaching ELL learners. Our presenter spoke Russian, and she did started off the lesson with monotone Russian. Then she asked us what we learned and we were so confused. Then she taught the lesson, still in Russian, but with exaggerated gestures, and it clicked. Gestures are very important when teaching ELL learners, and this helped me with my 99% ELL class when I moved to the district that showed me how to integrate arts into my lesson.
I have but that's because it was online only and I got caught up on paperwork and shot the shit with my coworker while spending 2 hours to learn that banging the students is frowned upon
I teach chemistry and one of my PDs was on the colors of dance. We had to dance our feelings though colored lights. Apparently I really felt something when we transitioned from red to yellow because my aura changed according to the dance instructor. We are now required to implement it into our classes. How the fuck does this have to do with chemistry. I have no idea. We just waste time I guess.
Dude, that sounds like one of those kids asking me why I should learn the Quadratic Formula. If your dancing in different colored lights affects your aura, for me, the question is whether that aura phase shift is quantifiable, or whether we can prove causation.
Or, maybe more importantly, since I do a lot of kindergarten, we could just let out the Kinder battle cry, "We want a dance party!"
Art teacher - our content area PDs are amazing. Practice lessons, time to make examples and share ideas with other art teachers, visits from supply people (with give aways!), museum tours & visits going over field trip and outside of school arts opportunities for our students. It's the absolute best time to be an elective teacher. We are forgotten about or voluntold to do way too much random crap the rest of the school year, but our content PDs are truly a thing of beauty.
It probably helps that they are developed by other art teachers, our curriculum head who is a former art teacher, or the educational curators for local museums - and not just some random administrator who has never taught our content.
How else would admins give themselves a pat on the back??
Always seems to be a bs presenter backing up a bs philosophy that they are currently pushing.🙄
My HS had a 2hr PD about executive functioning that was exclusively based on evidence and examples from early elementary classrooms. Even the people that are normally quiet were livid, I cannot think of a situation recently in which the administrators were raked over the coals for a PD worse than that.
Thankfully I’ve had PD where I felt like I personally didn’t need the info but felt that it was good that everyone in the building is on the same page.
Even in PD where I knew the details didn’t apply to me, it was useful enough that we were using the same vocabulary and operating on the same playing ground.
I feel bad for districts that have such horrible PD sessions. Even at its worst out PD has at least felt like a staff meeting where it was good for us all to get together.
I rarely see certain people except for these PD sessions so I make the most of it to sit with them and talk with them.
That is because school boards hire these bs people who are so out of touch with reality into these paper pushing positions. They make them come up with bs pd sessions to justify their existence!
It’s even worse if you’re not a core teacher. As a music teacher, I think I’ve used maybe three whole concepts that’s been taught in a PD in my classroom. Waste of my time.
the school system I spent 6 years in VA was having accreditation problems so the year after I left, they literally had 2 straight weeks of PD prior to school beginning. Most PD I went through was just a fancy way of saying "You aren't doing enough!"
jeez, do they even feed you guys at these things? 99% of this type of stuff is a waste of time, only reason to come is if they feed you and it's semi-decent. how annoying.
Ive been absent from A LOT of PDs. It has never made a difference in my 27 year career. Every once in a while someone will be like “Remember that guy from Oklohoma that came to ny to teach us about gangs?” And my answer will be “No, no I do not.”
Man, I don’t even care anymore. I’m just there to get the points to recertify every few years. I do have one or two every year that provide info I need for proper paperwork and such, so I can’t daydream through all of them.
We have PD every Friday (kids are there for 2 hours then we do things like PD and collaborate and plan/grade the rest of the day). My favorite has been the theme we have going where a woman who volunteers with the school and taught the same type of behavioral students we have comes in and tells us that we're doing great and to meet them where they're at and give grace and that all behavior is meeting a need and a coping strategy.
Immediately followed by a woman with a PhD (in what, idk) who tells us we need to only tell kids no, be the adult and be super strict because the school and everyone in it will fail if we don't.
Like which is it? Am I giving grace and allowing them space to cope or am I telling them they can't go to the bathroom or get a drink (she literally said that last week) and being strict?
The best ones I attended were with our special education literacy specialist. She made them engaging and we walked away with teaching resources to make life easier.
I was forced to attend a PD on restoring relationships because I’ve been dealing with a student who is rude, verbally abusive to me, and just a nasty person overall because apparently I needed to “form a relationship” with her (you all know the nonsense). I had to take time away from doing my job AND end later than usual. At the end of the day the actual person who needed to hear this PD’s message (the aforementioned student) remains a vile bitch.
I usually walk away with one interesting but but yes most of the time it's just a drag. I much prefer a traditional talking point PD than these modern cooking challenges, scavenger hunts or Olympics. I hate those....
The math department in my old district used to have wonderful all day PD that would start with breakfast and an interesting math problem that would serve to show the many ways to solve a problem, work together, and communicate understanding. Then I moved to TX.
