Professional Development

Professional Development


Why?

  1. To provide Teacher Inquiry
  2. To improve Student Learning

Teacher Inquiry a process to create thoughtful, effective teaching practice
Make it Public, Peer Review, Pass it on

  • Provide a safe, supportive environment in which to collaborate and grow.
  • Understand how students learn
  • Question Colleagues
  • Risk trying new things
  • Share progress and ideas with others
  • Based on Research of Student Learning and Teacher Learning
  • Create assessment tools of evaluation
  • School/Site based, both internal and external
    External: Teacher networks, sharing global views and ideas; unisolate the school;
    Internal: for change and forums of discussion, unisolate the teacher;
  • Avoid "Yes, but" statements
  • Effectiveness of PD are multiple and highly complex
  • Single shot, workshops, school/dept meetings, and guests alone ineffective
  • Make it relevant within context of school day
  • Cyclical:
      1. set specific, measurable targets for student learning using data
      2. prepare for sessions, create study groups, guest speakers for inspiration
      3. select type of PD:
        peer collaboration
        individual professional growth
        action research with sharing by publishing and presenting
        external: conferences, grad classes, workshops elsewhere.
      4. self reflection and sharing of experiences and findings on how all this improves student learning
      5. changes teacher needs to make, will make. how?
      6. multiple measures of teacher and student learning
  • Theory and more.

    Student Learning

  • Balanced Literacy: word study; shared, guided, independent reading; read alouds; writer's workshop
  • Driven by Assessment: teams of teachers examine the work and tests to determine instruction
  • Authentic Assessment
  • H.O.T.S. (Higher Order Thinking Skills Project) replaces traditional drill and practice activities and content instruction in compensatory programs with thinking activities designed to generate the gains in basic skills expected from scholars.


    Webquests:

  • Internet for Teachers
  • Curriculum Quest
  • Elementary School WebQuest-Quest
  • Weaving the Web into Your K-12 Curriculum
  • MORE

    More Resources