Professional Development I got it - so now what?

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It’s the day after a professional development opportunity, so now what do you do with what you learned?  Did you get so much information that it felt like drinking from a firehose?  Learning opportunities are so important in helping teachers stay up-to-date on the latest trends and data that impact our students’ learning and our lesson planning and delivery.  But how many times do we attend a PD, get excited about a subject or strategy and then find ourselves overwhelmed with ideas of implementation.  To prevent this feeling, I suggest that you find someone to partner with.  Just like our students need community to be successful, so do teachers.   Find a partner in someone who attended the same PD, or someone that you can share the new information with and get help and encouragement.  Together you can plan how best to implement changes and/or the new strategies that you learned.  Partners in professional communities keep one another accountable for plans and help lift the load of new initiatives.  Even with a partner, don’t overload yourself with ideas for change.  Start small and build a calendar of actionable items, things that you can reasonably accomplish.  Your enthusiasm for the PD will be less likely to wane if you keep it reasonable, make a plan,  and share the load. 

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