Professional Development Transcript

Below is a transcript of the most intentional and valuable professional developments that have directly impacted my teaching career. While this is not a comprehensive list of each professional development I've attended, it does compile stand alone trainings and trainings I have received credit for.

Professional Development acronyms:

GVSU - Grand Valley State University

ISD - Intermediate School District

PD - Professional Development

Seeing how other educators manage their classrooms, engage during their lessons, and stay up to date with best practices is one of my favorite parts of my career. Historically, teaching has been a profession where each educator worked on an "island" - isolated and without support. 

Thankfully, there has been a shift in the paradigm, and the district where I am employed has began to encourage participation in learning labs. Each time they are offered, I sign up either to host or to observe. While serving as a host teacher, I welcomed six outsiders, consisting of peers and facilitators, into my classroom to watch me teach a math lesson. After, they provided noticings and had time to ask questions. The experience was incredibily beneficial to me  as I had to actively think about my teaching - something that becomes automatic after a while! I am scheduled to participate again in May of 2026. 

In April of 2024, I spent two full days learning about and participating in restorative practice training. This training is incredibly valuable to my practice as it emphasizes the value of working through conflict and gaining resolution between two parties. This practice has been beneficial in handling conflict in the classroom as well as between colleague disagreements.

Another key point of this training was the value of community circles. While community circles can be used during conflict resolution, they can also be part of a classroom's daily routine. Conflict resolution and community circle procedures have greatly impacted the way I manage my classroom, and the way that my students bond together as a unit. 

This training shared valuable tips for making Google Chrome and the Google Suite even more user friendly. I learned how to pin tabs, make groups, and rename bookmarked tabs with emojis! While these practices are simple in theory, they have made my daily routine quicker and more managable. Rather than having every tab open at one time, I am able to bookmark sites that are used daily, put groups together for temporary needs like organizing information for a field trip or small group, and keep my most used sites, like Gmail and Calendar, located at the far left side of my tabs. These tricks have revolutionized my digital organization. 

Learning about brains and development that have been affected by trauma has interested me since I began my teaching career in 2019. When I was in undergrad, trauma informed practices were just entering mainstream discussions. The more I can learn about how trauma affects students and their families the more adequetly prepared I feel. 

GVSU offered a free course about what trauma and resilience look like in children, and what that means for the adults that work with them in a non-familial capacity. The course focused on the 4 universal needs, and being able to identify differences between grief and trauma. Being able to identify what stress looks like in children, as well as knowing when a child is too stressed. Through the course, I was able to learn strategies to cultivate resilience and support students who are dealing with more than a child should.

Post COVID-19 shutdown, the district I work in had Stephanie Grant, a children's trauma specialist,  provide virtual professional development to help us navigate the feelings and behaviors we may see in our students, as well as ourselves, as we reenter the world. Something that still sticks with me is that Stephanie prepared us to see trauma responses in children who have not have an otherwise traumatic life. The pandemic stopping the way that life functioned was traumatic enough for those with regualted emotions and lives.

While this was a targeted PD in response to a historical event, the training has impacted my practice many years post pandemic. Knowing how traumatic events can impact all children has shaped how I interact with the amazing children I work with. It helped me view students and families with humanity, when otherwise the relationships can seem transactional or disengaged. 

In return for speaking in a panel of first year teachers, I was given the opportunity to attend the Math in Action conference at GVSU. This conference consisted of multiple sessions lead by teachers and administrators from around West Michigan. Each presenter was able to share a strategy, skill, or platform that impacted the way that they teach math. 

As someone who does not identify as a mathematician as a child or an adult, it was incredibly valuable to hear from peers who felt the same way, yet still love teaching math to their students. The most memorable session that I attended focused on number talks. We were taught how to present a number talk to students, watched a prerecorded one in action, and then participated in one as if we were students. What stuck out to me the most was the presenter being okay with mistakes and how they provided time at the end of students to give each other feedback.