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Hello, I apologize if this has been posted before. I am new to the NSTA Learning Center and I have found it an amazing place to develop my professional development goals and a rich resource for ideas/concepts to implement in my classroom. As a new teacher, I'm not sure how the whole professional development hours idea works. In Pennsylvania, we are required to have 180 PD hours over a period of five years in order to maintain certification. I currently teach on an Intern Certificate and will be receiving my Instructional I in May 2013. This leads me to ask several questions (and this might be an area where Pennsylvania teachers might be able to help me out): 1. Does my 180 PD hour requirement begin once I receive my Instructional I (or am I essentially "on the clock" now on my Intern Certificate)? 2. If my requirement does begin when I recieve my Instructional I, do my accumulated PD hours in 2012-2013 carry over? 3. Do I receive PD hours for SciPacks? or do I only receive PD hours for NSTA Web Seminars and attending the NSTA National Conference? 4. I am also part of the NSTA New Science Teacher Academy. Does this program qualify as a state approved induction program? I apologize for the lengthy post, but I figured that this would be the best community to ask this questions (and probably the best way I could solicit a consensus of answers). Thanks again for reading and thanks for the reply.

Ethan Arlene has given you the best advice. I use to teach in Virginia, and they too had the same 180 hours/points over a five year period. These 180 hours/points could constitute a myriad of opportunities, and each experience carried different weights. For example, I could take two 3-hour graduate courses in a science discipline and meet the entire requirement. One could also attend a conference with a reflection submission (which I believe was offered the last time we held a conference in PA), or publish an article in a journal like NSTA's Science and Scope. If you get the official document for your state/district you can make sure that whatever path you take, it will work toward recertification. The PD Plan and Portfolio tool that Arlene mentioned is free and provides a wonderful PDF report you can share with your administrator. It allows you to upload files, certificates, images, or URLs that are also active links from the PDF when opened. Thumbnail images are auto-generated for uploaded image files and it also you to identify your own personal goals for learning, what actions you'll take to achieve them, and what evidences you can upload/reflect upon or point to that you've demonstrated the goal. This can work for whatever effort you identify on your recertification path. Best of success!

Ethan, I am also a teacher in PA. I have the same questions you have. Maybe we can communicate with one another and share any answers we both find out because I am doing so much through NSTA and it would be great if some of it can count towards the PA PD requirements.