Tips for Delivering Awesome Professional Development

With just under two months of school underway, it is never too early to talk about “awesome” professional development. Luckily for me, the folks at Edutopia also understand how important it is for schools to actively provide opportunities for professional growth for all faculty.

While recognizing what you need is probably the most important first step to delivering good professional development, time and money often become stumbling blocks to good professional development for many schools. So how do schools provide the professional development that they need given the constraints in time and money? For many schools, great PD starts inside the school-house. Whatever the constraints, here are three quick suggestions from Edutopia to help schools begin to think about ways to start “delivering awesome PD”:

Look for experts from within – like blogger Elena Aguilar, I believe many schools should look for experts from within to help “guide the learning process for faculty.” I agree that guidance from an internal facilitator “helps improve/strengthen the audience’s ability to absorb the content/curriculum.”
Allow for choice – I also believe it is a good idea to “provide structure in PD, while also allowing for choice.”
Ask for feedback – it is important to “evaluate” the PD experience for adults. I, too, believe this is an important aspect of “awesome” PD because it can help prepare for ongoing PD training.

If you’d like to learn more, check out the full list here. tlb

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