Investing in Yourself with Focused Professional Development
Welcome all-star teachers!
As we jump into today’s topic, I would like you to reflect on your wins for the week. Every week I want to highlight a teacher’s win. A win can be big or small. I want you to celebrate your wins, and we want to celebrate with you! If you have a win you want to share email me at millie@myadventuresinesl.com.
I can remember back to my first few years of teaching, browsing through Teacher Pay Teacher and other worksheet membership websites looking for activities to solve my ever growing dilemma of what to teach my ELLs.
I spent over $200 and I still did not have any clue what to teach my ELLs at the end of the year. I was just printing worksheet after worksheet. I can remember feeling so disappointed in myself at the end of my first school year. I knew I could do better, but I didn’t truly understand how I could do better.
After this realization, the first thing that I did was reflect. I came into teaching unconventionally, but I knew at my previous jobs they always had ongoing training. That was how I was able to grow and get good at my previous jobs.
Upon reflecting, I knew I had to take the exact same steps in my teaching career. I was going to take the money I was spending on TPT and put it towards training. I was also going to reach out to my administration and ask for funds to attend focused professional development.
Next, I reflected and decided what areas did I need professional development. The first area was classroom management. I was so inconsistent my first year teaching and lacking the structure. That is why in my program The ESL Teacher Master Plan I teach classroom management first to teachers. Teachers who implement this have had amazing results in their classroom. I was beaming with pride when they shared their successes. Having a solid classroom management plan allows you to have the needed systems in place to properly deliver an effective lesson.
Then, I wanted to learn how to include more technology in my lessons. This led me to an amazing conference in my hometown of Memphis at the Lausanne Institute. The ESL Office paid for this conference and when I tell you all it was one of the best conferences I have ever been to in my years of teaching. I learned so much about read alouds and how to build a classroom library. There are tools from that conference five years ago that I still use in my classroom.
The tools that I learned from those summer PD has saved me time and money. In my course The ESL Teacher Master Plan, I am going to encourage you to invest in your professional development. I personally want to make sure the professional development I offer to teachers is affordable and accessible. That is why the ESL Teacher Master Plan is packed with bonuses and coaching. That is the professional development you want to look for when you are determining your areas of growth.
Investing in programs such as the ESL Teacher Master Plan is going to allow you to grow as a teacher. By taking focused professional development, you can learn how to create a curriculum, design effective classroom management plans, and build rock solid relationships with the core stakeholders such as students, parents, and your administration.
In return you are going to be saving time and money. Before the school year starts, reflect on some areas of growth. Then invest in professional development. Remember most programs including the ESL Teacher Master Plan take purchase orders. Therefore start asking your school now will they provide funds for professional development over the summer.
How are you investing in your professional development this summer?
