This summer I took four more classes toward obtaining my Masters in Education (dual certification in Childhood and Special Education). It took a lot of time from what I could have spent with my family. However, I know that as a future teacher, school does not end at the end of June. Many teachers use their time off in the summer to partake in professional development.
Professional development for teachers can come in many forms. They can take college courses, attend seminars and workshops, even district -based training. Now teachers can add using the internet as a way of obtaining professional development. Many colleges offer online courses.
The best thing that I have found, though, are networking sites that also offer webinars (web-based seminars). Many of them are offered for free. They are easy to use, and can provide teachers with skills they may not have had access to otherwise.
My favorite site is Classroom 2.0. Others that I found useful were Teacher Tap, Integrating Technology (my second favorite), and Tapped In. I have taken a couple of webinars through Classroom 2.0. And a very nice feature that they offer is that they email the week's schedule of Live! shows (webinars).
Classroom 2.0 also offers forums where you can ask questions and get responses from other professionals, links to member blogs (another valuable source of information), in person workshops, and a wiki full of information and links on almost every topic you can think of related to education and teaching.
I strongly recommend any teacher add this to their "box of tricks".
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