Career professional development (CPD) training is totally my jam.
I know now, however, that with this sentiment I am a member of a hardcore minority.
I enjoy CPD. Reading books like Teach Like a Champion and Making Every Lesson Count are fun for me.
Most of the CPD that is taught in a lot of schools is either terrible and not evidence informed or taught terribly. This has led to the unspoken agreement among most teachers that CPD is to be tolerated and never enjoyed.
At one school engagement with CPD was so bad that we were not allowed to bring our phones to the training sessions. One Friday night at the pub I found out that my enthusiasm for CPD was not shared by my colleagues. I was asked if I could stop asking questions during training – it was annoying apparently, and I was the only one who cared.
I had not realised until that point that pretty much everyone else hated CPD.
If you, a new teacher, are in the majority, this blog post is for you. Like it or not CPD is a necessary and regular evil. You too will have to find your own special brand of copium to make it through.
Feel the fear and do it anyway
The biggest fear that most people have with CPD is that they will be forced to say or do something to contribute. I have been to all day training sessions where some people on my table said and did nothing the entire time.
Older and more established teachers can usually get away with this. The leadership team aren’t willing to get into it with them as they contribute so much else to the school otherwise.
You, however, as a new teacher, are not yet seasoned enough to zone out and hope that no one notices.
Three for three
Depending on how your school delivers the CPD there may be a video or a speaker for a long period of time. You then need to participate in some way.
Make sure that you contribute enthusiastically immediately, within three minutes, even if you’re answering a question with a question. Raise your hand, shout out the answer, take your post-it notes to the front, offer to write out the brainstorming ideas for your table. Whatever it takes to show that you’re listening and keen to participate.
Do it again three minutes later. Make sure that you are being sincere. Listen to what has been said and be genuine in your curiosity and response.
I once sat through a terrifying CPD in which the speaker was bursting with excitement about these headbands to detect brain activity being trialed to see if children were concentrating during lesson time. It was so dystopian I asked the speaker if he was joking. I got told off for that.
Contribute again three minutes later. One of three things will happen. You get praised for your contribution, get told to no longer contribute and give everyone else a chance to contribute or everyone else will get scolded for their lack of effort. Either way you will not have to contribute any more for that session unless you want to.
Be guided by a real commitment to your professional development. Give every session a chance and sincerely see if there is anything you can learn each time. If you do this technique enough times you will not get called on in the sessions where you’re not feeling it.
Make peace with CPD
Ultimately when it comes to CPD, radical acceptance is the best way forward. You still have to do it so you might as well do it on your terms.
The hour or so you spend in training does not have to be abject torture. It can be a fun game where you also get to hopefully learn something useful.
