Welcome to the SOMEA Professional Development Committee online! Our goal is for this page to serve as your portal to professional development in the district, the state and beyond. We will strive to provide you with up-to-date links to professional development opportunities and access to online resources that can help us be the best educators we can be.

Check out the NEW Workshops by KEAN! Click HERE!

Please RSVP to somseapd@gmail.com if you plan on attending any SOMEA workshops.

We encourage you to explore this section of our site to learn about resources offered by the Montclair State University Network for Educational Renewal, Kean University's Center for Innovative Education, and the Center for Effective School Practices at Rutgers University.
The opportunity to earn professional learning hours is now available to us online through NJEA's online professional development courses and through PD360, an online professional development tool where educators can access hundreds of indexed and searchable video segments on specific strategies to increase student achievement.
Your 100 professional development hours (earned during a five-year cycle) are now part of your "PDP," Professional Development Plan (formally known as your PIP). Read about this change and other professional development requirement issues in the New Jersey Department of Education's Frequently Asked Questions of the Professional Development Program.
In addition to having a district (Local) Professional Development Committee (LPDC), each building now has its own School-based Professional Development Committee (SPDC) comprised of teachers and administrators. The SPDCs are responsible for promoting and managing Professional Learning Communities in each school. This new requirement is part of New Jersey's Professional Development Initiative for Teachers.
What is a professional learning community (PLC)? A PLC is a team (or group of teams) of educators working together using processes of inquiry, problem solving, and reflection upon their practice to promote student learning. For more information, read A Common Language for Professional Learning Communities.