Professional Development Days

I am doing it. I am taking two professional development days in the middle of this week to finish up some training that I have signed up for and have not been able to access because I just haven't had the timing right. My intern will be in training this week, so it is the perfect time to take two days off to do some of my own.

This is a perk of my job. I get some days every year for professional development beyond the inservice training that the school offers and requires. It is nice to have some flexibility with my training days, and I am going to take Wednesday and Thursday to catch up with my training hours. My facility does not pay any of the fees associated with training access, but they do count my hours as work time, so I get paid for them.

This year's professional focus is on telehealth. I am learning about what others can and cannot do as educators so I can enrich my clinical presence in this area. This has little relevance to how my primary job has been going in this pandemic year, but I think it will still be interesting and important to understand how we are working in virtual settings from here on out. I have a couple of presentations that I really want to access - Become a Game Changer, Productivity for the Instructional Leader, Equitable Rockstars: Accessibility for Students with Disabilities. Those are my first picks, but I know that I will use the 16 hours that I have allotted for this to learn much more.

I am looking forward to having a couple of days this week to not go to work. I am looking forward to being in my pajamas and doing homey things while I am listening to people talk about all sorts of things. I may also use some of that time to write some conference proposals for AMTA - we shall see. 

This is actually just the most recent professional development that I have done this year. I have about seven other days of continuing education that I have already finished but did not ask for time for from my job. That happens almost every year, but I am okay with the fact that I do more of my own continuing education than I get credit for at work. It makes times like these more important to me.

So, I am ready. I have my note book, my list of things to watch, and my pajamas (which are freshly laundered). I will dive into this strange new topic of telehealth and virtual education in a way that enriches my understanding of learning and human development. I will dedicate myself to learning something new about how to educate others. I will enjoy two days of thinking about things other than what is happening in my music therapy room. I can't wait!