Those first few days back at school before the students arrive are precious. We need time to collaborate with our colleagues and get back in gear. We also have required trainings and meetings we must attend.
For some, these days are filled with dread. Boring meetings that “could have been an email” or trainings that don’t meet our needs in the classroom.
But for others, these first few days are motivating, meaningful and even fun.
So what can we do to make Back to School professional development more inviting? And how can we incorporate teacher voice into the planning process?
During a past #Ditchbook chat, moderated by Evan Mosier and Elizabeth McCartney, educators tackled these questions and more. They shared their thoughts along with tons of ideas for making the most of these in-service days.
12 engaging activities to rock your back to school PD!
Below you will find 12 engaging professional development ideas and activities. Be sure to check out our Back to School post to see tons more ideas to share with your colleagues plus visit our Back to School Pinterest board full of even more resources.
1. Get them collaborating and critically thinking with a digital escape room!
Digital escape rooms are a super fun way to get your staff collaborating while putting on their detective hats and solving puzzles! Try putting them in groups and sharing one of these free digital escape rooms with them. Remember don't share the page with the answers until AFTER they complete the escape room!
Looking for MORE escape rooms? Check out VirtualEscapeRooms.org for tons of escape rooms for all ages including team building virtual escape rooms.
Shared by: Tisha Richmond
2. Reflect on the past year and plan for the future with MirrorTalk
MirrorTalk is an AI-powered tool designed to facilitate meaningful reflection in just 5 minutes a day. It uses advanced language models to engage users in thoughtful conversations about their learning experiences, goals, and challenges. The platform adapts to individual needs, providing personalized prompts and feedback to encourage deeper reflection.
It also provides valuable insights into the reflections both for yourself personally and your class as they respond inside of the tool.
Learn more in our new post Build meaningful reflection into class in minutes with Mirror Talk
3. Offer lots choice.
Whether it's choice as to which sessions to attend or choice of learning opportunities inside the session teachers love options as much as our students do.
A PD Explore Board is a great way to incorporate choice (AND model a great learning activity) with your staff. Our post Personalize learning with Explore Boards walks you through examples and provides an easy to use template to create your own.
Check out this "A Time to Create" PD choice board shared by Nick Riemann for inspiration and a link to the template used to create it.
You can also offer self paced PD options with our Summer PD BINGO choice board.
Shared by: Stacy Saia
4. Make superhero trading cards
If you were a superhero, what would be your powers? What would be your superhero identity?
The EduGuardians, a group of educators who love using tech/AI and sharing how it can be used, have a put a fun spin on this in the form of a trading card — one your students can use OR you can use as a super fun back to school PD activity!
Here's how to make your own:
1. Use this Microsoft Designer Prompt to create your own superhero persona.
2. Download your image
3. Use this trading card template created by Rachel Lemansky to make your own superhero trading cards in Canva. (You can even have them printed!)
4. Share on social media and tag #EduGuardians and join the team
Shared by: Kat Crawford
5. Try a school scavenger hunt.
Use an app like Goose Chase EDU, print one of the examples below or create your own, and send your PD participants off on an adventure they'll never forget!
Shared by: Amy Ronayne
6. Use ScreenPal to create staff intro videos.
Using ScreenPal for your back to school PD sessions can be a great way to connect with each other even before you see on another face to face.
Check out this video of Matt showcasing ScreenPal at ISTE Live 2024.
Also be sure to check out our ebook "Getting Started with ScreenPal" to learn how to use this powerful video tool with your staff and students.
Shared by: Elizabeth McCartney
7. Talk about time-savers (and model efficiency!)
As John Hartmann reminded us, teacher's time is precious. Be sure to keep your pd sessions efficient. You can also give teachers the gift of time by sharing your own time saving tips and help them get the most out of the hours they have.
Try out some of these and share your top ten!
Shared by: John Hartmann
If you spend lots of time with student work in Google Workspace, you need to know about Brisk Teaching. Check out the recording below as Matt shows how Brisk can support you as you provide feedback on student work, create lesson plans, and inspect student writing in minutes.
Also be sure to check out our ebook "The Busy Teacher's Guide to Saving Time with Brisk Teaching" to learn how to use Brisk to make the most of your precious planning and teaching time.
8. Play a familiar school-themed game
There are lots of ways to gamify your back to school pd and playing a school-themed game is one of them.
Try a school year Pictionary game. It's like regular Pictionary you can play with your class but all of the topics are school related.
Visit 20 Back to School Games Your Students Will LOVE for even more ideas plus printable Pictionary cards to use right away.
Shared by: Abbi Lievens
9. Use Kahoot, Quizizz, Gimkit, Quizlet, Blooket and more to gamify your PD
The best way to learn about a tool is to try it yourself. What better way to do that than to play a fun game show style game with your staff.
Idea: Have your pd participants answer a few questions about themselves and use that to build your game!
Want more ideas for how to gamify your PD? Check out our Gameshow Classroom online course.
Shared by: Katherine Goyette
Enroll in the Game Show Classroom online course!
What you'll get...
🛠 Tools to make review and practice more like a game
💡 Ideas for turning the classroom into a game
🎨 Design tips
🧩 Inspiration to build your own games
10. Assign a STEM challenge
STEM challenges are so much fun! Try one with your PD participants and give them a fun activity to do with their own class.
Try any of these from the PBS Design Squad Activity guide. Our favorite is the Watercraft Challenge which can be used again with this Introduction to the Design Process HyperDoc.
Shared by: Lisa Dick
11. Add a Family Feud-style game to your next PD
Who doesn't like adding a good game to a class or professional development session? It's great for mixing things up and breaking out of the traditional hum-drum.
PowerPoint Jeopardy! has been done for years -- probably decades at this point.
How about a Family Feud game instead?
Shared by: Matt Miller
12. Have a theme
Themes give us a great way to tie everything together in a fun way. You can use a theme to create a game, add decorations, name tables/teams and more.
Check out Themes, teams, and side quests: A superhero's guide to gamification for more ideas for using themes in your class.
Shared by: Stacy Saia
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Appreciate the clear explanations in this post. Thanks.