Teachers have all attended bad professional development. Your principal tells you a sub will cover your class the next day because she is sending you to a workshop described only by a five-letter acronym. You go to the district’s online PD catalogue, CPS University, where it takes you half of your prep period to sign up. When you arrive, you spend an hour playing get-to-know-you games before you realize that the session is meant for beginning teachers–but you are entering your eighth year.
You sit in the back, and your mind wanders to all the things you could be doing with this time: planning for next quarter, analyzing data from your latest assessment, or finding ways to reach a group of English language learners who are struggling despite your best efforts. You wish this PD would address those things. You leave with a book, binder, and t-shirt, but with no understanding of how to improve your practice...