Building Human Capital

While the quote above refers to a company, I think it can be applied to a school district as well.  Last year, I wrote an introductory blog post about our philosophy on building human capital, one of our three goal areas for our strategic blueprint.  We believe the people are what make Pleasantdale such a wonderful place to learn, and developing the capacity of our staff will ensure it stays this way!

This year, much of our professional development will focus on the areas of differentiated instruction and subject-specific content, both of which will ultimately enhance the learning experience for our students.  This past Tuesday, we were able to provide our staff with a day dedicated to these priorities.  Our STEM, art, music, and PE teachers spent the day collaborating with their counterparts in other area school districts to discuss their curriculum and teaching strategies.  Meanwhile, the rest of our middle school staff spent time with Dr. Jessica Hockett, author of Differentiation in Middle and High School: Strategies to Engage All Learners.  Dr. Hockett modeled a variety of differentiation strategies for our teacher related to readiness, interest, and learner profile.  Our teachers had the time to share what they are already doing in their classrooms to differentiate to meet our students' needs, as well as time to plan for new ways to integrate many of Dr. Hockett's strategies into their classes.  In fact, I got an email from one of our teachers the following day stating, "I found yesterday to be a great use of my time...I appreciated her choices of activities and took a few ideas and implemented them today!"  

To me, this is validation that our staff is always willing to learn and improve.  We are fortunate we already have so many positive things happening in our classrooms, and we are committed to ensuring it remains this way!  

PMS Staff with Dr. Hockett