PLTW Professional Development for Teachers

PLTW’s approach to professional development prepares educators to lead the engaging PLTW experience in their classrooms. Project Lead The Way provides transformative learning experiences for PreK-12 students and teachers across the U.S.

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  STEM Grants for Schools

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Our Elementary (PreK-5) Program

PLTW Launch taps into students' exploratory nature, engages them in learning that feels like play, and encourages them to keep discovering through activities like designing a car safety belt or building digital animations.

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Our Middle School (6-8) Program

PLTW Gateway illuminates the range of pathways and possibilities students can look forward to in high school and beyond through challenges like designing a therapeutic toy for a child with cerebral palsy, cleaning up an oil spill, or solving a fictional crime.

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Our High School (9-12) Programs

PLTW Computer Science engages students in true-to-life activities like creating an online art portal or developing problem-solving apps.

PLTW Engineering immerses students in activities like designing a home, programming electronic devices, or exploring algae as a biofuel source.

PLTW Biomedical Science students step into the roles of medical investigators, surgeons, and biomedical engineers.

 

Best Online Professional Development for Teachers

PLTW provides teachers with comprehensive support and classroom resources.

Through the Community tool within myPLTW, teachers can connect and share experiences and expertise with fellow educators from across the nation who are teaching the same PLTW courses. Community has a number of exciting features teachers can use to network and stay engaged, including the ability to ask questions and comment, like, and bookmark posts. Additionally, teachers can share files and follow peers to stay connected and share insights, advice, and best practices.

We also offer a number of resources to help districts, schools, and teachers build strong PLTW programs including an Implementation Guidebest practicesregional and national events, and more.

Additionally, our Solution Center provides support to help teachers focus their energy on what they do best: inspiring students.

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Professional Development for Teachers Online

PLTW Core Training immerses teachers in a hands-on, collaborative learning environment that challenges them to look at their classrooms in a new way. Teachers take on the role of a student, engage in in-depth exploration of PLTW coursework, and gain invaluable experience to take back to their classrooms.

PLTW Core Training helps teachers build skills and confidence around activity-, project-, and problem-based (APB) learning; prepares educators to become facilitators and coaches; and empowers them to bring learning to life through their PLTW program.

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Importance of Professional Development for Teachers

PLTW Core Training incorporates authentic, meaningful, and best-in-class online facilitation practices that ensure the quality delivery of course content. All participants interact and learn together in an environment that offers expanded resources, exciting networking opportunities, and the engaging high-quality learning experience that teachers expect from PLTW.

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Professional Development For Teachers

The world is constantly changing and evolving. Emerging technologies one day are the dominant tools in the next. While contemporary solutions develop, so do the challenges that people must overcome either professionally or personally. In order for people to meet the challenges that stand in their way, developing the skills and abilities to defeat them is necessary and often an ongoing process. Learning these skills early on in life can help make solving problems in the future easier.

Engaging students with hands-on activities, projects, and problems can empower them to solve real-world challenges and inspire them to examine how they see themselves. Critical thinking and self-evaluation are road maps that can lead to personal success. STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) can provide the foundation to allow students to grow into the people they want to be. Therefore, it’s important for teachers to teach STEM as the first step in order to have a successful STEM curriculum within a school system. It’s equally important for teachers to be proficient in teaching STEM.

Professional development
 for teachers can empower teachers to feel confident in carrying out a STEM curriculum. Professional development in education can help teachers help their students grow intellectually and personally. The best professional development for teachers can result in the best learning experiences for both teachers and students alike.

Project Lead The Way (PLTW) is a nonprofit organization that furnishes a transformative learning experience for PreK-12 students and teachers across the United States. Through the organization’s pathways in computer science, engineering, and biomedical science, students can learn technical skills as well as learn how to solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate, and collaborate with others. PLTW also provides teachers with the training, resources, and support they need in order to engage students in real-world learning.

 

Professional Development For Teachers Examples

For someone who wants to become a teacher, professional development ideas can help lay the groundwork for a solid understanding of the concepts students should learn themselves. In addition, a qualified teacher who can confidently carry out a STEM curriculum can impart that confidence in their students, who in turn can trust that the knowledge they’re receiving is accurate and worth learning.

Professional development for teachers examples can often provide a general idea of how to proceed with training. Researching teacher professional development topics can result in being well-informed enough to instill confidence when the time comes to teach students the fundamentals that might one day help them solve problems either in school, in their job, or in their personal lives.

Being well-versed in a number of professional development topics can make the difference in whether or not a teacher is capable of imparting the technical lessons that can help students improve their critical and creative thinking skills. Innovative professional development ideas for teachers can spark inspiration that can then ignite students’ curiosity and possibly better help them learn about any topic. People who are bored usually don’t respond well to new information. Keeping them engaged can be essential in successful education.

