Professional Development for High School Teachers
As a high school teacher, you have a wide range of choices for professional development. You can learn new teaching techniques and styles by signing up for online classes or courses. You can attend continuing education conferences and workshops. and you can participate in PD offered by your school or district.
If you plan to commit to personal development – this year or throughout your entire career – why not get the most out of it by choosing wisely. Below are some of the primary areas of professional development for high school teachers.
Personalized Learning
in settings that, by necessity, are geared toward prep for standardized testing and college, high school classrooms might seem like the last place you’d want to introduce more personalized learning. Not so! Professional development on the different types of instruction (data-driven, student-driven, and inquiry-driven) and different types of assessments (summative and formative) can help increase the effectiveness of your teaching.
Student Engagement
High school students can be some of the most “jaded” learners, prone to boredom and susceptible to distraction. The more you can engage high schoolers, the more they’ll learn. Higher degrees of student engagement can come through personalized learning, group projects and activities, peer instruction, student collaborations, and more.
By committing to professional development that focuses on increasing student engagement, you might find that you become a better teacher and get more satisfaction from teaching.
Classroom Management
Classroom management skills for all types of teachers, from pre-school teachers to adult ed teachers, is a must-have. But in high school classrooms, effective classroom management is even more imperative because a “mob mentality” or bullying can crop up in an instant and be hard to quell. for high school teachers, being an effective leader is as important as being an effective instructor. Professional development on classroom management for high school can teach you how to set boundaries, create an atmosphere of respect (of you and other students), anticipate and avert troublesome situations, and more.
Subject Matter Expertise
for many teachers, there’s no better way to reignite the fires within than by learning something new. and if that new knowledge base happens to be in your favorite subject – the subject you’re currently teaching – all the better! Other teachers might be more attracted to learning something entirely new, something different that what they teach every day. Either way, if you focus your professional development investment on a deep dive into a specific subject, you’ll become more of an expert in that area and be better able to convey the latest, greatest information to your students (and colleagues).
Education 4 Equity Online Professional Development Courses
Whatever your professional development goals, we’d love to support you! At Education 4 Equity, we have a wide range of online professional development courses for teachers. We offer 1-credit, 2-credit, and 3-credit online courses for teachers that qualify for graduate credit and have been approved for LAUSD salary points through the Los Angeles Unified School District.