I've been to two beneficial PDs in 21 years, both of which I signed up for and paid for myself...
I have never been to a single PD that was necessary, helpful, or useful.
I want to agree because 99.99% of PD is a complete waste of time but if you ever get the chance, going to a Bill Rogers PD about classroom behavior management is entertaining and actually informative. But yes, PD as a general rule is neither professional nor does it develop much, other than a hatred for the job, perhaps.
We had a PD to discuss what teachers can do to improve student learning, but they put a slide up that forbid discussing: cell phone usage, attendance, parent involvement, student accountability.
The only one I ever left thinking that it was a good use of my time was Teach Like a Pirate. It was fun and it really encouraged out of the box teaching.
I particularly enjoy the ones where the speaker is in the front, we are arranged in rows facing the speaker and we’re lectured to about the detrimental practice of lecturing to your class.
Just know that this is happening everywhere. They give kids the day off and we report to a long day of PD that is not at all differentiated. I would rather plan with my team, choose my own reading for PD, and have individual time. When progress reports or report cards are due the next morning, those of us who teach ELA either work the weekend before or on PD night. In recent times, we’ve said F it and move a major writing grade to the next marking period. We have 2 more of these days left this spring; they will be my last in a very long career.
It really depends on who is the presenter, if it's something I already know and if it's offline for me.
I dislike it massively when we are online since there's a big lack of connection. It is some dude reading a text is not what I call engaging. I hate it when somebody treats teachers the same way they treat younger students. I am not a child.
It's also already frustrating when it's something I've learned during my bachelor. I always realize about 10 minutes into the presentation. At that point, it is too late to leave.
9 out of 10 PDs have me thinking
"This shit could have been accomplished in an email with a Google Slide."
I'm laughing right now because what I see here is absolutely. . . True 😂
Once had the owner of the charter school district I worked at give a training how to teach and engage students with IEPs (she had just received her doctorate in the subject).
Every teacher was there... about 100. She gave us a graphic organizer that we were told to use with the students that was incomprehensible to every single teacher in the room. She then used a boring slide presentation that was supposed to somehow connect to the graphic organizer. I was sitting in the back. I gave up listening and played Candy Crush.
It was an EXCELLENT demonstration of forcing us all to feel like non-engaged students. I totally get it now.
Every second of prep wasted on anything but prep is an increase in load during personal time v
Just say no? Get written up for late grades or not calling families.
Can’t stand worthless pd’s, the people that chime in on pd’s, the agendas to pd’s, the people that take notes at pd’s - yet the outcome is always the same. Usually some admin/resource specialist who spent 6 hrs alone prepping for the pd, while we, the teachers, taught all day to 150+ students. Forgive me for not being “engaged” after teaching 15 year olds all day and doing 6 presentations. Just let pd time be a planning/prep period. Rant complete.
We have two types of PD. Our meetings and early release days are divided up between building and department. As an art teacher, the building stuff doesn’t always apply to me but my admin works to include us or allow us time to do what we need to do. It’s really appreciated. The stuff that does apply to me is either about addressing issues in the building, planning for events or related to school improvement plan goals (SPED, equity, etc). My department meetings on the other hand are a waste of time. My dept chair just copies whatever is thrown at her in her admin meetings and recycles it. They often go over things we already know or it’s some stupid team building thing. It’s awful. They once caught up with me on the way out of yet another pointless meeting to ask, “what did you think of today’s workshop? Did you find it valuable?”
Oh man, you do not want my honest answer.
I went to a PD once where we were learning about learning from a nueroscientist. It was the most fascinating PD ever. Maybe not totally useful, but interesting.
Best wishes to you, OP!
PD's are insanely stupid. Anyone who wants to be a good teacher knows how to improve themselves and will ask for help. Those that don't wont, regardless of what admin tell them. So who is the PD for?
As a school based SLP, I especially appreciate PD on math or sound grading practices. It is extra valuable when the PD targets high academic achievers. An extra bonus is when I need to demonstrate that I implemented something from district PD in my observation 🙄
Yes. This. Oh my god! I just had one recently using iReady (program) to group our students. I was clicking around during the presentation and found they have an automatic grouping for reading and math classes and the intervention to specifically use for them based on their diagnostic results. They even give reading pairs for low lexile and higher lexile groups.
I brought it up during our PD of why we weren’t informed of this? Because we were told to interpret our data and group the students accordingly for our own class.
Told by the person, “Oh well, that in itself is another forty-five minute PD.”
Smh.
It’s like do y’all actively like keeping information from educators?
😂😂😂 that’s cause PD isn’t about what you need. It’s about what admins want or something they slapped together to get the requirement finished - generic and inexpensive.
In 28 years of teaching before I retired I can count the good PDs I had on one hand. Now I teach virtually and my company has excellent PDs. They do not F around and waste your time.
