Let’s be honest: you need a break this summer. A true break. Time to sleep in, read a silly book, and soak up the long, slow evenings.
You have had a school year that I bet was both challenging and rewarding. You have earned some rest. But time away can also be clarifying; it helps us see our classrooms, our teaching practices, and our goals for the next school year in a different light.
And that’s what also makes summer a prime-time for a little bit of intentional professional development. While you clear your head, you can also set some goals for yourself and your future-students. You can breathe deeply and envision what’s next. lilyPD: Professional Learning powered by William & Mary is ready to help you do that!
Here are three ways you can use lilyPD on your own to super-charge your summer learning experiences – learning what you want, when you want.
Learn New Skills
As a classroom teacher, I have always found summer to be the perfect moment to learn something new and dream about how to fit it into my curriculum in the fall. In addition to the professional books you’re reading and Instagram reels you’re saving for the fall, lilyPD’s microcourses can quickly and flexibly feed your teacher-brain with new ideas and skills.
Browse our list of current courses. (And keep checking back! We’re adding new courses all the time!) Choose a topic about which you’d like to learn more, create a free account, and get to work!
You’re always welcome to binge an entire course on a rainy afternoon, but lilyPD also saves your progress so you can dip in and out of your learning as your schedule allows!
From helping students have meaningful classroom discussions to podcasting to nonfiction reading strategies, you get to pick what you want to learn! And, because each course is self-paced and just five hours, you choose when and where you learn, too.
Gather Resources
You don’t even have to take a course to browse, download, and use our growing toolbox of resources! Each student activity, anchor chart, and teaching guide is designed to move immediately into your classroom. You can also find teacher-facing activities that invite you to try new learning strategies, which are perfect for trying and debriefing in PLCs, too!
Even though you are not in your classroom this summer, it can be helpful to start looking through these tools and pulling resources that you can implement when you return in August.
Check out how easy it is!
Spending just a few minutes browsing these resources will give you new ideas, fresh perspectives, and go-to activities that will save you time and mental energy in the upcoming school year!
Earn Credentials
Something I love about lilyPD is that it helps teachers achieve multiple goals simultaneously – teachers can learn skills they want to learn to benefit their classrooms while also earning recertification credit!
For each lilyPD microcourse you complete, you will earn 5 hours of professional development credit, backed by the William & Mary School of Education, and ready to submit to your school for relicensure.
This summer, choose a lilyPD course (or five!) and enroll. Then, you have the flexibility to work through the course one module at a time – with your morning coffee or while sitting by the pool! At the end of the course, you can download a certificate of completion, signed by the William & Mary School of Education, awarding your 5 hours of credit!
Spending a little time with lilyPD this summer is like a gift you’re giving to Future You. Courses will re-energize your brain, our resources will make your planning time more productive, and earning professional development credit lets you cross one more thing off your school-year to-do list!
We’d love to hear how you are using lilyPD this summer! Leave us a comment!
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