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Professional Development
One of the many advantages leadership can leverage from a skilled and seasoned teaching team is the pool of peer coaches able to create a path of continuous improvement for all. Principal Anne Gayman believes that “our best training comes from within.” This collegial, one-to-one support is invaluable for teachers at Evergreen Heights eager to add to, and improve, their instructional and assessment skills. This team would say — “we know the needs of our students and use that certain knowledge to guide our professional development.”
Formal & Informal Training for the Teaching Team
- Team building, goal setting for the school improvement plan and peer coaching always scheduled for the annual staff retreat
- Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD) training held regularly
- Auburn Teacher Leader Academy participation
- Standards-based instruction/assessment training
- In-service trainings related to technology integration.
- Book studies. Teachers at Evergreen Heights have studied the concepts detailed in Learning By Doing by Richard Dufour , Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker and Thomas Many, and the Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning by Jan Chappuis.
- Weekly professional learning community meetings
- Regular opportunities for informal and formal peer coaching
We Can Make the Connection
The Nine Characteristics of High-Performing Schools place a weighty emphasis on the value of ongoing professional development for teachers. At Evergreen Heights Elementary, teachers build this essential element of continuous improvement into their schedule. They rely on each other as peer coaches deeply invested in each other’s success, and on a variety of training opportunities made available through the district and ESD. This intense and sustaining commitment to professional growth is a measure of the individual responsibility each teacher feels for each child.
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