Stop Asking for PD Ideas- Do THIS First!

0:04 Hey there, and welcome to the Catching Up with Casey podcast. You're listening to a Quick Thoughts episode where I take 12 minutes or less to share quick thoughts on anything and everything that has to do with building cohesive, vision driven teams. I'm Casey Watts, school Impact Strategist and the host of this show. Now Are you ready to hear about my quick thought for today? And let's jump right in. Hey guys, you are actually listening to the first Quick Thoughts episode for this podcast. And today on this Quick Thoughts episode, I'm going to share a quick thought about professional development and professional learning at the beginning of the school year and across the school year.

0:54 So let me preface this by telling you what I've been experiencing lately. I've been noticing on Facebook that instructional leaders and I I do want to say more specifically instructional coaches or curriculum and instructional specialist. They have been posting about what they're planning for either the beginning of the school year or the entire school year for professional learning. And it's interesting to see the way that they're posting this because a lot of people are posting a question wanting to get ideas about professional development topics.

1:35 So it might sound like, hey, I'm planning my beginning of the year PD with teachers. What are some topics that you guys have in mind? Or what are some ideas you have for PD across the year? I want to map out what I'm doing each month for the next seven months of school or my principal has given me 45 minutes each month to do some professional development topics. What ideas do you have? I see this question all the time, and it really kind of boggles my mind. And it really actually tells me a few things about the people that are posting them.

2:17 And no, no offense to these people, because it makes sense if you haven't done the groundwork to get ready to do PD in a really intentional and reflective way. So it tells me either one, they're seeing themselves as knowledge givers or the owner of the knowledge. So it could tell me that that they're thinking, you know, across the year, I need to be sure that I'm giving, giving, giving, giving information, giving resources, giving research. And I, I, I am sharing all of this because it's my role as an instructional leader. And that's where we're a little bit wrong.

2:57 That's not our role as an instructional leader. It can be a part of what we do but it's not our primary role especially when it comes to professional learning. It could also tell me when I see this question posted online, it could tell me that these instructional leaders haven't considered the campuses instructional focus or goals or what is the principals instructional focus for the year? What is the schools or districts vision and mission for this year? Where where are our people headed? What is the direction that we are all headed? So we're missing that. If you're having to ask the question, what ideas do you have about PD as just a general statement? And then third, it could also mean that the instructional leader hasn't done the more important work of considering what the teachers both want and need. So if if you find yourself asking the question or or in a situation where it's like once a month, I have this dedicated PD session and I'm trying to map out the year at and I just want ideas.

4:10 If you find yourself there, here's what's going to happen. You are going to cause teachers and staff to feel like PD is being done to them and not with them and not with them and their students in mind and not with the instructional focus or goals of the school in mind. So I want to offer you a different approach, a different approach that will hopefully allow you and your teams to move in One Direction. An approach that would allow them to feel empowered and go back to their classrooms and more and probably more willingly implement some of the things that are suggested in PD or that are discussed in those professional learning sessions.

5:02 So here's what it is. First, let me tell you that you need to go through a clarity cycle with your leadership team. A clarity cycle is going to help you figure out with the leadership team where a lack of clarity is impeding teacher capacity, or where lack of clarity is putting a damper on the school culture. And then you're going to determine an overall vision for the campus or a direction the campus can head for the school year. And then with teachers, Not without, but with teachers, you're going to consider what professional learning opportunities will help them gain clarity and build capacity around that vision. And then everything you do as a leader in professional development, during in service, during your walkthroughs, it is all focused on this singular direction toward that vision. It is then and only then that professional development opportunities that you provide are actually going to make sense to and hold meaning for the teachers. And this is going to help them feel as though they belong to something greater than themselves. This is what's going to empower them. So let's say you know you've gone through a clarity cycle, you know the needs of the campus, you have this overall vision and you are planning

6:33 professional development for the year. Let me give you an example of of guided reading. Let's say that guided reading is an overall focus. You want teachers to implement guided reading with fidelity, or you want them to implement guided reading in a streamlined way from classroom to classroom. Will all of your professional development sessions. All of your professional learning needs to be geared toward that focus or goal, and they need to know that every professional development opportunity is going to be focused on that goal. And then when you have walkthroughs, guess what? You're looking at guided reading.

7:16 When you have meetings and service emails, newsletters, you are going to make that a primary focus so that everyone is focused on this one singular direction. You're bringing clarity to things that can impede their capacity. And here's what I know. Clarity will always precede capacity. Capacity will always precede collective efficacy. So my challenge to you, instructional leader, is to really think about that question, about that idea Question. What ideas do you have for PD?

7:56 Okay. Nope. Let's backtrack. Let's backtrack to what is your instructional focus? What are the needs of the campus? What do your teachers need and want to help them gain clarity and move forward collectively? That's when you can ask about ideas for professional development because you will be able to tell other people what your focus or goal is, and that's going to help other people to offer insight, advice, suggestions, and come alongside you to build great professional learning opportunities for your people. Okay.

8:38 That was today's quick thought. If you want to learn more about the clarity cycle, I want you to reach out to me. And here's what else I want you to do. I want you to go to Catching Up with casey.com and see what I have available to help you bring clarity to your campus and help them all move in One Direction. OK. Thanks for catching today's episode. We'll talk to you next time. Thanks for catching up with me on this Quick Thoughts episode. I want you to do me two solid favors 1. Subscribe to the show and share it with your like minded friends.

9:18 I've got a lot of great content and guests coming up and I don't want you to miss any of it 2 Leave Me a Review. Reviews help my show expand so I can share my message with more leaders just like you. And until next time, let me encourage you to go off and build cohesive, vision driven teams that make change happen.