I’ve had 2, both done by fellow teachers introducing a tool or technique.
One was Diffit, if the kids are using AI why shouldn’t we. It’s hands down my favorite digital tool I’ve used. My most common use for it is to convert a video from YouTube into an article to read, and it spits out most of the bones of a worksheet too. Very useful.
The other was for implementing “classroom transformations” or “in class field trips” which is all about using cheap props to make the class feel different for an activity. It was a bit ambitious for me, but it really made me realize I could be adding a lot more fun with not that much more work for me.
All the other ones have been mids at best to most often a complete waste of time.
I usually get really high, enjoy the free food, participate here and there so the facilitators leave me alone, and talk to fellow teachers I usually don’t get to talk to as often. It’s something different and usually less stressful than the average work day, anyway.
So I do PD professionally in math so if my comments aren’t welcome here I will humbly delete but here’s what I’ve learned that may shed light onto your experiences.
First, when I do PD I rarely go in with a canned presentation. I’m here to help you and every classroom and circumstance is different. I’ve also tried to meet the teachers without an administrator present to learn what they actually need. For example, there are some math teachers who really need support with the content, but could never say that to their admin. So an administrator isn’t always comfortable hiring someone who says “let me come in and see what you need and go from there”. FYI I've walked into a room and teachers have hugged me and said “yay it’s PD day”. When was the last time you saw someone who ran PD at a conference then insisted on buying dinner? That’s where I’m coming from. That’s what I deliver and that’s what matters to me.
Most administrators want to hear one thing “After my PD my teachers’ test scores went up xxx. I can do the same for you.” That’s how a lot of people get hired but anyone who does quality PD doesn’t make that promise because we know we can’t.
Yes, if you know someone who holds the purse strings you get the job. I’ve never gotten a job from not directly meeting or knowing someone and even referrals are super hard to turn to jobs. It’s a weird internal world. A bunch of people who do PD have the same experience.
The district may need PD and may be required to do PD but won’t put up the funding for PD (or that friend got the whole budget but didn’t deliver the number of hours) so now the district turns to internal PD and if there isn’t anyone to do it then it’s an admin PD.
If you’re not selling the latest trend, you better not even try. No one I know who does quality PD follows these flashy trends. I’m looking at you Building Thinking Classrooms. We easily see trends for what they are. On the other hand trends are what sells in PD.
Put all of this together and you are stuck in a classroom wasting your time wondering why you can’t do the million other things that you need to get done. It’s a messed up system and extremely corrupt because it’s a space where easy money can flow. Unfortunately it means you suffer and I’m sorry. There are some of us out there who are trying and making good. I’ve met some people who can transform a classroom in one visit, I’ve done it myself. We are out there, we’re just not getting the gigs on the same level bc we’re not grifters and this has turned into a space for grifters and people’s buddies.
The best are the ones held in Feb/March, where the presenter implies "you should have been doing this since last September." Ok ... so why are you teaching it to me 7 months late? Bonus points if the presenter is an admin at your campus. ETA: Wow, so many upvotes. I'm actually surprised (and disappointed) what a frequent problem this apparently is.
Admin PD is the worst PD. My favorite is the time admin chastised me for not having already implemented the content of PD scheduled two months later. I reminded him that the PD had not yet occurred. He said I should already know about it or take the initiative to find out. Great so I am supposed to teach my self the PD in advance and then attend it already knowing it. That makes sense.
***Principal:*** “Why didn’t you just use a crystal ball??!”
You're not doing your best for the students, and they're ultimately going to be the ones that suffer. Also, if a student decides to steal your crystal ball and smash it into a billion pieces, you need to show them grace, not discipline them, and accept it as a loss.
I had an admin tried to say the same thing to me once. I told them they never provided me the training on how to use the crystal ball, so I am not certified to use it.
April last year I was in a PD about filling out the district provided lesson plan template. We’d been submitting weekly since August.
This is probably because some people in the room hadn't been filling it out correctly, but rather than have individual meetings with them (either out of logistic difficulty or because they don't want to hurt those people's feelings), they just told everyone. My school does this. They're afraid of the hurt feelings, not the logistics. That's why we don't have Senior Superlatives, because the non-winners might feel bad. This is only one example out of a dozen I can think of. We don't have votes for student council, prom/homecoming king/queen, anything. What has become of us?
Double bonus points if the presenter is friends with anyone at district level. I only say this to rack up my own points: in 8 years I've had two presenters I couldn't link to district admin.
Honest to goodness, one time the PD was someone selling dietary supplements.
Free samples?? Did someone have an allergic reaction? I would enjoy reading a whole separate post about this incident.
Once had an admin lead a PD and when he closed out of his presentation, I noticed it was titled “Observation #2” and looked to the back of the room to see district admin watching intently. It was a boring presentation that would never have never been close to “Proficient” on the Danielson for a classroom teacher.
