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"Chris Dede, a professor of learning technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is a leading authority on online teacher professional development. For 16 years, beginning in the early 1990s, Dede taught a course at HGSE called "Learning Media That Bridge Distance and Time." The rapid changes in interactive technology during that period brought the potential of online teacher learning into sharp focus for Dede. "I saw it as an important way of scaling up quality instructional practice, and an important lever for education reform, but also I saw that it wasn't going far very fast," he explains. Dede's investigations into online professional development led him to gather a group of researchers, distance-learning experts, and professional development providers at a conference at Harvard in 2005, and subsequently to publish, as editor, Online Professional Development for Teachers: Emerging Models and Methods (2006). The book, which explores the strengths and tensions of online teacher training, has become a key resource in the field."

The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) is the largest non-profit professional association committed to ensuring success for all students through staff development and school improvement. NSDC's purpose: Every educator engages in effective professional learning every day so every student achieves. Read more about NSDC's purpose and what it means for educators and schools. The Council views high quality staff development programs as essential to creating schools in which all students and staff members are learners who continually improve their performance.

"Summer has officially started for many of you! I know that you will probably be relaxing for the first few days, but eventually you may feel the need to be inspired and motivated for the upcoming school year! Social media provides us with incredible opportunities to choose the way we want to develop professionally. You can choose the topic, the medium, and who you want to learn from. You can choose the way you like to learn, because social media provides us with several multimedia experiences, such as webinars, LMS, live video, and more. The experience is usually dynamic and motivating because you are learning with others around the world! Additionally, you will be developing your Personal/ Passionate Learning Network (PLN)."

"This paper provides a set of recommendations for developing classroom performance assessments and scoring rubrics similar to the sets of recommendations for multiple choice tests provided in this journal by Frary (1995) and Kehoe (1995a, 1995b). The recommendations are divided into five categories: 1) Writing Goals and Objectives, 2) Developing Performance Assessments, 3) Developing Scoring Rubrics, 4) Administering Performance Assessments and 5) Scoring, Interpreting and Using Results. A broad literary base currently exists for each of these categories. This article draws from this base to provide a set of recommendations that guide the classroom teacher through the four phases of the classroom assessment process - planning, gathering, interpreting and using (Moskal, 2000a). Each section concludes with references for further reading."

Challenging times create economic and social pressures that can undermine our most basic values. For more than 30 years we have been offering teachers and students ways to confront prejudice, apathy, fear, and violence. By teaching students to think critically, to empathize, to recognize moral choices, to make their voices heard, we put in their hands the possibility-and the responsibility-to do the serious work demanded of us all as citizens. Founded in 1976, we are an international educational and professional development nonprofit organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the historical development of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront in their own lives.

"Online professional development (PD) fits today's fast changing K-12 educational environment where demands on teachers and re-certification require teachers to continually learn new and challenging content and pedagogy. Online professional development has the benefit of supporting teachers in their daily practice and connecting them with a network of like-minded professionals so that they can learn and share with each other."

Mentoring can accelerate the development of new teachers' instructional practice. Mentors need comprehensive and ongoing professional development to be effective. These conversation tips provide insight into the broader curriculum of mentor professional development offered by the New Teacher Center at University of California, Santa Cruz, a content contributor to PBS TeacherLine.

"These free instructional modules were developed by education faculty and professional developers for their colleagues. They can be employed as extension units in existing courses or can be used independently in workshops and meetings. Each module includes articles, video footage, PowerPoint presentations, and class activities. They draw from the wealth of the Foundation's archives of best practices and correlate with ISTE/NCATE NETS standards."

Dianne's Diigo List on Professional Development.. this list is updated regularly.

So where do you start learning how to integrate technology into your classroom as well as how to use it for your ongoing professional development? And how do you stay current with the almost daily changes in the technology landscape? To find answers both general and specific, I talked to three strong advocates for incorporating technology into the learning process: Darren Draper, director of technology services for the Canyons School District, in Cottonwood Heights, Utah; Louise Maine, a science teacher at Punxsutawney Area High School, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania; and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, a digital-learning consultant and a cofounder of Powerful Learning Practice, a professional-development company that aids educators in adopting 21st-century teaching and learning practices.

