October 12, 2015
(Photo credit: Sarah Hughes/Center for Inspired Teaching)
On October 9th, Inspired Teaching’s 17 SCALE Teacher Leaders led a full day of professional development for their DC Public School (DCPS) colleagues. SCALE: Science Curriculum Advancement through Literacy Enhancement, is a multi-year partnership between Inspired Teaching and DCPS to train cohorts of Teacher Leaders to write new, standards-aligned curricula and facilitate professional development for their peers.
At the October 9th professional development day, approximately 300 teachers from across the District came together at Alice Deal Middle School to share their experiences in the 2015-16 school year thus far and to plan for the months ahead.
SCALE Teacher Leaders facilitated 11 concurrent sessions on a wide variety of topics from frog membranes and cable-car bridges to solar ovens and DNA. SCALE Teacher Leaders will plan and lead the majority of science-based professional development that DCPS teachers will participate in during the 2015-16 school year.
These teacher led professional development days are a critical component of DCPS’ Cornerstones initiative, designed to improve equity across DCPS classrooms as teachers teach a common set of lessons and then discuss and learn from the outcomes togethers. SCALE Teacher Leaders will write a majority of the science Cornerstone lessons and have received high praise from their colleagues on the quality of the lessons themselves, as well as their facilitation on professional development days.
By focusing on teacher-led professional development and encouraging open and honest communication and collaboration across schools, DCPS has provided a new, innovative opportunity for improvement in science teaching and learning. Inspired Teaching and the SCALE Teacher Leaders are key parts of this effort.