Open Path Education

As a teacher, you need professional development hours. Ever wish you had more autonomy in what you studied as well as how you studied? Perhaps you are already reading, listening to podcasts, and watching videos to level up your skills and subject matter expertise. However, you need a way to document this for your continuing education.

Learn-Reflect-Apply (LRA) - an inquiry-based approach - aims to address this need, giving you a personalized professional development option. 

It starts with you creating a personalized study plan for a topic/subtopic of choice and submitting this for approval.  The course's title is descriptive (the title is your topic) while being open enough to allow you some flexibility. 

For your plan, you will list any books (text or audio), videos, webinars, or other learning content to be used. Everything must somehow be related to the course topic/title. You can choose to further narrow your focus to a specific subcategory of this course's topic, to best meet your personal needs for professional development.

After you create your plan, you will submit it for approval. If needed, we will provide additional guidance. 

Once your plan is approved, you will begin to systematically work through the content. As you do this, you will continuously engage in reflection along the way (questioning, wondering, connecting, etc.) and keep a document that you build on over time listing these reflection points. 

For the final phase, you will pull from one or more of your points of reflection, and apply the learning by selecting and completing an application project (options include a plan of action, presentation/lesson, or short article).

Assignments: You will submit three items for evaluation. These include the 1) Learning Plan handout, 2) Points of Reflection document, and 3) Application Project.  Approvals/evaluations are provided within 10 business days.

SME: Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are instructors who evaluate each step to approve or provide guidance as needed. Subjects available are based on current SME availability, so space is limited. 

Topics/Subtopics:  Before anything else, you need to select the best LRA course for what you want to study. Then your plan must somehow connect to the course's subject area.  What if you want to study something that doesn't match a current LRA option? Please contact us if you are interested in a subject not currently offered. Put "LRA New Subject Request" in the subject line.

Documentation: A certificate of completion is provided that lists the course title, clock hours, date of completion, learning goals or topics, your name, the organization name and logo, a representative signature, and a unique certificate ID number. No matter how many teachers successfully use our classes for PD purposes, we must always advise you to check with your state or employer requirements for acceptance of clock hours.