5 No-Prep Professional Development Ideas for December (That Tired Teachers Will Actually Enjoy!)

December in a school is a special kind of wild.

Holiday programs. Ugly sweater day. Approximately 8,349 meetings. Kids who are bouncing off the walls because there is SNOW in the forecast (or even just a cloud).

And then there’s you, coach (or principal!), with a PD session on the calendar.

Here’s the thing: your teachers are tired. Really tired. The last thing they want is a sit-and-get session that adds one more thing to their plate.

So, here’s what I do. I keep December professional development short, interactive, and super practical. Teachers learn a strategy by DOING it, then walk out with a plan to use it with their kids the next day.

Below are five no-prep professional development ideas for December straight from the strategy kits inside Instructional Coaching Club, plus a few morale boosters to make the month a little brighter!

Why Professional Development Ideas for December Need to Look Different

Teachers are running on fumes right now. Kids are restless. Schedules change every other day.

That doesn’t mean we skip PD. It means we make it count.

The best December PD sessions have three things in common:

• Teachers experience the strategy as learners first. No long lectures. They try it, then talk about it.
• Everything is ready to go. Slides, handouts, and discussion cards are already made, so you aren’t up late on a Sunday building them.
• Teachers leave with a plan. Where will they use it this week? With which lesson? That’s what makes the learning stick.

Tip: Keep it to one strategy per session. One strategy, used well, beats five strategies teachers forget by Friday.

In my Year-Long Instructional Coaching Planner, December’s teacher focus is one word: prioritize. Every idea below helps teachers do exactly that.

Principals and assistant principals, these work for your staff meetings too! Here’s how principals and instructional coaches can partner to improve instruction.

1. Clap-Clap-Teach: A No-Prep PD Strategy That Gets Everyone Talking

This one is my favorite for a tired crowd because it wakes everyone up. Seriously.

Clap-Clap-Teach gives kids a chance to process new information by teaching it to a partner. The teacher teaches a short chunk of the lesson, then pauses, claps twice, and shouts “TEACH!” Kids clap twice, shout “OK!” and Partner A teaches Partner B everything they just learned. After a minute, the teacher claps twice and shouts “SWITCH!” and Partner B takes a turn.

How to Use Clap-Clap-Teach in Your PD

Teach your teachers about the strategy using Clap-Clap-Teach! Pause every few minutes and have them teach each other. They’ll laugh, they’ll feel a little silly, and they’ll remember it.

There’s no materials list for the classroom version. Kids just need a partner. That’s it!

It works best at the beginning of a unit, when the teacher is doing most of the talking and kids need lots of chances to use new words and ideas.

2. Think-Write-Talk: A PD Strategy That Works in Every Content Area

I love this strategy because it fixes the “turn and talk” that turns into… silence. Or a conversation about weekend plans.

Think-Write-Talk gives kids time to think and write BEFORE they talk, so everyone has something to say.

Here’s how it works:

1. Think: Give kids a short prompt and 30 seconds to a minute of quiet thinking time.
2. Write: Give them 1-2 minutes to write about it. (Teachers write too! Kids need to see you do it.)
3. Talk: Partners take turns. Partner A reads their response while Partner B listens. Then they switch.

Writing helps kids retrieve information, remember what they’ve learned, and move it into long-term memory. Plus, it works in math, science, social studies, and reading.

How to Use Think-Write-Talk in Your PD

Start your session with the team activity on the slides: a fun, low-stakes sentence starter that teachers think about, write about, and share. Then ask, “How did writing before you talked change your conversation?” That question does a lot of the convincing for you!

3. Graffiti: An Interactive Professional Development Activity for Teachers

Want to get teachers out of their chairs? Graffiti is the one.

Put chart paper around the room, each with a picture or label for one part of a topic. (For the water cycle, that might be evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection.) Groups rotate from chart to chart with a marker, adding everything they know. Turn on some music and use a timer to keep them moving!

Kids can use it to activate background knowledge before a lesson, process information after a lesson, or review at the end of a unit. They can even come back after the lesson to add to or correct what they wrote.

How to Use Graffiti in Your PD

Let teachers do a Graffiti activity about something they know well (their campus, their content, even their favorite holiday treats in December!). Then have them brainstorm where they could use it in an upcoming unit.

The only materials you need are chart paper and markers. Quick & easy!

4. Mix-Pair-Share: A Low-Prep PD Strategy That Gets Teachers Moving

If your teachers have been sitting in meetings ALL month, this one is a breath of fresh air. Literally. They get to stand up!

Mix-Pair-Share gets kids thinking, moving, and talking. Kids prepare a response to a prompt, mix around the room, find a partner, and take turns sharing their thinking. Then they do it again with someone new.

Here’s what makes it work: before teachers use it, they decide what kind of thinking they want kids to do. Predict what a character will do? Explain a science process? Defend an opinion? Then they pick a scaffold to support it, like a sentence starter, a quick sketch, or a graphic organizer.

