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Professional Development Days are designed to provide continuous
learning opportunities for administrators, teachers, and classified
personnel. These days affirm the
basic philosophy of education that learning is a lifelong process that
contributes to the well being of the students, teachers, administrators, and
community.
Three Professional Development Days for certificated staff
were scheduled during the 2001-2002 school year. Two of the days were held prior to the opening of school. They focused on the California Academic
Standards for Mathematics and the new textbook adoption, Houghton Mifflin
Mathematics and McDougal Littell Mathematics. The third day was held on a Saturday and planned by the school
site to enable each site to meet individual school needs. Additionally, professional development was
provided for all classroom aides. All
professional development days were scheduled outside of the regular school
calendar.
Through reading grants and math grants awarded by the
state, the district has been able to provide extensive training throughout the
school year. Each of these sessions
were held during the afternoon and on Saturdays, to support teachers in their
implementation of a balanced reading/language arts and mathematics program. Each of these trainings was thirty hours
in length. District program
specialists were available to facilitate grade level meetings and provide
follow-up coaching.
Teachers
serving on the District Curriculum Commission selected new reading/language
arts materials, developed a pacing calendar, set assessment dates, and
aligned the standards, new materials and assessments. This alignment was published in the
district Standards for Excellence in Reading Language/Arts and made available
on line. Other Curriculum Commission
members completed work on the district standards-based report card for
Kindergarten through grade three, the district writing prompts and the
district scoring guide to accompany the writing prompts.
New teachers received professional development through the
Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) program. The focus of training was in the
California Formative Assessment and Support System for Teachers (CFASST),
California Standards for the Teaching Profession (CSTP) and the California
Academic Content Standards. In
addition, professional development was provided to meet induction
requirements of SB 2042 leading to the California Clear Teaching
Credential. Each beginning teacher
was assigned a veteran teacher who served as a support provider. The support providers received on-going
professional development in CFASST, coaching strategies, and instructional
techniques. Professional development
was provided through individual mentor, monthly meetings, and after-school or
weekend workshops.
Pre-Intern and Intern teachers received professional development
at monthly meetings focusing on the initial teaching skills of the CSTP
including classroom management, lesson planning, assessment, and establishing
a climate that is conducive to student achievement. Forty hours of professional development, entitled Initial
Teaching Training, was made available to Pre-intern and Intern teachers prior
to the beginning of the school session.
Each Pre-intern and Intern was assigned a coach that provided
day-to-day support in these areas as well as advisement toward meeting
credential requirements.
Veteran teachers experiencing difficulty received
individualized, on-going professional development based on the teacher’s
needs. The principal and the teacher
agreed that support is required and the teacher was assigned either a
resource teacher or a Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) Consulting
teacher. Classroom management, lesson
design and implementation, and instruction utilizing the California Academic
Content Standards were some of the topics of professional development
provided.
Counseling,
mentoring, videotaping was provided on an individual basis to teachers
seeking certification through the National Board for Professional Teaching
Standards (NBPTS). NBPTS candidates
were encouraged to join the Kern County Superintendent of Schools cohort of
teachers seeking certification for assistance in writing and documenting data
for their portfolio.
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