Stop Pushing Professional Development to the Back Burner

Are you familiar with the “people are like wells” analogy? When the well is full, you’re able to give of yourself, but if you keep giving and giving, eventually you won’t have anything left for you or for anyone else.

Now, if you’re a teacher reading this, there’s no doubt you could fill a gymnasium with the time and energy you give in an average school week. It’s easy to see how PD can be bumped and pushed aside for more urgent matters. The trouble is, though, if you don’t make it a priority, you stunt your own learning and growth, you deny yourself the opportunity to connect and build a community with peers, and you remove yourself from potential career advancement opportunities. Essentially, you are setting the stage for burnout.

If you’re already thinking of all the reasons why you’re unable to add PD to your already packed schedule, maybe a quick reminder of just how terrible burnout can be is in order.

The B Word

B is for burnout. Burnout is when the passion for teaching has been extinguished. The National Library of Medicine describes it as “a psychological syndrome that teachers experience in response to chronic job stress, and includes emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and reduced personal accomplishment (PA).”

The National Education Association says burnout is driving many teachers to put down their chalk for good. And according to a Gallup poll, K-12 workers are the most burned-out group across the U.S., with 44% saying they feel the effects of burnout “always” or “very often.”

So, burnout can have a profound and lasting negative impact on your career, your students, your health and well-being, and your personal life.

If you’re wondering what the connection is between not making PD a priority and burnout, read on.

How PD Built Community and Banished Burnout

In a recent interview, Dr. Joy Karavedas, senior director of research and new program development at Orange Lutheran High School (OLu) in Orange, California, revealed how offering high-quality PD built community while banishing burnout.

OLu’s remote teaching staff were feeling dissatisfied and disconnected. As Karavedas explains, working exclusively online can be isolating, and “it’s easy to feel like you’re on an island.” They were craving opportunities to come together on both a professional and a social level. By offering ample opportunities to come together to learn or to support each other, Karavedas bolstered job satisfaction, created a sense of community and helped banish burnout. “When teachers receive high-level training as a group, it reinforces that they are not alone in experiencing these challenges.”

Okay, but can PD help fill your well with a few extra coins?

PD Can Help Fatten Your Wallet 

If you’re interested in increasing your earning potential, advancing your career or both, making time for PD should be a top priority. With the right PD you can upskill, develop new competencies or add to your skill set so you can climb to the next level. 

According to Evolllution, “96% of employers said continuing education improves job performance and 87% said it has a positive impact on pay scale.” In other words, it makes dollars and cents to carve out time for PD.

With all these benefits associated with PD, what’s stopping you?

Barriers to Beat 

Many people think the biggest barriers are time and access, but according to a D2L-commissioned survey of nearly 1,000 K-12 educators in the U.S., most teachers would make the time if accessibility improved.

The survey also points out that 80% of district administrators believe time is the obstacle to beat, while less than 50% of teachers said the same. This discrepancy highlights a greater willingness among teachers who wish to engage with flexible PD options than admins tend to believe. In addition,

• 94% of respondents agreed that ongoing PD was important to their effectiveness as educators.  
• 91% expressed interest in PD targeted to their specific needs.  

What’s more? Fifty-five percent of teachers surveyed said they have an increased appetite for online, on-demand PD compared to pre-pandemic interest. All this to say, if PD options were offered with greater flexibility, you’d most likely take full advantage.

D2L Brightspace: The Solution

Brightspace can help you make PD a priority by removing the accessibility obstacle. The integrated learning management system (LMS) provides the flexibility you need while helping you identify, enroll in and take the PD that matters most to you.

• Responsive Design: Brightspace offers mobile access and is designed to maximize productivity. It can be accessed from your phone, tablet or any other mobile device.
• User Progress: Allows you to track what you’ve completed and what remains, with a comprehensive and consolidated view of your course progress.   
• Video Tools: Supports community building by connecting to and collaborating with peers and mentors with a robust suite of video tools. You can engage in synchronous virtual sessions or asynchronous discussions.
• Video Assignments: Instructional and presentation skills can be refined in a safe space with Bongo video assignments. Get automated feedback or enlist a mentor to help improve your teaching practices and build confidence in new strategies. Video assignments support the New Teacher Induction program: New teachers can record a lesson before delivering it as part of the mentorship program. 
• Discover: Not sure what you want to learn next? The Discover feature lets you search for, find and self-enroll in PD that is most relevant to your career goals. 
• Microcredentialing and certificates: Celebrate your achievements with positive reinforcement through badging and awards.

PD and Brightspace: A Great Match

Brightspace enables flexible and timely opportunities, so you never have to push PD to the back burner again. 

It’s a go-to solution for many school districts. And they’re seeing positive results. For example, once the Durham District School Board (DDSB) implemented the Professional Learning Hub, they found a substantial increase in course offerings, user logins, courses accessed and awards earned. 

“The Durham District School Board’s Innovative Technology team has done an outstanding job developing our DDSB Professional Learning Hub supported within D2L’s Brightspace platform,” Linda Ford-DeCunha, education officer at the DDSB shared. “This platform has been a highly effective tool for my curriculum team, providing an ‘easy to use and navigate’ communication tool with the educators and leaders across the board.”  

The Key to K-12 PD Success  

With Brightspace, you can finally invest in yourself and your career. By removing barriers and increasing access, you can finally begin to replenish your well.

Working toward career goals, keeping up with mandatory training, and positioning yourself for career advancement and accolades can fit into your busy work life, and we’d be happy to show you more. Curious about getting started with Brightspace for PD? Let’s talk.  

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