At
the February 12th school board meeting, the Rugby Public School
Board voted to increase the amount of time for teacher training by adding seven
additional days of training to the 2019-2020 school calendar. The school board
took advantage of a recent law change that provides schools with additional
flexibility for teacher training and storm day makeup.
The
approved school calendar for 2019-2020 provides 10 days of professional
development for teachers and support staff. This equates to one professional
development day per month. The school district will not have students in
session on these training days. In the past, we would front load most of our
training during our two days of professional development prior to school
starting. Due to the time constraints of the school day and a traditional
school calendar it has been extremely difficult to gain momentum on our key
school initiatives. According to research on adult learning, high quality
professional learning is job embedded and continuously occurs throughout the
year.
In
general, the calendar change will provide teachers more opportunities to engage
in school improvement, curriculum planning, and personal professional
development during their working hours. It is the belief that quality is
greater than quantity in relation to time in front of kids. 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.
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. 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 and length of the school day has not allowed for this
type of practice. Sometimes the lumberjack must 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.
If you lose a school day due to weather will you use those days to make up student contact days?
ReplyDeleteHi, sorry for the late reply. We built in storm days for weather related delays and cancellations. We will however have additional flexibility when it comes to weather related events.
ReplyDelete