It’s a common misconception that education professionals have summer vacation like their students. But anyone who’s been a teacher, administrator, or even superintendent knows that summer is the perfect opportunity for professional development.
Whether it’s attending online webinars, traveling to workshops, or sitting down for a good read, there are plenty of opportunities to brush up on Common Core State Standards, 21st century leadership, and technology integration this summer.
In this list of summer professional development for educators, we highlight some of the most prestigious and easiest-to-access opportunities around the U.S. and online to help you get started on your summer professional development adventures—hopefully between delicious barbeques and beach vacations, of course.
(Next page: Summer workshops)
Workshop adventures
ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) is hosting multiple workshops this summer, beginning with the Conference on Teaching Excellence, National Harbor, Md., June 28-30. This event brings education professionals up-to-date on recent revelations about best practices in the classroom, how to make them routine in every grade and subject, and how to scale them system-wide. http://www.ascd.org/conference-on-teaching-excellence.aspx
ASCD’s Conference on Educational Leadership will be held in Las Vegas, Nev., November 1-3. Sponsored by publishers of Educational Leadership magazine, this conference promises to add important ideas to your leadership knowledge base, focus on thinking about what matters most, and connect you to the top leaders in school districts across the country. http://www.ascd.org/conference-on-educational-leadership.aspx
Class Measures, in partnership with the Institute for Excellence in Education, is sponsoring a series of summer professional development for educators, with topics that include “Navigating the Common Core,” “From Data to Differentiation,” and “Partnering for Success: Teacher Mentor Training.” For more information: http://www.classmeasures.com/20130301/42-summer-professional-development-opportunities/.
Discovery Education will be hosting Common Core Academies across the country throughout the summer months to empower teachers and administrators to successfully implement the new standards into classrooms. The immersive, two-day professional development events are designed to give educators and administrators a better understanding of the key components of the Common Core State Standards, strategies for effectively integrating the standards and methods for aligning assessments to the standards. Topics include “Connecting Specialized Instruction to Common Core State Standards: An Academy for Teachers of Students with Special Needs,” “Moving Toward Greater Focus and Coherence In Your Classroom: Making Common Sense Out of the Math Common Core State Standards,” and more. Academies will be hosted in multiple U.S. locations throughout the summer. http://www.discoveryeducation.com/Common-Core-Academy/
This year marks EdTechTeacher’s 11th Annual Summer Teaching With Technology workshop series, focused on topics such as “The iPad Classroom,” “Creating Digital Course Content,” and more. Workshops will be held in Atlanta, Ga., June 10-14; Chicago, Ill., June 17-21; and Cambridge, Mass., June 24 through Aug. 2. http://edtechteacher.org/index.php/summer-workshops
The Foreign Language Resource Center, established in 1990 as by the U.S. Department of Education, will host a series of PD workshops, with subjects such as “Language ePortfolios,” and “Using the Web for Communicative Language Learning,” hosted at different universities around the U.S. http://www.nflrc.org/login/scripts/summer.php
Harvard’s Graduate School of Education will host professional development for educators at its Principal’s Center, including topics such as “School Turnaround Leaders,” “Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership,” and “National Institute for Urban School Leaders,” starting June 3, and lasting through November 20. http://www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/programs/principals-center/portfolio/index.html.
Harvard also has many other PreK-12 and Higher Education professional development programs, which include “The transformative power of teacher teams,” and “Harvard Seminar for New Presidents. preK-12: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/programs/prek-12/portfolio/index.html Higher Education: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/programs/higher-education/portfolio/index.html
(Next page: More workshops)
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s featured conference, Next Generation Instruction Summit: Creating High Impact Practices, June 26 in Denver, Colo., will focus on Common Core State Standards, higher performance, and international competition as today’s teachers need a wider range of skills and support to meet the needs of increasingly diverse student populations to help close the persistent gaps in learning. http://www.leadandlearn.com/conferences/next-generation-instruction-summit-creating-high-impact-practices-denver-colorado.
