Unfortunately, due to a winter storm on Friday, January 21st, a much anticipated 'staff inservice training day' at WHS was cancelled. Like any school closure, this cancellation was a huge disappointment for our staff. We had been planning our staff training program for many weeks and the prospect of losing the day was a tough one for all of us. Nonetheless, we will have other opportunities to learn and grow together and get better and better at what we do. The reality is, as a teacher you can never stop learning.
In the field of education, there are always new methods, strategies, programs and systems to learn. Furthermore, with the advent of computer and other information technologies all over the world and in its in schools, there has been a resulting exponential increase in the breadth of human knowledge and a corresponding increase in a teacher's required skill base. For our teachers, it can sometimes feel as if they are running endlessly on a hamster wheel (without ever quite reaching the cheese!). Add to all of that the ever-increasing demands, challenges, and expecations for our public school system, and you see that it is more complicated and more difficult to become(or remain)a successful teacher with each passing year.
What does this mean for teachers? Continuous learning and continuous improvement. WHS teachers are afforded four 'inservice training days' (i.e., you are 'on the clock' learning and working for the school district on those days). Beyond those inservice days, our teachers spend countless hours reading books, journals and magazines, and taking graduate level college courses. The attend weekly committee and team meetings expanding their depth of understanding, and sharing that professional growth with fellow staff members. In addition, they are continuously researching promising new opportunities for learning on the internet, and spend large blocks of time over the summer immersed in curriculum or program development work with their colleagues. It is also over the summer months that teachers receive the bulk of of their training on new district or school-based initiaitives.
LEARNING is the name of our game, and as career educators, we've grown pretty good at working either side of the desk. It's just part of what we do as 21st Century teachers at Woodland Heights School. Lifelong learning is definitely in the future for our students as well, and we love to model the workplace of the future for them at WHS!
