It’s summer time, a time when many of us are looking for professional development opportunities to help us prepare for an exciting new school year. If you are in search of new ideas, explore the options at the SimpleK12 Professional Development in Your PJs website. The educator community is awesome and has much to offer in the form of webinars, resources, collaborative sharing, and more. Their mission:

…to help educators inspire their students, engage their learners, perfect their craft, and share their experiences to help others do the same. Never stop growing. Never stop learning. Never stop sharing. Online professional development. Anytime. Anywhere…even at home in your pajamas! We call it PD in your PJs. So put your bunny slippers on, and come join us!

I discovered this PD site on my mission for Google training. I was investigating professional development options and came across the SimpleK12 website. I signed up for a free all-day Google Apps webinar and was so impressed, I purchased a membership. There are many perks to the membership including professional development certificates after the completion of webinars, synchronous or archived. SimpleK12 offers more than 700 professional development hours and thousands of professional development webinars on hundreds of timely topics in education. The trainings target educators including administrators, media specialists, classroom teachers, literacy coaches, and technology specialists.

Webinars are facilitated by the energetic SimpleK12 team and are instructed by educators and specialists from the field who share practical and relevant information, skills, strategies, and best teaching practices that can be applied immediately. Webinar options include podcasting, digital citizenship, differentiated learning, counseling, Web tools, and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). To view a listing of all webinars, download the SimpleK12 catalog or explore the website for opportunities. In addition to webinars, you can download classroom resources and e-books and participate in periodic free webinars.

There are three different membership options, Free Basic, Premium, or Group Membership. I purchased mine during my first all-day free Google webinar and received special pricing—membership deals are offered periodically. I can view 30-minute webinars in real time or watch archived webinars whenever and wherever I want.

SimpleK12 makes PD fun by awarding completion certificates, achievement badges, and Bunny Bucks you can spend in the SimpleK12 store, perhaps to purchase your own blue bunny slippers (the logo of the site that showcases it makes PD in your PJs possible). Follow SimpleK12 on Twitter, where they post excellent resources throughout the day. You can investigate free tech tools, live webinars, career opportunities, interesting articles, and much more. There is nothing like the blue bunny slipper alerts coming right to the palm of my hand. From one educator to another, I highly encourage you to investigate SimpleK12 and all it has to offer. This techie teacher rates SimpleK12 five blue bunny slippers up!

Mary Beth Scumaci is a clinical associate professor and technology coordinator with the Division of Education at Medaille College in Buffalo, NY. She designs and instructs technology courses and trainings for students, faculty, and staff. Her mission is to help prepare teacher candidates for a successful career in education.