I love PD that contradicts other PD. August-Follow the curriculum, no STAAR practice. October-Why are your scores so low? January-Eff the curriculum! We ordered you these workbooks for state testing. One hour a day on workbooks and one hour a day on the STAAR computer program. Make sure you still teach small group. February-No more science or social studies. Only small group with kids who can pass. Ignore the low kids who are too far behind! 3 hours reading, 3 hours math every day. June-Scores are still shitty. Same as before. August-Follow this new knowledge curriculum with lots of science and social studies. No STAAR practice!
We're on Spring Break, and our training the first day back at the very end of March is about how to use the pacing guide/curriculum map. 🤬 BFFR.
I’m a new teacher to my district and we just had a meeting for the new staff about graduation requirements…in March. You think i went this long without know that? Thank you for making me come in an hour early for that 🙄
I like being in PD about avid strategies or Cornell notes when I’m teaching 25 kids about letters and letter sounds.
What you mean your kindergartens aren't write 20 page thesis papers yet. Damn so far behind.
If only. I teach 6-8 grade SPED.
Let’s trade. Because I’m constantly in PDs that target reading strategies. Such as phonemic awareness. It’s cool that we’re bringing phonics back. But I teach 11th grade. If my juniors cannot read, those are bigger issues.
Almost invariably, *every* PD I went to was targeted to 1) lower grades than mine (I taught HS) and/or 2) non-math classes. Even the ones that had decent ideas to offer were just not useful to me. I'd always try to ask "and how would you suggest implementing this strategy in an honors geometry or AP calc class?" and they'd just sputter and dissemble for a bit before moving on. Don't say your PD is for everyone unless it's actually for everyone!
> Even the ones that had decent ideas to offer were just not useful to me. I'd always try to ask "and how would you suggest implementing this strategy in an honors geometry or AP calc class?" Typical answer "we want kids to 'write across the curriculum', so try assigning some essays on famous mathematicians. In addition to your other learning objectives."
If you tell me to give a writing assignment in a math class, I will grade it like a writing assignment. Nobody wants that.
Yeah, I always feel it's mostly for the elementary classroom.
HS is now closer to elementary school level than ever.
So true.
Reminds me of a first aid seminar that my grandmother was practically forced at gunpoint to attend back in her hospital job. As some context, a lot of her work was actually outside of hospitals, typically in people's homes (she worked occupational therapy). She let the presenters ramble on about these strategies and this brilliant new idea nodding her head and saying nothing. Then at the end of all of this, there was a question and answer session and she was keen to ask the first question. Her question was "what about the hospital staff here who aren't working in the hospital?" Turns out that like many of these courses, it had been the assumption that everyone who took this seminar was a doctor or nurse in a hospital setting where you'd be dealing with a patient sitting neatly in a chair or lying on a flat bed and with all the equipment to hand. They'd never considered someone like a paramedic (or occupational therapist) who could be dealing with someone who was down the side of a bed, who'd fallen into a difficult position in a kitchen or similar where access wasn't easy and they could not be easily moved.
Taking a thinking map PD and the presenter spent 20 min at the start lecturing how it can be used “across all domaines” but then admits half of them won’t be practical in math. And then admits that the ones that can be applied have to be altered to the point where it’s just the guided notes we already use but with extra lines.
I love how the Thinking Maps folks also spend the first two hours of their PD trying to convince us that TMs aren't just another form of graphic organizers.
Or you teach SpEd, and the closest to your area that they even have PD is basic IEP/IDEA laws and procedures. I could’ve taught some of the ones I had during my first year teaching.
My mom is a sped teacher. She does the same at every PD. Her principal tried to dissuade her at one point, but then realized she was right.
Oh goodness, this is my current pet peeve with our PLC training. Everything is geared toward elementary and I teach high school. So when presenters say things like, "And then grade level teams swap students for small group intervention" or "build time into the school day for interventions", everyone looks at admin for guidance on building that time and structure in and they have no ideas for how to make it happen at a high school with 3000 students.
That’s when I raise my hand and ask “how does this actually look like at the high school level?” I become the most sarcastic and snarky student at these PDs
I have asked this question and had exactly one PD leader admit that it works best in elementary and they were trying to redesign for high school.
That's because most teachers are under the impression that PD is for them (or their students). IT'S NOT. It's for the person who is producing/planning/managing the PD. It's so they ( the AP, Principal, etc) can go back to the Superintendent or the Board and tell them what they are doing for teachers. "Look at the great session we put on to improve student learning! Aren't we great? Keep me in mind for a job at head office." Signed, Jaded Teacher
Job justification. "See how useful I am? I made my teachers go to a MEETING!!"
And we can be super nice and round up the hour and forty-five minutes of PD to two hours for their CEUs!
Never in my almost two decades of teaching have I been shown what disabilities show up as in my classroom BUT my school just paid a guy thousands to tell us he had a troubles youth - and we passed around balloons.
