Joy in the Mess!

 

Planning professional development ABOUT planning professional development!

I'm in the middle of a meta-experience, working with 25 district trainers in 7 different departments (including folks from the operations teams) to re-think how we plan professional learning. And that means that our sessions need to model-model-model the "habits" in Elena Aguilar & Lori Cohen's (awesome) The PD Book. Here are 3 things I'm doing today, to make our sessions stronger, more joyful, more transformational.

1. Investing in connecting time at the beginning of each session. I've gathered up joyful materials (colorful post-it notes; small containers of Playdoh; card stock; magnet kits; The Moth storytelling deck, which you know I love!), and I'm starting each session with relationship, reflection and joy. I have always been a fan of meaningful connectors, but I'm being much more deliberate (thanks to pushes in the  book), and seeing how I grow the work (and our relationships) over our 4 sessions.

2. I'm writing all the exit tickets now, too. Of course, there may be tweaks, but if my session goals are clear, I can create exit tickets that provide me with feedback, create a way for some micro-action planning, and then model how we capture this data in ways that reinforces the adult learning we're centering (so talk with a partner first, then do your exit ticket; a non-electronic exit ticket on carbonless paper; an exit ticket that we fill out across the session, not only at the end).

3. Bringing multi-modal adult learning into play - yes, I'm creating a coloring page to use when we tackle "intentional planning"! And using audio books and podcasts to allow another way to lean into content (besides "just" reading). I'm even searching for some poetry (April is National Poetry Month, after all!) to inspire, to deepen the learning (especially for our 3rd session on facilitating adaptively). I'm thinking about adult neurodiversity and the variety of ways I can adjust my typical toolkit of ideas to provide more choice, more movement, more entries into our work.

I truly love planning PD, but oh, is it messy right now - outcomes and lists and sketches on charts, pens and Playdoh scattered on the table, half-baked ideas that need a home, and always, always, post-its galore. But I'm finding joy in the mess, and a strong belief that we'll end up transformed (and joyful!) on the other side.