It’s June! Time to step off of the roller coaster ride of the 2020-21 school year. Educators have come a long way with many twists and turns, jerking from side-to-side while moving upside down then right side up, hanging on tight, screaming every so often, in the company of the other disoriented passengers. If you rode this coaster again, you would have experience to draw from as well as colleagues to debrief about this journey. However, the ride you take next is your call.
After you catch your breath, consider focusing on something you control — your own professional development journey. Do you plan to continue implementing technology into learning? What can you do to keep up the momentum of using technology? Would you like help with using technology when it makes sense rather than when technology is the only choice?
Joining an asynchronous, online, self-paced course gives teachers the option to learn on their schedules in any location. Teaming with colleagues allows instructional teams to collaborate and plan together. Summer time is precious time. Finding professional development topics that allow teachers to integrate their curriculum with the technology already in use in order to learn new ways to implement learning helps rejuvenate educators over the summer.
Some topics of interest include:
- Moving beyond the traditional learning environment and into a digital, blended space that addresses the needs of all student learners
- Offering feedback using Google Workspace and other free tools
- Guiding students to ask relevant questions and then selecting the best resources in order to analyze, record and organize the findings.
Currently Kincaid IT has a catalog of 10 courses to choose from that provide opportunities at all skill levels. With 10 months of access to each course, you don’t even have to finish this summer!
Wait, there’s more! Teachers can opt in to purchase Continuing Education Credit from the University of Central Missouri (UCM) for the completion of a course, whether you live in Missouri or another state. These valuable Continuing Education Credits can be used toward salary advancement or credential renewal at many school districts. At this time, this course credit is not eligible to be used toward a graduate degree at UCM, but it is a refreshing way to keep one foot learning while the rest of you relaxes.
“Once you know where the roller coaster is going, are you in for the ride?” – Robert Fulghum