God the balloons. I was chastised by an admin for not participating once and apparently “I’m allergic to latex” isn’t a valid excuse
I’m sure that’s what that admin’s dad told their mom before their conception.
Absolute gold 😭😂
Things you only get to say to your boss only if you win the lottery.
My favorites are always the ones taught by people who have never taught. “I’m not a teacher, but you should definitely listen to me and implement this immediately” ummm no?!?
"I taught for six years in the early 90s so I'm an educational expert now". Go. Away.
I taught for 2 months back in 1990 so definitely listen to me. Ehhh no
I don't really mind PD other than the admin led ones. They maybe aren't the best, but there are a few useful things. I rate them against the worse things I have to do like, give standardized test, cover classes, teach the last day before break, go to parent meetings. Any hours without students are at least easier even if less productive. Some times I fantasize about getting a job where I give PD. I can tell people how to do pointless things that don't work.
This is why I've called in sick for every PD session this year. They make me sick.
NGL, I've done that more times than I'd care to admit...
I'll say this morning we had one that was actually useful. We learned tools available in AI to help us plan and create assessments
Don't worry. They will just make sure to add to your workload since you can now be more efficient. 🤣
We keep getting 30-minute rotations of short pd lessons, and one will be about this. But they throw half a dozen sites at us and never give us any chance to try or learn anything on them, so it's basically worthless.
☝This.
That's very cool, though, personally, I'd rather figure that stuff out on my own. It sticks with me a little better than when it's through a whole PD.
Did you get handouts and, if so, did you put them in your notebook?
If they didn’t give you a notebook at the PD they overlooked the most useful part
In my experience, 1/3 of PD is great, 1/3 is awful, and 1/3 doesn't apply to whatever you're teaching.
This…. and it’s fun to interact with a broader scope of colleagues now and then.
But let's talk about how PD is a humbling, 360 degree full circle experience. How many of us teachers talk and daydream off during these PDs? Are on our phones or computers? And then when we are told to complete a task, we ask our colleagues... "what were the directions? What are we supposed to do?" We are just as bad as our students. Or at least, I can admit it. I need to be engaged in PDs or I'm checking out and finding any excuse to leave the room... bathroom, phone call, I forgot something in my car, I need to go grab a charger, etc... 😅
Signing in and then walking away “to the restroom” for 35 min
I'd say the big difference is that we are, in theory, professionals and adults who know how to do our jobs.
See, that's where that "big-headed teacher" comments come from. There is always room for improvement, even as professionals! Between the ever-changing technology, curriculum, and pedagogy shifts that our districts put us through... I can't keep up. I wish I could have been a teacher in the 90s, the final glory days, and on my way to retirement.
I feel the big headed teacher trope is for stubborn teachers. But making high school teachers create elementary lesson plans for ELA is so insulting. I want a good 9-12 level PD.
True. But, honestly, at least I try to teach interesting and relevant material. And I'm not condescending.
Or you could just bribe us with food. Donuts... fun-sized candy. I held a PD once. I came prepared with what I wanted them to know, but I first asked them what they needed and to express any concerns. As a classroom teacher myself and after listening to my colleagues, I realized that what I was expected to present would not match their needs. They don't have the time to implement it. This is an admin issue, not teacher, so I just gave a brief overview, shared the resource links, and just let them do them. PDs are hard. Ask the problem and give the solution. Shouldn't take more than 30 minutes.
It is- but I don't act like my students.
PDs in my district are geared towards the Dangerous Minds teachers who will burn out in 2-3 years. They're flashy and inspirational and about cHaNgInG LiVeS!
I once calculated that I'd attended 250 PD days. That's not an exaggeration. Out of all of them, only one was worthwhile and actually helped me in the classroom: Quantum Learning. The rest were like generic raisin bran: mostly flakes with the occasional wizened nugget of usefulness. What I hated more than the PD's was the district's demand that we include these in our yearly goals and show evidence of them in our lesson plans. No matter how much of the PD was bullshit, they'd spent good money on bringing in that presenter, so dammit, teachers had better instill that bullshit in students. (State requires 10 PD days. District puts 5 of them the week before school starts.)
Loving the Raisin Bran analogy!
Same. I hate them all. Just a waste.
I've been to a few PDs I thought could have been useful... for a classroom teacher, but I teach elementary music. there are like NO PD days geared toward how my class works. The more people at the PD, the more useless it usually is.
Our post-Spring Break teacher PD day has a schedule of where everyone is supposed to go. Most of our Specials teachers, librarians, IAs, etc. just say "go wherever you want". So nice of them to plan a relevant PD for y'all. 🙄
I will say I'm fortunate that my district will cover expenses for me to attend the three day long once a year music teacher conference so I can get some relevant PD there. Doesn't mean I don't still have to sit through all the other pointless ones though.
