Principals Are Buffering Staff from Excessive PD Mandates — Even If It Doesn't Seem Like It
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder reveals that many principals quietly shield their staff from overwhelming district PD requirements, even when teachers don't realize it.
Key Takeaways
- Principals filter what reaches teachers - Many district mandates never reach the classroom because principals absorb or redirect them
- This invisible work matters - Teachers often don't know how much their principal is protecting them from
- But the mandates need to stop - The real solution is reducing excessive PD requirements at the district level
Transcript
So how do we make good use of time during professional development days or in-service days before school starts?
You said a lot about icebreakers and other activities that are maybe not the best use of time and that teachers say they would rather skip so they can have more time to work in their rooms.
And, of course, we do need to start the year together, right?
I think it would be a loss to just say, everybody go to your room, start the year on your own, don't have any kind of, you know, coming together.
building a vision, working together as a staff.
You know, I think there really is value in the togetherness that comes from the time that we spend on those PD days.
But at the same time, I've heard a lot of valid criticisms from teachers and also concerns from principals about, you know, how do I do this well?
How do I plan a good back-to-school PD experience for teachers?
And I think one thing you can do is, of course, give people time to work in their rooms, make sure that they have enough time to reasonably prepare for open house and meet the teacher and things like that.
But we do have to do PD.
We do have to do mandatory trainings and things like that.
And also, What I want you to know if you're a teacher is that your principal is in this impossible position where they're asked to make you do a million things that they do not have time for, that you don't have time for.
And the things that reach you are the ones that have made it past the principal's filter, right?
The principal is working very hard to buffer you from...
professional development and other activities and mandatory trainings and presentations and and things that really you know are mandatory according to someone but principles is somehow getting you out of that so so just know that your principal is running interference for you to some extent and is saying no to things or saying yes to things and then not doing them because they know they're not a good use of your time just know that principles are in that that impossible position and have some empathy.
But at the same time, I also have to recognize the validity of the complaints about the same professional development session for everyone that is repeated every year and that everybody says is of no value.
Obviously, there are things happening that don't need to be happening, things that we could skip, or things that are really only relevant to a specific group of staff.
So it doesn't necessarily have to be for everyone if it's not for everyone.
Don't make everybody sit through it.
There are some things like that that we can do to make better use of everyone's time and give people more time to do what they need to do to get ready.
The other thing I think we've got to recognize as educators is that none of us get what we want all the time.
There's never enough money.
There is never enough time to do everything that we want.
So if you're a central office administrator, recognize principals do not have time and teachers do not have time to do everything that you want them to do, even if you call it a mandate.
Turning something into a mandate doesn't provide time for it doesn't create time for it and if you are making the schedule for the principal and for the teachers just know that other people are trying to do the same thing and we really are short on time this time of year so be nice to everyone have empathy for everyone and have a good start to the year