Professional Learning for Busy Educators

Today we spent sometime going through our PD archive and pulled out these three resources to help teachers with their professional development. Each of these resources features a number of interesting materials (web tools, educational podcasts and books) that can directly or indirectly enhance your professional learning experience.

Professional Development: The phrase has a way of striking dread into the hearts of teachers. But not because teachers don’t WANT to improve. Not because we believe we’re done growing and learning. Far from it.

In fact, so many teachers bristle at the thought of PD because most of the time, it’s executed so poorly. Although the typical one-size-fits-all format—where every teacher in the building is herded together to listen to an expert speak—has been widely denounced, it still persists as the default model. Sometimes, if the speaker happens to be engaging, some teachers will walk away with a small tidbit they can apply to their own work. For most teachers, though, it feels like a waste of precious time, time that could be spent developing skills that would make a real difference in their specific practice.

But things are starting to change. More and more schools are experimenting with personalized approaches to professional development; this guide from EdSurge takes a comprehensive look at all the different shapes this can take. And as new unconferences pop up every week all over the world, teachers are seeing just how easy it can be to learn from each other, without the need for any kind of outside expert.

And now, taking PD to an even simpler, more local, more affordable level, we have the Pineapple Chart.

Today we spent sometime going through our PD archive and pulled out these three resources to help teachers with their professional development. Each of these resources features a number of interesting materials (web tools, educational podcasts and books) that can directly or indirectly enhance your professional learning experience.

Summer is here (for those in the Northern Hemisphere). If you are like most educators, this is your time to rest, relax and for many, delve into some professional reading and learn about all those exciting strategies and resources that will reinvigorate learning in your classroom and school when you return after the break.

After the suggestions were tallied these are the Top 8 reads for educators (plus some bonuses) that you simply can not miss. Only 2 of last years list remain with 6 newcomers to the 2018 BEST Edu-Read list…