PD

At Camino Nuevo High School, they're big into something called PD. They also talk a lot about ESLRs, CD, R-FEP'd, RSP, DD, and a bunch of other acronyms I'm struggling to catch. My English language learners are not the only people in the building with furrowed brows.

Back to the PD; this is an acronym for "professional development." Researchers in the field of education have spent the last few years looking for ways to fix our school systems (and that they need fixing is a given). One of their solutions proposes that teachers need more time to learn how to be good teachers (also a given). What is a surprise is that Camino Nuevo takes this idea seriously. So during the five days of pre-planning when I would typically have been making bulletin boards and photo copying hand-outs, I was, instead, learning how to provide support to students with autism, how to emphasize academic vocabulary instruction for kids who are bi-lingual, how to ensure every student is constantly thinking and engaged ... and so on.

And on and on and on.

I'll admit, I was simultaneously excited ... and stressed. At the end of the week of PD, Matt and I went to the school, where I spent a couple of hours doing nothing more than creating a filing system for all of the materials I'd gotten (while Matt built a bookshelf, and yes, he is THE coolest dude).

Anyhow ... during this week of intensive teacher training, we also participated in a number of team building activities. I mention this because, one, I don't like team building activities, and two, the team building activities are what really stood out for me. When I consider the week of training, it's not only the Kagan structures that resonated, but also standing in the middle of the soccer field with 20 young teachers, a jump rope, and the frustratingly elusive instructions, "Turn on the machine." I'd have to look up the spectrum of behaviors to consider for my special needs kids, but I can easily recall why David was blind-folded while holding three whiffle balls ... and how quickly Peter and Marisol came to his aid.

All this is to say, I still need to make photo copies and bulletin boards. And I'm woefully under-prepared for my first day of instruction in a practical sense. But two things are absolutely true:

I'm professionally developed.

Teams matter.

Now ... off to the copy machine.