Between planning for class, teaching, grading assignments and every other big and small task that make up a CTE educator’s job it’s often easy to place professional development on the “back burner” or ignore it.
However, consistent professional skills development is essential for today’s educators, as their application of new knowledge directly impacts students and their success.
In this blog, you'll discover four professional development skills for modern CTE educators and highlight opportunities educators can take to develop their professional skill set.
1. Ability to Empower
The role of an educator in a student’s life is to inspire. Every day modern educators have the ability to empower students to be critical thinkers, innovative, create, adapt, be passionate and succeed not only in school but in life. Empowering your students can be done in numerous ways and has limitless benefits for your classroom and the world around you. One strategy educators can use to empower students is by finding lessons that can be taught through student-led projects. In this type of activity, students get the chance to research what would be learned in class and present their projects and findings to the class. This type of strategy gives students a sense of ownership and responsibility in what they learn and can reinvigorate your students and engage them back into their learning.
Another means of empowering students is to celebrate their success. When students do well on a particular exam or assignment, find a way to celebrate their accomplishment by doing something fun or even something as simple as giving out candy can be the spark to better engage students in their learning. To learn more about empowering and engaging students in their learning read iCEV’s blog on “Four Ways to Re-Engage Students in Their Learning” to discover more.
2. Innovative
Embracing innovation in education promotes critical thinking, a sense of adventure, and an openness to adapt, serving students well in the CTE classroom and the real world. Innovation in education encourages students and teachers to research, explore, and use all of the tools available to uncover something new. Innovation involves a different way of looking at problems and solving them. It also improves education because it compels students to use a higher level of thinking to solve complex problems.
Examples of innovation in the classroom don’t end at technology but rather encompass using different approaches, processes and creative strategies to reach a goal or learn something new. For example, if students are normally asked to write the definitions of terms as the class goes through a PowerPoint, instead, ask students to use the internet to research the words and have the class develop their own definitions based on their group research. To learn more innovative ways to engage students in their learning read iCEV’s blog on “12 Activities to Boost Engagement in your CTE Classroom.”
3. Continuous Learner
What makes education such a unique and challenging career is because teaching is a lifelong learning process. As the world continues to change and innovate every day, it’s the job of CTE educators to educate and equip students with the knowledge and employability skills necessary to succeed in tomorrow's workforce. While educators who teach core subjects have far fewer changes in their field year-to-year, CTE educators must adopt a growth mindset and be continuous learners to educate their students effectively.
There are numerous ways in which CTE educators can ensure they are continuously learning throughout their career. The first and most impactful way is to attend professional development experiences. Professional development opportunities offer many benefits for today’s educators and are an excellent way for educators to network and expand their teaching knowledge and strategies. To find the perfect professional development experience for you, visit our website to view FREE upcoming virtual professional development webinars hosted by iCEV.
4. Classroom Management
Classroom management increases student success by creating an orderly learning environment that enhances students' academic skills and competencies, as well as their social and emotional development. As a professional development skill, classroom management refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to ensure that their classroom runs smoothly, without disruptive behavior from students. While the ultimate goal for educators is to have a productive classroom with focused, attentive, and on-task students many experienced educators will tell you classroom management is a slow process that can take time.
Effective classroom management not only creates a healthy learning environment for students but has also been shown to develop students’ and educators’ social and emotional skills. Implementing social-emotional learning into your classroom benefits students and teachers as it helps young people and adults thrive personally and academically, develop and maintain positive relationships, become lifelong learners, and contribute to a more caring, just world.
For CTE educators, the word “busy” doesn’t quite cut it when describing what a day looks like in their shoes. However, as CTE educators aim to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in their future endeavors consistent professional development is crucial in ensuring students have the best learning experiences possible.