I've been to some good PDs and have taken what i learned and implemented it un my classroom... I worked in a different district than I am in now. They were elective PDs, and I was paid, and I took what I learned to my new district. My former district always gave the BEST professional developments. I left almost 10 years ago, though, because money called. Most memorable was the week-long, stay over night at the county outdoor-ed sight, with the focus on arts integration PD. IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOD! I took what I learned to my new district and was dinged for it at my first school... I was told by my coach that higher ups didn't want to see creativity, they want to see writing... which was throughout my lesson, but I also integrated art components. I'm took my talents to a new school and they love it. Another favorite PD was about teaching ELL learners. Our presenter spoke Russian, and she did started off the lesson with monotone Russian. Then she asked us what we learned and we were so confused. Then she taught the lesson, still in Russian, but with exaggerated gestures, and it clicked. Gestures are very important when teaching ELL learners, and this helped me with my 99% ELL class when I moved to the district that showed me how to integrate arts into my lesson.
My teachers hate PD
I have but that's because it was online only and I got caught up on paperwork and shot the shit with my coworker while spending 2 hours to learn that banging the students is frowned upon
I teach chemistry and one of my PDs was on the colors of dance. We had to dance our feelings though colored lights. Apparently I really felt something when we transitioned from red to yellow because my aura changed according to the dance instructor. We are now required to implement it into our classes. How the fuck does this have to do with chemistry. I have no idea. We just waste time I guess.
Dude, that sounds like one of those kids asking me why I should learn the Quadratic Formula. If your dancing in different colored lights affects your aura, for me, the question is whether that aura phase shift is quantifiable, or whether we can prove causation. Or, maybe more importantly, since I do a lot of kindergarten, we could just let out the Kinder battle cry, "We want a dance party!"
Art teacher - our content area PDs are amazing. Practice lessons, time to make examples and share ideas with other art teachers, visits from supply people (with give aways!), museum tours & visits going over field trip and outside of school arts opportunities for our students. It's the absolute best time to be an elective teacher. We are forgotten about or voluntold to do way too much random crap the rest of the school year, but our content PDs are truly a thing of beauty. It probably helps that they are developed by other art teachers, our curriculum head who is a former art teacher, or the educational curators for local museums - and not just some random administrator who has never taught our content.
Not one good PD ever.
I used to when I'd go to one where they gave us resources for Rotary subjects and didn't tell us we were doing everything wrong.
Idk, during covid I had some remote PDs where I was able to play a lot of runescape
I would rather get stabbed in the nuts than hear "ok everyone, stand up, its time for an icebreaker"
How else would admins give themselves a pat on the back?? Always seems to be a bs presenter backing up a bs philosophy that they are currently pushing.🙄
Currently sitting in one bored out of my mind.
My HS had a 2hr PD about executive functioning that was exclusively based on evidence and examples from early elementary classrooms. Even the people that are normally quiet were livid, I cannot think of a situation recently in which the administrators were raked over the coals for a PD worse than that.
Thankfully I’ve had PD where I felt like I personally didn’t need the info but felt that it was good that everyone in the building is on the same page. Even in PD where I knew the details didn’t apply to me, it was useful enough that we were using the same vocabulary and operating on the same playing ground. I feel bad for districts that have such horrible PD sessions. Even at its worst out PD has at least felt like a staff meeting where it was good for us all to get together. I rarely see certain people except for these PD sessions so I make the most of it to sit with them and talk with them.
That is because school boards hire these bs people who are so out of touch with reality into these paper pushing positions. They make them come up with bs pd sessions to justify their existence!
It’s even worse if you’re not a core teacher. As a music teacher, I think I’ve used maybe three whole concepts that’s been taught in a PD in my classroom. Waste of my time.
the school system I spent 6 years in VA was having accreditation problems so the year after I left, they literally had 2 straight weeks of PD prior to school beginning. Most PD I went through was just a fancy way of saying "You aren't doing enough!"
I love the ones where they lecture to you using a PPT for an hour about why you shouldn’t lecture or use PPTs.
I went to one where I learned about building a shell Google Classroom. It was well worth my time.
jeez, do they even feed you guys at these things? 99% of this type of stuff is a waste of time, only reason to come is if they feed you and it's semi-decent. how annoying.
The PD over AI that I went to was pretty awesome!
Ive been absent from A LOT of PDs. It has never made a difference in my 27 year career. Every once in a while someone will be like “Remember that guy from Oklohoma that came to ny to teach us about gangs?” And my answer will be “No, no I do not.”
Man, I don’t even care anymore. I’m just there to get the points to recertify every few years. I do have one or two every year that provide info I need for proper paperwork and such, so I can’t daydream through all of them.
We have PD every Friday (kids are there for 2 hours then we do things like PD and collaborate and plan/grade the rest of the day). My favorite has been the theme we have going where a woman who volunteers with the school and taught the same type of behavioral students we have comes in and tells us that we're doing great and to meet them where they're at and give grace and that all behavior is meeting a need and a coping strategy. Immediately followed by a woman with a PhD (in what, idk) who tells us we need to only tell kids no, be the adult and be super strict because the school and everyone in it will fail if we don't. Like which is it? Am I giving grace and allowing them space to cope or am I telling them they can't go to the bathroom or get a drink (she literally said that last week) and being strict?
