Why do we keep sitting through professional development we already know?
Mandatory training sessions often rehash basic concepts teachers mastered years ago, yet introduce new buzzwords that force them to completely rewrite established lesson plans. This wastes valuable prep time on redundant activities, leaving educators overwhelmed and ready to quit.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1wishing for time to grade or lesson plan insteadDid this help you?
- 2fantasizing about quitting to open a theme barDid this help you?
- 3sitting through mandatory sessionsDid this help you?
- 4finding substitutes for classesDid this help you?
- 5trying to differentiate across enormous ranges of ability levelsDid this help you?
- 6feigning engagement in chatDid this help you?
- 7Mentoring or coaching new teachers through the processDid this help you?
- 8Not sweating the assignments too hard and recognizing it as a formality or liability shieldDid this help you?
- 9Consulting with union representatives to ensure contracts are not being violatedDid this help you?
- 10Meal prepping and strictly protecting personal time and sleepDid this help you?
- 11Taking a sick day every couple of months to recover from weekend training sessionsDid this help you?
- 12wishing for alternative choices like having the day to themselves for lesson planning or taking a breakDid this help you?
- 13asking for an open forum session to discuss building culture with administratorsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I’m being required to miss three days of instruction for a training and find substitutes for my classes.”source ↗
“And through all of it, the answer always seems to be another PLC.”source ↗
“I’m tired of discussing instructional strategies when I have students who cannot independently read the directions.”source ↗
“telling me about something I learned twelve years ago and have been implementing for eleven...”source ↗
“now you get to learn a new definition with them which means you get to write all your lesson plans again”source ↗
“I don’t think I’ve ever been to an all day superintendent conference day that wasn’t an utter waste of time.”source ↗
“That professional development isn’t actually meant to be a good use of teachers time.”source ↗
“I swear these sort of conference days only exist so that admin can justify their paychecks by saying “look we’re doing something useful””source ↗
“nobody is on camera and when the instructor asks us a question nobody speaks up for 20 seconds, and then when we're interacting with the product people are commenting the most shallow things that look like they're trying to feign engagement.”source ↗
“I swear if I have to put a small post it note on a larger post it note one more time I'm quitting and opening a theme bar.”source ↗
“We all know this stuff is dumb and pointless and missing the mark, but until we aren't afraid to walk out of meetings or negotiate to limit admin's power, they will continue to walk all over us.”source ↗
“until my district dumped a bunch of afterschool stuff on us.”source ↗
“the amount of work for it is insane. The work averages out to 2-3 hours of work outside of school hours per week, 4 Saturday sessions for 6.5 hours”source ↗
“Genuinely, is this normal? How am I supposed to have a life outside of this? It honestly feels like I’m back in college with the amount of extra work and literal homework I have.”source ↗
“I am new to teaching in CA, but not new to teaching, so I have to take a new teacher induction class.”source ↗
“My first assignment was to watch a video on how to fill out a google form. Not to fill out a google form, but HOW to fill out a google form.”source ↗
“Spot on. Ours are rarely useful.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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