Professional development a vital part of education

Have you ever wondered what goes on in our buildings when students are let out of school after a half-day? Or what exactly we do to achieve the district goals we set each year? The answer to both, in part, is professional development.

Professional development is a vital part of our work in serving students. As educators, we value lifelong learning and the pursuit of new information and ideas. Our professional development programs help equip teachers with new strategies, bus drivers with more safety information, secretaries with new program skills, and our entire staff with many other opportunities.

For our district, the half and full days without students provide our staff with professional growth opportunities, which help enhance the valuable time we spend with students.

In Geneva, we approach school improvement as building on strengths and working long-term to accomplish more for students. Improvement comes from focusing on major improvements over time. Our plans for this year, and beyond, emphasize reading and problem solving skills, as well as success for all students.

After a half day of school on Oct. 4, our high school staff spent the afternoon in a professional development program focusing on problem solving strategies. As a district goal, teaching problem solving skills works across all areas of our curriculum -- learning and applying the scientific method; in math, learning varied solutions to problems through equations, estimating and formulas; in reading, determining the main point and underlying themes in literature; and in all subjects, determining or developing strategies that make sense for understanding and arriving at solutions. Problem solving, like reading, is a skill important to all subject areas and in life in general.

That same day, our middle and elementary staff were presented the use of data and implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) strategies. By examining and breaking down test scores, we can tell if students are succeeding, if we need to adjust our instruction, and in what areas our kids do well or need improvement. RTI helps educators work as a team to identify some barriers to student learning and equip staff with strategies to help each child succeed.

Most of our day on Oct. 5 was spent preparing for the implementation of our new teacher and administrator evaluation processes. Both were built by our district committees and a consultant using the Illinois Teaching Standards and the Illinois School Leadership Standards. Both also focus on supporting new educators, helping tenured and more experienced educators determine plans for growth, and assisting staff who need extra help to succeed.

As educators, we know that our time spent with students is valuable, and we work to maximize the use of that time. As a community of learners, we know that we also need to spend time developing our skills and strategies in order to continue to improve. By working as a community of learners in a unit district with common goals, we are shaping the educational future of our students and growing our tradition of excellence into the future.