I believe that professional pevelopment (PD) for teachers should be no different than the engaging instruction we strive to give kids in our classrooms everyday. PD should be hands-on, relevant and authentic. It should make the teachers receiving it go 'Oooh!' and 'Aaah!' and make them feel excited about their next lesson or unit! Too often in schools, the term 'PD' is associated with dry, top-down, sit-and-get lectures around systems and structures that teachers feel no ownership or connection with.

In my work as a Learning Innovation Coach at FDR, spearheading modern approaches to PD was a huge part of my responsibilities. One of the goals I had around PD was to tackle the stigma around it and to try and reclaim that space for something more impactful and positive. And so #WiredWednesday was born. This was a voluntary PD club for teachers that would allow them to come together in a casual, low-stakes environment. They would learn together and form important connections on campus while getting hands-on exploratory time with some of the most cutting-edge tools in education.

A key component of #WiredWednesday was that is was not just my initiative. It was open to teachers as a space that they could step into to lead training on tools and methodologies that they felt passionate about. It was a way to not only build capacity, but also a sense of community amongst our teachers.

I offered far too many workshops to list fully here, but below you can find a sampling of some of the topics we covered in the #WiredWednesday PD space.