Anyone who teaches knows and cringes at the dreaded term "Professional Development." It's actually a euphemism for "Talking Down to Teachers While They are Tortured Simply for Being Teachers."
Professional Development, or PD, usually involves hours of wasted time that end with a directive to do more hours of completely different work that has to be done RIGHT NOW without actually giving anyone time to complete whatever random task has been assigned. There is usually zero professionalism and absolutely no development. Ever.
Friday's PD is no different. We are subjected to hours of trying to fit square pegs into round holes. Remember those toys from when you were a toddler? Yes, even two-year-old children know and understand that this task will NEVER work, yet "educated" administrators still assign this task to professional educators as if somehow the toymakers were WRONG.
To quote Cher Horowitz: "As if!"
I load up my plate with cookies, and I load my hot chocolate with white chocolate bits, and semi-chocolate bits, and peppermint, and marshmallows, and chocolate sticks, and then I top it all off with whipped cream and caramel syrup. I don't even bother with my lunch at this point. I'm just mainlining sugar.
It works in my favor, though. Due to the instant jolt, I am able to stay awake and multitask during the presentation. I write lesson plans, make comments under my breath, somewhat pay attention, and solve an entire Sudoku before I even get to my second meeting.
Apparently the secret to surviving PD is to skip lunch and go right to the sweets. I hereby dub PD to stand for Post-Dessert from this day forward.
