#SummerPD

For teachers, summer is a time to recharge after ten months of hard work. For most of us, summer isn’t all relaxation and toes in the sand. Many of us look at summer as a time to hone our craft. We read professional books, revamp our curricula, and search Teachers Pay Teachers for just the right items to use with our students (or we create it ourselves!).

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I recently sat through four days’ worth of Professional Development during my first week of summer “break.” At the beginning of one of the six half-day workshops that I attended, the facilitator asked everyone to introduce themselves and to explain why they decided to take that particular academy. Most responses were “It fit my schedule,” or “I didn’t want to come back in August.” I was in the small minority of teachers who responded with “I’d like to learn something.”

No judgment from me, since our differences make us unique. I consider myself a life-long learner, and even after nine years of teaching, I’m always looking for ways to improve my practice.

Taking six PD academies the week after school let out was intense, with a ton of information to digest. I realized I’d need to take lots of notes, and return to it afterward to personalize it in a way that I could use in my own classroom.

Over the next few days, I’ll be posting my thoughts, along with some really interesting ideas that I’m going to try using with my students this coming school year.

Deconstructing Professional Development Workshop Experiences – a 6-Part Series

Check back for each of the topics:

·         Cross-Content Reading Strategies

·         Student Engagement (3C of the Charlotte Danielson model)

·         SMART Notebook Advances

·         Student Growth vs. Student Grading

·         Setting Expectations: Instructional Non-negotiables

·         Academic Vocabulary

I look forward to hearing your feedback, too!