Too often, professional development for teachers feels passive, disconnected, and quickly forgotten. Educators sit through long presentations filled with information but leave without practical strategies they can immediately apply in their classrooms.

Effective teacher professional development should be engaging, interactive, and directly connected to classroom practice. When educators actively participate in meaningful learning experiences, they are far more likely to implement new strategies with students.

Whether you lead professional development sessions, coach teachers, or support school improvement efforts, these five practical strategies will help you design professional learning that actually changes instructional practice.

• too much passive learning
• lack of modeling
• no collaboration
• too much lecture
• limited classroom application

Are you ready to infuse your professional development with active learning?

Whether your session spans a full day or 15 minutes, always have a soft opener prepared.  You can begin your soft opener 5-10 minutes before the session is scheduled to start.  As your participants enter your physical or virtual room, you will have an activity waiting for them.  This accomplishes several important things.

A soft opener lets folks know that they can expect to be active participants during your session.  A face-to-face soft opener might give attendees an opportunity to interact with colleagues sitting near them. A virtual soft opener might also allow your audience to practice using response tools that you will ask them to use during the training.  

 A strong soft opener will encourage your attendees to arrive early and jump right into interactive learning. 

Teachers who train alongside colleagues and supervisors are more likely to implement new learnings into their teaching practices.  Administrators who participate in professional development are better able to support their teachers’ efforts to apply new techniques. 

Encouraging supervisors to attend training with their teachers is also good for morale and school culture.  It allows administrators to show interest in what the teachers are learning.  Administrators who attend training with their faculty are also promoting the importance of staying current with best instructional practices.

If you will be leading professional development, be sure to invite principals and other administrators to your sessions.

Have you ever heard the terms sit and get or spray and pray?  They describe typical professional development where the trainer talks and the audience sits and listens.  We know that this type of training does not facilitate the acquisition or application of new skills. 

I have previously described the importance of active engagement for students.  The same idea applies to adult learners, too.  Get your participants involved; offer opportunities to interact with the content and with each other.  You will also want to give audience members plenty of opportunities to practice any new techniques that you are teaching. 

Regular interaction during professional development sessions will help keep your audience engaged.  Using a variety of interactive techniques will appeal to your diverse group of participants who likely have a wide range of learning preferences and background knowledge. 

Are you interested in learning over 25 interactive techniques that can be used to engage a professional development audience (or a class of students)?  Contact me to inquire about setting up a dynamic face-to-face or virtual train-the-trainer session for your agency, school, or district.

I cannot tell you how many frustrating professional development sessions I have attended over the years where the trainer did not practice what he/she preached.  There was a play-based instruction training where the presenter read from her PowerPoint slides for an hour.  I remember a session on Universal Design for Learning that had no opportunities for kinesthetic learners.  I once attended a full-day event where the nationally recognized speaker told the audience multiple times during the afternoon not to worry because the session “would be over soon.”  The topic of that presentation involved finding joy in the profession of teaching so that we can inspire our students.  These stories are true.  Those sessions were hypocritical!

Please do not ever ask your audience to do as you say rather than as you do.  Since leading professional learning is very similar to being a teacher, it should be easy for us to use the strategies that we prescribe for our audience. 

• If you are teaching your audience about Universal Design for Learning, offer them options for how they take in new information and demonstrate mastery.
• If your topic is multisensory instruction, be sure to provide opportunities to touch, taste, and smell.
• If you want your teachers to incorporate engagement strategies in their classrooms, you must fill your professional learning session with engaging activities.

After leading interactive professional development sessions for schools, districts, and conferences, I’ve noticed that educators consistently respond best to experiences that are active, collaborative, and immediately applicable.

I provide interactive keynote presentations and professional development workshops focused on:

• Student engagement/adult audience engagement
• Active learning strategies
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
• Student-led IEPs
• Inclusive instructional practices
• Interactive teaching techniques

Sessions are available in-person or virtually for schools, districts, conferences, and educational organizations.