PD Trainers
Professional development has arrive way because past several years and now school districts are taking things a step further by creating online and hybrid professional development programs. Nowadays there are a number of different programs which can be being implemented by schools PD Trainers all over the country and they have been quite successful so far. Besides, if technology is being used more and more by students, it only makes sense that educators get the same opportunity using their education.
Online professional development programs save schools money by lacking to hire substitute teachers or investing in traveling or material expenses; however, teachers are welcoming these online programs since they allow them to take their courses occasionally which can be easiest for them, and allowing them to remove extra information because they're in the proper mind-set to master the material. Which means teachers can turn right around and incorporate the material within their lesson plans the following day.
Colleges for education may also be jumping on the bandwagon and creating a number of online or hybrid professional development courses for educators. They saw a growing demand and agreed that non-degree programs online will make more sense than conducting the courses person, partly because of the very nature of how colleges of education are increasingly being structured.
"We're an academic program. We're not created for customized [face-to-face] workshops by any means," said Lisa Dawley, a professor of educational technology at Boise State University, in Idaho.
Dawley and her teammates recently began an on the web professional development program in August. The internet program is made to provide K-12 educators and administrators use of three-week instructor-led online workshops that cover courses such as for example merging technology into the classroom. Dawley stated that this program is likewise expanded to offer teachers workshops coping with common-core standards for their state of Idaho.
Arizona State University has additionally created their very own version of online professional development for teachers. In 2006, the university joined forces with their state department of education and produced the IDEAL program, which represents Integrated Data to Enhance Arizona Learning. This system offers online courses to develop teachers'instructional skills in areas such as for example language arts, math, science, technology integration, classroom management, and English as an additional language. Courses usually are over a span of six to eight weeks and cost around $65.
"We've noted for quite a long time that the very best professional development is job-embedded and sustainable within [instructors'] own time, and in a position to be accessed by individuals as well," said Rick Baker, the associate director of IDEAL.
Irrespective of local colleges of education, school districts are hosting their very own version of online professional development. Mark Hess, the executive director of instruction, technology, and assessment for the Walled Lake district in Michigan is looking at the web world to boost professional development experiences for his educators through hybrid programs. His program includes the forming of a video library that shows expert teachers demonstrating a number of different teaching techniques. The video library will be paired with the district's traditional week-long face-to-face workshop next year. Hess's hope is that teachers will enter the traditional workshop with increased knowledge because of the videos and the workshop will be used for more discussion and interaction then instruction.
Another online professional development program that is making waves is Channel One, which includes recently partnered with Promethean Inc. Those two companies have created a course that'll be piloted this month in Ashland Elementary School in Prince William County, Va. Each classroom in the school will be given an interactive whiteboard, provided by Promethean, which will air daily broadcasts and give students various lessons and quizzes, while Promethean can give teachers short daily tutorials on using various whiteboard tools and improving teaching methods with the interactive whiteboard.