Mon Oct 12 2015, 5:00pm
District Meeting Room
Regular Meeting

REPORTS TO THE BOARD

Teaching and Learning Report

Beginning Educator Support Team: 

This year we hired a record number of new teachers in Woodland, many of whom are in their first or second year of the profession. Research shows that nearly half of teachers leave the profession within seven years. Most cite a lack of support as a primary reason.  To ensure Woodland teachers receive sufficient support, we are partnering with ESD 112 to provide professional development opportunities that will include training on instructional frameworks, classroom management, engagement strategies, assessment, and Common Core State Standards. Through the BEST grant (Beginning Educators Support Team), each participant is also partnered with a mentor to ensure they have job embedded support with their professional learning throughout the year. So far, we have held three after school workshops and one round table meeting. These have been well attended and feedback is positive. We look forward to continuing this support throughout the year and plan to take a survey at year end to determine if we have achieved our goal to support our new teachers.

 

New Teacher Evaluation Training:  

This year is our third and final year of implementing the new teacher evaluation in Woodland. In August, we spent two days training 73 staff members on the new professional growth and evaluation model. 

 

While there are many reasons to measure teacher and principal effectiveness, in Woodland. we believe the ultimate goal of all measures should be to improve teaching and learning. We believe that professional conversation is the most powerful approach to promote teacher learning, and that these conversations must be grounded in an instructional framework that informs and identifies effective practices that improve student learning. Reflective conversation about practice requires us to understand, analyze and respond to student learning in the classroom.

Therefore, teacher evaluations should:

  • Focus on learning

  • Support growth

  • Guide instruction

  • Be a collaborative process between teachers and administrators