Each new school year brings a whirlwind of activity and a multitude of decisions to make for the upcoming months. At this time of year, every teacher’s mind is occupied with topics that run from arranging the classroom to how to meet the individual needs of diverse learners. It’s a time of great excitement and potential, and also the ideal moment to consider your own professional growth. Rather than treating PD as an occasional mandatory training day, VEX Professional Development Plus (PD+) is built to support you all year long. Here's how to use it with intention throughout your school year, so your development is supported consistently and in a way that works for you.

Back-to-School Time: Set a Direction

Well before the first day of school, consider your goals for the year. Maybe you are introducing a new VEX platform to your students. If so, an Intro Course is the natural starting point. Each Intro Course provides all the basics you need to get your students started building and coding with confidence as soon as the school year starts.

If you're returning to a platform you already know well, now is a great time to take a Masterclass to advance your skills. Boost your ability to structure assessments that prioritize student understanding and involvement with Student Centered Assessment in STEM Classrooms, or incorporate coding into a variety of subjects with Cross Curricular Connections with VEXcode VR.

Or, if you are just starting a VEX Competition Season, complete a Competition Course to get whatever certification you need to support competitions near you!

Early Fall: Build in Support

Once the year is underway and your implementation questions start surfacing, that's the moment to book your first 1-on-1 Session. These 30-minute video calls with a VEX Expert are designed to meet your needs at the moment. Get advice for teaching a specific STEM Lab, address pacing questions, or get help planning your scope and sequence for the semester. A fall 1-on-1 is a great way to be proactive and plan ahead for the coming months.

It's also a good time to introduce (or reintroduce) yourself in the VEX PD+ Community, as everyone settles into a new year of learning together. The PD+ Community is your go-to spot for connecting with like-minded educators to ask questions and share ideas to support one another throughout the school year.

Winter: Check In and Reconnect

The start of a new semester or the return from a long school break is a good time to visit your PD+ Progress Dashboard. This is the spot where you can track your VEX professional development journey. It displays your progress by platform in Intro Courses, Masterclasses, and Video Library visits. You can also check your statistics on the number of daily visits, community posts, and certificates earned! This check-in can help guide your next steps, or just serve as a motivator for the next part of the school year.

Winter also tends to offer a little more breathing room for connection. This is a good moment to explore VEX Passport, which puts certified educators on an interactive map you can search by location or platform. It only takes one message to turn a name on a map into someone you can compare notes or trade ideas with, whether they are nearby or across the globe!

And, don't forget that registration for the VEX Robotics Educators Conference opens in late winter! Registration is included with a PD+ All-Access subscription. After a year of self-directed learning, it's a natural capstone, and a chance to spend time in person with the educators and VEX Experts you’ve been learning from and with all year.

Spring: Reflect and Look Ahead

Spring is such a busy time of year, but also the perfect time to use PD+ to take stock of what you’ve learned so far, and what you’d still like to accomplish before summer break. Consider a VEX Masterclass if you're ready to move past introductory content into deeper pedagogy. Check in on your goals with another 1-on-1 Session with a VEX Expert, or visit our Research page to find resources to help support any STEM initiatives you are thinking about pitching to your administrators for next year.

Plus, spring is the season of the VEX Robotics Educators Conference! Enjoy three days of hands-on workshops, inspiring keynote speakers, and time getting to know your fellow PD+ educators. All this while enjoying the excitement of the VEX World Championships!

All Year Long: Keep It Going

Each of the above checkpoints gives a year its shape, but the real value of PD+ is what happens between them. Visit the PD+ Video Library for videos on just about any VEX-related topic you can imagine. New Insights articles are published every two weeks. Discover new ideas as well as practical classroom tips when you have a few spare minutes in a planning period. And don’t forget to check the PD+ Community regularly for new and informative conversations!

A new school year is full of opportunity to have the best year possible, and that includes your own professional growth. PD+ is designed to support you across all of it — the planning you do in August, the questions that surface in October, the reconnecting you do in January, and the reflecting you do in May. Start now and use PD+ with intention all year long!