We’re giving away a $200 gift certificate to use at freespirit.com to one lucky winner! Last month we provided a variety of professional learning resources in three subject areas (early childhood education; differentiation, gifted, and special needs; and mental health and SEL) for your summer professional development. This month, we want to hear about what you are learning.
To Enter for a Chance to Win: Leave a comment below with one thing you have learned on your summer PD journey.
You haven’t started yet? It’s not too late! Visit freespirit.com/SummerPD to choose your subject and start learning. Whether you have a few minutes or a few days to devote to professional development, you’ll find a resource that fits your needs.
Entries must be received by midnight, July 23, 2021. The winner will be selected at random and contacted via email on or around July 26, 2021, and will need to respond within one week to claim the prize or another winner will be chosen. Winner must be a US resident, 18 years of age or older.
We welcome your comments and suggestions. Share your comments, stories, and ideas below, or contact us. All comments will be approved before posting, and are subject to our comment and privacy policies.
© 2021 by Free Spirit Publishing. All rights reserved. The views expressed in this post represent the opinion of the author and not necessarily Free Spirit Publishing.
In these tough times, I need to also take care of myself.
I love doing PD in the summer and learning new techniques and strategies to implement during the school year. I have really enjoyed attending webinars and workshops on mental health and social and emotional issues that young people face. Thank you Free Spirit for providing resources for educators, counselors, and social workers.
I just watched a webinar on culturally responsive teaching and SEL, got some great tips! Would love to have more books and other materials that support cultural diversity in education.
I love learning and doing PD in the summer. I am a school social worker and I have really been loving learning more about how to support children and their mental health and social and emotional needs. I have learned some new strategies that I am excited about implanting. I have been doing webinars as well as a few workshops and I am so excited for the 2021-2022 school year. Thank you for always offering resources and information for educators, counselors, etc! 🙂
*implementing
I am learning so much about racial equity abs how it affects EVERYTHING. I am attending a conference tomorrow virtually by BUILD initiative, focusing on racial equity in Early childcare.
Through my summer PD I have learned many more strategies to help students struggling with issues that impact their school performance such as racial issues that present themselves in the school and community as well as issues that are caused by trauma. I feel better prepared going into the new school year.
I’ve been attending lots of webinars this summer and doing a lot reading. I’ve been focusing primarily on social emotional learning and on classroom management. I’ve also been evaluating my core values and beliefs about education and childhood.
Free Spirit lead me to Harvard’s SEL Kernels. What a fantastic resource!! I love the way they have organized the competencies and activities. Thank You!!
I stressed out at doing distance learning all day long trying to learn everything I could and not miss anything. I was exhausted every day I worked on gifted curriculum, strategies, and higher-level thinking skills. I learned to concentrate on getting one skill, technique, or idea well at a time then later when I am reflecting over the daily experience, plan times to perfect and work in other items I want to add.
The most important thing that I have learned through my summer professional development journey is to take time to rest, and care for myself as I help my school develop a much needed student services and counseling program. Boundaries are an important and difficult part of the job, and I’m learning that I am only useful if I have my priorities focused on healthy rest habits so that I can be a refreshed resource for my community.
I’m also learning that there is so much to learn, and It’s been a really great summer discovering new ways of loving our students well!
I just watched the webinar on recognizing & successfully teaching kids who are twice exceptional. It was FANTASTIC! The information was clearly presented and many strategies were shared. As a special educator, I am often working with kids who I suspect are 2e but few are identified. I bought the recommended books and plan to share with my colleagues during co-planning meetings. Thank you so much
I am currently attending the ASCA national conference virtually. I am re-motivated and ready for the coming school year.
zvery interesting constructive
I know that as helping professionals that we have to stay ” in the Know” when it comes to creating interventions and teaching skills that can assist our youth to be successful citizens!!!
The most important lesson I have learned through my summer PD sessions is that it all starts with self reflection. I must honestly reflect on my practices before I can change them
I enjoyed the pd about social emotional learning. I think it is so important to incorporate this into our everyday lessons. starting from a seed and growing this skill over time so that our future leaders have the healthy minds sets they need to be successful.
PD on SEL was pretty enlightening. I feel that emotions will be all over the place after such a different year.
I have been watching webinars all summer working on my PDP’s. Hands-down today was the best one I have taken all summer. Thank you so much for offering such quality programming. Gwen McNierney
Developed some additional strategies to use for teaching kids coping skills.
I have learned quite a bit through this journey, both for myself and my students. After a horribly difficult and disheartening year, it was a literal wake up call to read How to Renew Your Sense of Purpose as a Teacher During Difficult Times. Teacher burn-out is probably at an all time high with the challenges and changes this COVID school year has presented, and I didn’t realize how strongly I felt the same way until recently. Reading this article gave me that much needed push to pull myself out of that rut and refocus my energy on what matters most in my job. It’s not the paperwork, policy changes, or staff meetings, but on my students and their need for me to continue to be the one consistent thing in their lives right now.
Summer is a good time to do PD. I learned that all children have their own learning style and need to be individualized to help them learn the best way they can
I learn to continue my self-care as a teacher to provide children the best education in being present with the children play learning.
One thing that I learned on my Summer PD journey is, “Trauma is not limited to extreme violence, abuse, or neglect.” And calming color schemes can help children feel at ease.
The importance of taking care of my wellness.
My summer PD journey had not started as I am an 11 month employee but being a counselor my PD will focus on mental health and when I am don’t with the PD I’ll be a certified mental health specialist. So worth the 50 PD hours.
I have been doing lots of webinars. I have focused on a little bit of Google tools (Drawings, extensions, etc) but mostly on SEL. I love adding useful acronyms for my toolkit: F.L.I.P. C.A.L,M. I have also been inspired to create my own piggyback songs for use in the classroom