Professional learning for educators has always been a summer endeavor. It’s a chance for teachers and administrators to soak up cutting edge changes in pedagogy and teaching tactics, while re-energizing themselves through connecting with other career-professionals.
 
Gone are the days when educators showed up in a stuffy classroom to sit quietly taking notes. Professional learning has gone LIVE in the best, collaborative way -- sparking a powerful wave of sharing, think-tanking and problem-solving. While basic tenets of educating students in math and reading remain the same, teaching has evolved to meet new global dynamics, swiftly-changing technology and differentiated goals to meet the learning needs of every pupil.
 
Oakland Schools is at the center of the professional development storm in Oakland County. With depth and breadth to reach over 1,500 teachers during the summer months, Oakland Schools takes its role in providing county educators with learning lab space and expert guidance very seriously. Local, national and international speakers are on the summer schedule, but educators have also stepped up to own and continue their professional growth with drop-in studio sessions, EDcamps, online learning and social media.
 
While the media has been quick to point out “what’s wrong” with the state of public education, the dedicated teachers and administrators attending and leading the workshops and conferences at Oakland Schools are clearly part of the public school “solution.” The multi-day offerings that are driving educators back to summer learning run the gamut from preschool to high school and from technical to practical to the philosophical:

• iPad Organization and Productivity for Teachers 
• Cultures of Thinking - Leadership Development
• LITERACY: Summer Academy - Conventional for Significant Disabilities 
• Formative Assessment and Instructional Learning Cycle
• Home Visiting: Partnering with Preschool Families 
• A Crash Course for Administrators: Supporting the NEW Vision for Science Education
• App Smashing Your Way to Powerful Learning and Assessment 
• Reading Strategies: Web-Based Learning Option 
• Youth Mental Health First Aid Training
• HighScope Numbers plus Preschool Math
• Creating STEM Classroom Projects Using VEX 
• Summer Digital Learning Conference
• Elementary Science Curriculum Network

Oakland Schools New Principals Institute also continues throughout the summer, providing teacher-leaders with cohort study groups and hands-on learning opportunities to create a foundation for success in their new administrative roles.  
 
The mothership of Oakland County summer professional development blasted off in June, at the two-day The Oakland County 2015 Effective Practices Conference held in Lake Orion. Over 600 participants were rocked with new ideas, world-class presenters and classroom-tested strategies; the attendees’ excitement spawned a wildly active Twitter chat under the hashtag #ocep15.
 
“It was a teacher-to-teacher conference,” commented Michael Yocum, executive director of learning services at Oakland Schools. “Effective Practices was a tremendous opportunity for peer networking, and most of the conference’s positive energy came from educators from within the county,” he added.
 
Julie Alspach, lead online learning instructor at Oakland Schools Virtual Learning Academy Consortium (VLAC), was a presenter at the 2015 Effective Practices Conference.
 
“I talked about online mentoring,” said Alspach. “It’s a shift. Online teaching and mentoring build out of traditional teaching and mentoring practices -- there’s still a need for feedback and relationships, but it’s a different process,” she added.
 
“The real benefit of live, summer professional development,” said Alspach, “is not what you learn, but the energy and inspiration you walk away with; it’s the re-charge you get from being with your colleagues and sharing in a great workshop,” Alspach added.
 
Participants leave presentations by impressive speakers, thinking “Wow, I want to be THAT kind of teacher!”
 
Social media, specifically Twitter, blogging, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook, has made it possible for educators to stay current, share ideas, virtually attend conferences, participate in discussions and maintain a personal/professional learning network (PLN) throughout the year.
 
Highly addictive and user-friendly, these social platforms instantly transmit knowledge, web links, images and experience and help fight the isolation that many educators encounter as the sole adult in their classrooms.
 
At Oakland Schools, the Facebook page and Twitter account help generate PLN material, and also assist in promoting departmental workshops and conference coverage. Several of Oakland Schools' consultants also maintain active social media accounts and frequently contribute to online chat sessions covering Michigan education, special education/social work, parent-teacher engagement, instructional design and English language arts.
 
With a laptop, tablet or smartphone, summer professional development can take place in a backyard or at the beach, but don’t let the casual format fool you into thinking that educators are not prepping hard for the fall. Top-down learning now shares the stage with connected classroom experts who know how to access the latest information and how to share outcomes with peers across the globe.
 
“Teacherpreneurship” -- innovative, personal learning in action -- creates fluid development opportunities; educators are passionate life-long learners and Oakland Schools and the internet are partnered to build new pathways to professional learning and to teacher-student success.