You Can't Teach What You Don't Know

I have a confession. I've never been a fan of professional development sessions. Don't get me wrong. I love to learn. I love to improve and grow. But there's something about sitting in a room with other teachers having to take a turn stating my name and something about myself that I just dread. When they put us in groups and give us questions about something in a new curriculum book, I get excited to delve into it, then feel let down when time is up and the activity isn't completed and the work we just did seems to be a time filler more than anything else. So personally, for me, I would like to opt out of professional development. I'd rather being working in my classroom. I'd rather be home. I'd rather be just about anywhere than at a professional development session.

So it makes sense that at the beginning of a school year at a new school, I was not looking forward to attending the professional development session.

As I walked into the room, I noticed a bunch of round tables. After checking in, I headed out of the room to get a coffee and peruse some displays vendors had set up. When I came back, someone in charge of the event had walked up to the podium to introduce the guest speaker. I thought she'd ask us to go around and say something about ourselves or maybe start passing out our activity. But no, none of that. She was going to give a speech. I was a little bit hopeful but still unsure of what was going to happen here. I turned my chair to face the podium and I leaned forward to hear the speaker, thinking I'd be leaning back and zoning out soon.

She started out firmly stating, "You can't teach what you don't know." You're right, I thought, hoping she would share something useful. I was shocked when she started going into details about what exactly we should have in our classroom. It was so useful and practical. Simple. Yet exactly what I needed. No fluff. And let me tell you something. I never leaned back.

It is with that spirit that I developed my Elementary Everything for Everyone website and resources. You won't find a lot of fluff here. Hopefully, you'll find the information and worksheets useful and practical. Exactly what you need in today's teaching world.