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"One of my favorite films is The Emperor's Club, starring Kevin Kline as Mr. Hundert, the Western Civilization teacher at St. Benedict's Academy. In the film's opening scene, the headmaster of the school stands before the assembled student body explaining the meaning of the school motto, Finis Origine Pendet: The End Depends Upon the Beginning. "What you accomplish in life and the significance of your contribution," he counsels, "will depend largely on what you do here. How you begin determines what you will achieve." As the film unfolds, we see this poignant message revealed in the lives of the students. What they do at the school and the relationships they develop powerfully affect the kind of persons they become and the nature of the lives they eventually lead. In the end, we realize that Finis Origine Pendet is the film's central message. The same is true of professional learning for educators. What it accomplishes and the significance of its contribution depend largely on how it begins. This holds true not only for traditional forms of professional learning-seminars, study groups, workshops, conferences, mentoring, coaching, and so on-but also for "new" forms that include face-to-face or online professional learning communities, teacher exchanges, bug-in-the-ear coaching, data teams, individualized improvement plans, and unconferences. The effectiveness of any professional learning activity, regardless of its content, structure, or format, depends mainly on how well it is planned."

" President Obama announced the "Week of Making" the week of June 12 - 18, 2015, and eleven educators from the Pittsburgh region were invited to the White House on June 15, 2015 to discuss what great makerspaces look like in schools and how we can scale this movement across the country in schools. But not everyone can visit Obama to talk about Making--so how does one lead professional development when introducing a makerspace? EXPERT "MAKER" EDUCATORS FROM PITTSBURGH AT PRESIDENT OBAMA'S "WEEK OF MAKING." At Elizabeth Forward High School, the 2015 Pittsburgh FAB Institute was held June 15 - 18, 2015. Sponsored by the Grable Foundation, the 2015 Pittsburgh FAB Institute provided a rich professional development to 75 teachers across the country focusing on digital fabrication. These educators ranged from beginners to experts, elementary, middle and high school teachers, educators from museums, college professors and school administrators and these educators were interested in what aFABLab looks like in schools."

Professional Development for Teachers & Educators Educator's Professional Development is the largest online database of professional development conferences and workshops for educators and teachers in the K-12 bracket. Painstakingly compiled by three lovers of education, EPD is a free service serving the education community. Search our database by date, education level, location or with keywords.

"Professional learning that is relevant, collaborative and future focused can have a highly positive impact on teacher quality. Here you will find resources that develop an understanding of effective professional learning as well as access to free online learning modules."

"Technology is transforming several key educational concepts and least of which is the concept of professional development. Just a decade ago, teachers were limited as to the type and number of professional development webinars available to them and school districts were virtually the main source of such webinars. Now with a device connected to Internet, you have a whole bastions of PD sessions at your fingertips and right from the comfort of your couch. It is all thanks to the power of connectedness."

"Forming and supporting professional learning groups can be particularly important in maker-centered contexts, as maker-based activities often occupy a precarious space in the structure and curriculum of traditional schools. That maker education is not yet a formal discipline and does not have the backing of a professional and organized network makes it especially important to develop learning communities that scaffold and connect educators who often work in isolated siloes."

"It seems like the practice of professional development within schools has witnessed some radical changes throughout the years. According to We Are Teachers, there are ten main areas that have been touched by this change. Starting with the choice of topics of PDs, in the past such topics were particularly chosen by the principal or school administrators on behalf of the teaching staff. However, today, teachers are more inclined to guide their own PD through concerted efforts in professional learning networks. Also a comparison between the delivery style of PDs in the past with what it is now shows a considerable  shift from expert-centred lecture style where teachers were mere listeners to hands-on workshops that view teachers as experts."

"Pearson and the Flipped Learning Network have joined forces to offer new and exciting blended professional development for educators looking to switch to the new "flipped learning" teaching model (See the Press Release). Through this partnership, and based on the pioneering work of Flipped Learning Network's founding members, Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, highly skilled trainers from Pearson and the Flipped Learning Network are now available to help you personalize professional development training for teachers so they can make a seamless transition to flipped learning."

