inally, your summer break is here! Time for family, relaxation, fun in the sun, and don’t forget, it’s also the perfect time to continue your professional growth! I know, you need a break.  However, everyone knows that educators are lifelong learners, thus our learning is a continuous process; an endless journey where we are always looking for new ways to improve our skills in order to help our students succeed.

 Going that extra mile or of using some of our spare time to learn more can be quite rewarding.  Here are a few suggestions to help you continue to learn and grow this summer:

• Find time to Read: This is the perfect time to catch up on reading either scholarly journal articles, educational blogs or one or more of the books recommended on the NAD Professional Development Reading List. Take notes. Highlight strategies you may want to learn more about or try next school year.

• Go to a Conference: Find a professional conference or two, locally, nationally or even online.
• Share with Others: Identify a colleague or two and share what you’ve discovered in your readings or from participation in a conference.  Join or start a professional group where like-minded peers can support one another.

• Take a Class: Enhance your skills in a particular area of interest like reading, working with children with disabilities or leadership.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly...” So this summer, begin your journey to become greater by daring greatly and committing to learn and grow!

F

Dr. Daventia Lea

Director of Early Childhood Education

From the moment she began her first part-time job as a teacher’s assistant in a church operated daycare center, Davenia knew that she had a passion to work with young children. That job led her on a journey to study early childhood special education as an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, College Park and then to work as an early interventionist, working with children, birth-age three, who had varying disabilities for Prince Georges County Public Schools (MD). There she coordinated parent support groups, toddler groups, assessed children, made home visits and assisted to transition children into school-based programs. She "absolutely loved" empowering the families of young children and working to assist each child to meet developmentally appropriate milestones. She also loved working directly with the children and their families and as a mentor for new teachers and pre-service teachers.

professional development

Adam Fenner

Director of Adventist Learning Community