Principal’s Leadership Institute: Preparing Principals for Next Generation Accountability, will be held July 10-11 in Denver, Colo. and will provide school principals a unique learning experience designed to prepare them for the challenges and demands inherent in Next Generation Common Core Assessments and the new state Teacher and Principal Evaluation Systems. http://www.leadandlearn.com/conferences/principal%E2%80%99s-leadership-institute-denver
University of Minnesota’s Institute for Global Studies is offering professional development for educators through programs that encourage educators to explore current issues in international studies through conferences, seminars, short courses, and faculty presentations. Topics include “The Holocaust in European Memory,” Integrating Sustainability Topics in the Second Language Classroom,” and more. Programs begin June 17 and run through August 27 in Minn. http://igs.cla.umn.edu/outreach/profdev.html
The Museum Institute for Teaching Science (MITS) is offering many workshops that offer school educators the opportunity to experience cross-disciplinary investigations and to create the “synergy of science, technology, engineering, literacy, and social sciences in the classroom.” These STEM courses for K-12 teacher are offered throughout Mass. and range from hybrid coursed to two-week site institute visits throughout June and July. http://mits.org/summer-institute/
The School Improvement Network will host its Innovation Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, July 8-11. This annual meeting features some of the world’s leading education innovators, and is a forum where experts gather to share knowledge and best practices for improving education and discuss the developments that will shape education in the future. Topics include “Innovation Leadership that leads to 100 percent college and career readiness,” “Equity tied to practice that works for all students,” and more. http://www.siis2013.com/siis/.
The Curriculum Mapping Institute, also part of the School Improvement Network, is hosting a conference July 10-11 in Salt Lake City, Utah, that will provide interactive training on how to align your curriculum and assessments to the Common Core State Standards for all levels of learning. http://www.siis2013.com/cmi/about/#four
SolutionTree offers a number of summer institutes for educators; but hurry, they’re selling out quickly! “Simplifying RTI” will be held in Denver, Colo., June 26-28, and Grand Rapids, Mich., July 31 to Aug. 2.
“Professional Learning Communities at Work” will be held in Minneapolis, Minn., July 8-10; Pasadena, Calif., July 17-19; Orlando, Fla., July 24-26; and Seattle, Wash., Aug. 12-14. “Common Core NOW” will be held in Boston, Mass., Aug. 12-13.
“Assessment NOW” will be held in Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 21-23. http://www.solution-tree.com/events/institutes.html
Professional development for educators will be offered at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, including the Stanford Summer Teaching Institute: Going Deeper with the Common Core. Created for K-12 teacher and educational leaders, these courses use the Center to Support Excellence in Teaching’s studio model to give educators the opportunity to learn alongside experts and then develop, design, and practice specific teaching and leadership strategies that can be applied immediately to classroom instruction and school leadership. http://cset.stanford.edu/programs/ssti
The STEM Center for STEM Education for Girls is hosting the STEM Think Tank and Conference July 17-19 in Nashville, Tenn. with the theme “Girl Meets STEM: Developing the Next Generation of Professionals.” http://stemefg.org/index.php/think-tank-and-conference/. Many other STEM-related summer workshops can be found on the STEM Center’s website http://www.stemefg.org/index.php/resources/teacher-professional-development-opportunities/, including Engineering is Elementary, ACS/American Chemical Society, and the NSTA National Conference.
