Joining a Professional Organization for Professional Growth as an Educator

 

Click the link to view and listen to my presentation on the importance of joining professional organization as as educator who is seeking professional growth. 

Joining a Professional Organization Presentation

Transcript: 

There are many befits of joining professional organizations for educators.

Doing so can provide so many opportunities professionally, and even some services. Professional organizations offer opportunities for growth and advocacy, networking, leadership, and mentoring. They also publish relevant literature and offer training and credentialing. You may be able to make connections with vendors continuing education opportunities. There is advice for professional communication, as well as, perhaps, a discount.

The International Society for Technology in Education is a professional organization that has been connecting educators in order that they may stay on the cutting edge and improve their practice for over 40 years.

Their website emphasizes opportunities to find your community, to build your skills, and to grow your career. They have over 15,000 members and offer specific discussions to join on subjects such as digital citizenship or STEM. They also have dozens of webinars covering topics like remote learning or how coaches can make authentic professional development. They also offe3r sample resumes for different roles and a job board. Here’s a look at what a basic membership includes.

The wealth of information provided by ISTE is beneficial to educators who would like to grow professionally. One of my professional goals is to acquire knowledge of tech that will improve student expression. I found many resources on the ISTE website to help me in that area.

One was this article about getting your students to create their own podcasts. It spoke to the benefits of podcasting and was very motivational for teacher to try this in their own classrooms. Doing so would help students meet ISTE standards for expression in a variety of formats and platforms. All student populations can benefit from using podcasts, as it can require little equipment and can be used in any subject are and with all aged students.

Another profession goal I have is to improve classroom routines and management for using technology.

“Taming the Chaos” is article which described the various ways schools address student technology. With the fear of technology distracting students from learning, many schools have limited or even banned it; however, with effective management technology tools offer great advantages to learning for all student populations.

My third professional goal is to practice evaluating technological tools and align them with my instructional goals.

An article I found offered 5 Strategies To Embed Assistive Learning in Every Classroom (Not Just Special Ed!) | ISTE. Teachers can expect to learn about how assistive learning devices in their general classrooms, such as text-to speech, collecting highlighted text, maintain close captioning with multiple tabs open, practicing new social situations using virtual reality, as well as using translation to support families in their home language. This resource helps students by making online content more accessible using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). So in addition to serving all student populations, this is especially important for students with special needs, struggling reader, and English Language Learners.

Earlier this summer, the International Society for Technology in Education held its annual EdTech Conference.

With over 20 speakers presenting on 39 topics, there was truly something for everyone at the conference. The audience included teachers, librarians, tech coaches, higher education faculty, technology directors, curriculum specialists, principals, superintendents, and technology coordinators. With presentation sin four different formats, they offered ways for people to engage, explore, learn, and participate in a way that best suited them.

I found several sessions I would be interested in attending. This first one is called Unleashing the Power of UDL: Top Digital Tools for the Inclusive Classroom. The audience is teachers, professional developers, teacher education/higher-ed faculty, but with a skill level as just beginning. I think this would be really helpful for someone with access to smartphones or tables to use with their students to differentiate their learning.

The second session I was interested in is called One Minute Documentaries. The audience is still for teachers, coaches, and teacher education, but the skills level is intermediate. Its going to require the software Adobe Rush or Adobe Spark. I think it would be really interested to incorporate video documentaries for storytelling in the classroom and using technology that way.

A third session I was interested in was called Accessibility Tools in G Suite. If your school uses the G Suite, and you have laptops or chromebooks, this is an awesome way to find out how to make your content accessible to students through assistive and adaptive technology.

I was able to find so much information on the ISTE website to support my professional goals, emphasizing the importance of these organizations and for educators to join them.