Please… No More
Please… No More Professional Development if you are going to do it the way it has always been done.
Please…
- Do not read to me, I can read.
- Do not pull out a Popsicle stick and ask me for the answer you want, I do not perform on command. And, you might not want to hear my analytical assessment of answers beyond your limited question. I am a thinker not a fill in the blanker.
- Do not ask me to join a group of other people, that is not my learning style. Adapt your style to me. That’s what most of us have to do for the kids we teach.
- Do not assume one size fits all. I am not your size and you have not stopped long enough to know me or figure out my size.
- Do not speak so fast that you have to cover all the material you think you have to cover, I have digital tools, send me a link to your material. I will continue to learn well beyond your prefab session. Remember, it is what you say, not how much you say.
- Do not hand out paper copies only, I have digital tools, send me a link to your material. My learning goes well beyond your simulated speech.
- Do not tell me to put up my digital tools so I can focus on you, I use digital tools to focus on you.
- Do not assume that “seat time” is the same as comprehension. I can sit in your session, but that does not mean that I comprehend what you want me to.
- Do not assume you know everything. I can Google faster than you can speak.
- Do not assume that the “I am bored out of my mind look on my face” is a statement of actual boredom. It may be and most likely is, but I think. I think about what you say. I think deeply about what others say. My mind delves deep into multiple subjects and is most likely outpacing your ability to keep up with my thinking.
- But most of all, Please, Please, Please…Do not treat me like an adolescent, I am an adult learner. And, I have been in the learning process for longer than many of you are old.