Focused and Balanced

If you know me well enough, you might think this post has to do with a visit to a local winery, but no, I am speaking about my recent visit with two principals about what I can do to help them reach their goals this school year in terms of quality professional development.  These principals are not on contract in July, but here they are, meeting with their consultant on a Friday morning to discuss information about what their needs are for this upcoming school year.

I started the discussion by showing them what they have done in the past with my RPDC, and listing the initiatives that they are involved with now and in the past.  The school district chose to adopt the Missouri Reading Initiative this year, a comprehensive look at reading in grades K-5.  It is a great way to teach reading but is very involved.  I suggested we look at ways we can intertwine what we do and what MRI does to reduce the load on teachers.  

Next we looked at the reflections that the teachers wrote last year, particularly the pages that discuss what the teachers feel where they need more information.  The reflections speak mostly about writing common formative assessments, so that is where we will be focusing the year's professional development.  Whatever CFAs are needed for reading will hopefully fall nicely into this category as well.

We discussed the year's worth of dates, agendas and possible spin off professional development.  When I left the two principals, they were getting ready to discuss further issues at their schools, continuing to meet on their "vacation."  I was impressed with the way they wanted to drill down the professional development to one good strategy, and use it throughout their curriculum.  Excellent job, administrators.