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Embedded Staff Development
UPCS has created a culture of embedded professional development, in which all staff members continually support each other and veteran teachers mentor their younger colleagues. Through analysis of student data, the sharing of student work, and continual dialogue during weekly common planning times, every teacher knows the strengths, weaknesses and plan for success of every child. Young teachers very quickly acquire the expertise of seasoned veterans because of the constant dialogue about teaching, learning, and student engagement with master teachers.
Veteran Teachers Set a Course for Success: When UPCS opened, the principal selected, as her first hires, veteran teachers with a track record of motivating and leading underprepared students to success. These teachers were also experienced mentor teachers who could support student teachers and other young staff as the school developed.
School Is a Pre-Service Training Center: Every year five to seven pre-service teachers from Clark’s teacher education program conduct their student teaching at UPCS. Teachers from the UPCS also teach courses in the Clark teacher education program. A majority of the UPCS faculty are graduates of Clark’s program.
Student teachers at UPCS study under experienced veterans in a culture of success, rapidly becoming excellent teachers themselves. The strongest of these student teachers are then recruited to join UPCS’ faculty as vacancies become available.
Common Planning Time: All core academic teachers attend weekly common planning time. Discussion in these sessions focus on curriculum, pedagogy, data-analysis, and students progress. Common planning time sets the tone for an on-going dialogue between teachers at the school about instructional practice and student learning.
Teacher Learning in
Open Door Classrooms | "Our teachers' lounge is not very nice. Instead, we typically spend our free periods planning in the back of each other's classrooms. We borrow strategies from one another and get to see the relationships that our students have with other teachers. I gain new insights on working with my students by seeing the ways another teacher engages them." - Math teacher
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Peer Learning and Rounds: UPCS has an “open door” policy in its classrooms. UPCS teachers are encouraged to spend their non-teaching time in the back of a colleague’s classroom. (The school lacks a functional teachers’ lounge, and there are few other spaces to work, so teachers often spend thier free periods observing each other.) New teachers glean techniques for classroom management and ideas for new curriculum activities from veteran staff.
Teachers also hold formal rounds, a structured observation process, for their peers and students teachers at the school. Based on medical school rounds, teachers hold a pre-round to discuss the planned activities for the day, host observers in their class, and end with a post-round discussion to debrief the student learning that occurred.
Professional Development School Partnership: UPCS teachers are able to take free courses both in education and in content areas from Clark University. Several teachers have earned Master’s degrees through this program, and others have continued study and research in their content areas. For example, a biology teacher spent a summer as a researcher in the lab of a Clark University microbiologist.
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| Related Files |
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| Staff Comments on Professional Development |
| "At many schools, professional development is something that happens to teachers, some workshop that they are required to attend. One of the best professional development experiences I have ever had was an in-house professional development day where we spent the whole day traveling around the school, participating in a brief mini-lesson with each teacher. It enabled each of us to get the flavor of the other teachers and see how they engage my students in the subject area that they are passionate about." - UPCS Teacher |
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