Teacher Professional Development
School District Services
— Continuing Education For Teachers and Professionals
Teacher Professional Development
Da Vinci Collaborative offers professional development and consulting packages to school districts in a wide variety of diagnostic and prescriptive instructional practices. Through seminar, workshop courses and on-site coaching our team will customize your professional development project to suit the needs of your environment. Our highly- engaging workshops provide hands-on, practical techniques for immediate implementation in the classroom.
About Teacher Professional Development
Professional development is a requirement to maintain licensure in almost all states within the United States. Not only is continuing education a requirement, but if done correctly, it can also be an opportunity for growth, career enhancement, and an opportunity to improve schools, districts and ultimately the student experience. Requirements for professional development, such as continuing education credits, vary by widely state and many institutions exist that offer professional development opportunities. Districts and schools often offer professional development opportunities for teachers, but teachers can also seek out individual opportunities for professional development to meet their needs and interests.
While many professional development opportunities are available online, in person workshops, coaching and on-site instruction can also be extremely beneficial for enhancing teacher learning. Many of these types of workshops and programs are offered by third party professionals such as DaVinci Collaborative. These types of professional education organizations have the knowledge and expertise through their research to provide hands on customized instruction for teachers. They can also provide teachers additional resources and knowledge about more effective ways of teaching including modern methods, scientifically validated techniques, and practical suggestions for implementation in the classroom.
Professional development and continuing education opportunities are also abundant for special education professionals, and professional organizations, such as Da Vinci Collaborative, can offer customized personal development for special education teachers to help them in their unique roles. Special education and general education can both greatly benefit from continued professional development to remain current on best practices and to be continually engaged in improving the lives of their students.
The Benefits of Continued Education
Effective continuing education and professional development for teachers is critical to the success of the education system. Students, teachers, administrators and districts all benefit from having teachers who know how to make a powerful difference in the lives of students through their teaching. Knowledge is power, and while this phrase is often tossed around, truly the teachers who want to have the power to make a difference in their own lives and in the lives of students must continually increase their knowledge and competence in both subject matter and especially in teaching methods. It is how a teacher teaches that truly turns on the lightbulb of understanding for a student.
Professional development opportunities, when done correctly, can provide benefits to everyone involved in the education system, namely:
Students: Students gain from professional development by having teachers who are continually learning new methods of teaching that can help them in their individual needs. They have an opportunity to be taught by someone who is knowledgeable and invested in their success.
Teachers: Teachers can find new and more effective ways of teaching which can not only lighten their workload but can also make teaching more enjoyable and exciting as they try new methods and ways of inspiring students. Teachers who are continually innovating and challenging their students may also find better behavior in their classrooms as students become more engaged and excited about learning. When done correctly, teachers can gain knowledge and skills that they can immediately implement in their classrooms to see great results.
Parents: As parents see teachers truly engaged in helping their students learn, they can be inspired and motivated to be a greater support both to their students at home and also to provide greater support to their child’s school in the form of funding, volunteer work, and other efforts.
Administrators and District Staff: Professional development gives teachers resources to teach more effectively, which in turn, lightens the load on administration and helps the school and district to function effectively. This allows administrators to focus on other complex issues and additional programs and ways of further improving the school environment while knowing that their teachers are getting the resources that they need to succeed.
Overall, when done effectively, continuing education and professional development can become much more than just a necessary requirement, but rather an opportunity to grow and advance careers, change lives and make meaningful contributions to the learning experience.
Elements of Effective Professional Development
Gaining the most from professional development requires diligence in selecting your professional development opportunities. Whether you are a teacher seeking independent help, or a district or administrator looking for professional development for your school, understanding how to choose an effective professional development program will help you gain the most value from your investment. Through our research, which is also supported by many other institutions in education research, we have found several core principles that help make professional development or continuing education more effective.
Individualization
While core principles are crucial in understanding how to teach more effectively, these principles can be implemented in a variety of ways. Just as each child is unique and has unique learning needs, the challenges that teachers and schools face every day are wildly different. The challenges in your school may not be the same issues another school is facing, and therefore, finding professional development opportunities that allow you to tailor your experience to the needs of your school will provide a much more effective experience. At Da Vinci Collaborative, our team of specialists can work with you to customize your professional development package to address the specific needs at your school and classrooms. We want you to feel that our methods and instruction can be easily applied to address your problems and challenges in a way that helps you learn best.
Engagement and Hands On Learning
As many teachers know, engaging students with hands-on activities and experiences can greatly enhance a student’s learning. This same principle is true for teachers as well. Allowing teachers to engage with the material through interactive workshops as well as on-site coaching and collaborative discussion will help teachers to remember and master the concepts they are learning and find greater enjoyment through the process. They will become engaged in the content they are learning and be inspired to implement these new methods in the classroom. In this way, professional development is no longer just rote instruction or words on a page. It truly becomes an experience for growth and development.
Curriculum and Context Specific Instruction
While general principles and teaching methods are fundamental, helping teachers to put these principles into the context of their classrooms is what will help you gain the most from your professional development experience. Teaching methods can vary widely depending on the age of students, the subject being taught, and if the teacher is involved in any way with special education. And even if professional development is done in a group setting, professionals can still work to help those individual teachers learn to apply the knowledge and new instructional methods they are learning to their specific curriculum and situation.
Practicality and Implementation
Knowledge is only as useful to the degree that it can be implemented in the classroom to create change. Professional development that offers practical suggestions and plans for implementation allows teachers to immediately act on the knowledge they have gained and begin to see results. At Da Vinci Collaborative, we offer both diagnostic and prescriptive instruction methods and we seek to provide practical techniques and suggestions for teachers to implement in their classroom. We want all who participate in our professional development to walk away feeling that they gained both the tools they need as well as knowledge of how to use them to make measurable change in their classroom environment.
Professional Development for Special Education
At Da Vinci Collaborative, we work with a wide range of teachers and students both in the general classroom and in special education programs. We understand that each child is unique and deserves an opportunity to learn in a way that they learn best. We also recognize that, just as students with disabilities face complex and unique challenges, so do the teachers who work with these students. Therefore, their professional development needs are often different than those who teach in the regular classroom. We want to help teachers working with special education students to find professional development experiences tailored to their needs and situations so that they can in turn better meet the needs of their students and give them the best opportunity to succeed.
Teachers and paraprofessionals in special education can greatly benefit from general professional development programs and we encourage all to participate in our professional development experiences. We also know that in many situations, students with special needs spend a significant amount of time in general curriculum classrooms. Therefore, in our workshops we also seek to help general education teachers know how to work with their students with special needs while serving all of their students in the classroom. We can also customize our packages to help address the specific needs and challenges that special educators may face and we have a great team of professionals who are knowledgeable and experienced in special education. Our team has the resources and expertise to help you find individualized solutions to meet your student’s needs and to help them succeed.
Contact Da Vinci Collaborative
Whether you are a teacher, administrator or district professional, we want to know how we can help you meet your professional development needs. Continuing education is vital to the success of our students and we want to help teachers and students have all that they need to succeed and thrive in education. Feel free to visit our team page to learn more about our team and resources or reach out to us to discuss your project so we can find solutions that work for you.
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