Teacher Time

You've seen it happen again and again. Teachers leave a professional development session energized, armed with new strategies and genuine excitement about trying something different. You've invested time, budget, and resources into bringing them quality learning experiences. Yet within weeks—sometimes days—those innovative approaches vanish like morning fog, and everyone slips back into familiar patterns. If you're a Director of Professional Development, this cycle isn't just

Start with what’s working—and protect time that matters. Picture it... You've just signed the contract for a comprehensive professional development platform that promised to revolutionize teacher learning at your school. The demo was impressive. The feature list was extensive. Your superintendent nodded approvingly at the budget presentation. You felt like you'd made a smart, forward-thinking decision that would finally give your teachers the support they needed. Fast forward

If spending scales dependency, not skill, your budget is working against you. The hidden patterns that turn district investments into expensive obstacles—and what Directors of Professional Development need to understand before next year's planning cycle begins You've reviewed the invoices from this year's professional development initiatives, and the numbers don't add up in the way that truly matters. Not the dollars spent—those are documented down to the penny—but the return

The weight of caring too much has a name — and it's not dedication. Your professional development program might be the problem.   That's the conversation nobody wants to have in faculty meetings or district planning sessions, but it's the reality playing out in schools everywhere. You became a Director of Professional Development because you wanted to empower teachers, support growth, and transform education. Instead, you're watching exhausted educators scroll through mandato

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?