PLT & Educators
This page discusses the ways in which PLT can assist educators in meeting their professional development needs.
Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP)
Every educator creates this working document by listing the focus areas, based upon identified student needs, that he/she wants to improve by attending professional development workshops. The challenge is for the educator to find appropriate workshops that meet his/her different needs. A workshop with an interdisciplinary focus covering more than one subject area is beneficial because it helps meet many teachers’ needs simultaneously. PLT workshops often link content subject areas together with all activities at a workshop.
School Improvement Plan (SIP)
Each school administration creates a working document listing areas it wants to concentrate on school-wide in order to increase student learning. When deciding if a PLT Workshop meets your schools SIP, contact the lead facilitator to see what information will be covered. Inform them of what your school's SIP is focused on and they should be able to provide examples of how workshop activities will help meet these goals.
Sustained Professional Development
Professional development programs need to allow for educators to build mastery level skills and receive sufficiently sustained training to develop these skills. PLT has a variety of workshops from a one-day workshop to a multi-day workshop or one that meets several times throughout a semester.
Use of Technology
PLT incorporates educational technology into our workshops. Depending on the availability, location and topic of the workshop we use computer technology and field technology, such as a set of forester’s tools that are used in the forest or a hydrologist's water testing tools.
Professional Development Target Areas
Professional development programs should focus on one or more target areas identified by the Florida Department of Education. Below is a summary of how PLT workshops can address the eight identified target areas for professional development.
| Target Area | PLT Connection |
| Sunshine State Standards | PLT materials are correlated to the Sunshine State Standards. We also have developed a series of FCAT-like prompts to use with a selection of activities. Visit the Florida Correlations section for more information. |
| Subject Content | Integration is key for PLT activities. All activities include a listing of the different subjects that are covered throughout the activity. |
| Teaching Methods | At the workshops, educators experience the activities through modeling. Depending on the participants at the workshop, time may be set aside to allow teachers to practice implementing an activity as though fellow participants were students. |
| Technology | Demonstrations on how teachers can use video, PowerPoint®, digital probes, and Web sites to enhance instruction are discussed. Depending on the workshop location these items may be available to use at the workshop. Often a natural resource professional is invited to the workshop to demonstrate the use of the technology he/she uses in the field. |
| Classroom Management | Time is provided throughout the workshop to allow teachers to discuss successful ways they handle classroom management during interactive and outdoor lessons. Facilitators conducting the workshop will demonstrate the benefits of using small groups, clear instructions, and follow-up questions. |
| School Safety | Using the outdoors for learning is an excellent way for students to gain an appreciation for the natural world. How to minimize risks during outside activities by modeling good field trip management strategies will be presented at the workshop. Outdoor activities are not dangerous if implemented properly. |
| Family Involvement | Ways to involve parent volunteers in PLT activities may be discussed. Participants can brainstorm ideas in the PLT workshop. |
| Assessment & Data Analysis | PLT activities have excellent discussion questions that enable teachers to engage students in higher order thinking skills. PLT provides twenty-five FCAT-like prompts created to go with nine PLT activities for different grade clusters. These prompts can be downloaded off of the PLT Web site. Time permitting, the use of FCAT-like prompts at the workshop may occur. |
Learning Communities
Learning communities are small groups of teachers that support their own professional development through meetings, discussion, and study that is relevant to their teaching practices over the course of a semester or year. PLT Central is working on ways to support the development of learning communities. We encourage educators to use the GreenWorks! program to support the instructional models of issue investigation and service learning in their classrooms. A community of educators can explore the community issues that students identify and determine the teaching methods that are best for their own community of learners.
Web Resources
The World Wide Web provides an enormous number of resources and possibilities for assistance to teachers. PLT Facilitators can hand out a reference sheet to help make teachers aware of Web sites that are relevant to what teachers and students need to better understand forest resources. Educators can share ideas about activities and ask questions on the Florida PLT Educator Share Page. Strategies for using PLT activities to address SSS and activity adaptations they have made can be particularly helpful to other teachers. Several sites have Web resources for teachers and students, supporting their use of technology.
Student Change
The ultimate goal of teacher professional development is to increase student learning. PLT activities include assessment elements to assist educators in measuring student learning. Keeping a portfolio of the student activity sheets and projects will assist in documenting student growth. Research on environmental education programs tells us that PLT programs increase student knowledge of ecological principles. Students exposed to PLT showed gains in environmental knowledge and positive attitude shifts, particularly in grades two through eight (Marcinkowski and Iozzi 1994).
Information on this page is taken from Improving Teacher Inservice Workshops in Florida (FOR 109) by M.C. Monroe, J. Seitz, S. Agrawal, M. Aldridge, S. Morshed, E. Swiman, and V. Crisp. Gainesville FL: University of Florida, Cooperative Extension, School of Forest Resources and Conservation. First published November 2005. Revised: May 2008.
For additional information about how PLT can help educators meet their goals contact PLT Central at (352) 846-2329.