Do your students deserve the very best teacher you can be?
Great teachers help mold great students!
One of the foundational traits that conscientious educators model is being a life-long learner. For educators, this means finding opportunities to enhance their skills and knowledge to support their students’ classroom experiences.
A couple of years ago I came across this Sketchnote by Sylvia Duckworth on a tweet by @MindShiftKQED. How many of these Top 10 Things Teachers Want for Professional Development do you agree with and would you put in YOUR Top 10 list?
Today’s busy educators have more demands on them than ever before. Educators want PD that is structured around their needs with minimal time out of the classroom. Online courses and blended learning are growing in popularity. There are advantages to doing professional learning online. Here is my Top 10 list for why today’s educators should consider online PD. More explanation is given below the infographic.
- Flexibility for the participant to be almost anywhere and be learning at almost anytime is probably the major advantage of the online PD model.
- Participants can choose from a variety of courses that meet the specific needs that they have as well as those of their students.
- As long as you have a working Internet connection, you have access to online PD. This is especially important in smaller districts and schools where there may not be enough teachers to warrant paying someone to come in for 30 teachers.
- That leads to affordability. Pricing for online courses is usually more affordable than for the same face-to-face delivery. There are often tiered plans available with options for live support as well.
- Most online courses offer some level of live support option whether, via email, instructors are always willing to answer questions as they come up. Many courses even offer the option of developing an on-line community. This option works especially well for larger districts and schools whose teachers may find it hard to collaborate and share.
- Online PD offers more opportunity for accountability of participants than does face-to-face professional development.
- This accountability provides administrators with confidence when participants receive some type of certificate of PD credit upon successful completion of the course. This credit can usually be used by the participant to satisfy local PD requirements as well as professional growth goals.
- An online PD course is focused on learning. The ability for the participant to control the speed and timing, allows the focus of the course to be on the content. Focusing on the content allows educators to spend more time on the content that is most relevant to them and their individual needs.
- Online PD courses are typically led by instructors who are respected in their fields and have proven success.
- Educators are offered PD that is high quality: A variety of courses is offered to meet the individual needs of the educators. to and derived from working with students and understanding their culture.
If you have not already done so, take a look at the variety of online courses TLJ offers. You can view the course catalog here: http://bearhosting.com/~tljconsulting/courses
or download a pdf version here: TLJ Course Offerings Brochure
Of course, we still offer on-site PD as well as blended options. We hope you find these courses meet your needs as you work to meet the needs of your students. Our courses offer convenience, scalability, and adaptability. Feel free to email me with any questions: TammyJones@TLJConsultingGroup.com
