Create a Quest for Learning

Teachers are always looking for ways to engage students in their lessons. So, how does a teacher meet the needs of students, ensure they are really learning, while engaging them fully in the process?

Bringing what students like to do outside of school into the classroom can be quite successful. Liz Kolb, Professor in Teacher Education at the University of Michigan and Author, shares how to "gamify" your teaching with some creative ideas on how to include video game lingo and strategies into classroom learning.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/epic-fail-win-gamifying-learning-liz-kolb

Be Empowered! Build Your Confidence!

As soon as you are granted access to Pepper's software, you can enjoy unlimited access to online self-paced professional development courses on your own schedule, anytime of the day or night! Plus, you can build a professional portfolio of work in each course to share with others or refer back to whenever you like. In addition, you will be able to find, collaborate, and join in discussions with other educators in your peer network. This allows you to put your understanding into action with powerful resources for teachers and students.

http://www.pepperpd.com

Pepper's Professional Development "Scores" with Rigorous Standards 

When you take a course through PepperPD, you can be sure it's aligned with nationally-recognized standards and rubrics. You can bring what you've learned directly into the classroom to ensure your students' success.Our approach to online and blended learning is directly inspired by the Quality Matters benchmarks and standards for online course design.  Since Quality Matters "is a leader in quality assurance for online education and has received national recognition for its peer-based approach to continuous improvement in online education and student learning," you can expect positive results in the classroom. As part of our organizational commitment to rigorous standards for online course design and implementation, PCG subject matter experts and instructional designers use Quality Matters' rubrics, digital design and review tools, and continuous improvement models to align our own courses to the Quality Matters nationally-recognized standards, and to assist our clients in doing the same.  In addition, we use the QM Continuing and Professional Education quality rubric for our professional development work with clients.