Years ago, I remember being invited to speak for a professional learning day with a school district in Nebraska about the importance of innovation in education and empowering learners.
The district had shared that they wanted students to introduce me and had asked me for a biography to share with them to read to the group. Although I had something I could share, I encouraged them to have students Google me, find out what they could about my work, and they could write the introduction themselves based on what they could find.
They were a little shocked by my response, but since I was discussing how essential it was for students to have a positive digital footprint that they create today, what better way to get them to see the importance than by asking them to search for information on the speaker?
The students did exactly what I asked and provided an excellent and thoughtful introduction based on what they could find about me online, both personally and professionally.
They received rowdy applause from the staff for their efforts, and as I walked up and thanked them for what they had just done, they started to walk out of the auditorium as their day at school had ended.
As they headed toward the exit, I stopped them and asked if they would consider staying. They reluctantly shared that today was their “day off,” and they wanted to head home. I followed up by sharing that what I was talking about had to do directly with them and their learning experience in school, so their feedback was beneficial and, in my mind, necessary for my own work.
After pleading with them to stay, they said, “Nah…it is our day off.”
With one last try, I said, “When I was driving here, I saw that there was a Dairy Queen a few minutes away. If you stay and it sucks, I will take you all out for lunch there.”
They decided to stay because, to them, it seemed like the easiest Blizzard and Burger they would ever win.
To their shock, they enjoyed what I had to share. As soon as I was done speaking, they approached me and thanked me for my thoughts and hopes for the day.
Not only did they stay for the presentation, but they also joined me in the school cafeteria for lunch and wanted to ask me more questions about what I had to share. It was a powerful conversation, but one thing that stuck out to me that they shared that I still think about often.
One student looked at me and said, “If this is what staff are learning on these days that we are not here, why are they not getting any better?”
It shook me to my core for several reasons.
First, are these professional learning days meaningful to staff and relevant to what they want to learn? Also, is there follow-up and time provided to dig deeper into the ideas and examples shared on these days?
It would be easy to blame teachers for not implementing ideas, but I see that as more of a leadership problem than anything.
If you provide professional learning opportunities during staff days and nothing changes, there is something wrong with the process and implementation, not any individual staff member or group.
I think about this quote a teacher said to me years ago that guides much of my thinking regarding professional learning days:
Truth.
If people don’t see the learning “relevant” to their work, why spend time trying to “implement” something new when we often feel we are barely treading water?
I have written about professional learning before, and I think this simple idea could have a massive impact.
The other consideration is when we have the opportunity to have students, parents, caregivers, and/or community members as part of a professional learning days, what doors does that open?
Would we be more invested in our own learning if we knew our community was also there learning alongside us?
Would we be more aware of what and how we shared new ideas with staff while those outside of the profession but part of our community would be there?
As a school principal and assistant principal, I led zero professional learning days that didn’t include families as part of the day. We were trying new things in our community, and we wanted our families to be advocates and be empowered in the process.
We often believe that families want school to be the same for their children as it was for them, but I don’t think that. I believe all parents want what is best for their kids.
Yet, if they know of no other school experience than the one they had, they will default to what they did as being “best.”
The goal of inviting families is that they will walk out of these experiences and say, “I wish school were like this when I was a kid!” If you can successfully do that, families will become your most prominent advocates for new opportunities for their kids.
When we are intentional about what we learn, how we learn it, and who is in the room, we can go further together than we could ever go alone.
