Day 15 - Professional Development

Today my students had a substitute because I was pulled out for professional development training.  Well was it worth it?  So I will provide a personal reflection of why the school district pulls teachers out of the classroom and its importance to students, parents, and the school community. 

First of all I was aware of the training three weeks ago and I planned in connection with my fellow co-teacher activities to continue learning while I was gone.  Last year I was pulled out of the classroom for nearly 30 days for school business but my students produced 40% more credits the last year over the previous years because my emphasis is upon training self-directed learners.  By the third wek of school I have transferred the responsibility for learning over to my students.  I hold him or her personally responsible for their learning.  My goal is to lift up my students so that it will not matter who their next teacher of instructor will be because they will be self-directed and trained with the skills to learn any subject.   So I get pulled out for the following reasons:

1.  Writing professional development to instruct other teachers in the school district.
2.  Collaboration professional development about improving instructional practices. (Today)
3.  To attend and present at regional conferences about mathematics.
4.  Reflection, data analysis to improve instruction at the school site.

WHY ASSESSMENTS

Assessments and the analysis of data is necessary to improve student outcomes.  Teachers need to plan for giving assessments but more importantly to plan instructional to help students become successful.  Today I had time to reflect and design instruction to help my students become more successful.  My mission is to help my students earn credits to graduate but also to become college and career ready and that requires the mastery of mathematical concepts.  Tomorrow the instructional will focus on areas requiring improvement.