Dealing with Challenging PD's and Teachers

i have always believed teachers make the worst students and after observing a very dry PD a few weeks ago, I was able to see this in action. The best part was one of the trainers was able to turn things around and get the class back on track and motivated! When observing the first hour of the training, I heard the comments and how frustrated they were about the new program. I heard complaints about how challenging the program can be when entering in calculations and how errors pop up and must be resolved before moving on to other parts of the IEP. Direct Quote from Observation At one point, it almost seemed like the trainers lost control of the training and everyone was just complaining. One of the trainers stood up and moved around the room and looked at each of the participants in the face and said “I completely understand your frustrations. I was an education specialist for many years in the classroom just like you. Our goal today to make your job easier with the paperwork so you can focus on the students.” Impact of being at Observation I think the Administrator that said this quote above did an amazing job deflecting the negative comments and redirecting the frustrations. By simply addressing the teachers’ frustrations and empathizing with them, she was able to make a connection. When she said she wanted to make their job easier with paperwork, I could see how the teachers became more interested in what she had to say. This quote was powerful because it allowed teachers to be heard and acknowledged. More importantly, the statement was supportive in the efforts to help the teachers. I think this made the teachers let their guard down and listen to the information. This observation was a great example of how to deal with challenging conversations and issues that teachers face. As an administrator, sometimes we might not understand the frustrations, however, these administrators were once classroom teachers and used this to empathize with the participants. More importantly, the trainers offered support to the teachers by letting them know how they value the time spent with students. By saying they wanted to make their jobs easier with the paperwork the trainers offered support and strategies in decreasing the number of hours spent on IEP’s. As a teacher, when I hear my administrators want to offer support of how to be more effective, I feel motivated to listen and see what they have to say.