July 2004 — SETDA

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North Carolina: Tweaking Common Professional Development Models for Added Value

Many kinds of professional development exist within and across schools, but the IMPACT Model School Grant has provided enough professional development dollars to allow some 'best practice' modifications to two common models that have reputations for being less than effective: conference attendance and outside consultants.

Conference Attendance: The Assignment

Clearmont Elementary School
Burnsville, N.C.

Yancey County is a small mountain county in North Carolina, and Clearmont Elementary School is one of the smallest of the small. Each grade is only one classroom, and current teachers are often former students of the school. As Principal Pete Peterson says, 'When North Carolina end-of-grade test scores come back, the whole community knows whose students were successful - or not.'

The size and rural nature of the county also makes traveling an expensive challenge. But wide-ranging experiences, particularly in this fast-paced, technology-rich world, are an important part of a 21st century teacher's education. For this reason, Peterson crafted a large portion of his IMPACT Model School Grant's professional development around attendance at state and national conferences.

While a broadening of job-related and personal experiences is a highlight of conference attendance, the perception also exists that conference travel can be little more than a state-subsidized party. To ensure that no one could accuse his staff of this, Peterson created a list of conference requirements that all teachers must adhere to before, during and after the conference:

1. Turn in a schedule of sessions before going to the conference. This requires teachers to plan their time, consult with colleagues to avoid duplication, and create a focus for their days away from home.

2. Schedule time in the exhibit hall. Peterson believes this is extremely important. Several of Clearmont's best equipment purchases this year resulted from time spent in the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) vendor area last summer.

3. Turn in handouts from best sessions. Peterson is quick to emphasize best sessions. Teachers should never turn in handouts just to document attendance. Clearmont keeps a big notebook of handouts and ideas from conference presentations that teachers can refer to when they need new ideas for their own lessons.

4. Bring back two great ideas per day. These may or may not be from conference presentations; perhaps they are from a conversation a teacher had waiting for a session to start. The key is that they must be ideas that the teacher and/or the school can implement because each conference attendee must ...

5. Document use in the classroom and

6. Be prepared to present ideas at teacher meetings, parent meetings or other conferences. Without these expectations, conference attendance is wasted. Parents especially need to understand that professional development enriches a teacher's classroom practice. Peterson provides opportunities for his teachers to share their conference experiences with fellow teachers and the school's parents. He also models the expectation of presenting at conferences in the hopes that others across his school system and the state will benefit from Clearmont's IMPACT Grant.