Teaching is more than just giving lessons. It is also about learning and growing with your students through ongoing professional learning. With Believe Learning’s professional development programs, K-12 teachers can work to improve student outcomes, try new teaching practices, and do well in a fast-changing school world. These services give you real and helpful professional development, all based on research, that matches your work goals. You can pick from things like workshops, instructional coaching, or digital tools. These all help you and your classroom every day. This leads to teachers who feel sure of themselves, better classrooms, and a team spirit where everyone wants to get better. Let’s find out how professional development can help your teaching grow and help your students do even better in school.
Understanding Professional Development for K-12 Educators
Professional development in education can look different for everyone. You have many options to build your skills and keep up with changes in teaching practices. School districts usually give teachers plenty of ongoing learning experiences. These can be things like workshops, conferences, online learning, or professional learning communities.
With these types of professional learning, teachers of tomorrow can work together and handle new challenges. They also get the chance to learn from expert educators. By taking part in ongoing learning, your teaching practices stay new, useful, and work well for today’s learners.
Defining Professional Development in the Education Sector
Professional development, sometimes known as professional learning, is a way for teachers to get new skills and improve how they teach in the classroom. These professional development programs are more than just basic teacher training. They give you new instructional materials, have courses where you can work at your own pace, and bring in mentors to help you.
There are many types of professional development you can get:
- Workshops that let you try out new teaching skills
- Online modules you can use when you want, which lets you set your own pace
- Conferences and seminars where you can meet others and learn from people who know a lot about teaching
- Professional learning communities that help you talk and share strategies with teachers like you
You might wonder what the most helpful strategies are when it comes to professional learning. “Instructional coaching, job-embedded training, and working together are strong ways to grow,” says Heather Hill of Harvard Graduate School of Education. It is easy to find tools for adding these strategies to your work. Websites like EdWeb, Simple K12, and Model Teaching have lots of professional development courses made for K-12 educators and give you different ways to learn about what you need.
The Importance of Ongoing Learning for Teachers
Committing to ongoing learning is an important part of effective teaching. When you invest time in professional development, you get better at helping all learners and dealing with new instructional materials. This work also helps you raise student achievement. The work is not something you do once and then stop. It is important to keep up with new research and teaching practices so your teaching stays fresh.
Ongoing learning makes sure your classroom keeps up with curriculum changes and new educational standards. For example, when learning new literacy or math guidelines, taking part in professional learning lets you change your plans and work for better student outcomes. As Linda Darling-Hammond from the Learning Policy Institute says, teachers who take part in continued professional learning get better in their skills and also boost student achievement.
Whether you start as a new teacher or have many years in the classroom, making space for ongoing professional development helps you feel good in your work and helps students too. Professional learning leads not just to better student outcomes, but also brings you more growth as an educator.
In-Person vs. Online Workshop Models
Both in-person and online workshop models offer unique benefits in professional development for educators. In-person workshops promote hands-on activities, immediate feedback, and rich face-to-face collaboration. Meanwhile, online learning platforms deliver flexibility, allowing you to engage in webinars, complete modules at your own pace, and access resources anytime, anywhere.
Here’s a detailed comparison:
Workshop Model | Key Features |
|---|---|
In-Person | – Interactive group activities and live feedback |
– Real-time networking with peers and instructors | |
– Often limited by location and scheduling | |
Online | – Flexible access to webinars, recorded sessions, and digital modules |
– Learn at your own pace, fitting PD into your schedule | |
– Broader range of topics and expert educators from across the globe |
Looking for high-quality online resources? Platforms like Simple K12, EdWeb, Coursera, and Udemy provide top-rated professional development specifically designed for K-12 teachers.
Believe Learning’s Approach to K-12 Professional Development
Believe Learning makes a difference by creating programs that fit what you need. Their professional development options are made just for educators and school districts. The course content is easy to follow, useful, and always taught by expert educators. When you finish, you get a certificate that adds to your professional growth.
If you want to move up in leadership development or improve the way you teach, Believe Learning has options for you. Their solutions are made to fit each teacher. You can learn at your own pace and focus on what interests you most.
See below to find out how these choices can help both school districts and individual teachers.
Personalized Pathways for Individual Educators
Individualized professional development is at the center of Believe Learning’s way of helping you grow. The company gives you personalized pathways, so you pick the topics that matter most for your teaching and your career. You can get the PD you need, earn certificates, and learn at your own pace.
Benefits of personalized pathways include:
- Course content made to match your interests and what you know
- The chance to go through modules and templates whenever it works best for you
- Digital tools and resources that help you along the way
- Certificates as proof you finished the courses
When you compare this with the old type of PD workshops, which are the same for everybody, personalized PD helps teachers in K-12 stay excited about learning. It helps you concentrate on what matters most to you, grow your expertise, and bring new energy into your classroom.
