Professional Development 

Professional development. Okay, I get it. You get it.  We all get it. Professional development is important. It’s important because, as educators, we need to stay abreast of the best practices in our field. When we are at our best, we can give our students the best. Doctors take professional development classes. So do lawyers, nurses, and accountants. Learning does not stop after that final degree. However, I caught you rolling your eyes. Heck, I rolled my eyes.

Why? Well, professional development can be boring if not done correctly.  Worse than that, it can be a waste of time if one walks away from a professional development session not learning anything new at all. I can count on my fingers the many instances when I and fellow colleagues have finished a PD and looked at each other with our “couldn’t they have just sent an email” eyes. Let’s not even begin the discussion on how those simplistic “you be the student, I’ll be the teacher” role playing games present situations you could handle in your sleep.  The guest speaker, who never taught a day in her life, clicks through an array of Google Slides.  All the while, you are slouching in your seat pondering how many papers you could be grading at the moment.

Nowadays, we have the option to take online professional development. Easy. Convenient. Affordable. I understand the advantages, having taken classes online myself. However, I find that what I’m looking at resembles a student textbook. These are the rules, these are the suggestions, read them and then answer the questions that follow. Score a percentage right and you can move on to the next topic, all at your own pace. Take a test, click a button, print out your completion certificate. Done and dusted. Where is the fun in that? Where is the interaction, the collaboration among professionals? “There’s a discussion forum,” you answer. Okay. I’m still not enthralled. 

Lev Vygotsky, the Russian psychologist, said learning is social and here, at Greenlight PD, we agree with him 100%. A classroom comes alive when students and teachers are engaged in conversation and debate.  Voices give life to new ideas formed from pages in a book and personal shared experiences. This is how people develop and grow. This is how progress happens. This is why we offer in person professional development. And it’s not the kind of professional development that will have you slouching in your seat, lamenting the tests you could have scored if you stayed home. Our PD provides you with the actual research behind our activities, the statistics on which we base our decision making, and access to the materials we use in our sessions. You are exploring and creating new ways to inspire your students. You are given the opportunity to share your personal expertise with teachers from all over Long Island. 

“Sounds awesome,” you say, “but online learning would serve me best for now.” No worries.  Greenlight PD has you covered. Our online learning is equally as impressive as our in person sessions, and much more engaging than those traditional programs that leave you feeling like you just spent a fortune to read material copied from a textbook. We give you content created by teachers who have been working in their fields collectively over 20 years.  We cite the expert opinions behind the content, whether it’s grammar rules or reading strategies. We also provide exhaustive additional resources that you can delve into anytime, anywhere on your own.

So, there’s no need to roll your eyes anymore. Embrace the opportunity to earn NYS CTLE credits here at Greenlight PD, where each course is created by teachers for teachers. Teacher inspired.