Planning PD for your staff can be stressful.
You want to make sure that the time and resources are well spent, your teachers are getting actionable value from it, and that you’re getting what you asked for from your PD provider.
Working with schools and districts across the country has allowed our team to create and develop high-quality professional development that includes the best practices to ensure it hits the mark for your team.
Regardless of who’s providing your PD, though, there are 5 critical elements that EVERY PD should include.
1. Alignment to Your Goals:
If you are going to take the time to have your staff sit through PD, attend training, and complete tasks or work related to that training, you need to ensure that it clearly aligns to the instructional outcomes you want to see.
Even more important is to make sure the goals you have for the PD are also clearly communicated with your teachers. One way to ensure this is to take the time to understand where you’re, where you want to go, and what you need to focus on next.
2. Engagement:
This goes without saying, because we expect it from our teachers, but make sure that the PD being provided to your team is going to get them actively engaged. This can be done in multiple ways by the presenter or trainer, but at minimum you want to make sure teachers are provided with the opportunity to apply the work, actively work on tasks, or engage in discussion with each other or the trainer in some capacity.
Forcing teachers to attend “sit and get” professional development is highly unlikely to move the needle in the direction you want. In fact, it can actually create resentment from staff as they will likely see it as a “waste of time.”
3. Focus on Instruction:
One of the most common pieces of advice I provide to instructional leaders we work with is “Don’t Create a Villain.”
What I mean by this is that if you provide PD focused only on a PRODUCT or specific SYSTEM or STRATEGY, you risk putting a “bad taste” in the staff’s mouth around whatever that thing is.
I’ve seen the name of specific products actually be “cursed” by staff so they are mentioned only when needed to avoid conflict.
This doesn’t mean you can’t talk about or share specific trainings, especially if being provided by vendors. However, be sure to take the time to help your team see the reasoning behind the use of those specific strategies or products and how they fit into the larger role of instructional expectations.
You should always be able to say, “You are being provided a strategy that will help us meet INSERT GOAL HERE. If you can meet that goal in another way, great! But if not, this will give you the tools to be successful.”
If you’re working with an outside presenter or PD provider, they may not always be able to connect the dots, which means it’s the school leadership’s responsibility to ensure those connections are clear and explicit.
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4. Work Time:
The worst case scenario for any professional development session for teachers is that it creates “homework” for everyone.
If your team sits through 3-6 hours of PD, it should not lead to them needing to do another 3-6 hours of additional work.
It should usually be expected that some work will need to be done after the initial training, but a good PD session should have work time embedded within the training itself.
This way, teachers can gain some momentum and progress before they leave and go back to the craziness of their classrooms. This will also ensure that the work gets off to a positive start and allow you to assess progress and adjust expectations for your staff after the fact.
5. Follow up & Support:
One of the biggest mistakes we see is when school districts bring in PD that is “one and done” meaning it’s just a single day and that’s it. After that, they just expect the teachers to implement whatever the new initiative is, with little to no ongoing support.
Even if the PD provider, consultant, trainer, or presenter isn’t returning, make sure there is some kind of follow up support for your teachers while they work to implement.
This could be additional support and coaching sessions, creating an internal communication channel specific to the new work, or setting expectations for staff’s implementation of the work.
When we send teachers to professional development and don’t provide some sort of follow up support, it is far les likely the work will gain the momentum it needs to be successful. Not to mention, you’ll likely lessen the chances of getting buy-in for future PD and work you want to provide as well.
If the PD is valuable enough to provide, important enough for your teachers to put in the time and energy to learn, then it should be valuable enough to provide ongoing support for.
Are you trying to fill a PD day or create an impact?
Time is a critical resource for any school district, and absolutely the most limited resource teachers have at their disposal. If you’re going to invest in PD, isn’t it worth doing everything you can to ensure it produces the outcomes you need it to?
Don’t make PD simply an afterthought. Make it a priority and set it up for success.
About Chad Ostrowski
Chad Ostrowski is the co-founder of the Teach Better Team, and creator of The Grid Method. He is also a co-author of the Teach Better book. But Chad is a middle school science teacher at heart. He now travels the country sharing his story, working with teachers, schools, and districts to help them to reach more students. Chad is also a member of the Teach Better Speakers Network.
