Welcome to Winter PD. This weekend, is the start of my first online course offering through Westford Public Schools. This groups of teachers could be skiing, sledding, settling on the couch with the Winter Olympics, or reading by the fire. Yet, like so many great educators, they chose to enroll in a professional development course.
Recently, Massachusetts DESE has released standards for high quality professional development as part of the Race to the Top initiative.hoose to use that time to spend countless hours in taking courses to improve our teaching.
A set of coherent learning experiences that is systematic, purposeful, and structured over a sustained period of time with the goal of improving teacher practice and student outcomes. It enables educators to facilitate the learning of students by acquiring and applying knowledge, skills, and abilities that address student needs and improvement goals of the district, school, and individual. HQPD conforms to best practices in research and relates to educators' assignments and professional responsibilities.
In the course we will explore current online technology tools, discuss their impact on student learning and develop lessons and strategies to integrate them into current teaching. The goal is to research and develop technology integration project that supports the curriculum and helps students reach their learning goals to be implemented in class(es).
This course will challenge teachers to assess their skills and then push themselves to learn more. Every module will ask them to contemplate and evaluate the use of a tool for student learning. Some will be easy, obvious in the integration. Other online tools may nudge them to change the way they teach and then others will bring a whole new perspective.
Take risks, think out of the box, don't give up, and enjoy the ride.
Are you ready?
