A Letter to Newly Appointed Teachers: Professional Development and Positioning yourself for Growth Opportunities

Dear friends,

Congratulations on starting your teaching journey! As you begin your career, it’s important to keep growing and improving as a teacher. We all understand the teaching is not easy task but also faced a whole lot of challenges yes, we are inspired to persevere and improvise to raise a future of critical thinkers and problem solvers. This profession is a mission we can’t afford to fail.

As you battled with all the socioeconomic and personal challenges on the field, you must not forget you need to also grow professionally to prepare and position yourself for any opportunity coming your way.

From experience and some research, I have come to realize there are numerous untapped opportunities out there for teachers.

Here are five simple tips to develop yourself professionally and position yourself for growth opportunities:

1. Join a Professional Development Society.

Being part of a teacher’s Professional Learning Community offers unmeasurable learning and development opportunities.

A Teacher Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a collaborative group of teachers focused on improving teaching practices and student outcomes. Through ongoing reflection, dialogue, and shared problem-solving, teachers work together toward common goals, such as enhancing student achievement or refining instructional strategies. PLCs emphasize continuous professional growth, often using data to guide decisions and improve pedagogical effectiveness. By fostering a culture of support and collaboration, PLCs help teachers refine their skills and contribute to better student success over time.

Even though we have PLCs in our various schools, joining a bigger society possess greater opportunities. In Ghana, there’s only one professional development society dedicated to teacher development: The Ghana Society for Education Technology (GSET). This society brings together teachers from all levels and all regions in the country. GSET was founded by teachers and for teachers, where teachers are developed through regular teacher meetups, edcamps, seminars and workshops.

To learn more about GSET, visit their website: https://gset.education/about-us/

By joining a community like GSET, you can attend workshops, get certifications, and meet teachers who share the same goals of improving themselves in their profession.

2. Conduct Small Action Research in Your Classroom to fill the data gaps in education.

“Despite progress in recent years, there are still major data gaps about education globally. With over half a billion children’s learning levels still unknown, the need for accurate and comprehensive education data has never been more urgent.”

-UNESCO 3 April 2024

According to UNESCO, data is key to solving the learning crisis. This phenomena positions teachers at the center of data collection to improve learning and education.

For sure, one of the best ways to improve your teaching is by researching what works best for your students. You can try new methods in your classroom and see how they affect student learning. For example, you could investigate how using group work improves participation or how different teaching styles affect performance. Even though the might be research’s that establish some teaching styles as productive, some of this research have not covered the gabs of culture and socio economics factors. Hence conducting such studies that are localized to your classroom would give a better picture in context of your locality.

Once you have results from conducting studies, share your findings by writing and publishing articles that speaks to what works best. Some of these articles could become the sources of insight for decision making by policy makers and stakeholders who might be working with a one size fits all approach based on insights from generalized studied.

This will also help you grow and assist other teachers in improving their practice. It would also put you in the position to be consulted on issues related to teaching and learning.

3. Develop Localized Teaching and Learning resources.

I have always seen teachers as contents creators. As a teacher, you have the chance to create teaching and learning materials that reflect the needs and cultures of your students and colleagues. Think about creating digital or multimedia content or other resources that use local examples, languages, and cultures. These materials will help students better connect with the lessons.

It is very obvious a lot of teachers still complain about the unavailability of textbooks and teaching and learning recourses to implement the Pre-tertiary Common Core Curriculum. I see this situation as an opportunity for teachers to collaborates and develop materials of their own.

Once you’ve developed such materials, you can share these resources with other teachers or publish them online for wider use. This will not only support your fellow teachers but also position you as a resource creator. You can also monetize such resources on various online marketplaces.

4. Keep up With Educational Technology Trends

Technology is changing education and staying informed about new tools will help you become a more effective teacher. Look into tools that will enhance and transform teaching and learning in your classroom. Learn about technology integration models like the SAMR model, developed in 2010 by education researcher Ruben Puentedura which provides a solid playground to how to integrate technology into education.

Keep up with trends like Artificial Intelligence in education (AIED) amongst others. This will help make your work easier and faster as well keep you on the same page as your students who might be exposed to some these technologies already.

Kahoot. Corindth 3D, PhET Interactive Simulations and other technologies out there make learning more interactive for your students. You can also attend workshops or follow blogs and YouTube channels about educational technology to keep learning.

5. Create a Teacher Portfolio

A teacher portfolio is a collection of your best work, like lesson plans, student feedback, research, and certificates from training programs. It shows your skills and achievements and can be used when applying for jobs, promotions, or further studies.

You can create a digital version of your portfolio so you can easily update and share it when needed. This is also a great way to reflect on your progress as a teacher.

Stay Updated on Educational Technology Trends

Bonus tip:  Build a Professional Presence on LinkedIn

In today’s digital world, having a professional profile on social media is very important. LinkedIn is a platform where you can connect with other teachers, share your experiences, and learn from educators around the world. It is very important to let people know and appreciate your work as a teacher.

Here is what I mean, imagine doing all you can to improve the lives of your students, but nobody knows or appreciate what you do. Others knowing about your work could offer support and even motivate you and other teachers to toe similar path.

Start by creating a LinkedIn profile where you list your teaching experiences, research, and training programs you’ve attended. Share your ideas and engage with educational discussions. This will help build your reputation as a professional teacher.

In a nutshell, the intension of this letter is to let you know there are a lot of opportunities for you to explore as a teacher and you must prepare and position yourself to grow and grasp these opportunities when they come your way. I wish you well in your endeavor  hope you become the best teacher there is. Good luck! 

Congratulations once again!