Lessons Learned and Mistakes Made #4: Experts Can't Be Trusted

In this series of entries so far, I've kind of expounded on some topics that I have written about, stopping to reflect or add to what I've already said.  With this particular entry, I wanted to talk about how during the course of the last five years I have really become skeptical of professional development days that involve guest speakers.  You know, where someone paid for one day what I make in two months gets up in front of the entire faculty of the school (or maybe even the district) and oozes some sort of wisdom that probably had an administrator beaming at a seminar three months prior and has maybe a few people mesmerized.  In other words, the one where you wind up getting a lot of papers graded.  They come in, do their thing, sell their books, and then move on to the next sucker of a school, like an olde-tyme medicine show.

But then, I thought, I've written about this numerous times.  And well, it's Saturday.  And I'm feeling lazy.  And I want to be the type of person who constantly points out the many awesome things he said (and plugs a book.  And beats a dead horse of a bad joke to the point where I'm making glue).  For reals, though, this whole series of posts feels like a greatest hits and a few of the posts that I love on this topic are from way back in 2007 and while they still get a few hits here and there, they're definitely from the album that has the "Nice Price" sticker on it.   Here are six in chronological order with quotes.


Harry Wong Wouldn't Like This Entry (8/27/07): "You know, that whole "you never get a second chance to make a first impression" type of argument. And I guess that's right on some level, because in business you don't. If you show up to a meeting with an important potential client unprepared you're probably not going to make the sale. If you have a slightly bad first impression with your students, it's probably not the best thing in the world. But is it the end of everything? Are you completely screwed?

Uh, no. You have 179 more days or so with those kids. You'll get second chances and third chances and on and on and on."

Do It the Right Way, not the Wong Way (8/7/08): "As had been drilled into my head at that point, however, most of the methods used to teach me 15-20 years ago were wrong. So the traditional blowing off of day one was a cardinal sin. Then again, I’m sure the people telling me this hadn’t met my ninth grade English students; if they had, they skipped that truth so I wouldn’t be running for the hills before I even started. But they and Mr. Wong were the experts and everyone around me seemed to be psyched up for a great opening, especially after we all attended a district-wide pep rally. So I went the “Wong” way and bombed spectacularly."

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off (10/1/08): "The way I post the objective on the board is a lot less like a phrased objective and more just like the topic and the corresponding numbered SOL is next to that topic for the day. I wondered, as I left (running a fever of around 100, btw) if I should change the way I post objectives so that my students get more out of my objectives and SOLs on the board. But after some thought, a day off to recover from being sick, and a weekend, I have to say that I don't think how you post your objective is as important as it seems."

Communication Breakdown (2/24/09): "Not that I throw my students into the deep end and make them sink because I definitely do all those "different learning style" things and provide guided notes and study guides. I feel that I give plenty of help to anyone who needs any help understanding what I'm talking about during any given period. But honestly, I think that somewhere along the line there needs to be a reduction in the amount of silly routines and gimmicks that a teacher does."

On and On, Does Anybody Know What We are Looking For? (8/7/11):  "It actually is a lot different, and funny enough, this entire blog goes back to Ron Clark."

Some Advice to Those Professional Development "Experts" (10/24/11): "1. Your credentials are nice, but please stop talking about them.  I'm glad you got your bachelor's from The School of Hard Knocks, a Master's from Real World College, and a Ph.D. from Whatsamatta U, and I do respect that; however, if my principal or superintendent mentioned that when introducing you, I don't think I need to hear about it again.  And again.  And again.  You know what those degrees are?  They're a nice set of tits, and if you want a relationship you're going to have to get me to see past them."

So yes.  Quote fest.  My apologies for being a jerk off.  I'll clean up.