Quality professional learning comes in all shapes and sizes.

For the past four years we have used late-start Wednesdays, early outs, and full days for professional development. These various formats of professional development may be inconvenient for working families, but these days are imperative to the success of our teachers. During this time our teachers have worked hard to develop their craft within their subject areas and grade levels.

Teaching is a profession. All professionals need time and opportunities to update, to train, to interact with other professionals, to hone their craft, to reflect on their work, to get better. Effective professional development is distributed over time and not jammed into a single day. We offer a variety of learning opportunities for teachers. These opportunities range from full days, to early outs, and to our weekly late starts. These various structures provide opportunities to differentiate our professional development for teachers.

Professionals need opportunities to: become aware of best practices, observe others modeling new or different practices, have opportunities to practice, receive feedback, reflect and interact with others. Professional learning communities which meet on late-start Wednesday and at other times are opportunities for teachers to engage with one another to focus on each of these questions:

What do our students need to know and be able to do?

How will we know if they can do it? (How will we evaluate student work to measure their mastery?)

What we will we do for students who already can do what is expected?

What will we do to support and help students who have not achieved the standards?

When teachers are able to meet regularly to reflect on practice, examine student work, agree on
common outcomes, research best practice, observe others, share effective practices, everyone benefits. The traditional structure of the school day has not allowed for this type of practice. At RPS we have intentionally built time for teachers to improve their craft. Sometimes the lumberjack has to stop sawing to sharpen his blade to improve production. This is no different than the teaching profession, sometimes we need time away from teaching to improve teaching.

We are proud of the work of our teachers at Rugby Public School District!