PD, PL, Paleeease...it's a PRP

I still remember it like yesterday (a phrase often used for something that happened a long time ago and while this memory only comes from earlier this year, the truth of that phrase remains).  This moment is still so clear in my otherwise cloudy mind because it was the first, and to this point only, time I have raised my voice at any teacher(s) in the English Department for which I am chair. Here is what happened.  We were in an institute day workshop in which teachers were interacting with the Common Core Writing Standards for the first time--a gap analysis of sorts to get us started.  As the process and discussion carried on, one teacher said, "well wow, I am going to need some PD if I am going to have to teach this much narrative writing; is the district planning anything?" Semantics aside, call it what you will, professional development/professional learning (I have recently liked calling it professional learning but that is non sequitur to this conversation) the frustration because of that statement was real and rising within me.  Here was an English teacher acknowledging a deficiency, which I applaud, but with a complete dependence on the school to remediate this deficiency.  It really got me thinking, how many teachers today remediate their own deficiencies, have their own, professional research passion--that one area in which they simply cannot stop reading, researching, practicing, and revising their thinking. Has this become a lost art?

Let me take you back 10 years to my first job as a teacher; fresh out of college (bad hair and youthful ignorance being bliss), I thought I knew it all (boy was I wrong). Then, the department chair at my first job gave me a set of curriculum guides for my classes, and I realized just how little I knew (it was like being in high school math class all over again...).  I spent a summer reading up on grammar instruction, exploring literary criticism on and rereading (and for many, simply reading for the first time) the books I was about to teach--basically cleaning up the many deficiencies I now realized I had.

This practice is one through which virtually all new teachers go, a rite of passage if you will, so why does this individually-driven need for knowledge eventually transform into an English teacher checking to see if the district will provide PD on narrative writing (not to mention the question of what this teacher had been doing with narrative writing over the last several years...).  Here are some reasons why this has happened:

1. My first thought is that districts who provide extensive professional development/learning opportunities are creating a conundrum that is a blessing and a curse: teachers are getting great training but are "being spoiled", losing the desire and/or realization that the best PD comes from a personal passion that a district can't possible tailor to each teacher's need(s).  School leaders need to foster an environment in which individual teacher-research passions are not only support but expected.
2. Teachers don't "have time."  I put that in quotes not to diminish how busy teachers are but rather to stress that we all have the same 24 hours in our day.  It comes down to how we choose to use that time.
3. One of my inspirations as a teacher is Penny Kittle.  I have been blessed enough to hear her speak twice now, and she insists that we write (or should write) to figure out what we don't know (heck, she is a big reason why I started this blog).  I think the same holds true for reading.  I learn more about things I didn't even know I didn't know by surrounding myself with professional texts.  However, in just the short 10 years I have been in education, I have seen the amount of professional reading that teachers are doing diminish considerably. 

What this has led to is a lack of what I would call a professional research passion (PRP).  I will be honest, when I first came into teaching, I didn't have one--I probably would have told you I didn't need one, too.  However as I started to read more material, I figured out those areas in education that were my passion and those that clearly were not.  I can't tell you how many times I have been in a discussion with teachers where an author or text was referenced and I had no clue about what they were talking.  What did I do?...smiled/nodded like I knew the text or author (I was too afraid to admit I hadn't--that's a flaw of mine), went home, ordered the book and started feverishly reading. Through this process my passions (educational technology, standards-based grading/assessment practices, and discipline-specific literacy) emerged. When I first starting teaching, I didn't even know what these things were. Additionally, I learned that educational "things" like innovative classroom management techniques, fears over standardized testing, or brain-based learning are not my passions.

So, my challenge to all teachers is this: take a hold of your professional development/learning by finding your professional research passion.  Listen to other teachers talk, read what they are reading, and discover those areas of the profession that are your passion and those that are not.  Knowing both will make you a better teacher and reading more will make you a better model to your students.  In the end, it's a win-win.  So, call it PD or PL if you want...just PLEASE develop your professional research passion.