Unless your school is far more fortunate than most, you’ve been seeing more needy students, less funding and fewer aides. But maybe that mandatory professional development and those graduate-level teacher training courses you have to fit into your already stretched schedule can actually help. Is that too much to ask? No, it’s not, and accredited teacher training online can make getting useful, relevant training much more doable.
Online teacher training centers have varied approaches to distance education, though in general curricula are fairly similar: K-12 course content enrichment, technology, leadership, classroom management, diversity and inclusion, literacy, etc. Given these similarities, what sets apart some of the finest teacher training programs from the others?
One great feature found in some teacher training courses is an emphasis on pulling together theory and practice, merging up-to-the-minute research with real-life, practical applications. This can be seen in programs that have not only current and respected scholars as faculty and consultants in the field of education, but also master teachers who discuss how current research informs their own teaching.
Another feature of the best online continuing education for teachers is flexibility and variety in scheduling, learning modules and course offerings. A good classroom teacher knows that the best teaching is student centered. The same is true of good online education. Top online teacher training programs make use of text materials, DVDs, videos and a variety of online learning tools. Some programs offer students the option of blending self-paced learning with streamed lectures and videos plus various collaborative learning options, including study partners and online discussion groups. All of these tools share the goal making the “distance” part of the distance learning more about convenience than about isolation.
One more point worth checking out in any program is investigating whether or not there is any kind of guarantee. While almost everyone who tries teacher recertification and teacher training online from a high-caliber learning center gives it rave reviews-both for content and convenience-a full-refund withdrawal policy is just a comforting safety net. Odds are you won’t need it, but why not go with the program that has enough confidence in its product that it can offer such a safety net?