A conference can be the best or the worst professional development of your year — the difference is almost entirely in how you choose and use it. Here is how the flagship events stack up.
The Major Events
- Learning Forward Annual Conference — the professional learning conference, run by the standards body for PD itself. Content is aimed at teacher leaders and administrators designing PD systems; the practical sessions on coaching, PLCs, and PD evaluation are the strongest draw.
- ISTELive + ASCD Annual Conference — the largest classroom-teacher-facing event in the US, now that ISTE and ASCD have merged their flagship gatherings. Ed tech, pedagogy, and practice mix; it is the best fit for teachers who want sessions they can run on Monday.
- Edcamps and state-level unconferences — free, teacher-led, and closer to home; see our article on Edcamps for the research behind why they work.
The research on one-shot PD applies to conferences too: a great session with no follow-up fades in weeks. Plan the follow-up before you book the flight.
How to Make Any Conference Pay Off
- Go with a question, not a shopping list. One teaching problem, pursued across five sessions, beats five unrelated workshops.
- Present if you can. Presenters learn the most; every major event, including ISTELive, has open calls for classroom teachers.
- Bring back one thing and teach it. Share the single best strategy at a staff meeting within a week — teaching it is the follow-up the research says you need.
