One reason teachers leave the profession is surely that the profession doesn’t feel all that professional sometimes. This is caused, in part, by poor professional development. (It is also caused, in part, by poor teacher attitudes around professional development… but that’s a topic for another post.) In designing professional development that’s good, I find the […]
School Level
24 Tips for Leading Better Professional Development
At this point in my career, I’ve led over 100 different professional development experiences, ranging from keynotes to conference sessions to whole-day breakouts. The work has been with a broad spectrum of audiences: whole district staffs ranging from 6 people (total staff, whole district) to 1,500; elementary teachers exclusively; secondary teachers exclusively; ELA-only groups; only […]
Why I Don’t Write Much About Large-Scale Teaching Reform and Policy Change
I received a message recently that speaks to a tension I’ve felt for some time as a writer. I will call the writer Jonathan, as this is the pseudonym he preferred: Dave, I love your stuff and I really enjoyed reading [your post “Tough Minds, Tender Hearts.”] I totally buy what you’re saying here, and […]
Tech for Tech’s Sake Isn’t Good in Our Classrooms
One of my students this fall — we’ll call her Rachel — has a problem with technology. Whenever she’s on a Chromebook, it’s as if her fingers take on a mind of their own. She’s almost never on task when I come around to see the thesis statement she’s supposed to be typing into PollEverywhere, […]
Sane Educators = A Good Strategy
If you settle on the idea that the point of schools is the long-term flourishing of kids, you get to explore all kinds of interesting territory — in your own practice and in your teams (department, PLC, school). The opportunities for earnest and amicable professional arguments — loaded, of course, with paraphrasing and evidence and encouragement […]