Professional Development for Educators to Improve the Connection between Teachers and Students

Teachers who employ creative methods to teach their students, as well as those who nurture this trait among their students are highly respected. This is because creativity is one quality that contributes to personal and professional development, and which paves way for success in life. Those in the field of education wanting to learn creative techniques can make use of a professional development or innovation workshop crafted uniquely for people like them. Such professional development for educators combine learning, travel, and association with peers from all over the world to nurture creativity in themselves as well as in their students.

Some important tools, techniques, and qualities taught in a professional development workshop

Professional development workshop for educators are designed to help establish a rapport between them and their students. This is possible through the different tools and techniques taught to the educators, as well as the qualities that they are introduced to, during the course of the workshop. Here are some of them.

  • Overcoming the fear of creativity

Human beings are inherently creative. However, the education system and the society that we live in, do not foster creative thoughts or experiences, and do not encourage its application unless you belong to a profession that needs it day in day out (like a choreographer, a script writer, a theatre artist, and so on). Professional development and innovation workshops teach educators different techniques like free form writing, which help them and their students get over blocks that make them afraid to express themselves, say the wrong things, or to experiment new stuff. Such tools work against self-censorship, and open up the participants’ mind to trial and failure, which are key to success.

  • Developing maps and scrolls

Creativity can be employed to analyze projects and processes, and develop ways for on- time and successful completion. Innovation workshops teach educators as well as their students how to develop maps and scrolls in their own research work, or that of their students.

  • Using free form writing and drawing for igniting creativity

Free form writing and drawing are two important tools that are taught to educators in creative professional development workshops. These tools help them write from the right of side of their brain, i.e., the creative side, in order to help them and their students develop innate ideas and thoughts into fruitful projects.

  • Storytelling

Communication is key to being creative. It helps a person to express himself/herself without barriers. Storytelling, be It visual or literary, is one such means to improve communication by sharing stories with each other. This tool also aids in observing other people, and empathizing with them. Such qualities, when taught help students respect one another in a classroom setting.

  • Altering perceptions

Perceptions sometimes get ingrained so rigidly in students’ minds that it affects their progress in personal and professional realms. Creative workshops introduce teachers to different techniques aimed at altering perceptions physically (through cameras, cut out shapes, kaleidoscopes, telescopes, microscopes) and emotionally (through mythology, memoir writing or inter-generational interviews), which assist them, as well as their students, in broadening their sense of the world they live in.

  • Self-nurturing

A good teacher is someone who nurtures his/her students to do exceedingly well. However, in this process of supporting their students, they forget to nurture themselves. Innovation workshops teach educators the importance of self-nurturing and curiosity so that they can strike the right cord with their students, even if it means not knowing the ‘right’ answer.

Professional development courses for teachers are beneficial to tutors in K12 to those in colleges and universities, any educator can take part in such workshops. Science, Math, Humanities, Arts, IT, Languages – the field is no barrier to any teacher taking part in such programs. Through such workshops, the educators learn to not only spark their creative side, but also that of their students, so that they can foster a lifelong love for learning among them.