What do you want to do better in 2013? If professional development is on your resolution list, this post will give you a jump-start.
Consider using a bit of time over the next couple weeks diving into one or more of the professional development opportunities listed below.
Webinar Archives
If you are fascinated by curriculum (like me), you can spend hours visiting ASCD’a Archived Webinars. These webinars helped me better understand the American Common Core Standards. They helped me more clearly differentiate between standardized assessment and standardized instruction.
Another treasure can be found on the Virtual Cafe Archived Webinars wiki. You’ll meet librarians, media specialists, proponents of gamification in education, and experts in technology integration.
Simple K-12 webinars are popular enough to be noticed by many who nominate and vote for Edublog awards. You can sign up for 500+ free webinars and, if signed up, will be offered much more for an annual fee of $279. Watch the prices. At least once per year, the price drops about $100.
If you sign up to follow the Australia Series Blog, you will have access to weekly, live, free webinars on a range of topics. Most topics relate to technology integration. The downside is that these webinars are not archived – so you need to be available to access them at a time compatible with Australian time zones.
If Australian time zones are difficult, Teacher 2.0 and Classroom 2.0 offer a multitude of webinars accessible to the US time zones (usually 2:00-3:00 Eastern time). Again, these need to be accessed live (with some rare exceptions).
Conference Archives
OK2Ask has archives of video “snack” sessions. All online sessions and materials are provided by Teachers First, an ad-free cornucopia of practical resources for teachers.
Seminar Archives and Lectures
Math Teachers will appreciate NCTM eSeminars Anytime. You’ll find seminars on research intervention, common core implementation, and more.
TeacherCast recently tweeted about Academic Earth Video Lectures. These could be used for personal interests or for flipped classroom lessons.
Hodgepodge
Vital podcasts, videos, webinars, and resources are delivered by The Open University and part-funded by the Department for Education. On the site, Vital says it “aims to support practitioners in sharing their expertise and thus enhance the quality of teaching and learning.” Search by teaching level and subject to find topics relevant to your professional growth needs.
Laura Candler is very popular on the Teachers Pay Teachers site, but she has some free Livebinder resources available. Laura will periodically offer free resources to followers of Corkboard Connections.
Connected Online Communities of Practice (COCP) in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Education has contracted with the American Institutes for Research and five other organisations to declare August as Connected Educator Month. Archives of all webinars, sessions, and discussions are available.
Podcasts
Elizabeth Peterson from The Inspired Classroom lists some excellent podcasts to which you can subscribe.
Also check out the podcasts nominated for Edublog awards. You’re bound to find one or two that meet your professional development needs.
Teaching English
Shelly Terrell and TESOL team up to offer Free Friday Webinars Archive – a tremendous resource bank of ideas.
American TESOL has other webinars available as well.
Inspiration
Perhaps 2013 is the year you need to recharge or, as Shelly Terrell calls it, reboot. While the current challenge is #26 at the time of this posting, you can look back at previous goals. Can you meet all 30 by 2014?
What do you want to achieve in 2013? What free resources would you recommend? Please tell me in the comment box below.
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photo credit: Swansea Photographer via photopin cc
Thanks so much for this list. As an American teacher hoping to teach overseas in the next year or two, I am gobbling up as much profdev as I can get. My goal for 2013 is to finish my TEFL certificate by March, lose at least 20% of my extra pounds, and pay off my one and only credit card.
Happy New Year to You!
Hi Suzanne,
Teaching overseas is a wonderful experience. TEFL background is great, but there are plenty of American schools overseas that simply want regular American classroom teachers.
Interestingly enough, I paid off my credit cards just before moving overseas – a worthy goal. When you work overseas, you tend to have your housing paid for, so you can save more money and get ahead a bit. Also, I lost weight living overseas – portion sizes are much smaller :).
Please keep in touch. I’d love to hear where you end up. Most overseas teachers are hired in February (at the latest). Google “The International Educator” and “International Search Associates”. They will get you to some job fairs.
Good luck!
I did a great course with Nik Peachey on Web 2.0 tools. I loved meeting other participants from all over the world, most of them ESL teachers, and having permission to “play” and learn.
Right now, I’m getting a lot from Pinterest. I’m a really visual person, so I love that aspect of it, plus the flexibility it gives me to organize and curate interests.
Pinterest is a great resource. I find myself continually pinning great ideas.
The course sounds like fun. I always appreciate when couses allow for exploration, play, discussion, and reflection time. Good stuff!
Thanks for stopping by!
Nice collection. I forwarded it to an efriend.
BTW, where do you now teach in Australia? One of my favorite students is moving to Sydney and looking for a wonderful school. Naturally, I thought of you!
Hehe. That’s sweet. I’m outside of Melbourne. Sydney has better weather