Continuing Professional Development

Hi, welcome to this video which is all about Continuing Professional Development or CPD as we usually call it. Now, as English teachers, probably at some point you took a course, maybe some initial teacher training or maybe you studied for 3 or 4 years at university in order to become a classroom teacher. CPD is really about continuing that study throughout your career or learning as teachers. Of course, CPD is not just for teachers but that's what we're focused on in this video. One thing it's important to say here is that CPD does not have to mean formal training. It does not have to mean a 1 or 2 or a 3 year course. It doesn't have to be something like that and that's one of the most important points I'd like to make in this video. It could be something as simple as watching a video like this or perhaps just talking to a colleague or maybe finding a new activity that you'd like to try out in one of your classes. Trying something new and above all reflecting on your teaching I think is at the heart of what CPD is all about. So why is CPD so important at the moment and such a buzz phrase? Well, firstly, governments are interested in CPD. Educational performance is very closely linked to a country's economic performance and at the centre of the educational system is you the teacher. That's at quite a high level. But also for us as individuals, I'm sure you'll agree that often after classes we want to share what we do. For example, if you have a difficult learner and you've found a way of dealing with him or her then you would like to share that with colleagues. Or maybe you've developed a new activity that you would also like to share with colleagues. This getting together, sharing, talking about what you're doing in your lessons that for me is what's at the heart of continuing professional development. Finally, I want to say why CPD is so important in this particular series based as it is on digital tools and the internet. Well, of course, it's those tools and it's the internet which gives you so many new opportunities as a teacher to develop. For example, by watching this kind of series. Now as well, it's often these tools which are coming into the classroom which are creating new areas for teachers to learn about. So that as well is why CPD at the moment is very often focused on areas related to technology or using the internet in the classroom. At this point, maybe you're thinking, hang on a minute, I don't have time for CPD. I'm teaching all week, I've got homework to mark, I've got my family, the rest of my life to live. Well, that's where I want to reiterate that you don't have to spend lots of time on it. You could just be talking to colleagues. In fact, you probably do that already. You could just be taking maybe two minutes after one of your lessons to think and write some ideas down, some internal feedback down which you can then refer to in the future. So really, CPD, as I said at the beginning, is not just about spending lots and lots of time doing formal training. It's also just about the small bits of time too which can really help you as a teacher. You might also be saying that you're not really that interested in digital tools for example or using the internet in your classes. Well, at this point, I would have to say that I think it's our duty as teachers to prepare our learners for the world they're going to be living in and the world they're going to be working in. And that means allowing them to use these kind of tools and access the internet. So as difficult as it may be at first, I really think it's important for every teacher to be open to the idea of using new tools in the classroom. If you're just starting to find out about those tools or just starting to use them in your lessons then I'm now going to give you some tips and places you can go to to find out how best to use them or maybe even share how you have best used them. The first thing to do though is to think about what your needs are, to reflect on your teaching. As I mentioned at the beginning of the video, for me, being a reflective practitioner or a reflective teacher that is really at the heart of CPD. That's what it's all about. So think about your teaching and where you would like to perhaps find out something new, use something new and maybe that's related to digital tools themselves or perhaps it's a more traditional area like classroom management or perhaps subject knowledge. But you'll need to sit down, stand up and think about these things for a moment before you actually start looking for CPD opportunities. Once you decide where your needs are, then of course you can start looking for materials or ideas to help. And the starting point for most people these days is the internet. Now you can do the first thing that comes to most people's mind which is to Google what you're looking for. That can be a good idea, it's what I would do normally. But I think it's always good to go to a website that you can trust as well, that you can rely on for quality. There are lots of really good websites out there. If you download the information sheet connected to this video you'll find links to, for example, Oxford University Press' Global ELT blog which has regular posts which can be really helpful for you as a teacher covering all sorts of areas. Don't forget as well that OUP has presence on social media so that you can find links to those blog posts and other news very easily. But of course it's not just about using Google. Very often when we're Googling for support and ideas we're sat next to colleagues who can help us with their own experience. So don't forget to turn around and talk to colleagues. And it's not just about talking to colleagues either. I think observation is a really good way to help you improve as a teacher, become aware of some of the things that you're doing in the classroom that perhaps you wouldn't be aware of otherwise. The observation can work two ways. It can be helpful just sitting in with a colleague and watching them teach, or it can be helpful asking a colleague to come in and watch you, just because it will make you think harder about what you're doing in your lessons. If you do that, make sure you have really clear guidelines for each other about what you're going to do. For example, can you speak to the learners during the class? Are you going to give any feedback if you're observing to your colleague? Make it very clear from the start what you're there for or what your colleague is in your lesson for. You can find out some more ideas related to that on the information sheet which you can download for this video. Finally, I'm sure you're all familiar with the kind of events that are organised around the country by the likes of Oxford University Press. Those events are not only face-to-face now, but might also be, for example, webinars. So, do look out for webinars that you can register for for free, as well as the face-to-face workshops and conferences which can really help you develop as a teacher. Now, that's all I'm going to talk about for CPD. I hope you found it useful. The next video in this series will be talking about how digital tools can help you develop as a teacher. So, I hope you'll find that useful too. Thanks for watching.