The Liberated Teacher

If teachers are "respected professionals" (as they are told they are in the intro of a professional development session) why do we keep telling them what to do in "professional development" workshops? I am still focusing on classroom management/ discipline here, but I think we need to think about this phenomenon. All workshops provided for teachers feed into the classroom conditions and teachers need to speak up when they know for certain that a strategy may spell disaster in the classroom.

It is professional to contribute in a professional development session if a teacher has direct experience with a strategy (whether good or bad). That is what "development" is, anything else is merely indoctrination and that is not professional. Any professional development that allows for collaboration between teachers only around what is presented says teachers don't know enough to collaborate on their own about what they know—man that bothers me! Let me tell you why.

Initially, I have done more professional development workshops than I care to count and it is always extremely critical to me to learn about my audience ahead of time. I want to know what they already know—taking nothing for granted. Now we can develop and that goes for me too because it is always an matter of exchange.

Secondly, while coaching teachers, I have witnesses some difficult classroom situations where teachers have jumped in feeling pressure to implement an instructional or management strategy before they are ready to or before they understand why it is appropriate or not. In the end the teacher tells me with disappointment, "That's what I learned in a workshop".

So teachers, liberate yourselves. Weigh the outcome of a professional development. Make the strategy your own, question it, tweek it—you're a professional and you know stuff. You are either experienced in the classroom or you have recently come out of an accredited teacher preparation program—either way, you know stuff. Share your stuff.

That's enough from me, now it's your turn.

Stef