A Novel Idea!

I have an idea I want to share. I don't know about you~ but as an educator I have sometimes sat in professional development trainings and wondered how the training applied to my classroom. I have also wondered how much my school district might be spending to bring in these trainers~ some of whom may haven't been in an actual classroom in years.

How about this: school districts use professional development days to allow educators to come together and share their best practices. End of story. No boring PowerPoints. No theory-heavy ideas about classroom discipline that don't work in a real classroom. Just professionals with realstrategies and ideas sharing tricks of the trade.

Perhaps teachers could model lessons to the other teachers. Maybe the trainings are run like a classroom~ and teachers must "perform."

Everyone should have to bring one good idea~ one method that gets results~ and trade it for some other methods. Then~ maybe everyone has to use that method and report back at the next training. Each training day could have a theme: classroom management~ technology~ motivation~ etc.

This process would cost zero dollars and teachers would have a sense of ownership. More importantly~ students would benefit from teachers gaining real and solid methods that would improve the classroom.