![]() When two teachers work together, they use out-of-the-box thinking to create a dynamic learning experience for their students. Pair teachers up to develop an interdisciplinary teaching activity.As Rita Platt, a National Board Certified teacher, says: “If you can’t tell us how the inservice will help us move toward the school goals, don’t ask us to sit through them.” Make sure it’s a topic that feeds into your school’s overall educational goals.For example, a general session on inquiry-based learning can be made more effective if all your school’s physics teachers brainstorm ways to apply the technique consistently within their department. Divide teachers up into groups based on grade level or subject area.To begin, use tools like Google Forms to collect information on what teachers want to learn more about, and feedback on the effectiveness of past sessions. There are a number of ways to make teacher professional development more specific. As former North Carolina governor Bev Perdue writes: Ask teachers what worked, what didn’t, what they would change and what they’d like to learn more about next time. Go for depth instead of breadth, and make sure that teachers come away from the session with all the information they need to start using it in the classroom.Īsk for feedback at the end of the session, and then use it to continue the cycle. ![]() If you can’t offer different options, keep the topic simple. Give different options for workshops or courses they can take. Give teachers a choice about what or how they learn. If you want professional development to be relevant, ask your teachers for their suggestions - there’s a good chance that they have plenty to say. However, in the name of time, cost and efficiency, many professional development opportunities for teachers are too broad and not relevant to most, or even many, of the teachers attending. Make it specificĮvery teacher faces unique classroom challenges and comes to work each morning with a different set of skills. While the challenges may be daunting, they shouldn’t stop you from creating opportunities for your teachers to deepen their understanding. There are lots of challenges to running an effective teacher professional development session: time, money, engagement, effectiveness, and more. How to make teacher professional development effective and engaging It communicates that you don’t want to invest in the quality of teaching and puts more stress on teachers to develop their skills alone. When you provide learning and support for your teachers, you communicate that the school community values the work they do and wants them to grow.Ī lack of professional development resources for teachers can be discouraging. Teacher professional development encourages teachers to be active participants in their own learning, and ensures that students and teachers alike are eager to learn. Thoughtful, targeted teacher professional development opportunities boost student outcomes and promote a growth mindset. Effective professional development helps teachers shape career-long learning. Professional development can help new and experienced teachers develop the skills they need to feel confident in the classroom. Teachers spend their whole careers developing new skills in response to the challenges they encounter, but new teachers haven’t had a chance to build their own resources. While there are a number of explanations for this statistic, there is no substitute for hands-on experience when it comes to effective classroom teaching. It encourages the success of new teachersĪccording to one study, almost a third of teachers leave the profession within five years of qualifying.
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