Monday, May 23, 2016

Track 18: Online Learning & DIY PD

As a teacher I am very aware of current instructional “best practices”. I am always participating in various professional development that will help me to be the best teacher I can be and taking what I have learned and using it in my classroom. I believe that it is important to keep up with what is going on in the teaching world and staying up to date with best practices. I am on all four committees in my school, and I follow library blogs, and subscribe to various journals such as School Library Journal and VOYA.I am a believer in always trying something at least once and if it does not work to move on to the next thing. Working with teachers and other colleagues is also another way I keep up with best practices, and we work as a team to implement them into the curriculum.

Webinars have become one of my favorite ways to earn professional development credit, but also more importantly a great way for me to learn an abundance of new things. Webinars have allowed me the freedom to be able to take a professional development class while being in the comfort of my own home. I also like taking courses that allow me to work at my own pace and give me the freedom to work on it even if it is 11:00 at night. I have always taken webinar classes that are through my district but I am interested in looking at some of the podcast ones that I checked out. They seem like they would be great to listen to when in the car driving back and forth from work and I am sure I could learn some great things. I have also taken many online classes through NYCTD and would highly recommend them to anyone. The teachers are great, the classes are informative, and since it is a self-paced class it appeals to everyone!

This class has been the best professional development class that I have ever participated in, and I am not just saying that!! I have taken my fair share of classes that have been completely irrelevant to my job and I was either forced to take them or did it so I could get the hours. This is one of the few, if not only, classes that is made for librarians. I hope to take track 3 & 4 in the future and would love if more came along! I have shared multiple resources with teachers in my building that I learned from the class and have learned so many new ones that I can’t live without. I wish that I could say my district would give me time during the day to participate in this class however that is not happening so after school and on the weekends will have to continue to be my work time!

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