Professional Development: "What really happens during St. George's PED Days?"

For the students, ped days represent a day off. For the teachers at St. George’s it’s anything but.  In fact, St. George’s sees professional development as more than a once-a-year event. In order for our teachers to become experts in how students learn and what motivates all learners, our school has invested in a multi-year, multi-faceted professional development plan.

ONGOING COMMITMENT

An educator continues their relationship with learning well beyond their training and classroom development. It is a lifelong journey, and professional development requires commitment and time on the part of our teachers. Typically, teachers attend conferences, listen to keynote speakers and obtain a sprinkling of knowledge. Rarely does this translate into substantial change in practice, and is therefore, quite ineffective.

The St. George’s professional development program is an ongoing and recurrent process that evolves and unfolds over many years. Each PD day builds from previous ones in topics and in answer to teachers feedback and questions and focuses on:

• Recent research in pedagogy and cognitive science
• Sharing best teaching practices and applying it to everyday situations
• Collaborative inquiry and the discovery of strategies, to ensure optimal learning for all our students

“St. George’s School views all members of its community as lifelong learners. The benefits of this training are immediately passed on to my students as I am motivated to apply strategies that truly bring together the art and the science of teaching”, claims Danielle Delhaes, E.S. Science.

MULTI-YEAR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

“We encourage the development of our teachers’ expertise by supporting individual and departmental initiatives, conferences and local association training participation”, states Jim Officer, Head of School, “but in addition, we have invested significantly in a multi-year professional development plan to ensure that every St. George’s teacher and student is provided with an optimal learning opportunity.”

This professional development plan includes:

• Ongoing consultation with leading-edge experts in curriculum development and pedagogy
• A newly created professional learning community initiative where teachers meet throughout the year in small teams and discuss a topic of interest and of high need in their classrooms
• The progressive development of a “whole school” curriculum map in order to align key concepts from K to Grade 11 and avoid gaps and repetition
• A yearly commitment to sending groups of teachers to the Summer Academy for Academic Diversity in Virginia – considered the most challenging pedagogical development available
• Optional attendance at the St. George’s Summer Institute, a peer and research based teaching practice 4-day program
• A professional growth assessment tool for teachers to set yearly goals and benchmark their progress

MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT

Following a recent two-day, hands-on workshop focusing on curriculum development with the full faculty, teacher Megan Webster expressed her appreciation at the opportunity to work with renowned teaching expert and consultant, Jessica Hockett: “I believe our growth as a community and as individuals depends upon our meaningful engagement with mentors who really push our thinking and our practice, while providing the support and encouragement to grow. Since we have started our professional development focus...I have seen countless changes in my teaching...Students are really learning, and we are all having a lot of fun.”