Are you dissatisfied by the professional development offered by your school? Are you a private teacher searching for online resources to improve your practice? Online professional development resources can broaden your educational horizons, offer you new ideas, and connect you with a wider community of educators in your field.
In this post, I offer some of my favorite links and resources for online professional development for music teachers.
Dr. James Frankel’s excellent blog on music technology for educators walks the less technically-inclined through the territory of music education technology. Frankel explains the benefits of building professional learning networks (or PLNs) online through twitter and Facebook, as well as the benefits of webinars and online classes for educators. A must-read for any educator looking to branch out into online PD.
SoundTree offers weekly informational webinars for music educators on different topics. These talks are diverse, high quality, and innovative.
PBS TeacherLine offers a wide variety of online professional development resources for teachers in all disciplines.
Members of MENC, the National Association for Music Education receive access to online “mentors” who are ready to answer PD questions in chat rooms, as well as comprehensive references and general resources for music teachers.
Berklee College Online Courses for Music Educators offers high-quality online courses which can be taken for credit. Berklee offers top-quality courses for computer notation software and computer music production, as well as advanced courses in theory and ear training.
TeacherOnlineEducation offers online courses on general techniques for educators, for credit. This site’s courses are especially applicable for classroom teachers.
Do you have a favorite site, chat room, or other online resource that has helped you grow as a teacher? What professional development opportunities have helped you the most, on or offline?
