How Two Teachers Found Their Glass Slipper

Once upon a time, there were two teachers who had some really simple ideas:

• What if they could offer professional development for teachers that was useful and applicable right away? 
• What if they could offer a menu for people to choose from so they could have choice as adults about their own learning?
• What if they could create professional development in response to what people are asking for, not just what others think they have to have? (Which are not mutually exclusive, by the way.)

These two teachers had worked in a variety of settings. They had been to professional development that had been useless. They had been through “sit and get” sessions and checked the boxes. In fact, they had been asked to present these kinds of sessions on more than one occasion. “Just make sure everyone hears the same thing,” they were told. 

But…they had also participated in and provided professional development that was good. Really good. The kind of PD that becomes part of who you are as an educator. The kind that you apply over days and weeks until it is actually part of your fiber and you cannot remember not knowing it. 

So, our two educators started to toss around more ideas. What makes some professional development stick and others fall short? How could they replicate professional development so the participants carry it with them? How could they offer high quality professional development that gives participants voice and choice? What if they could ultimately empower people to be their best work self and truly enjoy what they do?

Our two educators kept wrestling with these ideas because they just KNEW if people could be their best selves and enjoy more of their work then kids would have the best possible chance of thriving. And it’s really all about the kids, right? 

Well, they were told it could not be done.

In conversation after conversation, our heroines were told that the kind of professional development they spoke of was not possible. Still, they made a list and printed a menu of things to offer in schools. The menu came from things people told them they wanted to learn more about. It came from things people said they really wanted help with. Some people told them those were great ideas but it just wasn’t feasible. Others told them to “be careful” because they would create too much work for themselves. (That’s the one they still laugh about today!)

To be fair, this kind of talk about professional development was unusual back in the day. This is just not how professional development was done. Usually, publishing companies sold products like books and programs and such, and then they “gave” professional development as part of the larger package. The product was first and the professional development was second. Everyone got the same thing. There was not a very strategic approach. The participants were often treated as the proverbial “blank slate” and had to sit through content that they already knew.

Our two educators persevered and started to wonder what would happen if the professional development was responsive and met teachers right where they were – in the classroom. They got excited thinking about what was possible if you could observe teachers and use those observations as a way to guide the adult learning. Instead of evaluating, what if the observation was used for support? What if you could differentiate the content for adults in the same way we expected differentiation for students? Surely this would be a good thing?!

The fact is, this non-institutional kind of thinking was met with pushback. A lot of pushback, for a lot of different reasons. This kind of talking took attention away from books, buses, and buildings – and put the focus on learning. This kind of thinking and talk got them hushed in meetings more than once.

So, what did those two teachers do? They walked right out of those meetings and started ERG.

And they lived happily ever after.

Moral of the Story:

What you are wrestling with is what you are called to do. It’s your thing.

Don’t try to avoid or run from that uneasy feeling that something is wrong. Stay with it. If it is keeping you up at night, breaks your heart, and you cannot stop thinking about it, then don’t stop.

Instead, start. Start to work it out in your mind. Share half thoughts with people until they become full thoughts. The people that stick around are your people.

Thanks for being part of ERG’s tribe.