Free Workshops

The U.S. Department of Education has created a free program to help teachers improve instruction through on-demand professional development. Supporting Success is an effort to assist teachers through roundtables, workshops, a national Research-to-Practice Summit and electronic teacher updates.

The workshop presentations and materials from the U.S. Department of Education Teacher-to-Teacher Summer Workshops were developed by various individuals and are provided, free of charge, as illustrative examples of what might be useful to teachers.

The program has brought together some of the nation's most effective teachers and education experts to share with their colleagues research-based practices and proven methods of using data to inform instruction. Teacher-to-Teacher Summer Workshops, recently offered in various locations all over the United States, presented research-based practices that have been instrumental in closing the achievement gap. These workshops were taped and converted to the video-streaming format. All Teacher-to-Teacher programs are closed captioned and can be viewed either on-line or on the Florida Education Channel. These video courses will help teachers experience on-demand professional development to increase their knowledge and skills for improving student achievement.

Any educator can enroll in these professional development courses and have access to the electronic Professional System, or ePDC. This system is password protected and will give you a personal portfolio for your professional development. Your portfolio will even be maintained after completing the Teacher-to-Teacher courses, so you can return to it at a later date to take future courses for more professional development.

Enrollment is easy.

Step 1 Identify Professional Development Need

Based on the needs of the students you have recently taught or will be teaching in the future, identify an area for professional growth.

Step 2 Course Credit

Earning professional development credit, sometimes referred to as inservice or continuing education, is one of your options.

Step 3 Watching the Videos

For every Teacher-to-Teacher course there is an:

• Overview
• Course Component
• Video Notetaking Guide
• Video
• Course Assessment
• Course Follow-up Activities
• Course Handouts
• Principal's Implementation Checklist
• Professional Development Coordinator Feedback Form
• Additional Resources

Users can access each of these sections, including the video, through your computer.

DISH Network customers can also watch all the Teacher-to-Teacher programs on the Florida Education Channel (FEC), which broadcasts across the nation on DISH Network channel 9418.

All Teacher-to-Teacher programs are closed captioned.

Step 4 Successful Completion

After viewing a T2T video course, an assessment is provided for users to complete to receive official notification of course completion. This official notification will verify that the participant has completed 2 hours of professional development.

Step 5 Follow-up

To maximize participation in the T2T program, it is recommended that participants complete the follow-up activities offered for each video course. These activities, which give the user the opportunity to apply the course information in the classroom, can be downloaded from the course menu. One may even earn additional professional development credit for completing the follow-up activities.

Completing all activities provided will take approximately 10 hours.

Step 6 Resources

Links to Web sites, listing of journal articles and books are provided to assist the participant in setting up teacher study groups, action research projects, etc. for the purpose of digging deeper into the topic areas addressed by the video courses.

Educators who wish to become involved in this excellent tool for professional development would do well to look at the The U.S. Department of Education's Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative.