PD Matrix – Jamaica Teaching Council

Professional Development Opportunities Available

(Jul 2023 - May 2024)

July 2023

Meeting the Needs of Reluctant Learners

In this course, teachers explore strategies that they can use to meet the needs of all learners.

Registration Closed

PD LEADership for Teacher Growth

This course is designed to offer support to teachers who have the responsibility of planning and leading PD activities in their schools.

Lead Teacher Training - Cohort 2

This course is offered to teachers selected by their Principals and/or Education Officers to serve as Lead Teachers in their QECs.

Registration Closed

August 2023

Sustainable Differentiation Strategies for the Modern Classroom

This course is offered to teachers selected by their Principals and/or Education Officers to serve as Lead Teachers in their QECs.

Register Now

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 1

The Reimagination Webinar Series has been developed to focus a year-long conversation around the theme of Recovery and Reimagination. The issues for focus during August, 2023 include:

Embracing a Minimalist Mindset in the Classroom
Revamping School Practices to Support Student-Wellbeing
Basics 2.0 - Doing the Basics Better.

Return to Happiness

This course provides classroom teachers with strategies and support mechanisms that they can employ when students must return to the learning environment after – or even while – experiencing disruptive and traumatic experiences.

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Managing My Performance Appraisal: Instruments and Documents

In this course, teachers do a deep-dive into the appraisal documents, by learning about its philosophy, structure and elements.

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September 2023

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 2

The conversation In the September edition of the series will highlight how teachers can acknowledge and celebrate students' success.

October 2023

The Heart of Teaching (HoT)

The course provides examples of pedagogy and instructional strategies that have been proven to be effective at engaging learners in a mentally-healthy and psychosocially supportive manner.

National PD Day - 1

The first PD Day for the 2023/24 Academic Year will examine how teachers can develop intervention to meet the needs of struggling learners.

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 3

In October, the series continues the dialogue from the National PD Day by hearing from teachers who have led successful interventions for students.

Leading Teacher Performance Appraisal: Principles and Procedures,

This course facilitates an in-depth analysis and discussion of the teacher appraisal process with an aim of having participants identifying, acknowledging and addressing the gaps and biases in their understanding of the process.

November 2023

School-Based Interventions that Work

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 4

The November installment of the webinar series examines how schools can use the structures (such as common planning time and Curriculum Implementation Teams) to support student learning.

December 2023

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 5

In December, the webinar series examines 'The Super-Hero Break' in a relaxed and informal session that allows teachers to let their hair down.

January 2024

5E Lesson Plans for 5-Star Teaching

This course examines how teachers can develop effective and engaging 5E lesson plans.

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 6

The January installment of the webinar series examines the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom.

Getting to the FUNdation: Strategies for Exciting Reluctant Learners

This course provides participants with an opportunity to explore strategies that can be used to engage students in a fun and exciting manner.

February 2024

National PD Day - 2

The second PD Day for the 2023/24 Academic Year will examine how teachers can modify curriculum objectives to ensure that their lessons are designed to meet the needs of THEIR learners.

Making the Curriculum Work for You

This course continues the dialogue started in the National PD Day presentations. It examines how teachers can successfully implement the National Standards Curriculum by adapting and modifying objectives to suit their contexts.

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 7

In February, the Webinar series examines the use of Jamaican culture as an instructional tool in the classroom.

March 2024

Teaching to Reach Boys

This course provides teachers with instructional approaches that they can employ to meet the needs of boys in their classroom.

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 8

March's installment of the webinar looks at how teachers can prepare students for life after school - whether for the world of work or for future studies.

April 2024

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 9

In April, teachers re-imagine how they create safe spaces in the classroom for students to express themselves.

May 2024

The Reimagination Webinar Series - 10

May's installment of the webinar looks at how teachers can re-imagine their parent-teacher conferencing so that all stakeholders benefit optimally.

National PD Day - 3

The final PD Day for the year will examine how teachers can share student performance data with parents and other stakeholders in a meaningful and information-rich manner.

Detailed Information on PDOs

Meeting the Needs of Reluctant Learners

Reluctant learners show little interest in engaging in academic activities and usually struggle when they do engage. This course helps teachers understand these learners and empowers teachers with strategies to motivate and engage these learners.

PD LEADership for Teacher Growth

The Teaching Council has developed this course to empower teachers who serve as Chairpersons for their schools’ PD Committees. Teachers who participate in the course learn how to plan effective, collaborative and collegial PD activities.

Lead Teacher Training - Cohort 2

Lead Teachers are individuals who lead Learning Communities in their Quality Education Circles. They are selected by their Principals/Education Officers and trained by the Teaching Council. This course is an initiation training that has been developed to prepare Lead Teachers for deployment.

Sustainable Differentiation Strategies for the Modern Classroom

Teachers often struggle to implement differentiation in a sustainable manner – the effort to facilitate differentiation for one day is hard to routinize across multiple lessons. This course looks at easy-to-use strategies to acknowledge and accommodate student differences.

Return to Happiness

Return to Happiness (RTH) is a psychosocial recovery program developed by UNICEF for children who have experienced trauma from disaster, conflict or violence. This course incorporates a five-day lesson delivery and provides guidelines for its institutionalization in schools. The programme targets lessons for children in the 0 – 5, 6 – 12 and 14 – 18 age groups. A guide is also provided for teachers to incorporate Return to Happiness methodologies into day-to-day classroom activities so that the building of resilience can continue after the 5-day recovery lessons have ended.

Managing My Performance Appraisal: Instruments and Documents

In this intensive course, teachers get acquainted with the appraisal instruments being used to manage teacher performance. Course participants explore the purpose of the document, learn about the elements of the instrument and examine the supporting documents for completing the appraisal.

The Heart of Teaching

Over time, many related ideas have been introduced to teachers – Social and Emotional Learning, School-Wide Positive Behavior Intervention and Support, Character Education, and Return to Happiness. This course brings together all these ideas under one umbrella and empowers teachers with the strategies that they can use to develop an ethos of care in their classrooms.

Leading Teacher Performance Appraisal: Principles and Procedures

The process of performance appraisal management for teachers has undergone many changes. In this course, participants will examine the underpinning principles of the appraisal process; interact with the process used and explore the three phases of the appraisal process.

School-Based Interventions that Work

In light of the COVID-19 disruptions, the need for intervention is greater now than ever before. What makes interventions work, though? The evidence is clear that some students continue in intervention programmes from year to year with little improvement. This course, for middle leaders and student support staff, explores research-based strategies for designing effective intervention programmes.

5E Lesson Plans for 5-Star Teaching

The 5E framework has the potential to significantly improve teaching. Yet, teachers still struggle to plan these lessons and there are still many points of confusion about 5E lessons. This course helps teachers understand the essential points about 5E lessons and develops their competence in aligning learning activities to each element of the lesson plan.

Getting to the FUNdation: Strategies for Exciting Reluctant Learners

Many students endure school – even those who do well academically. How can teachers plan exciting lessons so that students enjoy school? This course examines the elements of a lesson that can be leveraged for greater levels of excitement. Participants look at how they can use music, dance, drama, etc., to put fun in the classroom.

Making the Curriculum Work for You

The National Standards Curriculum was introduced to the system in 2016. A curriculum for ALL students, teachers are expected to modify its objectives, adapt its learning activities and adjust its sequence to meet the needs of EACH student. This course examines principles that teachers should observe and takes a practical approach to examine how teachers can successfully modify the curriculum.