Professional Growth & Development Opportunities
PD Series TEA’s Instructional Advocacy Department is pleased to offer webinars to support teachers in their instructional practice. Our next webinar, Cultural Competence, will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 9, from 6-7p.m. CST.
The webinar is open to all TEA members. Interested participants should visit TEA’s to register. Registration closes two business days before the webinar. We look forward to your participation.
Fireside Chat Early Career Educators and aspiring educators are invited to join President Beth Brown during a virtual Fireside Chat. During this informal and inspiring event, attendees will be able to ask essential questions, share personal stories and ideas, and engage in candid conversations pertaining to education. Attendees will walk away from the fireside chat with insightful information; feeling inspired to push forward on their journey.
This event will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 6 p.m. CST. Please click here for the registration form.
National Board Candidate Facilitator Training This training will provide participants with the following: Fundamentals of candidate support, the roles and responsibilities of Candidate Facilitators, and the Architecture of Accomplished Teaching; how to interpret and apply NBPTS guidelines that ensure ethical candidate support; how to review portfolio entries and provide meaningful and ethical feedback to candidates; and the processes used for scoring portfolio entries and assessment center exercises.
Upon completing the training, the NBCTs will be designated state-certified Candidate Facilitators. In addition, Candidate Facilitators will be paid $25/hour for up to 30 hours of candidate facilitation work each academic year.
Interested facilitators can find registration on TEA’s webpage.
National Education Association Opportunities
NEA Micro-Credentials NEA offers over 100 micro-credentials to educators free of charge. These micro-credentials have been created and will be reviewed by educators.
A micro-credential is a short, competency-based recognition that allows an educator to demonstrate mastery in an area. Micro-credentials are self-directed project based professional development and offer personalized learning experiences to support educators developing skills and acquiring knowledge to improve classroom practices that support student success. They can be shared with evaluations, posted on social networks, added to resumes and in some cases turned into continuing education units.
To get started, click here.
Racial and Social Justice Webinar Series NEA’s Center for Organizing, in collaboration with the Center for Social Justice, is hosting a series of webinars for Early Career Educators centered around racial and social justice, specifically focusing on supporting educators of color. Its hope is to assist educators in understanding the effects of injustice on their ability to effectively teach in the classroom and how it manifests in various ways in a school environment.
The next webinar will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 17, from 6-7:30 p.m. CST. During this webinar, participants will examine and deepen the skills and knowledge needed to support leaders and the organization’s racial analyses.
Please click here to register for this webinar.
Atlanta Fed Virtual sessions hosted by the Atlanta Fed on February 22-23, will give your high school students an up-close look at careers with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. During the sessions, students will hear directly from an education outreach member about different careers and the skills, training, and education that may lead to a future with the Fed.
Students will have the opportunity to ask questions via the chat during the live session. These virtual career discussions are aimed at helping students consider what they might do, where they might work, and how they might get there.
Click FRBA for details and to register.
Time to Thrive– Registration is now open for HRC’s 8th annual Time to THRIVE conference! Due to the current health crisis, the 2021 conference will be held on a virtual platform on February 9-11, 2021. There will be an outstanding list of virtual keynotes, including NEA President Becky Pringle, interactive virtual workshops, online networking opportunities, and the ability to engage with virtual exhibitors. NEA is a national co-presenting sponsor for this important conference and registration for this year’s virtual conference is FREE to all NEA members. To register, click here. Then, select purchase tickets and select “Current member of the National Education Association.” To review the conference schedule, click here.
The Hunt Institute
Using Data to Support the Non-Academic Needs of Students Educators around the country have seen countless students be impacted by non-academic challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, whether they be health, social, physical, mental, or other concerns. What can states, districts, and other entities do, particularly as it relates to data, to track these students and make sure that their needs are being met? What sort of partnerships are necessary to make this possible? How do these solutions vary based on race, geography, locale, demography, income, or other factors?
The Hunt Institute will host a webinar providing tips on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 10 a.m. CST. To register, visit the website.
Governing Principals: Accountability & Assessments Following the cancellation of state assessments and the waiver of state and federal accountability systems due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers, parents, and policymakers alike have engaged in discussions around the implications for students and schools in the short- and long-term, especially for students who are more likely to be disadvantaged by current testing systems.
Join The Hunt Institute on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 12 p.m. CST, for their next edition of Governing Principals where we hear from current and former state leaders sharing their thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on standardized testing. More information can be found here.
Postsecondary Pathways: Higher Education Data and Equity As state leaders think about how to reimagine systems of higher education in ways that produce more equitable outcomes for students – especially in the wake of disruptions caused by the pandemic – they need robust higher education data systems to determine specific areas of need and measure interim progress toward equity goals. In this conversation, leading state policymakers and advocates will discuss the importance of taking a data-driven approach to equity work as well as strategies that can be used to make higher education data more accessible to decision makers.
This webinar will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 16 at 1 p.m. CST. For more information and to register, please visit The Hunt Institute.
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy & The Arts Schools and school districts across the country are working to confront systemic racism in hiring, policy, and administration. While the need to confront racism in staffing and systems is necessary, education leaders cannot forget the importance of challenging racism in their schools via their main weapon – classroom curriculum and instruction. Often viewed as an add-on, the arts are critically important to the cognitive and emotional development of children. In this webinar, hear from a range of artists about the importance of the arts and how they can be leveraged as part of a culturally responsive toolkit in our classrooms.
This webinar will take place on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 1 p.m. CST. For more information and to register, please visit The Hunt Institute.
Online Professional Development at Your Fingertips
TEA’s Education Portal TEA members can engage in asynchronous online courses and webinars to help make earning PDPs a more rewarding experience. The portal utilizes a tracker tool that automatically records and monitors PDPs learning progress as well as storing course completion certificates.
To access TEA’s Education Portal, log-in as a TEA member here. Use “tea-member” as log-in name and your membership ID as password. You can find you 10-digit member number on your TEA membership card or the address label of Teach or The TEA Public School Advocate. Go to RESOURCES>PROFFESIONAL DEVELOPMENT and click on the EDUCATION PORTAL link.