• Welcome to the Professional Development Web Page 

     

     

    New PD Information - updated August 17, 2020

    Welcome to the 2020-21 school year and thank you for your interest in learning!

    This year it is vital that you READ THE COURSE DESCRIPTION as that is where you will find the actual start and end date/time for the course. In many cases there are multiple sessions of the same course, with more being added to courses that have waiting lists. The Professional Development department is monitoring the new Vitrual Professional Learning courses and making adjustments to be sure all courses are available to the teachers who need the information and they are operating as advertised. To see what courses are offered for your teaching assignment use the links in the chart below. 

    There will be no shortage of opportunities for you to learn just what you need for your teaching assignment. While there will be less variety of courses offered this year, there will be multiple opportunities to take those courses. There will be an abundance of learning opportunities this year, they will just be more focused and provided in smaller chunks of learning throughout the first semester. The Professional Development department and Instruction Department leaders are monitoring course waiting lists, creating new sessions, and offering that information to participants on the waiting lists. New sessions of full courses are being added everyday!

    The annual professional learning requirement for this year is 7 hours of District credit. This is a minimum and you are welcome to participate in as much professional learning as you would like. This year District credit will only come through Instruction Department sponsored courses.  The deadline for earning the required 7 hours of district PD credit is December 18, 2020.

    Again, thank you for being aggressive persistent learners. Your students need that from you. 

    Finally, there are a few things to keep in mind as you become a virtual student of professional learning. 

    Learning virtually requires:

    • the individual to assign significant periods of time to truly think about and engage in the work, just as a face-to-face course would entail.
    • more extensive independent reading and writing, which is much deeper learning, because lecture is not utilized as much in online learning.
    • the individual to work alone to grapple with new learning. This can be frustrating and require more time to internalize the concepts being presented. 
    • more written responses which involves more thought and preparation than the discussions typically included in face-to-face instruction.
    • you to seek out support from various methods, most of which are accessible directly in the course.

     

     

    How do you access your course?

    Facilitators may use one of several ways to start your virtual professional learning. In some cases the Schoology join code is in the course description and you can connect to the course on your own. In other cases, 24 to 48 hours before the course starts, the facilitator may either add you directly to the course, or send you the course join code via email, this may be either your Alief Outlook or Alief Google mail. If you are added directly to the course, it will show up in your Schoology account under My Courses. No matter how you access your course, you must start work on the course no later than 72 hours after the course start date/time. If you have not participated in the course by that time, you will not be able to complete that session. 

     

    For information about how to register for courses in Eduhoria Strive click this link

     

    For information about how to make online professional learning effective click this link 

  • Purpose

     
    The goal of the Professional Development Department is to increase student achievement by providing a rich variety of brain-friendly learning resources for all Alief staff members. Teachers who know more have students who know more. A big part of a teacher's job is to continuously learn and become an even better teacher for even more students.
     
    Tracee Grigsby-Turner, Ed.D. - Coordinator of Professional Development
    Tracey Birchard - Professional Development Specialist and Department Secretary
    Eduphoria SchoolObjects website - https://alief.schoolobjects.com
     
     

    Contact Information

     
    Email: grigsbyt@ga.aliefisd.net
     
    The Professional Development Office is located in the Administration Building:
    4250 Cook Road
    Houston, TX 77072
     
     

    Timeline Information

     

    Earning Professional Development hours for the 2020-2021 school year started on March 1, 2020 and this year, our goal is for all Alief staff members to fulfill their PD (or comp time) requirement by December 18, 2020. While the deadline this year is earlier than in past years, the requirement has been reduced from 14 to 7 hours. 

    All teachers and campus based professional staff (not campus administrators) are required to earn 7 hours of professional development this year. 

    Campus-based Paraprofessionals are required to earn EITHER 7 hours of professional development or 7 hours of comp time, or a combination of both.

    All educators certified after the year 2000 are required to earn 150 hours of Texas SBEC CPE credit every five years in order to renew their certification with the state. Administrators are requried to earn 200 hours in each five year period. 

     

    Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (TTESS)

    TTESS Rubric

     

    Need to Request GT Credit for a Session?

    Click here to Request GT Credit for a Professional Development session you have entered into Eduphoria