Professional Development
Wendy Ayers
School of Education, Liberty University
Author Note
Wendy Ayers
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Wendy Ayers
Email: wfayers@liberty.edu
Slide 1: Title slide
Slide 2: Why professional organizations are important.
As an educator, it is imperative to maintain a membership with your professional organization. Professional organizations are in place to enhance a specific profession and support the people who work in the profession. Maintaining a membership with your professional organization offers many benefits, such as professional contacts/networking and collaboration, profession social media sites, professional conferences, profession blogs, podcasts, and webinars (Fingal, 2021).
Slide 3: Professional organization benefits.
Professional organizations connect those in specific professions to their peers. It is a support system for professional education, networking, and collaboration. Professional peers can answer questions, give feedback, offer advice, or collaborate on a project. Many professional organizations offer professional groups within the organization. My professional organization, the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC), has professional specialization groups within the organization, such as diagnostics, polysomnography, management, education, adult acute care, neonatal/pediatric care, transport, and ambulatory and post-acute care (AARC, 2023). The specialization groups offer access to peers for networking and collaboration.
Slide 4: Professional organization benefits
Professional organizations typically have social media sites to reach those in a specific profession. Professional organizations maintain a social media presence on sites such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The organization may post upcoming events, highlight member accomplishments, recent publications, but it can also be a platform to start a conversation between peers from anywhere in the country. Professional blogs, such as 5 Ways to Gamify Your Classroom, discusses ways to involve an activity kids love into the classroom (Haiken, 2021). Interactive games teach kids how to solve problems, collaborate, and utilize feedback to win the game (Haiken, 2021).
Slide 5: Professional organization benefits
Professional conferences may be in person or virtual. It consists of speakers who are experts in their professional field of work who present a lecture on a specific topic. In some professions, lectures are approved by the professional organization for continuing educational credits. In my profession, I am required to have a specific amount of continuing educational credits every two years when I renew my Virginia state license to practice. My professional organization has conferences with approved continuing educational credits. They also have a conference every year specifically for respiratory care managers and educators.
Podcasts are digital audio forums that contain a host and are broadcasted over the internet. The host invites a guest or guests to interview who are experts in a specific subject. An organization or a company hosts webinars which are online events that present focused professional educational material. In my profession, webinars are a great way to earn continuing educational credits without traveling.
Slide 6: ISTE resource one.
Name of resource: “Parents of children with special educational needs’ shared work in fully online learning” (Rice & Ortiz, 2022).
This article discussed parents with special needs children, and their decision to use online schools instead of in-person schools. A teacher can learn that parents choose this option even though disability resources are less than in-person schools. The challenges parents face is how to make online learning work for them, finding ways for their children to have peer interaction, and getting the help they need (Rice & Ortiz, 2022). Parents interviewed in this article chose an online educational format because they felt their children were unwelcomed learners in in-person schools, they could shield their child’s body from judgement, and keep them safe (Rice & Ortiz, 2022). Depending on the child’s disability, parents complete some of the schoolwork, but also must explain the content to their child. Essentially, the parent is a student as well as a teacher because the parent may look up content on the internet, if they are unfamiliar, before teaching it to their child.
Slide 7: ISTE resource one.
This resource helps me with remembering that patience with any student is necessary. I do not teach k-12 nor special needs children, but all students need patience. I have developed more patience over the last 33 years since I have dealt with hospitalized people at their worst. I carried these skills over into the classroom while dealing with students. This resource applies mainly to k-12 education, but it can apply to higher education. Students in higher education can receive accommodations if their doctor completes an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) form that is sent to the college ADA compliance department.
Slide 8: ISTE resource two.
Carl Hooker hosted podcast: “A simpler, more efficient approach to social-emotional learning” (Hooker, n. d.). His guest were Michele Haiken and Mark Gura who co-authored the book Creative SEL: Using Hands-On Projects to Boost Social-Emotional Learning.
Carl Hooker’s interview focused on ways a teacher can learn creative methods to incorporate social-emotional learning (SEL) into existing curriculum with activities that are art based, STEM based, kinesthetic, and problem based (Hooker, n. d.). The two authors stressed how SEL activities can integrate with current curriculums and keep students engaged. Its purpose is for students to self-explore, reflect, and collaborate with peers to think critically and develop content and life skills (Hooker, n. d.).
