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Continuing Professional Development
As a student teacher this semester,
I have been amazed at the varied, professional development opportunities our
district offers to its teachers. My
professional development began at our district’s convocation, several days
prior to the beginning of school. Doug
Lipp, author of "Disney U: How Disney University Develops the World's Most
Engaged, Loyal, and Customer-Centric Employees,” was our speaker and he served
to motivate and excite us towards our new school year. More importantly, however, he provided
practical advice I can employ in our classroom.
The following week, I attended a district-offered, interactive math
seminar with Karen Karp and Barbara Dougherty, authors of “13 Rules that Expire”
and members of The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Again, it was a practical, informative talk,
where we worked with manipulatives and shared openly about how these math
techniques and shifts in our thinking would affect our classrooms. We continued the week with a campus-led,
Kagan Cooperative Learning seminar in which I learned and practiced a variety
of Kagan Structures I now use in my teaching.
As that week prior to school came to
an end, I was sure my professional development opportunities would
diminish. Yet, they haven’t. I’ve continued to participate in many forms
of professional development, including a math-related PLC (professional
learning community), a tutorial on how to administer the Cogat online, vertical
math team meetings, an MSTAR analysis session, a Numbers Talk training, a district
math TEKS training, as well as weekly staff meetings. All of these professional development
opportunities mold me into a more effective and efficient teacher by enriching
my math content and pedagogical knowledge.
This semester, I have been utilizing
my blog as a professional portfolio, which compels me to focus on my thoughts
behind my teaching experiences, the why to my teaching choices rather than just
the how. Each week, I receive a Friday
Focus email from our campus principal which offers informative, relevant
videos, our Great Expectations Life Principle information, plus updates on any campus
goals. Currently, I am reading “Who Owns
the Learning: Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age” by Alan
November. I plan to consistently read educational-related
books throughout my teaching career.
With experiencing all this professional
development during my student teaching, I have come to view this development as
vital to my growth as a teacher. Not
only have I found this learning enjoyable, but it truly helps me be a better teacher
and, in turn, my students’ learning benefits.
I never want to push my professional development to the “back seat” due
to time constraints or life just getting too busy. I now know that it’s too important!
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