"The most powerful and ample resource for change in education is teachers' own expertise. Yet, teachers are regularly overstepped when it comes to leading school improvement. In the United States, less than one-fourth of teachers feel that they have great influence over school decisions and policies in seven different areas, as noted in the National Center for Educational Statistics' Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) database for 2003-04 reported by the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) in Professional Learning in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development in the U.S. and Abroad."

PIIC, a partnership of the Annenberg Foundation and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), is a statewide resource for developing and supporting consistent, high-quality instructional coaching in Pennsylvania schools. PIIC builds on the work of the Pennsylvania High School Instructional Coaching Initiative (PAHSCI), which established a model for instructional coaching in 26 high schools in 16 high-needs districts. PIIC takes a different approach: creating the position of "instructional mentor" to support coaching in each of the state's 29 Intermediate Units (IUs) and providing resources and professional development for mentors, coaches, teachers, and administrators.

"Speck (1996) notes that the following important points of adult learning theory should be considered when professional development activities are designed for educators: "

Literacy Collaborative is a comprehensive school reform project designed to improve the reading, writing, and language skills of elementary children. The cornerstone of this project is dynamic, long-term professional development. School-based literacy coordinators are trained in research-based methods; provided with ongoing professional development as they continually implement research-based approaches in their own classrooms; and supported as they provide on-site training for the teachers in their schools. The goal of this comprehensive effort is to significantly raise the level of literacy achievement for all students

"About Our Motivation: Challenges and opportunities, created by our global society, invite teachers, administrators, and students to rethink the way they teach, lead, and learn. The rise of social networking, the ease with which information is shared, and the growth of our global economy are just a few factors that have made it obvious that the 21st century is a much different world than the 20th century. And yet, when we take a good, hard look at the culture within our schools, do we see that much has changed from yesterday to today? We may see more technology used in the classroom and maybe more discussions on the "content vs. skills" debate in the faculty rooms. But underneath it all, have things really changed? Have we successfully forged a culture where life-long learning, personal growth, and collaboration are valued and practiced among all members of the school community? In Richard DuFour's article "Why Look Elsewhere?: Improving Schools from Within," he states that "it is context-the beliefs, expectations, behaviors and norms that constitute the culture of a given school-that plays the largest role in deciding whether a professional development program will make a difference in that school." If a school's goal is to improve student achievement, and a school considers learning to be the crux of its community, then effective professional development-where teachers and administrators themselves become learners-is the bridge to achieving that goal."

"Developing and Teaching a Course: Goals & Objectives"

reeReading is a free, high-quality, open-source reading program addressing literacy development for grades K-3. Leveraging the collective wisdom of researchers, teachers, reading coaches, and other education and industry professionals, FreeReading provides a high-quality, cost-effective alternative to static materials. By establishing a foundation of hundreds of research-based lessons and materials that users can download and use for free, FreeReading has created the framework for intervention programs supporting K-6 literacy. The collective wisdom within FreeReading is invaluable and can be more beneficial than any one reading program.

reeReading is a free, high-quality, open-source reading program addressing literacy development for grades K-3. Leveraging the collective wisdom of researchers, teachers, reading coaches, and other education and industry professionals, FreeReading provides a high-quality, cost-effective alternative to static materials. By establishing a foundation of hundreds of research-based lessons and materials that users can download and use for free, FreeReading has created the framework for intervention programs supporting K-6 literacy. The collective wisdom within FreeReading is invaluable and can be more beneficial than any one reading program.

"The purpose of this resource is to provide "Just in Time" training through an online interface for K-12 educators based on the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). These standards are the basic technology skills every educator should possess. In the process, educators will develop their own skills and discover what students need in order to meet the NETS for Students, as well as the new MMC Online Experience requirement. "

"NSDC publications provide the bridge between what is known about high-quality staff development and how you can put those ideas into practice. "

About Us Story Cove folktales come from a variety of cultures and places. They share timeless values and simple, universal lessons. The Story Cove format enables children, families and teachers to explore these stories in a variety of ways. As a result, each child is able to develop a more personal understanding of a story while learning about the world.