Attribute 5.1
Individualized Professional Development PD
Model: STEM teachers have identified unique professional development goals and tailor at least 50% of their STEM professional development activities to meet their individual needs – may include strategies for inquiry-based instruction, for integrating STEM, or information on cutting edge content.
Professional development at Hendersonville Elementary is differentiated based upon the needs of each professional. STEM team members meet regularly with all faculty in order to ensure that the needs of the teachers are met and, based on these observations and meetings, Professional Development is recommended. Teachers are presented opportunities across the state of North Carolina and even in some cases, across the United States. These off-site Professional Development opportunities provide teachers with instructional and content practices that will deepen their understanding of STEM. In order to assess teachers’ development in STEM content and instruction, teachers deliver the content that was learned from off-site PD at the set-aside STEM Professional Development section of each faculty meeting. During this time, teachers present new skills and instructional practices that were learned that teachers plan to use in their own classrooms. Along with off-site Professional Development, teachers also participate in PLCs and Focus Groups based upon STEM needs. Workdays are set aside for specific STEM training, especially in dealing with the school-wide STEM units.
This is an example of a Faculty Meeting professional development seminar presented by one of our teachers that attended off-site Professional Development.
During early-release days (We have 5 early-release days built into our calendar), we focus our sites on PD and how to create learning experiences that are relevant for students. We do this through our community partners, as seen here in this photo. Teachers toured the local news station in order to gather ideas for STEM classroom activities.
These are PD seminars that teachers have attended in the past two years. Each PD is used specifically to enhance teachers in the area of STEM instruction. This does not include regular faculty meetings with STEM focus nor PLC or grade level STEM meetings.
This is a picture taken from PD delivered through Math Solutions on Volume. Teachers participate in many quality off-site PD that they are able to take back to the school and share.
Teachers attending a Makey Makey STEM Professional Development session.
