The Best PD I Ever Had

Tomorrow is LAUSD's first day with students for the 2023-24 school year, and that means most day-long PDs will be replaced by shorter, more concentrated periods of agony delivered during extended school days. Not great, but at least you're already at work. And there's always a nonzero chance one of them will be exceptional.

Last one in the PD series, also from Answer Key…

four

Fucking emails (addendum)

Know who your friends are, and respond to their emails.

Professional Development sessions are mostly bullshit, of course, but once in a while there is a PD that is both essential and memorable. It has the potential to save time instead of wasting it, it is clarifying, and it provides you with a story you can retell--over and over again--with knowing colleagues over favorite beverages.

The best PD I ever attended was on a topic I don’t even recall. Could have been serving special needs kids or it could have been the winter talent show, I don’t have a clue. What I do remember, however, was a friend of mine risking alienation and official sanction by offering some crucial advice to his colleagues, i.e. me and the rest of the staff.

After the usual foolishness getting the meeting started, the principal referred to something in an email he had sent to everyone to read before the meeting. Blank faces. Someone even had the temerity to ask what it said. The principal told them and we all dealt with that piece of business. Then the assistant principal rose and asked if there were any questions about the new tardy policy, or something. “What new tardy policy?” “Yeah, what new tardy policy?” “I sent out an email.” “What did it say?” It was aggravating and discouraging and totally predictable.

In other words, up to this point, this could be any of the thousand PDs I attended in my career where the stupidity is as thick as vomit, and chunky too. But then things changed. The school was brand new and the staff were generally unknown to one another (a couple of us were longtime friends, and some of the elementary teachers had come from the same previous elementary school and hated each other). So when my friend Nick stood up and spoke to the staff thereby making this the very best PD I ever attended, they were… surprised. They didn’t know for sure how to interpret the following:

“Chuck? Can I just say something?” Nick asked our principal.

“Go ahead,” our principal replied.

Nick stood up. “PEOPLE! CHECK YOUR FUCKING EMAILS! Thanks, Chuck.” Nick sat down.

Nick got all kinds of shit from staff who mostly didn’t know him and thought he was either joking or out of line to talk to them like that. He didn't much care, and all I kept thinking was, “Was he talking to you? If not, then what are you complaining about? If he was talking to you, then check your fucking emails.” 

And that was it. The meeting was over and we never got to enjoy those two hours of whatever same PD we had endured periodically for a hundred years. Instead, we all went back to our rooms to do actual work things until the designated time of release, thus proving that the best "professional developments" are short, focused, and come in the form of helpful guidance from professional teacher to professional teacher.

Good luck. Have a great year. Please don’t let the bastards grind you down. 

Your only job is to love them.

Bon voyage.