Appreciate Professional Development?

Learning-Focused
Oct 26, 2009

As a classroom teacher there are myriad demands on your time and energy - the list sometimes seems endless. Why then should professional development be viewed as anything other than just one more thing? With all else that must be done is professional development worth the time?

There are many reasons to answer those questions positively. In the first place, professional development allows for additions to your teaching toolbox. New research on exemplary practices allows us to take advantage of years of expertise and experience from others. Teachers value learning and appropriating what others have learned is a hallmark of effective teachers. Secondly, professional development can remind us of ideas and practices that we have used in the past but that have been lain aside or forgotten in the daily rush. Excellent teaching ideas are often sitting in the filing cabinet gathering dust waiting to be rediscovered. Thirdly, professional development opens up opportunities to further your educational horizons. Meeting colleagues and presenters at workshops, classes and conferences expands your network of contacts, opening avenues that may offer unexpected opportunities now and in the future. Next, professional development enables you to fulfill the requirements for keeping your teaching credential up to date. Finally, professional development allows you to find ways to make your teaching more effective which leads to an increase in student achievement and efficacy - the holy grail of teaching.

With the pressure of AYP and high stakes testing looming over most teachers, any advantage is to be exploited. Rather than viewing professional development as a necessary evil, look at it as a chance to help yourself and your students by opening new worlds of opportunity.