Monday, February 11, 2013

Idea- Teacher Field Trips

Recently I had the pleasure of taking a small team of educators to Cumberland High School (RI) to discuss their move to standards based grading.  It is always great to visit other schools, whether for a long time, like a NEASC visit, or quick stop like a specialized team visit.  It is often refreshing to step back from our own environments to get a feel of another school's culture and organizational philosophies.  It is with this in mind that I would like to propose the following: "Third Thursday Teacher Trips" 

Details:
  • Participating schools will offer a 1-2 hour "destination" (workshop/demonstration/conversation) during the final hour of school on the last Thursday of every month.  
  • The "destination" would be a chance to disseminate a program that the school is proud of, wants to promote, would like feedback on, or wishes to expand the practice of.  
  • Participating schools that are not offering an "destination" will release 3-5 teachers to "take a Thursday trip".
  • A list of events will be disseminated among participating schools for the released educators to choose from (sign-up required so that materials can be prepared).
Being in a State where we have so many great ideas being put into practice and where, in most cases, we are only 10-30 minutes away from one another, these trips offer great PD opportunities at minimal costs.

If you are interested in participating, by hosting or having educators attend a "Thursday Teacher Trip" please email me at mpodraza@egsd.net . Please put "Thursday Trip- March" in the subject line of the email.  If enough people are interested we can have this up and running in no time.