Slide 9: ISTE resource two.
Integrating SEL activities into current curriculum is a concept any teacher can use. I currently use problem-based learning in my curriculum to promote critical thinking and decision-making skills. I use patient case studies that students must work through to figure out a diagnosis and treat a patient for best outcomes.
SEL activities incorporated into current curriculum is a model that is appropriate for k-12 education as well as higher learning. The model creates engagement and collaboration among students, and it builds on critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Slide 10: ISTE resource three.
“The future is also our past: How we ensure all teachers are prepared for teaching in the classroom of tomorrow” (McElroy, 2020).
Teachers, but more importantly, educational leaders need to embrace technology in all schools. This article discusses how most schools are still teaching the same way as they did in 1980 (McElroy, 2020). The entire k-12 as well as higher educational system needs an overhaul, but for that to happen, they need visionary leaders (McElroy, 2020). Teachers need to step up and push for a modernized classroom to meet the needs of today’s students, and employment of visionary leaders who want classrooms that better prepare our students for the work world they will enter.
Slide 11: ISTE resource three.
What I learned from this article is there are too few visionaries and many who think “this is the way we have always done it so why change.” I use as much technology that is available to me, and I employ techniques that are non-traditional such as SEL. My college president is a visionary, but the reality is that vision only goes so far before lack of money rears its ugly head. Many k-12 and higher educational institutions do not have the money to implement expensive technology, but there are still many ways to plan student-centered learning that is inexpensive.
K-12 and institutions of higher education both benefit from visionary leaders who want to utilize technology and SEL. All classrooms can benefit from student-centered learning that promotes critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making.
Slide 12: ISTE Edtech conference.
ISTE Live 22 Edtech conference was held in June 2022. The conference encompasses multiple formats. The main formats were Ed talk sessions, interactive sessions, creation labs, playgrounds, posters, and panel (ISTE Live 22, 2022). All the formats offer dynamic lectures and interactive lectures about classroom educational technology, online tools, apps, digital game-based learning, and SEL activities. The sessions also teach attendees how to incorporate this into their classroom to promote critical thinking, student engagement, and student-centered learning. There were resource sessions for teachers on how to go paperless, incorporating curriculum supplements, and understand ISTE standards.
Slide 13: ISTE Edtech conference.
I would choose any sessions that were interactive. The first session I would choose “Ready player one? Augmenting digital game-based learning.” This was an interactive session on how to “gamify” your classroom to enhance student collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and engagement (ISTE Live 22, 2022). I want students to love learning, and what better way than through games.
The second session I would choose “Hipster Google – Tools you probably never heard of.” I chose this session because it introduced hidden Google educational tools. I get excited learning about online tools to assist me in simplifying my classroom.
Slide 14: References
References
American Association for Respiratory Care. (n. d.). AARC membership benefits.
https://www.aarc.org/aarc-membership/aarc-membership-benefits/
Fingal, J. (2021, October 14). 6 ways Edtech coaches can easily build professional networks.
ISTE. https://www.iste.org/explore/professional-development.
Haiken, M. (2021, February 12). 5 ways to gamify your classroom. ISTE.
https://www.iste.org/explore/In-the-classroom/5-ways-to-gamify-your-classroom
Hooker, C. (Host). (n. d.). A simpler, more efficient approach to social-emotional learning
[Audio podcast episode]. In Learning Unleashed. ISTE Radio.
https://www.bamradionetwork.com/track/a-simpler-more-efficient-approach-to-
social-emotional-learning/
ISTE Live 22. (2022, June 26-29). https://conference.iste.org/2022/program
McElroy, D. (2020). The future is also our past: How we ensure all teachers are prepared for
teaching in the classroom of tomorrow. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher
Education 36(4), 202-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2020.1800339
Rice, M. F., & Ortiz, K. R. (2022). Parents of children with special educational needs’ shared
work in fully online learning. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 1-15.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2022.2030269
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