"Teachers sometimes describe twitter as an excellent professional development tool and sometimes say that twitter is the best CPD they have ever had… I think this is deeply problematic and here's why. "

"The final post in a 6 part, "Better PD" series. See parts 1-5: PD Sucks. Is Edcamp the Solution?, Pairing Teachers for Better Professional Development, Hacking Your Classroom, Moving The Conversation From Bullying To Climate, and 6 Tips For Finding Inspiration In Your Teaching"

"I think that "Is MY Professional Development Up-To-Date?" is the first question which you need to ask yourselves! You can ONLY give BEST and QUALITY courses when knowing about the latest knowledge in a 21st Century Education. But ===> HOW TO know this? Life Long Learning!

"It's not especially easy to quickly demonstrate your education technology skills when you're not in the classroom. Sure, you may know how to effectively integrate Google Chromebooks or Apple iPads while simultaneously leveraging a project-based learning approach to STEAM subjects, but how do you actually convey that when chatting with colleagues or others? It's not easy. That's why many teachers are turning to professional development from the major tech companies like Apple and Google."

"Educators are creating their own professional development opportunities on their own time without compensation, acknowledgement, nor credit."

"This is part 3 in a series of posts: Building a Professional Development Hub for your School:"

"This is part 2of the blog post series: Building an online Professional Development Hub for your School"

"I have recently discovered Twitter, and it has supercharged my professional development. The reason? Twitter education chats! Two months ago I would have said, "No, I don't have a Twitter account." I may even have been able to vaguely explain why I really don't have space or reason for Twitter in my life. It certainly did not seem relevant to my work as an educator. However, during the last two months, my perspective has completely changed. I now eagerly ask fellow educators, "Have you experienced Twitter education chats? They are amazing!""

"The gift of time: Often underrated and underestimated Educators know there is much to investigate, debate, and expand on in our profession. Inevitably you will hear, "there doesn't seem to be enough time"…but time, we seem to find. Just go on Twitter and peruse for awhile, you will find dedicated educators taking risks, asking questions and issuing provocations to one another. We somehow find the time because we know our professional development (PD) is essential to the contribution we can make as teachers to student growth and innovative practices. Contrary to some current thinking out there, educators (and their practice) are always evolving, as is the curriculum that guides us. So given the gift of time, how do we use it most effectively or more so, in the most sustainable way? "

"I often wonder if what we see as teaching at professional learning events would be acceptable in a high school classroom. If the purpose of professional development (Pro-D) is professional learning, then what is our evidence that learning does, in fact, occur? Are we using effective teaching practices in Pro-D? Although Pro-D is evolving, the "Sit'n'Git" way of learning seems to still be alive and well in many conferences and workshops throughout Canada and the U.S. In the past five years, I cannot tell you how many times I've sat in a large conference room for a number of hours with hundreds of other dedicated educators and not been provided with the opportunity to even talk to the person beside me. People are spending hundreds and thousands of dollars to attend these events to listen to a series of lengthy lectures without the opportunity to network and wrestle with the presented ideas. I'm not opposed to a keynote address to start off the day with some inspiring, thought-provoking ideas; however, if there is no opportunity to take these ideas and move deeper, many of the thoughts that are initiated in the keynote get lost as I move on to the next session or listen to the next presenter. It's no secret that in order for deeper learning to occur, we must DO something with a new concept; we must apply new learning to take it from an idea to implementation. Our current typical model of Pro-D makes deeper learning a challenge and often only leaves participants with a few ideas that are unfortunately left on the shelf with the many glossy white binders from workshops of years past. At some point we need to stand up and say that a high volume of "Sit'n'Git" style of Pro-D is no longer acceptable and is an insult to those who have spent money, time, and effort to attend. While doing this, we also need to rethink the conference model and professional learning so that it better aligns with what we want to see in classrooms."

"Curating new and relevant content and tailoring it to their own, unique needs will become a key skill required by future teachers. Why? Professional development becomes attractively cost effective in such a process, and money and budgets are powerful influencers for change."

"This is part 4 in the series of Building an online Professional Development Hub for your School "