Online Professional Development on the Adventist Learning Community

Online professional development has become a significant learning tool for educators. As a teacher, it gives you the opportunity to learn new skills, strategies and best practices that you can apply in your classroom right away.

The Adventist Learning Community (ALC) is an online educational platform for continuing education. With your ALC account, you can access free professional development courses created for Adventist Teachers. On ALC, you can also access Adventist Teacher Connect, a partner platform, to interact with other teachers and classrooms around the world.

Here are some of the recently added short courses on ALC:

Ways Teachers Can Prepare Themselves to Teach Amid COVID-19 and More
Explore the physiological effects of trauma, specifically in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn about the effects of stress on the brain and how to manage emotional challenges including stress and anxiety. Learn techniques to help you take care of your own mental health. Learn strategies to help you build community with your class and how to teach students to regulate their emotions.

Project Based Learning in the K-12 Classroom
This course focuses on project-based learning, enabling teachers to develop unit plans, guided by a driving question which leads to a public group project by students. Learn to identify the main components of PBL, design a PBL unit and manage whole group and small group collaboration.

Teaching a Flipped Class
Learn how to send instruction home and bring “homework” into your classroom, where you can help your students when they get stuck. Learn how to structure a flipped class, evaluate the right tools, and produce effective instructional videos.

Classroom Management, Zoom Style
Teaching over video conferencing requires a whole new set of teaching methodologies. You cannot walk over and stand next to the distracted student. This course will give you three methods to keep your students more engaged and learning while they are at home.

Paper to Digital – Transforming Your Assignments
Learn the steps to easily transform your paper assignments into powerful digital ones using Google Docs. Learn how to format assignments, add interactive links to assignments and add Google Drawings to assignments.

One Room School and Remote Teaching
One-room school teaching is a high calling but doing it remotely brings in all sorts of unique challenges. This course will help you remotely manage instructional resources, schedule time with all students, engage older students with helping younger students, and integrate families with projects and activities.

Methodologies for Learning Management Systems (LMS)
In your classroom everything has its place. You may have a board that you present from, a screen for multimedia, shelves for your books, baskets to submit homework, and filing cabinets for your papers. Use your Learning Management System (LMS) in a similar way. In this course, you will learn how to effectively use your LMS to teach your students, regardless if they are at home or at school.

Professional development gives you the opportunity to reflect on your own teaching practice and make improvements that will help you meet your students’ needs. Browse through the Adventist Learning Community course catalog to find courses that will help you in your professional growth.

Author

Paola Oudri

Paola Franco-Oudri, MAT, is Associate Director for the Adventist Learning Community of the North American Division. She has worked as an elementary teacher and has a passion for Adventist Education. Her goal is to inspire a love for learning and a love for Jesus in young people.