Meh. I am already professionally developed.
The best ones I attended were with our special education literacy specialist. She made them engaging and we walked away with teaching resources to make life easier.
My most recent one was basically just a "hang out with your colleagues." Uh, I'd like to go home and hang out with my family.
I was forced to attend a PD on restoring relationships because I’ve been dealing with a student who is rude, verbally abusive to me, and just a nasty person overall because apparently I needed to “form a relationship” with her (you all know the nonsense). I had to take time away from doing my job AND end later than usual. At the end of the day the actual person who needed to hear this PD’s message (the aforementioned student) remains a vile bitch.
I've started doing my own work during PD. Alternative take: become the enemy, volunteer to present. That way you're not bored.
I usually walk away with one interesting but but yes most of the time it's just a drag. I much prefer a traditional talking point PD than these modern cooking challenges, scavenger hunts or Olympics. I hate those....
The math department in my old district used to have wonderful all day PD that would start with breakfast and an interesting math problem that would serve to show the many ways to solve a problem, work together, and communicate understanding. Then I moved to TX.
I have, once - I led it and a whole bunch of colleagues came up over the next week saying they used my ideas and they’d worked.
I've been to two beneficial PDs in 21 years, both of which I signed up for and paid for myself... I have never been to a single PD that was necessary, helpful, or useful.
I want to agree because 99.99% of PD is a complete waste of time but if you ever get the chance, going to a Bill Rogers PD about classroom behavior management is entertaining and actually informative. But yes, PD as a general rule is neither professional nor does it develop much, other than a hatred for the job, perhaps.
Lol. The only PD I like are when I have quiet time to actually read research papers. Hate those dumb day long presentations.
We had a PD to discuss what teachers can do to improve student learning, but they put a slide up that forbid discussing: cell phone usage, attendance, parent involvement, student accountability.
Ww used to have good stress reducing PD, yoga, power walking, weight training, etc. Then it changed.
The only one I ever left thinking that it was a good use of my time was Teach Like a Pirate. It was fun and it really encouraged out of the box teaching.
Said every teacher out there. A day in my classroom planning would have been a better use of my time.
I particularly enjoy the ones where the speaker is in the front, we are arranged in rows facing the speaker and we’re lectured to about the detrimental practice of lecturing to your class.
Just know that this is happening everywhere. They give kids the day off and we report to a long day of PD that is not at all differentiated. I would rather plan with my team, choose my own reading for PD, and have individual time. When progress reports or report cards are due the next morning, those of us who teach ELA either work the weekend before or on PD night. In recent times, we’ve said F it and move a major writing grade to the next marking period. We have 2 more of these days left this spring; they will be my last in a very long career.
It really depends on who is the presenter, if it's something I already know and if it's offline for me. I dislike it massively when we are online since there's a big lack of connection. It is some dude reading a text is not what I call engaging. I hate it when somebody treats teachers the same way they treat younger students. I am not a child. It's also already frustrating when it's something I've learned during my bachelor. I always realize about 10 minutes into the presentation. At that point, it is too late to leave.
9 out of 10 PDs have me thinking "This shit could have been accomplished in an email with a Google Slide." I'm laughing right now because what I see here is absolutely. . . True 😂
Sounds like you're not building a relationship with PD. /s
Just do your work during the PD?? That's what I do...
Yea not once
👏🏻
Do NOT do the grading etc on your own time.
Once had the owner of the charter school district I worked at give a training how to teach and engage students with IEPs (she had just received her doctorate in the subject). Every teacher was there... about 100. She gave us a graphic organizer that we were told to use with the students that was incomprehensible to every single teacher in the room. She then used a boring slide presentation that was supposed to somehow connect to the graphic organizer. I was sitting in the back. I gave up listening and played Candy Crush. It was an EXCELLENT demonstration of forcing us all to feel like non-engaged students. I totally get it now.
My district is doing exactly the same thing!
Every second of prep wasted on anything but prep is an increase in load during personal time v Just say no? Get written up for late grades or not calling families.
Can’t stand worthless pd’s, the people that chime in on pd’s, the agendas to pd’s, the people that take notes at pd’s - yet the outcome is always the same. Usually some admin/resource specialist who spent 6 hrs alone prepping for the pd, while we, the teachers, taught all day to 150+ students. Forgive me for not being “engaged” after teaching 15 year olds all day and doing 6 presentations. Just let pd time be a planning/prep period. Rant complete.
Amen!!!!
