I have an idea I want to share. I don't know about you, but as an educator I have sometimes sat in professional development trainings and wondered how the training applied to my classroom. I have also wondered how much my school district might be spending to bring in these trainers, some of whom may haven't been in an actual classroom in years.

How about this: school districts use professional development days to allow educators to come together and share their best practices. End of story. No boring PowerPoints. No theory-heavy ideas about classroom discipline that don't work in a real classroom. Just professionals with real strategies and ideas sharing tricks of the trade.

Perhaps teachers could model lessons to the other teachers.  Maybe the trainings are run like a classroom, and teachers must "perform."

Everyone should have to bring one good idea, one method that gets results, and trade it for some other methods. Then, maybe everyone has to use that method and report back at the next training. Each training day could have a theme: classroom management, technology, motivation, etc.

This process would cost zero dollars and teachers would have a sense of ownership. More  importantly, students would benefit from teachers gaining real and solid methods that would improve the classroom.