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Professional Development For TeachersInvest time in your professional development. Attending conferences and workshops is important for your teaching career. Generally there will be a wealth of information on professional development opportunities that will come into your mailbox. Choose those that you feel will give you new insight and energy. Get recommendations from other teachers as to what workshops they have gone to in the past. You will also find many resources by doing a web search. 
You will most likely be limited on the number of days that you are allowed to be out of the classroom so choose what you feel is the best use of your time. If possible, make a plan for the year as to what areas you need more education in, what interests you, and what workshops are available for you to attend.
Those of you in metropolitan areas will likely have more offerings to choose from, and those in rural areas may have to travel. If you can only attend one workshop choose one that is high quality.
To maximize your experience at any conference you attend I have two suggestions. First, try to meet as many new people as possible. Find out what is going on in other schools. Get ideas from other educators. There is a tendency when attending conferences with a group of teachers from your school to stick together. Let's face it, you are away from the classroom for the day, you can use the restroom whenever you like, and take an hour to eat your lunch! You enjoy chatting with your colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere, and that's okay, but you will maximize your time and give yourself a renewed energy by communicating with new people. Some of the best workshops I have been to are ones where time is built in for teachers to share strategies.
Set a time to review the information and then set a timetable for trying one new strategy. If the strategy is something that is successful for you, think about presenting to your colleagues at a staff meeting. The process of doing this will further integrate the new information into your daily practice. You know you truly learn something once you teach it. Another part of your professional development is teacher mentoring. return from Professional Development for Teachers to riches-for-teachers home page |
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The second suggestion I have when attending a conference is to try and focus on just one or two techniques or strategies that you really want to implement upon your return. When attending workshops you will usually get a wealth of information but you can quickly become overwhelmed when thinking about implementing many new techniques and thus the packets, books, etc. end up on the shelf.
