Catholic Teachers' Lounge Podcast
Sep 2, 2026 · 12 min · 9 segments
It’s time for that beginning-of-school-year PD chat. How was it this year? Were you able to use it right away or could it have been an email? Did you learn something new or get frustrated because of…
But I have a question for you, Jill.
Speaking of beginning of the year crazies, so...
Love to have these conversations at the beginning of the year when people are in the thick of it.
And I'm just kind of recalling all of that professional development that the school year starts with.
And I don't know about you.
I've had so many different experiences and in places that I've worked and and there's a there's a fine balance to be found.
Right.
You could spend four days doing professional development and then only give teachers, you know, a day or two in their classrooms.
Or you could like not do enough prep at the beginning of the year and then give teachers lots of time in their classrooms.
I would love to know what you think the best balance is for beginning of the year PD.
Like what are some examples? Let's just talk funny.
There's some really bad examples.
Can we talk about some of the bad? Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Well, okay.
So balance is key because I am learning now that I was an anomaly of like, I just worked all summer.
mentally and like in my own lesson planning.
We've talked about this on the podcast.
Like I all summer would plan for a good fall, like master plan my curriculum, backward design the whole year, do the whole thing.
That's what I was trained to do as a curriculum developer like that.
I knew that was best practice as a teacher.
So that's what I did.
So then sometimes this is not like funny bad.
But I have a question for you, Jill.
Speaking of beginning of the year crazies, so...
Love to have these conversations at the beginning of the year when people are in the thick of it.
And I'm just kind of recalling all of that professional development that the school year starts with.
And I don't know about you.
I've had so many different experiences and in places that I've worked and and there's a there's a fine balance to be found.
Right.
You could spend four days doing professional development and then only give teachers, you know, a day or two in their classrooms.
Or you could like not do enough prep at the beginning of the year and then give teachers lots of time in their classrooms.
I would love to know what you think the best balance is for beginning of the year PD.
Like what are some examples? Let's just talk funny.
There's some really bad examples.
Can we talk about some of the bad? Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Well, okay.
So balance is key because I am learning now that I was an anomaly of like, I just worked all summer.
mentally and like in my own lesson planning.
We've talked about this on the podcast.
Like I all summer would plan for a good fall, like master plan my curriculum, backward design the whole year, do the whole thing.
That's what I was trained to do as a curriculum developer like that.
I knew that was best practice as a teacher.
So that's what I did.
So then sometimes this is not like funny bad.
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