Teachers Helping Teachers: In-house Professional Development by Maria Hirst-Luna Offering professional development in an international school can be a challenging venture. The needs of the staff are varied and fluctuate due to the turnover among foreign staff, and the age and experience of the teachers. Some of the staff is more knowledgeable on certain topics and so offering a one-size-fits-all professional development program is not effective. Not all staff members speak the same lan-guage and thus are frustrated in work-shops where someone has to translate what is being said. Funds are limited and expenses high. It is not feasible to send large numbers of staff members to attend professional development opportunities outside of the country, and it is also often expensive to finance a renowned presenter.

At our school, an internal professional development program has been organized which encourages teachers to share their expertise, knowledge and experience with their colleagues. The program takes place on six Tuesday afternoons of the year from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. The students leave at noon on these days.

The topics for the workshops are determined from several sources: self study findings, staff surveys, and school goals. An additional source is the teachers who have attended conferences outside Guatemala. They share their learning and insights with colleagues thus permitting new information to be shared with the staff each year. Some of the broad areas which were identified at our school are: technology, curriculum development and content area specific workshops. The staff select from at least fifteen workshops. The workshops are presented more than once throughout the year to give staff members several opportunities to attend the workshops in which they are interested. Most workshops are offered in both Spanish and English at different times. Workshop attendance runs from 10-25 teachers in each workshop, giving presenters and attendees an opportunity to discuss and ask questions regarding the content of the workshop. Presenters may choose either a 1.5 hour block or a 3 hour block. Some workshops are offered in two parts to allow teachers opportunities to use the second part of the workshop to apply and use their learning in the classroom. Giving teachers time to apply the information obtained in the workshops has been especially helpful in the area of technology. Technology workshops include the use of the SMART board, Edline, Atlas, video-streaming and others.

A particularly popular work-shop is offered by our art teachers. They help encourage the subject area teachers to integrate art in their classes. They have offered workshops on watercolor, oil painting, using recyclable materials, decoupage, and how to integrate art into other subject areas.

The teachers are given the schedule of workshops one week before the actual day of the workshops. They sign up for those they will attend; presenters are then informed in advance of the number of participants. Attendance sheets are signed by the teachers and a record is kept of the workshops attended by each teacher throughout the year. This record is printed and placed in each teacher’s file at the end of the year. Staff members who offer workshops are given a diploma at the end of the school year, recognizing their participation in the internal professional development program.

The advantages of conducting such a program are: Teachers from one section interact with those from other sections of the school. Teachers who attend conferences outside of the country have a venue to share the information with the rest of the staff. Teachers choose the workshops they will attend so PD is differentiated by the needs and interests of each teacher. Teachers gain experience in giving presentations. Teachers are able to attend content specific workshops, for example, in Physical Education, Music, Art, Math and other subject areas. The same workshop can be offered in different languages. Workshops can be repeated on different days so that interested teachers have several opportunities to attend. Workshops are organized so that teachers can share what they have done in areas such as technology integration and best practices without having teachers observe each other in the class-room. Teachers have the opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise in a collegial manner.

This program has allowed us to overcome some of the challenges of offering a professional development program as outlined in this article and has created varied opportunities for the continued professional growth of all the staff.

Workshop Descriptions

September_20 2008

October 28 2008