A Menu Worth Reading

Every professional knows the importance of professional development.  Too often in educational settings it can feel like you are sitting in a room hearing information that may not apply to your teaching assignment or content area.  At Linn-Mar the High School Teaching and Learning Director Jeff Frost and four high school teacher leaders recently collaborated on a professional development day.  Their partnership resulted in a menu of options for teachers to peruse before selecting their learning for the day.

To help understand the needs of teachers at the high school, Sheri Crandall, high school instructional strategist, kept a log of wants and needs staff members had in regard to training and professional development.  She also gathered information from other schools with successful PD programs, like Waukee. After discussing those ideas with other teacher leaders:  Sue Atwater (mentor coach), Tina Oberbroeckling (instructional strategist), and Dana Lampe (technology integration coach) they all met with Jeff Frost to discuss their ideas and come up with a plan.  They took the needs/ideas from the staff and developed 14 professional learning sessions that would interest the high school staff.  Jeff Frost and the teacher leaders were able to find teachers, Grantwood AEA staff, and community resources, such as Officer Daubs to facilitate and teach the sessions.

The day started with a whole staff session on SOS(Signs of Suicide) presentation by Pete Martin, counselor and Lisa Mooney, social worker. Each teacher was assigned to three, morning sessions based on his/her interests.  The afternoon was comprised of department time.  The goal as was to provide staff with the most effective and individualized professional development day possible. The high school coaches and strategists assumed the role of the “resource provider” and “learning facilitator” to create this day for staff.   Teachers requested more “TIME,” so Crandall and the others gave them a block of 3 hours of department/PLC time in the afternoon to work on proficiency scales, priority standards, RTI, enrichment, updating curriculum maps, or whatever their department needed.

This day was packed full of what staff needed to meet their personal needs as well as continue meaningful progress on district initiatives. This menu of learning provided staff with an opportunity to advocate for professional development pertinent to each teacher’s content area.  Because this day was so successful, the high school teacher leaders are in the process of planning a new menu of nearly 30 workshop choices for the next PD day in February.

Well-done Linn-Mar High School!