Setting Up Professional Development to Strengthen the Whole Teacher

In my role as a school leader, I have discovered that teacher development becomes meaningful only when it is designed with the same rigor we apply to instructional planning. Effective professional development (PD) for teachers should be grounded in data, meet a need, and designed with daily intentionality and focus.

As principal of a middle school, I am intentional about leveraging the time we have for adult learning, including one week of professional development before the school year begins, along with two full professional development days and three half-day sessions throughout the school year.

To this end, I center professional development around three interconnected commitments: strengthening pedagogy, cultivating classroom culture, and caring for teachers as professionals and people. Here is how I make concrete decisions to ensure that professional development meets the goals of developing the whole teacher.

PD That Strengthens Pedagogy

Early in my leadership, I recognized that unintentional professional development rarely changes practice. To combat this, I designed a cycle that anchored all instructional professional development in teacher evaluation data and walk-through trends. This required a deliberate shift in how observations are conducted. Walk-throughs were no longer compliance exercises; instead, they were designed with a clear purpose: identifying patterns of practice that could inform collective growth.

At the end of each round of observations, I aggregated data across domains to evaluate trends across grade-level bands and content areas instead of a micro-focus on individual teachers. I hoped that if we could increase our teacher praxis in areas that were deficient, then we could see immediate results. For example, our data showed strong classroom management but inconsistent use of checks for understanding, so I designed professional development to offer instructional strategies that strengthened formative assessment by decreasing “teacher talk.”

Ongoing work. Collecting data via walk-throughs and observations can be overwhelming if not approached with clarity and purpose. For this reason, we conduct three formal observations each year, one announced and two unannounced. I share these observations with two vice principals to ensure consistency, objectivity, and meaningful feedback.

Rather than attempting to address multiple areas for growth at once, each observation cycle is centered on a single instructional focus area by each observer, which prevents teachers from feeling inundated with numerous suggestions for improvement. Following each observation, we meet with teachers to engage in reflective conversations focused on what went well, one aspect of the lesson they would like to redo or refine, areas where they can improve, and how administration can best support their professional growth.

We also want to make sure that PD doesn’t seem insignificant or mundane to teachers. To gauge teacher perception, we look at data from subsequent observation cycles to determine whether targeted practices appear more consistently in classrooms. Teachers also provide feedback. It has become evident that alignment between evaluation data and PD focus areas increased teacher buy-in and instructional coherence.

pd that Develops Classroom Culture

As student needs have grown more complex, prioritizing classroom culture has become essential. Teachers often highlight the fact that managing behaviors is difficult, exhausting, and time-consuming. Instead of addressing specific behaviors, we shifted away from reactive discipline strategies and have moved toward understanding student behavior through a social, emotional, and cultural lens.

Using discipline data and referral patterns, we identified trends that pointed to larger issues rather than isolated incidents. This involved reading referrals to determine root causes and document trends in student-teacher relationships. Professional development sessions then focused on relationship-building practices, trauma-informed responses, and culturally responsive teaching.

What was most impactful was using real scenarios from classroom experiences. During one professional development session, staff analyzed a series of referrals involving the same group of students who were repeatedly removed from class for “defiance” or being “off task” during independent work.

By closely examining the language of the referrals and discussing classroom context, teachers recognized that the behaviors frequently occurred when students lacked the skills or confidence to work independently and were dependent learners who needed clearer entry points into the task. Using this real classroom scenario, teachers discussed and practiced scaffolding strategies such as modeling, breaking tasks into smaller steps, providing guided practice, employing anchor charts, and using examples to increase student access and engagement. This approach allowed staff to directly connect instructional design and relationship-building practices, reinforcing the idea that stronger instruction can reduce behavioral issues and improve overall classroom climate.

Ongoing work. Reflecting on classroom management and bias helps reduce misunderstandings that often escalate into discipline issues and improves teacher-student relationships. We measured the effectiveness of this work through both quantitative and qualitative data. In the following two marking periods, office referrals shifted away from scrupulous and compliance-driven approaches that focused primarily on rigid rule enforcement and removal from instruction and toward practices centered on maintaining students in the learning environment.

As teachers refined their instructional and management strategies, they reported increased confidence in addressing challenging situations proactively and effectively. To support this growth, we hold biweekly small-group feedback sessions focused specifically on classroom management and instructional practice. These sessions are led in part by teacher champions who model effective strategies and facilitate discussions grounded in real classroom experiences.

During these meetings, staff walk through best practices for instruction and culturally responsive teaching, analyze scenarios, and collaboratively problem-solve, allowing teachers to immediately apply strategies in their classrooms while benefiting from peer expertise and administrative support.

PD that focuses on teacher well-being

Professional growth cannot occur without attention to teacher well-being. Teachers are routinely asked to adapt to new curriculum, parental requests, and evolving student needs, often without structured support for their own emotional health.

To address this, I designed a professional development experience that supported the social and emotional development of staff. These sessions were not complaint forums or grievance discussions; instead, they were grounded in emotional intelligence, stress management, and decision-making under pressure. We also examined the difference between implicit expectations and explicit instructions, recognizing that as administrators, we must build background knowledge and provide teachers with the tools necessary to be successful.

Holding staff to a standard without equipping them with clear guidance can create false expectations and unnecessary frustration. Throughout these sessions, teachers learned strategies for setting professional boundaries with parents, strengthening classroom management, and responding proactively rather than reactively. I collaborated with our school social worker and vice principal and modeled vulnerability by acknowledging the challenges of the work, reinforcing the idea that staff wellness was not a secondary initiative, but a leadership priority.

Ongoing work. Feedback on this aspect of PD was gathered primarily through anonymous surveys and informal check-ins. Teachers consistently reported feeling more supported and valued, and several shared that these sessions helped them sustain their commitment in ways they had not experienced in previous years. Teachers recognized that personal experiences and challenges inevitably bleed into the classroom, and that becoming better educators requires taking care of themselves personally.

Meaningful professional development requires more than good intentions or ineffective presentations. It demands deliberate decisions, ongoing reflection, and a commitment to seeing teachers as whole professionals. When professional development is grounded in real data, is responsive to classroom reality, and prioritizes teacher well-being, it becomes a powerful tool for sustained improvement.