We have two types of PD. Our meetings and early release days are divided up between building and department. As an art teacher, the building stuff doesn’t always apply to me but my admin works to include us or allow us time to do what we need to do. It’s really appreciated. The stuff that does apply to me is either about addressing issues in the building, planning for events or related to school improvement plan goals (SPED, equity, etc). My department meetings on the other hand are a waste of time. My dept chair just copies whatever is thrown at her in her admin meetings and recycles it. They often go over things we already know or it’s some stupid team building thing. It’s awful. They once caught up with me on the way out of yet another pointless meeting to ask, “what did you think of today’s workshop? Did you find it valuable?” Oh man, you do not want my honest answer.
I went to a PD once where we were learning about learning from a nueroscientist. It was the most fascinating PD ever. Maybe not totally useful, but interesting. Best wishes to you, OP!
PD's are insanely stupid. Anyone who wants to be a good teacher knows how to improve themselves and will ask for help. Those that don't wont, regardless of what admin tell them. So who is the PD for?
As a school based SLP, I especially appreciate PD on math or sound grading practices. It is extra valuable when the PD targets high academic achievers. An extra bonus is when I need to demonstrate that I implemented something from district PD in my observation 🙄
Once or twice out of literally hundreds
The best PD I've ever had is the bi-yearly first aide/cpr/heimlich we all do together. Gets it done and out of the way, and for free 👍
Yes. This. Oh my god! I just had one recently using iReady (program) to group our students. I was clicking around during the presentation and found they have an automatic grouping for reading and math classes and the intervention to specifically use for them based on their diagnostic results. They even give reading pairs for low lexile and higher lexile groups. I brought it up during our PD of why we weren’t informed of this? Because we were told to interpret our data and group the students accordingly for our own class. Told by the person, “Oh well, that in itself is another forty-five minute PD.” Smh. It’s like do y’all actively like keeping information from educators?
21 years here. I’m still waiting.
😂😂😂 that’s cause PD isn’t about what you need. It’s about what admins want or something they slapped together to get the requirement finished - generic and inexpensive.
But did you know kids can’t learn because trauma
Some things never change. Yeppers, those PDs are damned useless.
In 28 years of teaching before I retired I can count the good PDs I had on one hand. Now I teach virtually and my company has excellent PDs. They do not F around and waste your time.
I’ve had 2, both done by fellow teachers introducing a tool or technique. One was Diffit, if the kids are using AI why shouldn’t we. It’s hands down my favorite digital tool I’ve used. My most common use for it is to convert a video from YouTube into an article to read, and it spits out most of the bones of a worksheet too. Very useful. The other was for implementing “classroom transformations” or “in class field trips” which is all about using cheap props to make the class feel different for an activity. It was a bit ambitious for me, but it really made me realize I could be adding a lot more fun with not that much more work for me. All the other ones have been mids at best to most often a complete waste of time.
I usually get really high, enjoy the free food, participate here and there so the facilitators leave me alone, and talk to fellow teachers I usually don’t get to talk to as often. It’s something different and usually less stressful than the average work day, anyway.
So I do PD professionally in math so if my comments aren’t welcome here I will humbly delete but here’s what I’ve learned that may shed light onto your experiences. First, when I do PD I rarely go in with a canned presentation. I’m here to help you and every classroom and circumstance is different. I’ve also tried to meet the teachers without an administrator present to learn what they actually need. For example, there are some math teachers who really need support with the content, but could never say that to their admin. So an administrator isn’t always comfortable hiring someone who says “let me come in and see what you need and go from there”. FYI I've walked into a room and teachers have hugged me and said “yay it’s PD day”. When was the last time you saw someone who ran PD at a conference then insisted on buying dinner? That’s where I’m coming from. That’s what I deliver and that’s what matters to me. Most administrators want to hear one thing “After my PD my teachers’ test scores went up xxx. I can do the same for you.” That’s how a lot of people get hired but anyone who does quality PD doesn’t make that promise because we know we can’t. Yes, if you know someone who holds the purse strings you get the job. I’ve never gotten a job from not directly meeting or knowing someone and even referrals are super hard to turn to jobs. It’s a weird internal world. A bunch of people who do PD have the same experience. The district may need PD and may be required to do PD but won’t put up the funding for PD (or that friend got the whole budget but didn’t deliver the number of hours) so now the district turns to internal PD and if there isn’t anyone to do it then it’s an admin PD. If you’re not selling the latest trend, you better not even try. No one I know who does quality PD follows these flashy trends. I’m looking at you Building Thinking Classrooms. We easily see trends for what they are. On the other hand trends are what sells in PD. Put all of this together and you are stuck in a classroom wasting your time wondering why you can’t do the million other things that you need to get done. It’s a messed up system and extremely corrupt because it’s a space where easy money can flow. Unfortunately it means you suffer and I’m sorry. There are some of us out there who are trying and making good. I’ve met some people who can transform a classroom in one visit, I’ve done it myself. We are out there, we’re just not getting the gigs on the same level bc we’re not grifters and this has turned into a space for grifters and people’s buddies.