During the summer months, teachers are reminded
of the certainty that school begins in sixty days or less by endless advertisements,
emails and premature visits to the school.
In some cases, summer days are filled with teaching summer school,
finishing off last minute details from the previous year or simply gearing up
for the upcoming year. Very seldom are
teachers left with nothing to do over the break. For this reason, I often wonder what type of
professional development is expected of teachers over the summer.
In other industries, rarely are
employees asked to use their break as a time to work on new concepts or read up
on the most up-to-date skills, but this is frequently the charge given to
educators. Most colleagues spend their summers finding alternative strategies, buying
supplies, or simply lurking on the internet for classroom ideas. These activities should also be earmarked as
professional development.
In many instances, professional
development describes classes, webinars or book talks. However, the amount of time educators spend
gathering, learning, meeting and preparing should count as well. This summer I reflected, taught summer
school, lurked for new ideas and simply read about teaching. This summer I focused on recommitting myself
to the actual practice of teaching so that my development remains in a way that
is not stagnant. This summer has not
been like past summers because this summer I realized that teaching changes you
more that you change it and thus summer time is an opportunity to develop my
summer mind. This summer take the
opportunity to develop professionally by changing up your summer professional
development.
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