Professional Development
Emerging & Promising Practices
Study Groups for Professional Development
Collegial study groups allow teachers to engage in professional development activities in small, cooperative learning groups.
ASCD is promoting the concept of collegial study groups in schools.
To support these groups, ASCD offers resources for groups and encourages
ASCD Associates (those who have been members for four or more years)
to take a leadership role in organizing study groups. Educational
Leadership, published by ASCD, can serve as a starting point
for many discussions, and extra resources and questions for use
in study groups are available to be used with each issue of Educational
Leadership. A few articles from each issue of Educational Leadership
are available online at http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership.aspx.
To access the supplemental resources for study group discussions,
go to www.ascd.org and search
for EL Extra.
www.ascd.org
Online Professional Development
Online professional development opportunities for teachers represent a growing trend. Below are links to several opportunities.
A variety of professional development opportunities are featured on the Council for Exceptional Children Web page. Information is provided about the Council for Exceptional Children's upcoming continuing education workshops, web seminars, and conventions.
http://www.cec.sped.org/Professional-Development?sc_lang=en
The Teacher's Homepage at LD Online includes information helpful to teachers who want to improve their practice, as well as links to bulletin board discussions where teachers are invited to share with each other. Each month, ideas and strategies of expert teachers are shared in a feature called Mentor Teacher of the Month.
http://www.ldonline.org/educators
The National Association of Secondary School Principals offers online
professional development courses for principals. The online courses
are separated into four topical libraries, and they are designed
to allow individuals to direct their learning.
http://www.nassp.org/
Teacher Magazine includes many articles on professional development.
Also available is a monthly e-newsletter covering professional development
topics.
http://www.edweek.org/tm
The "Training" tab on this Web site links to online training opportunities available through
the Transition Coalition and the University of Kansas. These training
programs include: Best Practices in Transition; Interagency and
Community Systems for Serving Youth with Disabilities; and Assessing
Students with Disabilities: Transition Planning for the IEP.
http://www.transitioncoalition.org/transition/
This Web page from the High Plains Regional Technology in Education
Consortium offers links to a number of organizations providing online
professional development resources for teachers working with students
who have special needs.
http://www.4teachers.org/profdev/sn.php |