I am a professional development junky . . . attend a lot of PD workshops and seminars usually on my own time and dime. I look for the free stuff or the stuff that pays me to attend.
I also read a lot of articles and books in education. Reading blogs helps too since I get a feel of what is going on in education around the country (sometimes, it's reassuring to know that other teachers out there are feeling or going through the same thing as me here in MA). 
I also update my activities and projects in my classes regularily. I get bored if I'm teaching the same way every single day so I try and jazz things up from time to time. As a History teacher, I can't really change the curriculum (I teach World) but I can change the methods.
Enjoy your conference and tell us all about it when you return!
Hi Friend!
One of the things I do to update myself is I'm constantly on the look out for quirky interesting details that I can throw in a unit in some way. I also change up from year-to-year how I teach certain parts of a unit...depending on student needs, and I try to stay current on new views and news in the field of history.
I'm excited about an earth and space science class I'm taking this summer at the University. We'll be in the classroom for a week and then doing field study for a week in rural Nevada. A friend took the same class and came back with a lot of ideas for use in the classroom. I put taking classes on hold for a while when my husband went back to school, but I do read a lot professionally on my own time.
I am always looking for ways to make life easier in the classroom.
I don't see a reason to reinvent the wheel--as long as the wheel is spinning well. When I do lesson plans I pretty much copy old ones that have worked, but I also take notes on my lesson plans of things that didn't go so well. That way, the next year I can account for that.
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