Teacher Professional Development

Opportunities

If you have questions about any upcoming professional development, please contact Melanie Blanton at melanie.blanton@citadel.edu.

Learning to Lead (L2L)

L2L is a 5-year NSF project to develop rural mathematics teacher leaders. The L2L project strives to stimulate sustainable improvements in the quality of mathematics teaching and learning in rural high-needs schools by (1) building master teacher fellows’ pedagogical content knowledge and skills, (2) building MTFs’ teacher leadership knowledge and skills, (3) collaborating with MTFs to create the SC Rural Math Teacher Network (SC-RMTN) and associated PD resources, (4) supporting teachers to continue the SC-RMTN into the future. In addition to the SC-RMTN, professional development, and professional learning community (PLC), L2L MTFs will leave the program with two additional South Carolina Add-On Certification Endorsements, as well as 30 additional hours of graduate credit, qualifying them for the next pay scale, Masters+30.

Teacher participants will:

  • Complete 30 hours of graduate courses (over 4 years), free of charge
  • Receive a stipend of $10,000 per year for 5 years

In order to be eligible teachers must meet the following requirements:

  • Teach mathematics in a rural South Carolina public school
  • Currently have a Master’s degree
  • Actively participate throughout all L2L professional learning over the course of 5 years
  • Implement the content covered during L2L in their classrooms
  • Actively participate in 1 online graduate course per semester

Apply Here

Code.org for Computer Science

CS Discoveries workshops are closely aligned with the Discovering CS standards. Teachers who attended PD this summer should plan to attend a Part 1, 2, 3, and 4 workshop, especially if you received a scholarship.

CS Principles workshops are more broadly aligned to Discovering CS, Fundamentals of Computing, Computer Science Principles, and Fundamentals of Web Page Design. Even if you attended CS Discoveries during the summer, you are welcome to attend CS Principles. Part 1, 2, 3, and 4 are in addition to summer training and are meant to provide “just-in-time” support as you teach during the school year. If you have not attended a summer PD, you are encouraged to attend one of these workshops to receive support during implementation. However, a 30-hour, 5-day summer PD is needed for certification to teach one of the previously mentioned courses.

STEM Competition Training Workshop

Each year, The Citadel provides a training workshop for teachers interested in supporting a group of students in the Student Competitions that The Citadel hosts each year.

Topics Covered:

  • What is Storm the Citadel – Description, individual events
  • What is Science Olympiad – Description, individual events, state and national level Science Olympiad
  • Starting a team – Recruiting students, getting other coaches involved, student expectations, parent involvement
  • Tournament Scoring- Tournament format, blocked events, individual events and team winners.
  • Event Training – Event manual, rules, practices, strategies, financial matters, resources.

Our next training is scheduled To Be Determined and will be virtual.

CSPDWeek

The STEM Center at The Citadel has partnered with the National Computer Science Teachers’ Association, SC CSTA, South Carolina Department of Education, and CTE to provide computer science training to K-12 teachers in South Carolina. This grant-funded project allows teachers to select a week-long training based on their classroom needs. To learn more, you can visit the event website here. 2023 dates are June 16-20, 2025 and additional information will be available in January/February.

Unboxing CT

A grant awarded by
National Science Foundation, the primary goal of Unboxing CT is to investigate computational thinking (CT) teacher learning trajectories and curriculum integration opportunities for elementary teachers. The overarching research goals of Unboxing CT are to support elementary teachers in infusing CT to help students meet content-focused learning goals and to develop further understanding of the learning trajectories through which elementary teachers might move as they begin to integrate CT into disciplinary teaching. Ultimately, we hope that our findings can serve as the foundation for the design of more scalable elementary teacher professional development (PD) and ongoing support for CT integration. We will work intensively with teachers to support them in adapting and implementing interdisciplinary, CT-integrated lessons using equitable pedagogies. Next year, the dates will be June 9-13, 2025 and additional information will be promoted in January/February of 2025.

Field Trips

The STEM Center offers field trips for schools across South Carolina. Check out our resources page to learn more!