We have all heard the catch phrase, “School Improvement.” But how do we actually go about creating an environment in schools that leads to true improvement for student learning. The course, EDUL 6017, offered online through the University of Georgia affords me the opportunity to focus on professional development and a collegial professional bond with those that I work with in order to impact student achievement. I found the text, Schools as Professional Learning Communities by Roberts and Pruitt (2003), to be informative and thought-provoking. The websites also proved to be quite enlightening, as well. These sources provided a context for those with little knowledge of a collaborative approach to professional development to get started and implement some of the strategies suggested in ways that were non-threatening and inviting to teachers who have little experience and often feel apprehensive about sharing. As a former teacher of the “America’s Choice/Georgia’s Choice” program, I found that many of the activities that we utilized for staff development were utilized in the readings and websites such as using teachers as the leaders of staff development, getting teachers into viewing other teacher’s practices and skills through observing one another, and creating your professional development around the school’s mission and the test score results. I have noted from the meetings that we have had in our school over the last three years and things that I have read in newspapers and on the Georgia Department of Education website that the movement of staff development throughout the state of Georgia is moving in the direction of creating “Learning Communities” at each school. From what I recall, the state now mandates that there must be release time during the school day for some of this staff development. With this in mind, I can see where principals and curriculum directors have to become creative in scheduling this type of staff development in order to provide for the classroom coverage necessary to ensure that all students receive only beneficial results from the “learning community”.

     As I completed the assignments, I began to probe my own views about staff development at my school. As I see my school, which is a Pre-K through 12^th grade school, all under one roof, I believe that we are moving in a direction where students are the focus of instructional development. For example, I strongly related to the information presented on page 53 of our text about curriculum standards. It stated that the standards should provide a unifying theme for staff development over several years (Roberts and Pruitt, 2003). I see this as the driving force of my school’s staff development over the last three years and for several years to come in the future. During my first year at my school, which was three years ago, I served on a redelivery team for the Language Arts portion of the Georgia Performance Standards. Our staff development included learning about the standards, examining what the standards were asking us and the students to do, and applying the teaching of standards within our classrooms. The next year another subject area was “rolled out”, and the pattern will continue for several more years. This summer, as an elementary staff, we put all of our standards and the elements of the standards in kid-friendly language. I noted to the leader of the staff development that thinking about the standards in terms that the students could understand really helped me to understand the standards more fluently and created new ways in my mind that I wanted teach these standards.

     Of equal importance is the use of student data in staff development. As a school, the staff development that we have participated in also utilizes student test scores as a central focus. Last year, all teachers were provided with notebooks with student information in them that centered on test scores and benchmarks. For example, high school teachers were given End of Course Test results, Georgia High School Graduation Test results, and SAT results. Middle school and elementary school teachers were given CRCT results. With this, we were to find areas that were weak for particular students, create strategies for those students, document the student along with the strategy, and document the results for each child. Along with these students, if we had a student in our class that was not working to his/her full potential or was having difficulty passing for whatever reason, we created an intervention sheet for that student as well. We had to focus on the passage rates of our classes and report on these each grading period to the principal. While some saw this as busy work, I believe that this documentation and process made me focus on what I was doing to help the students. I strongly believe that it is time that we quit pointing fingers at the students and parents, and realize that schools today are not like they were 20 years ago when some of us were in school. We must change if we are to keep up with today’s society.

        Another area where my school is already using some of the strategies discussed in the book is professional learning provided through the use of study groups. Our school chooses one to two professional books a year for our teachers to meet on a regular basis to address issues brought up by these pieces of professional literature. For example, recently, our focus was on utilizing instructional strategies that were research based. The literature provided to us was some of the work of Robert J. Marzano. We utilized three strategies within our classrooms during that year. Based on the writing of Roberts and Pruitt (2003), this demonstrates the importance of the professional development being part of the day-to-day practice going on in classrooms throughout the school.

    We utilized three strategies over a twenty-seven week period and met to discuss ideas at least once a month. The first nine weeks we used graphic organizers in our teaching. The next nine weeks, we had students create visual images to demonstrate their understanding in subject areas. The final strategy that we used was having students create outlines with the information they were reading about in class. We had a great deal of success with these strategies. I strongly believe in the use of research based learning. As a faculty, our study groups consisted of grade level groups. All the high school teachers met together, as did the middle school teachers, and the elementary teachers. Our school has used the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson and differentiation as another focus of staff development.

     While we are working in the direction suggested by our text, I feel that there are some areas in which we need to grow. First of all, I would like to state that I feel that some teachers are apprehensive towards having others view their teaching practices. One teacher stated to me that she does not want anyone “micromanaging” her teaching everyday. I think that providing some ice breaking techniques as suggested some of the websites provided in the required readings would help build trust, as suggested in chapter four of the textbook. Just because some people have worked around each other does not necessarily mean that they have developed the level of trust that is needed to be a team. I think that this would be a springboard for providing training in team skills. Because we have tried a variety of teams, both across grade levels and across particular subject areas, I think beginning in the forming stage would be an excellent place for my school to start. I also believe that use of teams builds a sense of community.

