After working in my school for five years now there have been waves of different teaching practices that have come through mathematics. From the article, "Building Hope" by Stephanie Hirsh and Shirley M. Hord brings up facilitating questions that helped me focus on what professional practices have come through. The first question asked, "how will educators acquire the necessary knowledge and
skills to implement the strategies successfully?" An example on that question is my school's initiative to having a one-to-one school with the use of iPads. The district offers classes over the summer on how to implement these tools into the classroom for a more rich learning experience. There are also classes throughout the year called, Learners In-service Training (LIT). On these LIT days, teachers have the opportunity to get paid for an hour of their time, after contracted hours, to work on implementing iPads in a class sponsored by fellow teachers. The iPads are just one example of how the school and the district helps teachers to implement strategies.
I found a few strategies my school has done to implement proper professional practices. For new teachers there has been a teacher mentor program. Basically, there are veteran teachers who help brand new teachers with classroom management strategies, instructional practices, and ways to relieve stress so they don't burn out. The hope is to create high quality teachers that may not have the proper tools in teacher preparation courses and reduce the teacher burnout rate. The first year it was implemented was successful with less classroom management struggles with the new teachers. This year it has switched from veteran teachers in the same building to be the mentors to the Teachers on Special Assignment. So I am hopeful that the change will help the new teachers and not hinder it. Going back to LIT, there are more than classes that are for iPad implementation. The teachers have the chance to work in their department to work in their corresponding professional learning committee or as a whole. These are the main areas teachers have to work with on professional learning practices.
