I’ve visited, spoken to, or emailed hundreds of school districts around the world. What always strikes me is how vastly different districts are. One key difference is how folks approach professional development.
I’d like to share how my boss shaped leaders in our district.
Rather than spending our budget hiring experts to fly out and speak to the staff, my director grew her own leaders. She identified people with potential. She noted who was excelling at specific techniques. And then, during our monthly meetings, she had those people present. Our boss empowered us to become leaders. She created her own experts!
And it worked!
An unusual number of folks in our program went on to bigger things. Have you stumbled onto Envision Gifted at some point? A former colleague of mine runs that site! We worked in the same gifted program. Another colleague went on to run international schools. We shared ramen in Tokyo. She just opened a new school in Thailand! Several people went on to run other gifted programs. Some became principals. Some are even higher up now. And, of course, many stayed in their classroom and became even better teachers.
Simply put, I learned most of what I know by observing my colleagues.
So this is my advice: pour your resources into your most promising teachers. Give them the spotlight. Let them explain their techniques. Allow them to blossom.
Too many districts focus on trying to make their, um, far-below-average teachers better. No no. Invest in your top folks – or they’ll leave. Seriously, if you ignore your best people, they’ll leave for other opportunities (and the best people always have other opportunities), and you’ll be left with a worse group than you started with.
As a leader, you don’t need to hire experts to fly in and lead a one-day training (yes, this was my life for years). You don’t need to get up and try to fake your way through a topic you’re not experienced in. Find your best teachers and let them speak from their experience!