New Web site aids teachers' professional development
Teacher Kim Porzky practices entering her professional development plan at a QEI training session. Photo by WEAC SENIOR EDITOR BILL HURLEY
Under new licensure requirements, Wisconsin teachers are responsible for designing their own professional development plans. The new requirements, called PI 34, replace provisions that emphasized credit coursework and clock hours.
A new Web site developed by the University of Wisconsin-Extension, University of Wisconsin System Administration, Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), WEA Professional Development Academy and Association of Wisconsin School Administrators is helping teachers switch from the traditional credit-based requirements to the new professional development model.
Quality Educator Interactive (QEI), qei.Wisconsin.edu, helps teachers create, edit and share professional development plans and connects them with professional development opportunities statewide.
Kim Porzky, a family and consumer education teacher from Central Middle School in Hartford, was one of the first to try QEI. "The Web designers have created a tool that will put teachers' professional development plan into one neat package," she says.
Lisa Benz, Ellsworth Middle School band director, says veteran teachers should embrace QEI. "When we sat down to work on the professional development plans, I was amazed. The program was very user friendly. It was easy to begin and easy to navigate through the various steps and procedures."
The QEI is free for all QEI Founding Partners' members and educators.
—Amy Pikalek
For more information: Outreach Program Manager John Fischer, fischer@conted.uwex.edu, (608) 262-3340
National Award Winners
Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) is the recipient of a Peabody Award for its arts-and-culture program "To the Best of Our Knowledge."
Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) is the recipient of a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism for its 2004 election coverage.
WPR and WPT are partnerships of the University of Wisconsin-Extension and the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.