professional development

Being in a small school district has its advantages (and disadvantages). One advantage is being able to invoke change. On Tuesday I talked at length with my Principal about our professional devolpment programs (or lack there of). He agrees it is an area that needs to be addressed in our district. Often the afternoons are planned by our part-time curriculum director. They are often times aimed at K-12. At best we may split into K-5 and 6-12. So most topics of discussion are very vague and little is accomplished. When I asked the question of how often we set a goal of improving student achievement with staff development, he agreed we are far from that. From our meeting came a promise of additional meetings and that we work more from research based platforms and get away from such vague meetings. I do understand, however, this may have to be a grass-roots type movement, where teachers take more responsibility of the inservices that we have in the future.