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It’s All About the PD Baby

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Jac de Haan sets me straight regarding how confused I’ve been about the motivation of large corporations to sponsor teaching academies. . .

Regardless of what you believe the motivation behind sponsoring such events may be, these companies are recognizing that many teachers put countless unpaid hours into professional development and investing hundreds of millions of dollars in education.

Oh. Corporations are doing this to recognize unpaid teacher PD. That’s so very kind of them. It all makes sense now.

I take back everything I said about educators being confused about how this whole thing works.

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Comments on this post

  1. Jac de Haan said on August 7, 2011 at 10:02 pm

    Hi Tom,

    Thanks for the shout out.

    I stated that corporations recognize that teachers put countless hours into PD. I didn’t say that they want to right this wrong through training programs. Under-appreciation seems like a business opportunity for big business – one they are taking advantage of.

    By reaching out to the people who shape young minds, these businesses are employing a Happy Meal(TM) marketing methodology that will position them to gain life-long customers. As an educator, I am happy to learn this and communicate with transparency with my students.

    I enjoy your blog and the discussion it brings about.