Vernier Software & Technology will offer 25 full-day, hands-on training institutes to help science teachers integrate data-collection technology into their science curriculum. During the institutes, teachers will work alongside a training specialist and use Vernier’s hardware and software technology to explore classroom-ready labs and activities. The six-hour institutes are designed to meet the needs of teachers from a wide variety of grade levels and STEM disciplines. In addition to the training, each participating teacher will receive a Workshop Training Manual on CD; a Vernier lab book or $50 Vernier gift certificate; and more. The workshops additionally offer attendees the option of earning two (quarter) Graduate Science credit hours through the Portland State University Center for Science Education. These institutes will be offered in multiple locations throughout the U.S. during the summer. http://www.vernier.com/training/summer-institutes/
(Next page: Webinars and online professional development)
Webinars and online learning
edweb.net, a free professional social and learning network for the education community offers multiple webinars weekly, which will continue throughout the summer. Webinars are hosted through different communities that include Autism, Blended Learning, the Brain and Learning, Game-Based Learning and much more. http://home.edweb.net/
IPD’s (Institute for Professional Development) Academic and Institutional Services (AIS) department provides a number of online, self-paced, and self-directed tutorials as well as instructor-led courses offered online and/or via live teleconferences. Topics include “Faculty Introduction to Learning Teams,” “Instructional Design for Online Courses,” and more. http://ipd.org/services/faculty-development/
With a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), most of the learning opportunities can be done regardless of time and place. If you are anywhere with a wireless signal, and you want to try the MOOC experience, then your only dilemma is choosing from the extensive list of options out there. A great place to begin your search is at www.mooc.ca, a comprehensive list of MOOC’s maintained by Stephen Downes http://www.downes.ca/. http://www.mooc.ca/
PLS 3rd Learning classes provide on-site and online classes that earn three hours of graduate credit that can be applied to teacher recertification, movement on the salary scale, professional development requirements, or select Master’s degrees. By keeping the class size small–on-site class capacity is 35 participants, while online classes are capped at 20–PLS ensures every student receives personalized attention. Every PLS course is aligned to the components in Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, to encourage educators to analyze, assess, and improve their professional practices. http://plsclasses.com/browse-enroll/
Super Duper Publications will offer free Continuing Education Unit (CEU) webinars to help school speech-language pathologists (SLPs) stay updated with advancements in the speech therapy profession. The pre-recorded and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)-certified webinars, available at any time, prepare ASHA members to pass accompanying CEU tests to earn ASHA credit. http://www.superduperinc.com/CEU/courses/default.aspx
TED-Ed‘s videos aim to capture and amplify the voices of the world’s greatest educators. To achieve this, TED-Ed pairs educators with talented animators to produce a new library of educational videos. This website, similar to TED.com, is ever-evolving and depends on educators and the TED community. Videos include curriculum ideas, lessons, and theories on education. These videos make for a fun-filled summer PD experience. http://ed.ted.com/
(Next page: Summer reading and new materials)
Summer reading
ASCD has assembled a diverse list of books for educators for summer professional development for educators. These books—organized by how they help educators transform teaching and learning—offer readers the opportunity to dive deep into the hottest topics in education, including using data to focus improvement, project-based learning, child development, and neurodiversity. All books are currently available in paperback and eBook formats. http://www.ascd.org/news-media/Press-Room/News-Releases/Summer-Reading-List.aspx
Atomic Learning is offering a free eBook that investigates the challenges to effectively using technology in the classroom and discusses key points of an effective technology integration program. http://al.atomiclearning.com/LP=26
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has created a summer reading resource list that provides digestible amounts of information so educators can identify important topics, learn and apply the latest research, and collaborate on the best implementation strategies. Topics include curriculum design, school leadership, standards and assessments, and more. http://www.leadandlearn.com/courses/common-core-state-standards/resources
New material for summer
Atomic Learning offers on-demand instructional videos and free resources like eBooks to assist with professional development for educators. For example, Atomic Learning provides El Paso Independent School District with more than 15,000 training videos that are available to all employees, students and families. http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/professional-dev
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) have released the “Closing the Gap Professional Development Toolkit,” the latest product of the collaborative Closing the Gap: Turning Data into Action project. Providing educators with a step-by-step curricular plan and a set of professional resources, the Toolkit helps educators use educational data to strengthen instructional practice and improve student achievement. Through a series of reports and resources, Closing the Gap provides schools with best practices for reviewing and implementing student information systems (SIS) and learning management systems (LMS) solutions to become a more data-rich culture. http://turningdataintoaction.org/content/professional-development-toolkit-complete.
ETA hand2mind has designed a new suite of products, Common Core Fractions Solutions, to focus on professional development and training for teachers, while incorporating both digital tools and physical manipulatives to help students see fractions as real numbers. Understanding fractions and division at the elementary level can help predict a student’s overall achievement in math on standardized tests in high school; therefore, the tools were developed to nurture the student’s understanding of the fractions concepts beyond problems and relate them to real-world applications. https://www.hand2mind.com/hos/fractions/
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