I’ve written before about my #1 Professional Development rule: solve problems, don’t just give information.

But, perhaps an even more basic rule is to only speak from personal experience.

I’d Talk About Things I Hadn’t Done!

In my early days, I’d get up in front of an audience and talk about things I’d only heard about – not actually used.

Once I learned to speak from personal experience, it was so much easier! I could share the problems I ran into. I could explain how I revised a lesson to fix those problems. I could share authentic (and often hilarious) comments from students.

I could just tell the story of how I went from a bad lesson in Year 1 to a better lesson in Year 2 to a lesson that actually worked in Year 3.

Talk About Your Problems

With my early presentations, I made the mistake of making myself look like a Super Teacher.

I didn’t share my disasters. I didn’t talk about my awful lessons. I just shared my successes.

But teachers LOVE to hear how people fixed their actual problems. They want to hear about how you adapted and recovered from failure.

Teachers DO NOT want to hear about a “cool idea” that I’ve never even tried!

An Easy Formula

I’d say the key to any PD topic is to use this formula:

Here is a problem I had. Here’s how I fixed it.

This is much more powerful than talking about a second-hand, untested idea.

Is There A Better Person?

Now, the real problem when someone gets up and shares an idea they’ve never used is that it steals the stage from someone who could have spoken from experience.

My personal example of this: I once sat in a session at the national gifted conference and watched a university professor give a tour of my own website. The conference had rejected my own submissions to give a talk that year.

So, those of us who lead PD should ask, “Is there someone who is better suited to give this presentation than me?” Or at least this part of the presentation? A young teacher who is working through this? A veteran who has figured this out? A duo of teachers with different approaches?

In Summary

Friends, don’t try to give a talk about ideas that you haven’t personally used! Either borrow a classroom for an hour and try the idea or else seek out folks with real experience and let them speak. Ask them to talk for just ten minutes (not an hour!!!) about the topic they are the best at. Let them tell their story. Help them prepare! Don’t present them as Super Teachers who have it all figured out. Help them highlight the process of how they figured it out. Empower your best teachers to share their best ideas.