Professional Development

As the use of InspireMyKids.com grows in schools around the world, we are often asked to help support overall character development efforts and curriculum.  We are pleased to offer a variety of PD options to help support educators in developing themselves and their students.

Why Professional Development?

At IMK our mission is to inspire children to be the best version of themselves and empower the involved adults in their lives to help them do so.  Offering educators Professional Development is a natural and important extension of our mission.

Educators often have one school year to make an impact on a child, academically and ethically, that can last a lifetime.   Teachers can, should and do play an essential role in helping to inspire a child’s character development and our desire is to help you maximize this critical opportunity for your kids…without piling on more work for you!

Who is This For?

There are a few specific audiences who stand to gain the most from our Professional Development programs:

  1. New to IMK:  If you are new to IMK and want to learn best practices and practical ideas for leveraging our resources to build or improve your character ed program
  2. Optimizing IMK in the Classroom:  If you have been using IMK in the classroom and desire to take its impact to the next level
  3. Transforming Character Ed:  If your character education efforts feel forced, time-consuming and, frankly, boring, we can help equip you to transition to a program that is highly natural, desired and seamless.
  4. Transforming You:  If you desire to increase your capacity to inspire your kids character development, social/emotional growth, learning and self-belief, we can help bring out your best.

Working with a leading educational consultant, Mike Anderson, we have developed a variety of professional development workshops targeted at educators in grades 3-8.

Each offers educators practical strategies for embedding Character Development into the regular school day and curricula, leveraging the resources on the InspireMyKids.com as well as a broad array of engaging tools and approaches.

Professional Development Programs:

We have developed a variety of programs to help bolster your use of IMK, your character ed program and, ultimately, the impact you are having on your kids

  • Blending Compelling Character Education with Daily Teaching
  • Becoming a Difference Maker – How to Inspire a Child’s Character and Academic Development
  • Teaching Social and Emotional Skills Needed for Character Education
  • Infusing Purpose-driven Community Service Learning Projects into the Classroom
  • Using Interactive Read-alouds to Foster Deep Thinking, Ethically and Academically
  • Writing Non-Fiction Texts Through Inspirational Stories
  • Utilizing Games and Activities to Reinforce Character Education
  • Using Class Meetings to Solve Class Challenges and Take on Class Projects

Professional Development Formats

We offer customized options for Professional Development delivery based on your needs, from day-long, in person, workshops to embedded PD and virtual delivery.  Please contact us to discuss your specific needs.

About the Facilitator

Mike Anderson

Mike Anderson is an award-winning teacher and author of several books about great teaching and learning.  Beyond his teaching career, he was formerly a Responsive Classroom consultant and developer and an ASCD Whole Child advisor.

Mike is now a highly sought after education consultant, helping to lead great learning in schools on a wide range of subjects–from integrating academics and social/emotional learning to using choice to boost differentiation and intrinsic motivation. To learn more about Mike and his work, visit www.leadinggreatlearning.com.

How to Learn More or Get Started?

If you would like to learn more about our customized Professional Development Programs, please contact us.