Professional Development

I am going to be starting my 8^th year of teaching this fall, and I can’t believe all the changes that have occurred within the last 5 years in education.  In my opinion, professional development is a must because of the constant changes within the education system.  We have to seek outside sources to keep up with the changes, and to fully understand how to best reach our students each year.

This last year, our district decided to not allot any money for outside professional development.  We are only able to attend workshops that are held by our local Regional Office of Education.  Fortunately, they held a workshop on teaching students on the spectrum.  It was very beneficial as I had my first severe case this year, and I learned many ways to help this student be more successful throughout the school year.  If I had not attended the workshop, I wouldn’t have learned the necessary tools I needed to help my student.  I know it is hard for teachers to not be in the classroom, but it’s important to seek outside sources for ideas.

Since our math curriculum is changing, we will and have already received many sessions showing us how to integrate technology into our lessons.  I’m one of the 9 teachers left in our school who do not have a smart board, so the training is great; however I do not get to use it day to day. 

This class has opened up a lot of ideas for me, and shown me different ways I can integrate technology.  I’m very excited to use power point and glog posters as a part of my science class.  The students will love using it for projects.  The hands-on experience will teach them more than just reading out of a textbook.

I plan on continuing my professional development by constantly challenging my technological skills by using the new equipment we obtain, and my taking the classes on how to integrate these into the classroom.  We have many professional development workshops already scheduled for next year, and I will attending those as well.