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Monday, January 31, 2011

How can we improve PD and faculty meetings...?

I was lurking in the shadows today (not in a weird way) during a conversation between @wmchamberlain, @geraldaungst, @ktenkely, and @stumpteacher. They were discussing professional development and faculty meetings (the two most beloved activities by educators...). The discussion revolved around ways to improve these two events, so that educators would be more interested and ultimately get more out of them.

As a professional development representative at my high school, I tend to really enjoy PD days. Though, I have heard more than a few times that there are educators who absolutely loathe PD days. I don't understand, what could an educator not love about a day full of learning about ways to improve his/her instructional practices (no sarcasm intended)? In addition, faculty meetings are perfect for sharing information about what is going on in the school, as well as another viable PD opportunity...so what exactly is the problem?

I think we have all heard more times than we can stomach why some educators believe that PD and faculty meetings are a waste of time, and because I believe in accountability and responsibility, I am going to reach out to my PLN and ask...in what ways do you believe we can improve PD and faculty meetings so that they are more appealing to educators? A simple and straight forward question that applies to all educators (unless you work somewhere that does not have PD or faculty meetings). For the record (because I know my building principal @mrgrimshaw will be reading this - which is totally cool by the way), I honestly believe we are making some great strides at SHS as it pertains to our PD and faculty meetings, but I believe there is always room to improve.

How do you think we can improve PD and faculty meetings to better meet the needs of our students by better meeting the needs of educators?

My good buddy @cmcgee200 wrote this excellent post on fixing PD...food for thought...

(I look forward to continuing this discussion in my brand new "intensedebate" comment section!)