ABSTRACT
One thing many teachers will agree on is that discussions about students and teaching almost never take place in faculty meetings. However, when teachers get together, stories about what happened (or didn’t happen) in their classrooms often crop up in conversations. While an eavesdropper may dismiss these as rants and complaints, actually this type of interaction has some valuable functions: it allows teachers to release stress and by relating their experience, they are in essence objectifying the story, making it understandable to a different audience. Oftentimes, the other teachers will say they have experienced exactly the same thing, and simply sharing sympathetic comments can be a boon to the frazzled teacher. In some cases, teachers will share success stories of things that worked in the classroom. This sharing of both positive and negative experiences can be the starting point to explore solutions. This type of outcome could certainly be considered ‘informal’ professional development.