 

Teacher Professional Development Workshops

Professional development for teachers with certificates can help prove a teacher’s proficiency in a certain subject or a number of them. Having proof of qualifications can help back up a teacher’s authority in a subject. Getting to this point might require effort and work. Teacher professional development workshops can help further a teacher’s education. Engaging professional development activities for teachers can help relay information in a more effective way than being lectured.


PLTW Core Training for STEM educators is a dynamic and meaningful professional development experiences for teachers across the United States. PLTW Core Training incorporates some of the best-in-class online facilitation practices to make sure the delivery of course content is of high quality. Program participants can expect to interact and learn in an environment that offers expanded resources and networking opportunities. Master Teachers deliver the online learning experience via a combination of live sessions and interactive and collaborative opportunities that can help build long-lasting professional learning communities. These communities are where educators can share teacher professional development ideas. Anyone who completes PLTW Core Training will earn a PLTW teaching credential, which demonstrates proficiency and knowledge of a subject. Credentialed teachers can provide students with the skills needed to prosper in life outside the classroom.

 

Importance Of Professional Development For Teachers

Why is professional development important for teachers?

Teachers who have a strong foundation in a number of specific subjects can teach students better and more confidently. Qualified teachers can carry out a curriculum with an effective degree of accuracy. High-quality professional development for teachers can better prepare teachers to transform the classroom experience. Teachers who are empowered can facilitate the learning experiences for their students.

The importance of professional development of teachers cannot be understated. Teachers must learn just as well as the students they teach. Recognizing the importance of professional development for teachers can motivate teachers to attain the level of knowledge they need to change their student’s educational experiences.

PLTW Core Training offers teachers a hands-on, collaborative learning environment that asks them to view their classrooms in a new way. Teachers take on the role of a student when they engage with the PLTW coursework. Teachers can build skills and confidence around activity, project, and problem-based learning. PLTW Core Training can help prepare educators to become facilitators and coaches. The program can also empower teachers to bring learning to life, engaging students in new and exciting ways. From here, they can gain important experience that they can take to their classrooms.

 

Professional Development For Teachers Online

Accessing professional development for teachers online can offer a flexible experience that might better suit some people. Not everyone learns best in a lecture hall crammed with people. There are online professional development courses available for teachers who want to learn how to teach STEM curriculums. These courses include the professional development training program through PLTW, which can be taught online.

Attending teacher professional development workshops online can involve interacting and learning in an environment that offers networking opportunities that might not be available otherwise. PLTW can also provide networking opportunities that will benefit teachers in the future.

Some of the best online professional development for teachers can bring teaching to life with high quality content as well as provide continuing support via an ongoing professional community. Through myPLTW Community, PLTW’s networking tool, teachers can share their experiences with fellow educators from across the country who are teaching the same PLTW courses. This tool can help teachers network, stay engaged, and remain up-to-date with the best practices that can benefit their students.

 

Free Online Professional Development For Teachers

There are available options for free online professional development for teachers. Free webinars for teachers can help teachers to a certain point. Webinars for teachers with certificates can also provide a healthy foundation for educational growth. PLTW also offers free webinars that can be used to help teachers by offering additional resources on teaching best practices and distance learning techniques and tips.

There are grants available to fund STEM programs and teacher training so that schools without the budget for STEM education can still have access to online STEM courses for students. These grants include funding for the professional development for teachers earnings credentials to teach STEM. Teachers who complete PLTW Core Training will earn a PLTW teaching credential. Being credentialed makes teachers and the schools that employ them appear authoritative and knowledgeable.

Thousands of teachers across the United States know the importance of a high-quality education. These people have taken advantage of the opportunity to experience and engage with PLTW Core Training. They’ve taken their knowledge and observations into their own classrooms to reinvigorate and empower their students.

 

Free Professional Development For Teachers

Programs offering free professional development certificates as well as free professional development for preschool teachers and other free training options can serve the needs of schools and teachers. Learning can capture the minds of students and result in deeper comprehension. PLTW’s professional development for teachers is designed to engage teachers, and the coast can be supplemented with PLTW grants.

PLTW Core Training is cost effective and the benefits don’t stop when a teacher finishes the program. The PLTW Training Guarantee offers free professional development to replace STEM educators. What this means is that if a teacher with PLTW teaching credentials leaves the school system within four years of earning their credentials, PLTW will fund a new teacher to go through the PLTW Core Training to replace that educator so a school can remain committed to the PLTW curriculum.

PLTW also offers webinars throughout the school year to keep teachers up to date on program enhancements, teaching trends, and best practices. This free professional development for teachers can keep schools and students on track and not fall behind.

PLTW’s programs can inspire students to question what's possible and prepare them for long-term success. PLTW Core Training can enable teachers to provide the important lessons that can help their students thrive in a changing and, sometimes, challenging world.