How to Use Mix-Pair-Share in Your PD

Have teachers do a Mix-Pair-Share about something from their own classrooms. Then use the challenge cards in the toolkit to have them build their own Mix-Pair-Share activity for an upcoming lesson. They walk out with something ready to use. BAM!

Tip: All you need is a good prompt and a little room for kids to move. That’s it!

Want to try it? The Mix-Pair-Share PD Toolkit is FREE! Grab it here:

5. Exit Tickets: End Your PD by Checking for Understanding

If you only do one PD in December, this might be the one. Exit tickets help teachers figure out what kids understand and what they don’t, and then decide what to do about it.

Here’s the process:

1. Identify the learning target for the lesson.
2. Plan a lesson that’s tightly aligned with that target.
3. Write an exit ticket that matches the target.
4. Use the results! Sort the tickets into three piles (didn’t master it yet, some mastery, mastered it) and use those piles to plan small groups or clear up misconceptions in the next lesson.

How to Use Exit Tickets in Your PD

Give teachers a few learning targets and have them match each one to an exit ticket. It sparks GREAT conversations about what alignment actually looks like. Then, of course, end your PD with an exit ticket of your own! Want more ideas? Listen to formative assessments: quick and easy check-ins.

This is also a perfect time to build in some follow-up. Listen for questions or frustrations during the session and say, “I’d love to work with you on that. Can I come by tomorrow?”

December Morale Boosters to Pair With Your PD

PD in December should feel a little bit like a treat. Here are a few easy ways to add some joy:

• Make socks together. One year, we drew names and made a pair of holiday socks for each other during our December PLC meetings. It was silly and SO much fun!
• Set up a hot cocoa bar. A big pot of cocoa and a few toppings. It’s easy, inexpensive, and tired teachers LOVE it. Want to go all out? Add a cupcake bar like we did! (Peppermint and marshmallows are a must.)
• Cancel something non-essential. What doesn’t need to happen this month? If you can convince your principal to take something off the calendar, people will love you forever.
• Play Challenge BINGO. Give teachers a BINGO board of fun challenges to complete during the month.

You can find a whole year of ideas in my monthly morale boosters for teachers episode!

Grab the editable Challenge BINGO Boards for Teachers & PLCs in my shop. Use one of the ready-made boards or make your own!

Plan December PD and Coaching Tasks With a Year-Long Instructional Coaching Planner

December is also a great time to look back before you look ahead. My planner’s December coaching tasks include reflecting on your semester, reading teacher feedback surveys, reviewing your three goals, and visiting every classroom early in the month.

That’s exactly why I made my Year-Long Instructional Coaching Planner. With the planner, you’ll:

• ✔ Know what teachers are feeling each month and how to support them
• ✔ Have possible PD topics ready for every month of the year
• ✔ Follow monthly coaching task checklists so nothing slips through the cracks
• ✔ Focus on your “Big 3” each month with editable calendars
• ✔ Track your PD, PLC meetings, and coaching cycles
• ✔ Reflect at the beginning and end of every month

More Professional Development Ideas for Instructional Coaches

Want even more ways to make PD fun and meaningful? Check out these posts and episodes:

• 4 November Professional Development Activities for Teachers
• Reflecting on Your Fall Semester of Instructional Coaching
• Why You Need a Proactive PD Calendar as an Instructional Coach
• How to Make PD Extra Special and Fun with Jessica Whittaker
• PD and PL Strategies That Turn into Learning with Toni Rose Deanon

Get a Ready-to-Go PD Toolkit Every Month in Instructional Coaching Club

Coaching is hard. Planning PD from scratch on top of everything else? Exhausting.

That’s exactly why I created Instructional Coaching Club. It’s my way of giving you your evenings back.

Every month, club members get a brand-new PD Toolkit, ready for your next PD or PLC meeting. Every strategy in this post came from one of those kits!

Each toolkit includes:

• ✔ A strategy guide, so you can explain it with confidence
• ✔ A short how-to video teachers can watch together
• ✔ An engaging activity that lets teachers experience the strategy
• ✔ Idea and brainstorming cards to connect it to real lessons
• ✔ Discussion cards to get teachers talking
• ✔ A “My Plan” handout and reflection guide so teachers actually use it
• ✔ Slides in Google Slides, Keynote, or PowerPoint, plus editable Canva slides

Download it, open the slides, and you’re ready to share a new strategy with your teachers. BAM!

Learn More About Instructional Coaching Club

Pick one of these professional development ideas for December and keep it simple. Your teachers deserve PD that actually helps. And you deserve a December that doesn’t involve building slides at midnight. 🐝

Grab the FREE Mix-Pair-Share PD Toolkit

Want to try a ready-to-go PD Toolkit before you join the club? Grab the Mix-Pair-Share Toolkit for FREE! You’ll get the slides, strategy guide, challenge cards, and planning pages for your next PD or PLC meeting.