As educators, we come in contact with many different professional organizations like Phi Delta Kappa. Each has a different alphabet abbreviation: PDK, CEC, NSF, OEA, OSTA and the resulting alphabet soup is enough to give even a Scrabble champion a headache!
Involvement in these organizations offers numerous benefits:
• On-going professional development
• Networking
• Self-improvement
• Conferences
• The ability to continue to grow as an educator by keeping in touch with current trends and developments in the profession.
Organizations exist on international, national, state, regional, and local levels. Some are affiliated with unions or specific subject content areas. Others are professional organizations and “honor societies.” Most of them require dues. Many publish a journal or other publication highlighting recent research and best practices in the field.
To help you make sense out of the alphabet soup jumble, we have listed few examples of teachers’ organizations for you to explore. Click on the name to go to their website.
International
ASCD - Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
CEC - Council for Exceptional Children
IRA - International Reading Association
PDK - Phi Delta Kappa, International
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