     Another area of growth that I feel is pertinent to teachers is the building of a professional portfolio. As a mentor teacher, I routinely tell my inexperienced teachers to keep a professional portfolio. As Roberts and Pruitt (2003) describe, “A professional portfolio is a thoughtful document demonstrating a teacher’s approach to teaching or an administrator’s approach to leadership.” It helps a teacher or administrator to become reflective about his/her practice and aids in the development of their philosophy of education.

    According to our administrative assistant, staff development decisions are made based on the school improvement plan. Mrs. Miller and I have both discussed the importance of teacher input on the staff development they are offered.

     There are several insights that I have gained from the process of studying the best practices of staff development. The first insight I attained from this study is the profound effect that what teachers study can deeply affect their students. It is not that I did not already know this fact. However, this intensified my views towards the importance of utilizing what I learn to impact the student I teach. Over the past few years, I have been furthering my education by obtaining my masters degree, adding gifted in-field certification, and now adding educational leadership to my repertoire of understandings and beliefs. I often tell my students that none of us ever stop learning. The information in this course has solidified my beliefs of the teacher as a learner and a pedagogue. From the professional development that I have participated in over the last few years, I am confident in stating that I know that I am improved in my teaching and my students are learning more. I definitely know the strengths and weaknesses of my students. As a future administrator, it will be my focus to be in the classrooms and observing the implementations that teachers are making. As an administrator, I will want to know the strengths and weaknesses of each teacher that works with me.

     Another insight that I have gained is in the section on teamwork. As Roberts and Pruitt stated, “In a professional learning community, people work collaboratively to accomplish their collective goals; therefore, teamwork is absolutely essential.” While I have always been a believer of the TEAM concept, or together everyone achieves more, this chapter presents ways to identify barriers that can impede team concepts. It seems that keeping small things helps focus the group on the goals at hand. Maintaining communication and building trust, in my opinion, are two of the most important skills that need to be sharpened in order to provide for a positive team approach.

     A third insight that I have is the use of portfolios. While I have used portfolios in the past, I had never thought of the use of a portfolio in the role of professional development. I had always used them for my own use. Chapter eight discusses that portfolios are an excellent way for teachers to provide samples of excellent teaching practices, work samples, and can be used as a springboard for professional dialogue among teachers when they work on them collegially (Roberts and Pruitt, 2003). While I have not used them in the past in this way, I feel confident that this is something that I want to attempt, at least in a small way among a few teachers, this coming school year.

     After reflecting upon the course and my own school’s professional development practices, I have come up with three questions that I plan on pursuing. The first question that I am interested in exploring is centered on the teamwork chapter. How can I encourage the building of teams within my school that focus on curriculum issues such as the consistency of teacher commentary on student work? I have made the first step in this by beginning to ask questions of our administrative assistant at the board office level. Next, I plan on rereading that chapter on teamwork. Finally, I will discuss my plans with my building level administrator and make recommendations to the school improvement team that we should implement teambuilding training within one age level group, such as the elementary teachers. As we see success, I would move the training on to middle and high school groups. While some may see these activities and trainings as a waste of time, it imperative to the process getting to know each other, building trust, and getting us all on the same page where student achievement is involved.

     My next question is, “How can the leadership team encourage active participation among the staff when everyone already stretched to the limit?” As I think about the most important piece to this puzzle, I feel that strong administrative support is at the center of the answer. According to Roberts and Pruitt (2003), administration should encourage and support teacher learning. With this in mind, I think of the statement made earlier that administrators have to become more and more creative with ways to incorporate staff development into the school day. By providing time during the school day for staff development, classroom observations, focus walks, and collegial feedback sessions, I believe that this will help relieve some of the stress felt by teachers that can become overwhelmed by the ever changing face of education today.

     As an extremely small school, would peer coaching can be a successful way to encourage teachers to observe and provide feedback for each other’s classroom? Our school currently does not have an instructional lead teacher and has a part time curriculum director who can be very intimidating to others. There is currently not a system in place to do observations or focus walks in other teacher’s classrooms. This is something that I feel strongly needs to be changed. I plan on discussing this with a few teachers who are receptive to the idea of coming to my class and observing some of my teaching methods. I also will create an observation checklist that correlates with standards based teaching. Once teachers are comfortable with the process, I will offer to come to their classes and give feedback as well.

     The course, School Staff Development, has been a very worthwhile and thought-provoking course. I feel that the information learned in this class has sparked an interest some new ideas, given me thoughts on processes already in place, and solidified my practices that I have been using for several years as “best practices” in staff development for schools of the 21^st century.

 

 

 

 

References

Roberts, S. & Pruitt, E. (2003). Schools as Professional Learning Communities: Collaborative Activities and Strategies for Professional Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.