‘Tis the Season for Leading PD

Carrie Sand contributed today's post.

In my past blogs, I’ve been reflecting on the variety of roles and responsibilities a literacy coach encounters throughout the course of year. For whatever reason, I’ve personally found that the winter months become synonymous in the coaching world with leading different groups through various types of professional development. While some of this PD is mandated and some is by choice, I’ve recently realized that my approach to preparing and implementing professional development is centered around certain guiding principles. After examining my core beliefs as a literacy leader, I created a personal “gut-check” list. Below are the questions I’ve found to be useful when thinking about planning for any type of PD:

1.Am I bringing my authentic self?

Approachable, knowledgeable, passionate, real, professional….

If asked, these are some of the characteristics I would want others to use to describe me as both a person and a professional. When presenting professional development, it is my goal to bring these same qualities to my presentation. Part of this is intrinsic and done without much planning or thought; however, I also believe in the power of preparation. For example, recently, I thought through some the of following questions prior to leading a professional development training: How can I prepare for a professional development in an area where my experience might be limited? What do I do when a colleague is creating a negative environment for learning? What language (both verbal and body) do I use to interact with and respond to the workshop participants? By preparing for a variety of situations, I believe I am better able to be more present and authentic in the moment.  

2.  What can I do to be sure that my presentation is purposefully planned?

I’ll admit that I am an organization nut, and in all honesty, disorganization gives me a bad impression. Because I know that I carry that preconceived notion, I try to demonstrate my commitment and respect to my PD participants by being well planned and organized. While many situations arise that require us to “think on our feet” and quickly problem solve, I can’t think of many scenarios when I personally advocate “just winging it” as a solid PD strategy.

3. Does my PD “practice what I preach” in terms of best practices for instruction?

It seems logical to instruct adult learners in the same way we know instruction works best for kids, but how many times have we attended trainings that are “sit and get” or direct readings of slide after slide on a large screen. To me, I think of PD as a way for teachers to “observe” best practices in action. I am in charge of the “mini-lesson” and from there I plan for opportunities to allow teachers time for interaction and collaborative conversations, practice with some guided instruction, and reflection. I may take a formative check prior to my inservice, but I definitely take many formative checks for understanding along the way. I share objectives in my opening and closing so that I can maintain a purpose throughout the course of the training. By using the same techniques I advocate and look for in classrooms, I am able to not only get in a quick demonstration (maybe using a new technique or strategy that I hope someone will steal), but also I provide learning that is specific and hopefully transferable to a variety of classroom settings.

4. How would this feel from the other side of the table?

We are busy people in the educational world and one of my biggest pet peeves is leaving a meeting feeling like I just wasted my precious minutes. Therefore, as much as possible, I try to think about how the PD will feel as the recipient rather than the presenter. For example, I always want my PD to be relevant to what teachers want right now….(If we just adopted a new curriculum, do my teachers really want training on a this other really cool new resource I just discovered?)... and scheduled during a time that is not stress inducing (Is an after school meeting the day before report cards are due really my best day?). If the development is one where I can not control all the factors,  I think about the angles I can take or the connections I can make to give the topic a feel of  relevance and timeliness? Other questions I usually think through are: Am I providing real life tools and ideas that teachers can implement right away? Am I respectful of other’s time by being punctual with both my start and end time? Do I include all members in attendance regardless of grade level or content area? By looking at the presentation as someone  on the other side, I feel better able to provide training that gets implemented not forgotten.

5. What feedback will I ask for to help inform my follow-up?

It is a cruel truth, but professional development is only as effective as what happens after the participants have left the training. By thinking about what feedback I will need to collect, I am already preparing for the next steps I will take as a coach in order to support and extend the learning. While, we as the presenter, can walk away with a certain feeling about how things went, it is always good to collect honest feedback. In this way we can make informed decisions about how we proceed.

In my career, I’ve sat through some really good professional development and some really bad professional development. In all honesty, I know that I’ve led some really good professional development as well as some bad professional development. Part of my passion as a coach is to reflect and grow in my practices; using the guiding questions above allows me to do just that when thinking about PD!