Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Ideas on Your Professional Growth

Sarah and I met today with Dr. Terry Borg and Dr. Kay Caster who oversee the External and Global Programs at NIU. Essentially they are in charge of creating and offering cohorts for teachers in a variety of different areas. Some of these are pre-determined routes but many have the ability to be customized to our district based on interest. There are several opportunities for online courses and graduate studies available to you. We have a tremendous partnership with Northern Illinois University, a respected institution that offers our district tuition waivers and the ability to customize your learning and professional growth. We would love to continue to support NIU based on the high-quality levels of courses offered.

If you are interested in pursuing professional growth at the graduate level please email Sarah and me what areas you would be interested in. Topics might include an ESL endorsement, teacher leadership courses, social justice cohorts, or a variety of other options. Once we hear back from you, we will work with Dr. Borg and Dr. Caster to develop a tailored program for our district. If there are courses that you are interested in but we have not thought of, please don't hesitate to share as well.

Many of these cohorts and individual courses are building blocks towards other degrees that the university offers. For example, the ESL endorsement has the ability to grow to a Master of Ed. in Literacy by taking a few more courses. After taking some 1-hour credit classes, you can work towards a Certificate of Graduate Studies that can open the door for some possible coaching roles.

Again, if interested or you have an idea you would like to pursue, please email us and we will work with NIU.

No comments:

Post a Comment