Professional development courses are an important part of a teacher’s professional growth. With the help of these courses, teachers can learn new teaching strategies and techniques to become better educators.
Strobel Education offers a variety of free online professional development courses for teachers that cover a range of topics such as standards-based grading, trauma-informed practices, classroom management, growth mindset, social-emotional learning, and more.
This article will discuss three key professional development courses that can help you unlock your potential as an educator.
Course #1: Standards-Based Grading: Implementing a Meaningful Grading System That Improves Student Success
Grades should provide answers rather than raise questions. But it’s often the opposite that happens.
When students are scored on an unequal proportionate scale, we fail to see the specific areas of growth that would improve proficiency.
Numbers and percentages become meaningless because they’re unable to tell the full story behind a student’s level of understanding, causing our students to miss out on the specific feedback they need to make improvements.
But what if scores didn’t require the interpretation that’s often needed before they could inform classroom instruction?
Standards-Based Grading is a system that clearly identifies the standards students have mastered, tracks specific progress, and illustrates the big picture for long-term development.
If our free standards-based grading mini-course, we give you access to model 1 of the full course. You’ll be intrigued when you learn the three big problems with the current grading system and why using a standards-based grading approach paints a clear picture of student achievement.
Course #2: Social-Emotional Learning: Essential Lessons for Student Success
At Strobel Education, we believe it’s important to teach students to be good at both schools and in life.
As a former 4th grade teacher, I wanted my students to leave my classroom and be stronger readers, writers, mathematicians, and so on, but it was just as important to me that they walk out the door and know how to be good at life.
And that means teaching them strong social-emotional lessons that help them navigate feelings of stress, conflict, and failure.
It’s extremely difficult to teach rigorous instruction and redirect challenging student behaviors at the same time. But imagine how challenging it is for our students to focus on their learning without the tools they need to self-regulate their own emotions and behaviors?
Studies show that happiness and well-being are closely correlated with productivity and performance.
This means that as educators, it is our responsibility to invest in both our students’ academic and personal development.
In our free social-emotional mini-course, you get access to model 1 of the full course. In this module, you will learn the growing need for social-emotional learning, why these lessons are critical, and how trauma affects the behaviors we see in the classroom.
Course #3: Trauma-Informed Practices: Transform the Classroom to Combat Adverse Childhood Experiences
Unfortunately, students enter our classrooms carrying struggles and experiences we could never imagine.
If we want all students to thrive in our classrooms, we must understand how trauma affects learning and utilize Trauma-Informed Practices to help students succeed.
When we infuse Trauma-Informed Practices in our classrooms, we can cultivate a supportive and trusting environment where our students are motivated to learn, demonstrate grit and nurture a resilient mindset. In this workshop, we give you the strategies you need to face these challenges and improve your students’ overall well-being.
Our free trauma-informed practices course gives you model 1 of the full course. In this module, you will learn what trauma is, the different types of adverse experiences students enter our classrooms with, and how to support them.
Benefits of Online Professional Development Training for Teachers
There are many benefits to taking online professional development courses for teachers.
These online courses provide teachers with strategies for implementing a meaningful grading system, learning the importance of social-emotional learning, as well as creating positive and supportive learning environments.
They also teach different approaches to handling challenging student behaviors, creating safe learning environments, evaluating student progress, and providing effective feedback and scoring systems.
Online professional development courses help educators become more confident in their ability as an educator, which can lead them to gain respect among colleagues and students alike.
Conclusion
Professional development courses are an essential part of a teacher’s professional growth and can help unlock the potential of any educator.
Free online training courses such as those offered by Strobel Education provide teachers with the tools they need to create a healthy environment that allows students the opportunity to learn.
They also help teachers build relationships based on respect and trust, understand classroom interactions, and empower you with the tools to support students,
These courses will provide a glimpse into how modern teaching practices can help teachers reach their goals, no matter what grade level or subject they teach.
With this newfound knowledge, you’ll be able to create engaging learning environments for your students, ensuring that every student feels engaged and supported in their learning.
We would love it if you would take advantage of these free professional development training courses – it could be the opportunity you’ve been looking for to take your teaching career to the next level!
And if you’re interested in accessing our full online courses, you can find them here.