Educator Effectiveness Training

Did you ever attend one of those training sessions where you walked out and thought… “Yes!!!!!!!”?  That happened to a group of our teachers last week when attending the DPI state pilot training for educator effectiveness.  At the beginning of the year we put a professional growth model (see previous post) in place that would get us closer to where we thought the state would be headed starting in the 2014-15 school year.  As we went through the training module (which was very well done) we had this sense that we were truly on the right track in terms of growing the ability of teachers through constant coaching and peer mentoring.  We have over 50 staff members taking part in the goal development and student learning outcomes process in our district as a team of 6 put together a process for growing our staff through individualized professional development that has a student outcome component.  I was extremely proud of our group.  As an administrator, the feeling that you get when your team comes back to the table after sharing with districts…smiling and talking about the different places that want to learn about what we are doing is one of the best feelings I have had in leadership.  The fact that this is a teacher driven initiative in our district and they see the parallel between the work they have done and the direction of the state is amazing.  Our staff has been wonderful in the roll out…they developed goals that are both rigorous and impactful to student learning.  I am very excited to see their growth and feel so good that the teachers who put this framework together feel validated and excited about the future of our district.  Great stuff!!!