Before You Sign Up for Another Professional Development Opportunity, Read This
At the time I’m writing this, my kids are at soccer camp, and I’m sitting at the kitchen table trying to decide what to do with a few unexpected hours of quiet. Part of me wants to tackle the growing pile of laundry, and part of me wants to make progress on the never-ending list of projects around the house. However, more of me wants to keep watching the on-demand sessions from the OGA conference. Yep, I love structured literacy professional development…even during the summer.
Summertime Learning
The laundry will still be there later, unfortunately. So I’ve spent part of this week catching up on conference presentations and filling pages of a notebook with ideas. If you’re a teacher, interventionist, tutor, or literacy specialist, you probably know this feeling well. One presentation sparks an idea. That idea reminds you of a book you wanted to read. The book leads you to a podcast episode. The podcast introduces another topic you realize you should probably learn more about.
Suddenly you’ve built yourself a summer professional development plan that would require about three summers to complete. I’ve been there. Actually, if I’m being honest, I’m there right now.
Structured Literacy Professional Development in 2026
One of the unexpected challenges of being a literacy educator in 2026 is that there are so many opportunities to learn. That might sound like a strange thing to call a challenge.
After all, there was a time when many of us were searching for evidence-based reading instruction and struggling to find it. Today, the landscape looks very different. There are conferences, memberships, podcasts, webinars, books, certifications, social media accounts, and newsletters dedicated to structured literacy professional development.
The problem isn’t access; it’s deciding what deserves your attention. Every summer I hear some version of the same question. “What should I focus on next?” It’s a reasonable question.
Most educators don’t have unlimited time or unlimited budgets. If you’re going to invest your energy into learning something new, you want it to matter.
Before You Plan Ahead, Look Back
For years, I approached summer learning looking forward. What should I learn, or attend, or what should I read? Lately, I’ve found myself starting somewhere different. Instead of looking ahead first, I look behind me. I look at the school year that just ended. Because every school year leaves clues.
The student who finally became accurate with multisyllabic words leaves clues. Or the student who continued to struggle despite your best efforts. Additionally, lessons leave clues too. For example, the lessons that always seemed to run smoothly, or the lessons that always felt rushed. Clues can also be found with concepts students mastered quickly compared to concepts that required repeated review.
Observation Leads to Growth
When I think about the years that have shaped me most as an educator, the biggest breakthroughs rarely came from randomly choosing a professional development opportunity. They came from recognizing a need first. The professional learning is what helped me address it.
That’s a very different process. One starts with information. The other starts with observation.
Observation is often the better guide. That’s one of the reasons I created the Structured Literacy Summer Planning Toolkit.
Teachers don’t need another workbook, nor do they need another item on their to-do list. Luckily, the toolkit was created because summer offers breathing room. When we have space to breathe, we can notice patterns. The toolkit is designed to help educators step back, reflect on the year, identify priorities, and think intentionally about where to focus next.
From Reflection to Action
Once you know where you’d like to grow, choosing professional learning becomes easier. You stop feeling like you need everything, and you start looking for the thing that will have the biggest impact.
The best professional development isn’t necessarily the most popular; it’s the one that helps you solve the problem you are actually facing.
That’s why I love summer learning! It gives me enough distance from the school year to see what my students have been trying to teach me all along. If you’re looking for a place to start, I hope you’ll download the free Structured Literacy Summer Planning Toolkit.
Join Us This Summer
If you have identified an area where you’d like to grow this year, I’d love to invite you to join us for the Building Readers for Life Summer Virtual Conference.
With 15 on-demand sessions, a keynote from Deon Butler, CEUs available, and access through November 1, the conference was designed to give educators practical ideas they can immediately apply in their work with students.
Because professional growth isn’t about learning everything. It’s about learning what matters most right now. And sometimes the best way to discover that is by paying attention to the clues the school year left behind.
