Professional Development
This content is designed for school and district-level teachers, administrators, and others interested in improving professional development. It includes a comprehensive view of professional development and links to a variety of professional development tools.
WEB SITES
Harnessing the Scientific Spirit to Improve Learning
At this site and through our "radio" podcasts, we'll begin to explore the new "scientific revolution" in education—the movement to make our practice more objective and, consequently more effective.
Technology Professional Development Web Site
Valuable planning resources for technology professional developers, school technology specialists, and K-12 administrators are organized around several themes: Visualizing Technology-Supported Engaged Learning, Current Reality, Effective Staff Development, Evaluation, and Implementation.
Curriculum Mapping Web Site
The successful Curriculum Mapping Web site is an interactive site designed to assist districts in their efforts to map out new mathematics and science curricula. Using this interactive mapping tool, educators are able to compare local mathematics and science curricula data to that of top-achieving nations identified in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
TOOLS AND RESOURCES
Professional Development: Learning From the Best
This tool takes the best practices of 20 award-winning schools and districts nationwide and organizes them into a step-by-step planner for designing and implementing professional development. It will help you put your ideas into action, prepare you to work hard—and together, recognize that you don't need to be an expert, and use the resources available.
Learning With Technology Profile Tool
The Learning With Technology Profile Tool helps teachers and technology planning teams consider how they use technology to achieve engaged learning. The Learning With Technology Profile Tool is available as a free downloadable computer program and as a World Wide Web page.
Leadership and Learning With Technology
The Leadership and Learning With Technology modules support educators in their journey toward effective technology integration. Administrators, classroom teachers, and other members of the education community will find direction, reflection, and resources to gain greater understanding of technology's impact on learning. These six interrelated modules focus on the planning and actions essential for initiating, implementing, managing, and supporting a productive educational technology plan in schools.
SERVICES AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Learning With Technology Facilitator's Academy
The 2-day Facilitator Academy prepares inservice providers to offer the Learning With Technology course. The Academy features a combination of hands-on activities, simulations, and case-study analyses that focus on effective use of technology in teaching and learning. During the two days of intensive study, participants learn and practice facilitation skills, experience engaged learning and constructivist teaching practices, and prepare themselves to deliver the Learning With Technology (LWT) course in their local school or school district.
Learning With
Technology Course Resources
These resources, from the Learning With Technology Participant's Manual and Facilitator's Guide, are integral parts of the LWT course. A number of these may be useful when incorporated strategically in the design of professional development programs that focus on student learning. The documents are available as downloadable PDF files. These materials may be reproduced without alteration for non-commercial, educational purposes.
ONLINE PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Notes & Reflections
Notes and Reflections is a Web-based newsletter for professional development providers. It offers practical information—ideas, strategies, tools, and resources—about topics of special interest to professional developers who are working to improve school performance.
State Policy on Professional Development: Rethinking the Linkages to Student Outcomes (1999)
As states have begun to consider requests to fund more extensive professional development opportunities for teachers, many state legislators have asked what returns they can expect from their increased investment. This paper develops a preliminary framework that can guide policymakers in focusing their inquiries.
Technology Standards for School Administrators
The Collaborative for Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA Collaborative) has developed and documented a national consensus on what Pre-K-12 administrators should know about and be able to do to optimize benefits of technology use in schools. This consensus was released by the TSSA Collaborative in November 2001 as Technology Standards for School Administrators (TSSA). NCRTEC, a founding member of the Collaborative, makes the TSSA available in a Web version, a PDF version (3.6 MB), and in printed format. Contact ncrtec@ncrel.org for the print version. For further information, visit the TSSA Web site.
State Programs for
Funding Teacher Professional Development (1999)
A group of delegates from state legislatures, governor's offices and
state departments of education in the North Central region commissioned
this study during a meeting on education policy issues. These delegates
were interested in how various states funded teacher professional development—what
should be the proper level of funding and the proper mix of state and
local funds to support teacher professional development? The study asked
states to provide information about state mandates for teacher professional
development and continuing education and about the funding of those
mandates. The results reported in the study are organized around an
analysis of 6 of the 7 states in the North Central region, along with
13 other states from around the United States.
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