Developing your own professional development activity for CEUs

Most districts include an option in their professional development (PD) plans that allows teachers to design their own PD activity for CEUs, whether these activities take place on district-wide PD days or on the teacher’s own time.  However, many teachers are unsure of what constitutes a sound, well-designed PD plan and don’t take advantage of this option.  Designing your own activity or long-term plan may take some time, but is well worth the effort if it’s based on these principles…….

q       the focus of the plan should be on what you need or want to learn that will have an impact on your teaching and hence, on student learning;

q       the learning outcomes describe what you will learn through the plan;

q       the learning outcomes connect to student learning, although the connection may not be immediate;

q       the plan may be based on you working alone, working with colleagues, or a combination of both;

q       the learning outcomes can be measured or observed in some way;

q        the activities planned are appropriate for your learning style, an allowable cost, and a realistic time frame.

Follow the steps below to complete the form “Description of a Professional Development Activity for CEU’s”

1.  leave blank  --  name of approved provider; provider no.

2.  complete  --  title of activity………give your project / plan a name so it can be easily

identified (for your purposes, it may be easiest to relate the name to the content)

3.  leave blank  --  assigned activity number……..the district CEU coordinator does this

4.  complete  --  activity start & end dates ….if your activity will take only 1 day, they

will be the same date; if your activity takes multiple days, the 1^st is your start date and the last is your end date

5.  complete  --  number of sessions & dates of sessions

6.  leave blank  --  evaluation completed

7.  complete  --  total contact hours…this is the number of hours you will actually spend

in the learning process; do not include lunch or break times

8.  leave blank  --  no. CEUs awarded; date CEU certificates issued; total no. participants

awarded CEUs……….district CEU coordinator fills these in when your CEU certificate is made and given to you

9.  complete if applicable  --  name of presenter(s)…..this applies only if you are having

someone who is not part of your group present a workshop, facilitate the group, or in some other way ‘lead’ the learning process;

10.  complete  --  appropriate focus…..choose from those listed

11.  complete  --  learning outcomes……..this is the most important part for  you; in this

section, describe what you will learn or have an increased awareness of as a result of participating in this activity or project

12.  complete  --  effect on student learning……. in this section briefly describe how this

will affect how or what your students learn; these effects may be short- or long-term, depending on the type of project you design

13.  complete if applicable  -- additional requirements…describe what, if anything, you

will do to be successful in this activity or project; in most cases, when you design your own activity or project, everything you do is part of the whole project, so there would be no ‘additional requirements’

14.  complete if applicable  --  evaluation methodology… if you’re working in a group,

perhaps your ‘evaluation’ will be the extent to which you reached your objectives; if you are creating a product as part of your plan, the finished product might be your ‘evaluation;’ in other cases, you might keep notes or a summary of your activity as your ‘evaluation’

15.  leave blank  --  CEU coordinator signature and date.