Time.

One of the most convenient elements of online professional development is the ability to connect to your learning just about whenever and wherever you may be.  Educators create professional learning spaces online because it delivers flexible access to new ideas, perspectives, and growth. Schedules are busy, and finding the right professional development in your area to match your specific needs, goal, and schedule often can be a challenge.

So, how can PD webinars differentiate for your needs and schedule? If you are an administrator, perhaps you are seeking ways to “flip” professional development using webinars to engage staff in meaningful conversations. If you are a classroom teacher, the array of webinar topics and formats gives you personal choice.

Here are five solid ways webinars can stretch thinking, enhance school practices, and slip right into your schedule.

1. Attending a webinar online is personalized PD. Not only can you see and hear the authors as if you were sitting across the table from them, you can also ask questions or share thinking in a chat box with the authors and the other participants.

2. Joining a webinar means no travel! Just grab your device, log on, and dig in to the session’s learning experiences.

3. Depending on your time zone, you might be able to log in to a webinar not long after the students depart your school, which means no need to write sub plans!

4. Flexibility! Dream webinar series takes place during the school day? No problem! You can still join a series and access the recording when you finish the day or while drinking coffee on a Saturday morning.

5. Webinars typically link to a text that perhaps you have already read, are planning to read, or looking to delve deeper into with colleagues. By combining the text, webinar, and conversations, you have more support to create shifts or changes for the benefit of your students.

In this sample clip from a recent single-session webinar with Mindset for Learning authors, Kristine Mraz and Christine Hertz explain ways we can integrate teaching social competencies into content areas. Take a peek into the chat box to see the conversation that occurred from participants during the live webinar.

Dan Callahan, award-winning educator in professional development and the Training & Professional Learning Specialist for the Massachusetts Teachers Association, asserts if we expect teachers to be differentiating for students we should be modeling this by differentiating PD for our teachers! Whether you are a classroom teacher, a specialist or an administrator, consider the ways that webinars can differentiate by providing choice and flexibility for professional learning in your district.

Here are some of your choices for Heinemann PD webinar series starting soon!

• Lisa Eickholdt and Patricia Reilly: Writing Workshop Essentials: Environment, Structures and Lessons (3 sessions, starts September 15, 2016)

• Dan Feigelson and Ellin Oliver Keene: Using Reading Conferences to Foster Student Engagement, Agency and Critical Thinking (3 sessions, starts November 28, 2016)

• Christine Hertz and Kristine Mraz: A Mindset for Learning: Teaching the Traits of Joyful, Independent Growth (3 sessions, starts October 13, 2016)

• Lindsey Moses: Supporting English Learners in the Reading Workshop (4 sessions, starts September 12, 2016)

• Christopher Lehman and The Educator Collaborative colleagues: Classroom Essentials for Right Now: Resources and Conversations to Start the Year Strong (4 sessions, starts September 14, 2016)

Find out about all of the Heinemann Online PD live and pre-recorded webinars by clicking here. If you have never participated in a webinar before or have any questions, please email us at OnlinePD@Heinemann.com or call 800-541-2086, Ext. 1100.