Introduction
Professional development is our continuing education effort for Green Valley educators to build a positive school culture.
We believe that Teachers can improve their skills and in turn, boost student outcomes and promote a growth mindset. It’s obvious that good teachers are better at teaching students effectively.
Student achievement is the ultimate goal of teacher professional development and hence we engage teachers in teams to focus on the needs of their students.
Towards this we arrange conferences, courses, seminars, retreats and workshops
Strategy
a) Green Valley communicates to our teachers that the school values the work they do and wants them to grow.
b) Green Valley asks teachers for their suggestions, choice about what or how they learn.
c) We ask for feedback at the end of the sessions, and then use it to continue the cycle.
d) We ask teachers what worked, what didn’t, what they would change and what they’d like to learn more about next time.
e) We divide teachers into groups, based on grade level or subject area.
f) We make sure it’s a topic that feeds into our school’s overall educational goals.
g) We pair up teachers to develop an interdisciplinary teaching activity.
h) We message them to use out-of-the-box thinking to create a dynamic learning experience for their students.
Implementation Approach
- It takes place during the school day.
- PD sessions are done at the beginning or end of the school day.
- Arrange schedule for teachers to observe their colleagues in the classroom to have a chance to see how their peers handle classroom issues and approach their lessons. They’ll also have the opportunity to collaborate and suggest areas of improvement.
- We give teachers effective and actionable feedback that helps them to improve.
Feed Back and Follow Up
- Green Valley analyses at student data: are there learning gaps in specific subjects or grades as to which teaching strategies are effective and Which strategies are already working well.
- Organize educators into learning teams, assign each a topic with a goal. Example, if we notice that the Grades 4, 5 and 6 classes consistently struggle with fractions, we challenge the teachers for those grades to come up with a way to effectively scaffold content and boost student achievement.
- Learning teams meet twice or three times a month for follow up action.