Foundations

You've sat through another mandated professional development session watching teac hers' faces go blank.  The energy in the room feels heavy, defensive, obligatory. You know these teachers. You've seen them light up their classrooms, connect with struggling students, create moments of genuine learning magic. Yet here they sit, being talked at about their deficiencies, their gaps, all the ways they're not measuring up to some external standard. Something about this feels funda

Start with direction: outcomes, practices, cohort — then build support around them. You've sat through the budget meeting. You've defended your professional development line items. You've watched your superintendent's expression shift from interested to skeptical when you mentioned "teacher growth opportunities." And somewhere in the back of your mind, there's that nagging voice asking: what if this becomes another initiative that fizzles out by the end of the trimester? The

The eye rolls and excuses that greet your professional development initiatives aren't signs of bad teachers—they're symptoms of a broken system that you have the power to change. Every moment you spend trying to force engagement with deficit-based approaches is a moment you could spend building the strength-based systems that naturally generate commitment. Your teachers are ready for something better. The question is: are you ready to lead them there?