Professional Development

Staff members build teaching skills and concepts by participating in ongoing professional development. Banked-minute days provide valuable time for teacher collaboration, planning, and instructional refinement. The District offers staff development days so that teachers can participate in a variety of professional growth opportunities in curriculum, teaching strategies, and methodologies.  The District's professional development this school year has focused on Writer's Workshop as a means for helping students develop their own writing voice and reach proficiency in the area of writing.

The District has received numerous grants for professional development including Reading First. The majority of District elementary and language arts teachers have participated in AB 466 professional development, a 40-hour summer program focused on the effective implementation of standards in reading and language arts.

At Orange Grove Elementary School, teachers receive individual support from the site Literacy Coach. All new teachers attend a training/coaching program in which they learn about the District's curriculum.

Many Tuesday staff developments are devoted to Grade Level Team meetings in accordance with the Instructional Learning Teams model. A portion of our Tuesday meetings include staff inservices in a language arts or mathematics area; at least one hour of our Tuesdays are devoted to grade level meetings utilizing the Instructional Learning Teams Seven Steps Process of identifying a grade level's area of need and writing specific plans for meeting grade level objectives. After teaching occurs, student work samples and student data are analyzed; the grade level team makes a decision as to how to proceed in future instructional strategies aimed at increasing student achievement.

A large majority of our teachers are trained in Thinking Maps.  Ongoing Thinking Maps follow-up inservices take place throughout the school year on Tuesday afternoons.  Furthermore, Grade Level Intervention Meetings on a trimester basis allow teachers at each grade level to meet and discuss student data, student needs, and the best practices for meeting those needs.