Out of an abundance of care for the safety of our teachers and students, starting Wednesday, May 27th, 2020, DonorsChoose will not support trip and visitor projects with in-person or travel components until at least Spring 2021. Check out our help center for more details.
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Professional development projects help teachers acquire knowledge, skills or credentials to improve their craft as a teacher and create a direct impact on student learning.
Professional development projects must clearly describe:
- The learning objective (eg. socio-emotional teaching techniques)
- How the learning objective will be achieved (eg. books, conferences, training)
- How students will benefit (eg. more up-to-date AP content)
Read on to learn about our guidelines for Professional Development projects:
Trips
- Event Registration: If you need to submit a deposit to participate in an event, that is a-ok. However, you should not pay out of pocket for the full event registration prior to submitting your project. Our team needs to be directly involved in payment to the vendor.
- Self-Guided Trips: You can post a professional development project for a self-guided trip, as long as it’s based in the United States and describes how it will benefit you and your students. Self-guided trips can look like anything from a visit to the planetary museums in Washington DC to a tour through historical sites on the underground railroad.
- International Destinations: You can post a PD project for a trip to international locations if it’s run by an educator-focused organization like GEEO and Teach Your Heart Out. This makes sure that your donors get an extra level of transparency into what the experience will be like.
- Video projects: Video-based PD projects should be part of a larger professional development experience not a standalone. Projects to take video or photos in various places are not compelling examples of professional development and will not be approved (e.g. a project to visit and photograph sites on Boston's Freedom Trail to share with the classroom).
- Bundled Packages: Bundled pricing for PD events can be requested if there are no ticket types/options. For example a ticket that’s all inclusive for event registration, food, transportation and lodging would be switched for an available ticket for event registration.
- Event Timeline: You can post your project for an event anytime between 2 and 8 months from the date you submit your project, even if it’s next school year.
Visitors
- Visitor projects can request the cost of the visitor and any associated catering.
- We aren’t able to cover food/lodging/transportation reimbursements for visitors. If those expenses are needed, they should be included in the visitor’s quote.
Resources
- Technology: Resources serve to facilitate your learning! Projects that request technology devices should illustrate how the device will allow you to access professional development resources.
Questions? Reach out to our team.
Last Updated May 2019