What Are Teachers Learning During Professional Development Days?

Teachers in districts all across the state and country are not only required to continue their professional learning, but are generally eager to do so. In the Grosse Pointe Public School System (GPPSS), the district calendar provides for a number of scheduled opportunities for teachers and support staff to learn about a wide variety of topics related to instruction and learning. Many of these learning opportunities take place during the teachers' personal times, such as after school hours and in the summer, while a few take place during the school day during which students are not scheduled or during which teachers are released from instruction. Teachers also use personal time to work on post-graduate courses and degrees, do professional readings, and attend seminars, workshops, and conferences.



In addition to enhancing their set of own instructional skills, another of the essential components of an outstanding school district such as GPPSS is that our professional staff continues to review and make recommendations to the Board of Education for revisions to the curriculums. Our district does curriculum revisions on a continuous rotating basis, typically every five years for the core curriculum areas. For example, in the past few years, our district has revised and implemented new curriculums and materials in Language Arts, Science, Math, and Social Studies as well as in a number of other curriculum areas. In addition to devoting their time and expertise to these curriculum revisions, the subsequent impact of this upon elementary teachers is that they must become familiar with new curriculum content and student learning expectations in a number of areas within a very short period of time in order to continue and improve the level of student learning that is expected of students in the Grosse Pointe Public School System. This also means that teachers must quickly become adept as using new curriculum materials, such as text books, student assessments, and other instructional materials.



This past year, GPPSS teachers at the K-5 level have been focusing extensively on the new Math materials. The materials for Kindergarten are from the Harcourt program, while Grades 1-5 are from the Everyday Math program, in which students are taught to approach problem solving and computation in ways that are new to most teachers and students alike. This has required that teachers continue to attend workshops and professional learning opportunities throughout the school year to become proficient in using the materials and in presenting the lessons so that students can learn effectively.



While that may not sound too difficult to the casual reader, one must consider that these same teachers must also continue learning more about the other curriculum areas that have been revised and implemented in the past few years since, unlike teachers at the middle or high school levels, they are responsible for teaching all subjects.



The district understands that often, these half-days or full-days can create some childcare issues for certain families during the school year. Nonetheless, we trust that most parents understand the importance of teachers continuing their professional learning to enhance the learning of their students. We also try to minimize the amount of time that teachers are excused from instructional days, during which substitute teachers are hired to teach their classes, as we always seek to have the most highly qualified teachers working with our students.

We appreciate the patience and cooperation of our parents in supporting our outstanding, dedicated teachers as they continuously add to their instructional knowledge, skills, and strategies in order to bring the best instructional practices into their classrooms, with the ultimate benefit being improved learning for your child(ren). Thank you!