For many educators, continuing education and professional development is a requirement; not just a self-motivated effort to hone our practice. Many of us will spend time in hotel meeting halls where the air conditioner is set to frosty freeze listening to a bevy of traveling education specialists. Before you sign up for those fairs, seminars, and symposiums, check out the following online professional development resources for math educators.

Conveniently located on the Web, a plethora of professional development resources are available for immediate access.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)

The natural place to base from is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Professional Development Bulletin. Chock full of Lessons and Resources, Research, and Reflection Guides, this is a comprehensive collection of hot math topic coverage now.

Read the Professional Development Focus of the Year 2013-2014 Connections-Number and Operations: Be Radical.  The additional resources based on this focus for Elementary, Middle, and High School provide outstanding supportive materials and activities to peruse. Just as relevant and useful, read the past years‟ Focus of the Year articles: Equity, Data Analysis and Probability, Representation, Algebraic Thinking, and Assessment.

Visit the Research page for a collection of publications and journal articles that discuss up-to-the-minute feedback and findings from a range of research efforts. View current and back issues of the very helpful Summing Up publications. You can even submit ideas for NCTM to look into. Browse the Media link for fascinating news coverage of mathematics education research.

Look at the Lessons and Resources link for a multitude of excellent lesson ideas and supportive material. Make sure to check the continuously updated lesson resource link. Broken out by grade range, this list features recent submissions of unique and exciting lesson resources and ideas. Math Here and Now is of particular interest; these lessons tie real-world math into the students‟ desktop.

Select any of the articles listed on the Reflection Guides page. This compilation of teacher-generated focus topics provides a surplus of innovative ideas and significant insight. The ON-Math Online Journal of School Mathematics is another fabulous resource to read.

PBS Teacherline

Turn to PBS for an extraordinary collection of resources for professional development. You can enroll, at a cost, in various PBS Teacherline courses. Watch the video introduction and register for a free account. There is a free online tutorial. Taking any of these professional development courses qualify for graduate credits and CEU credits. However, if you are simply attempting to improve your instruction and gain ideas, PBS offers a myriad of free development resources. Turn to the Classroom Resources. Whether you teach PreK, grades K-2, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, or grades 9-12, there is a relevant activity that will interest you.

You may have already come across PBS's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Education Resource Center for Grades PreK-12 from the resources in the Classroom links. If not, this program for Math Resources is quite valuable for a range of concepts and age levels.

Annenberg Media

Annenberg Media's Mathematics Teacher Resources is an extraordinary compilation of video research reports and discussions on a wide range of topics. Consider bookmarking this page and reading one math focus each day. Just like the teachers in this program, you certainly bring a vast background of educational process and mathematical implementation skills that other teachers may benefit from. Join the Teacher Talk set of discussion groups and meet other teachers who, just like you, are eager to share and learn handy tips, useful ideas, and fun resources. The Professional Development forum is an excellent place to start. Read the conversation and join in. Use the Support Materials as you need them with the links on this site or on other Web programs.

Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM)

Another organization, the Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) offers a comprehensive collection of Resources Online. There are quite a few listed on this page. Browse the headlines and click those that might be of interest to your objectives. In particular, Gaps and Misconceptions Tool and the Mathematics Teacher Journal Archive provide interesting reading.The Useful Links contain organized groups of ideas and lessons broken out in to five key stages.

Mathematical Association of America (MAA)

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) hosts an excellent Teaching and Learning page that is packed with outstanding resources. Select various articles from the Teaching Time Savers list and find out how you can become even more efficient in your classroom practices. The Research Sampler provides recent explorations by universities and other math oriented educators. (Find out what Annie and John Seldon have to say in Should Mathematicians and Mathematics Educators be Listening to Psychologists?) Finally, check out the Innovative Teaching Exchange. See what math educators at the university level are finding in their work with math classrooms of all grades. After reading some of the articles, consider submitting your own contributions to the Exchange. Moreover, this is not all the MAA Teaching and Learning site offers. Scroll down and find a myriad of other helpful links.

The Math Forum

Search for a workshop or online group from Drexel University’s The Math Forum Math Workshops Library. Read and join in any of the ongoing newsgroups at the Teacher2Teacher (T2T) site. If you are looking for something specific, or in a browsing mood, check out all of the ongoing Math Forum Discussions. Finally, now that you have spent some time with the various links, look at the valuable Teacher Education and Professional Development list from the Math Forum.

Professional development means many things and there are numerous methods of improving the math instruction. Enjoy exploring the broad-thinking lesson and activity ideas presented from the host of organizations on the Web devoted to aiding educators in enhancing their efforts in teaching math.

 

Reference:

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
http://www.nctm.org/profdev/default.aspx?id=398

PBS Teachers
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/

Annenberg Media
http://www.learner.org/resources/browse.html?discipline=5

Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM)
http://www.atm.org.uk

Mathematical Association of America (MAA)
http://www.maa.org/t_and_l/

Drexel University – The Math Forum
http://mathforum.org/library/