First, a huge “thank you” to the adult education community for its enthusiasm and support for our Professional Development outreach during 2017!  There isn’t anyone on the PD Team—Bonnie, Daphne, Debi, or Susan—who hasn’t been energized by educator engagement.

So, after the amazing year we had in 2017 completing 110 events, what is ahead for 2018?

We’ve come a long way since the GEDTS Professional Development Initiative launched in 2014 with the basics. Back then, our goals were simple: Equip instructors with classroom strategies that would support—and deliver—student success with the then-new GED® test.

In rapid succession, we introduced the “deeper dive” components that helped instructors delve into the finer points and more comprehensive strategies; launched “Tuesdays for Teachers;” and finally, in 2016 and 2017, recruited and trained trainers to increase our state partners’ capacity to provide professional development within their states.  

For 2018, the two themes are:

  • Sustain the PD momentum; and
  • Continue to enable veteran trainers to deliver PD in their respective states.  

GEDTS and the PD Team will continue to

  • Have a strong presence at national/regional conferences and on an as-needed basis in states;
  • Rely on the 57 (and counting) veteran trainers from Train the Trainer to deliver regional/local professional development;
  • Recruit for Train the Trainer offered in conjunction with the GEDTS Annual Conference in San Diego in July;
  • Update the trainers’ workshop portfolios to keep materials relevant and timely; and finally
  • Sustain (and grow) the Tuesdays for Teachers franchise.

The first three webinars for Tuesdays for Teachers will focus on the higher order thinking skills that are at the core of critical thinking. Skills like sequencing and inferencing are applicable across all content areas. The upcoming February webinar will take a close look at sequencing—in other words, determining what comes next. We will focus in on 1) how this thinking skill is represented in each content area; and 2) provide research-based strategies to develop students’ ability to transfer the skill across the content areas. As always, we will also include suggestions for developing the skill in the context of the multi-level classroom.

See you on the road!