Top-Rated Workshops for K-12 Teachers
Believe Learning has a great selection of professional development courses. These courses give real, useful tips, and they fit well with what teachers need. Expert educators lead the workshops. The main topics are effective teaching, instructional coaching, and ways to help student outcomes get better.
People who join these workshops get to take part in hands-on activities. There are up-to-date resources, and coaching for real things that happen in the classroom. It does not matter if you want to work on literacy, math, or inclusion, because there is a workshop for each area. The goal is to build your teaching skills, so you can help your students do well.
Here are some of the best choices in literacy, math, and inclusion.
Enhancing Literacy and Math Instruction
Quality professional development courses in literacy and math help students do better in school. Believe Learning gives workshops with research-backed ways to teach reading, writing, and math. These ideas help you keep students interested and excited to learn.
In these workshops, you get to work with real class materials. You will learn how to check students’ progress and change the way you teach to support all kinds of learners. The tools you get here will help raise student achievement, whether you teach beginning literacy or advanced math.
Are you looking for the best workshops in 2024 or 2025? You can find highly-rated professional development courses on Simple K12, EdWeb, and Coursera. Some course titles are “Creating a Positive School Culture,” “Effective Classroom Management Strategies,” and “Bridging Distance and In-School Learning – Blended Learning.” These professional development options help you get the latest teaching practices, coaching tips, and classroom management strategies. This way you stay up to date and help your students do their best.
Inclusive education and teaching that respects different backgrounds are important for fair student success. Believe Learning provides professional learning programs to help you build classrooms where every learner feels understood and welcomed. This includes support for those in special education.
Workshops in this area focus on:
- Ways to change your teaching style for different students in diverse classrooms
- Adjusting lessons so they include and respect students’ cultural backgrounds
- Making good connections with learners from many different backgrounds
For those who lead schools, setting up a strong PD program means you will help teachers by giving ongoing coaching. It also means making sure teachers get easy access to resources on inclusion, and leading regular talks about fairness. The goal is to grow professional learning communities, so inclusion and teaching that matches each culture are part of what we all do every day.
Can Tech Deepen Teacher Development?
Technology integration is something every teacher needs to know now. Believe Learning’s professional development gives you the skills to use digital tools and online learning platforms. These programs mix new teaching practices with tips on how to use technology to help student engagement and learning outcomes.
You’ll see how digital resources, like Google Classroom, webinars, and interactive modules, can fit right into your teaching. Believe Learning makes sure you are ready for what today’s classrooms need, like remote and hybrid learning.
Next, look at how tech tools and remote learning are shaping PD trends.
Leveraging EdTech Tools in Workshops
Using edtech in professional development workshops helps you stay up-to-date with new digital tools and teaching strategies. In these workshops, you get to work with real-world examples. They show you how to use technology for instruction, testing, and working together with others in the classroom.
Key parts of tech-driven PD include:
- Learning how to use Google tools, webinars, and online modules
- Doing hands-on work with digital resources to get students more involved in class
- Getting templates and guides that help you quickly learn and use new tools
- Being able to try out the newest edtech in a caring and helpful space
There is now a big move toward blended learning and teamwork online. Teachers see how platforms can help make classroom management easier. They also learn how these tools can save time and make instruction right for each student. This technique lets your tech skills and teaching skills grow together. You will feel more sure about what you do in any classroom setting.
Making sure that professional development is easy to get and fair is very important for all teachers. This is especially true for those working in special education. Believe Learning helps with this by offering resources online, giving some away for free, and making sure both new and experienced teachers everywhere can get the training they need.
Key elements for equitable access include:
- Providing free resources, digital tools, and templates
- Offering scholarships or discounts for paid courses
- Ensuring course formats are user-friendly for teachers with varying tech skills
To get free or low-cost professional development, K-12 teachers can check websites like Alison, The Open University, and EdWeb. These platforms give access to high-quality professional learning courses that you can take for free or at a low price if you want a certificate. By focusing on accessibility and equity, more teachers can use these options in any area, making education better and more welcoming for all.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does coaching differ from traditional teacher workshops?
Coaching is a type of professional development that gives you help made just for you. It lasts over time and gives feedback and support that fit what you need in your classroom. This is not like a normal workshop. Instructional coaching happens while you teach. It gives advice and helps you put new ways of teaching into action. This makes professional learning last longer and helps you with more effective teaching.
Are there low-cost or free professional development resources for K-12 teachers?
Yes, there are many online learning platforms where you can get free resources for professional development. Places like Alison, EdWeb, and The Open University offer templates, digital tools, and sometimes give you certificates when you finish. These options help K-12 teachers get good PD without having to pay. So, this makes it easy for all teachers to get the help they need.
How can school leaders measure the impact of a professional development program?
School leaders can find out if professional development is working by looking at changes in student outcomes, classroom management, and how teachers use instructional materials. They track who joins in the PD modules and get feedback from teachers about their experience. Leaders also watch for changes in teaching practices in the classroom. All these steps help check if the professional development meets its goal of raising student achievement.
