Throughout my career, I have always enjoyed professional development. From my first days as a first-year teacher to now as a middle school librarian. As a librarian, it has become one of my responsibilities to offer professional development to the teachers and staff in my school. As someone who has worked very hard to provide meaningful, relevant, and fun professional development to my staff, this book, The Four O’Clock Faculty, was empowering and validating. It solidified my ideas on what professional development should be like and how teachers should leave feeling. They should be excited and refreshed as well as ready to try something new. I provide monthly lunch and learns for my teachers where they bring their lunches and I provide a quick tech tool that they can immediately implement in their classrooms. I also provide dessert as a reward for coming. I also provide newsletters with quick tips, ideas, and videos for teachers. What has concerned me though is that while I work diligently to make my professional development appealing, others do not. I have already suggested this book to my school administration in hopes that they will adopt some ideas and pass them along and upwards in our district. My final takeaway is that professional development does not have to come from a campus leader, educators can find professional development anywhere as long as they are looking for ways to better themselves and their students.

It struck me while reading this book that so many of the ideas for making professional development meaningful relied on authentic collaboration. Every K12 teacher right now is experiencing a tumult of emotions compounded by new guidelines, ever-changing safety protocols, and an uncertainty around online education. As Steven Anderson said in the quote that opened chapter 10, “Alone we are smart. Together we are brilliant.” Right now, we are all in our own classrooms figuring out how to navigate all the sudden changes alone without meaningful professional development. This is exactly the time to come together as professionals and take ownership of our own professional development.

In the final chapter of the book, the Rich Czyz says, “There is only one way to do professional development if you want it done right. Do it yourself” (2017), and I plan to do just that. I am going to organize a jam session so that the teachers on my campus can come together (virtually, of course) and compare problems to find solutions. This will be an opportunity for us to create the professional development that we wish our administrators had provided for us. I know that this strategy works because I have seen it done well, and I plan to reach out to the leader that I know can offer guidance in effectively implementing it. To be honest, I am nervous that it won’t go well, but as Rich Czyz said, “[…] resist the urge to focus on what might go wrong and instead dream of all that could go right” (2017).

Throughout my time as an educator, I have noticed that professional development often carries a stigma. While I acknowledge that most of the training exercises we complete stem from district or state mandates, I feel that it is important that input from its participants are taken into consideration when opportunities arise for an individual campus or organization to create meaningful workshops. Trusting staff to assist in the training development process helps create a culture of ownership over their own learning. However, each organization and leadership styles differ. I am fortunate that I work in at a school that trusts their staff to take charge of their own professional development. My campus may not be entirely perfect, but collectively, we all understand the importance of self-directed learning. As Czyz (2017) mentions, "…there is only one person whom you can trust: yourself" (p. 116). This quote resonated with me the most because I often seek opportunities for learning and academic advancement. I have achieved multiple digital certifications and it is because of my love of professional learning that I have spearheaded STEM, literacy, and technology initiatives that have contributed to the overall growth of my library media center and campus. When I reflect on what makes my personal learning experiences and the opportunities I provide for my staff successful, there is one common denominator: trust. Trust in the content I relay, trust in the strategies I employ, and trust in the passion that I display for various platforms and methods that I believe can propel our organization forward.