Group+06+2011

Group 6

St. B 80% of faculty meetings involve discussing boys –they discuss every student - can go years with no new faculty- have a professional development day where they go visit other schools- meetings only by division – whole faculty 2 or 3 times a year- meetings not really focused on professional development- Only two new teacher this year - will go to BTI. For the NYSAIS self-study,, there were many meetings. Lower school also spend most of the time discussing the boys – weekly grade meetings discuss curriculum. After visiting schools, divide into small groups after visiting and discuss what they have learned from the visits. Beginning to incorporate professional development into evaluation. Jean Christien did a full faculty meeting on diversity and he was very good. Itused to be left up to teachers to arrange to visit other classes inthe school. Now the School's administrative assistant organizes it and gives teachers their assignment so they have to do it- they observe both in and out of their division. This is very helpful.

Buckley uses The Responsive Classroom – the best faculty meetings are when teachers reflect on practice. The last couple of years they have focused on social emotional development – Morning meeting was the focus of one; the power of words was another theme- open-ended topic. Think of a time when someone’s words made a difference to you. When it was first introduced, they brought lower and middle school teachers together. Would love to bring the two faculties together more but scheduling is challenging. It helped each teacher to reflect on their own language. It depends on the tone in which you say things too. The whole faculty meets after vacations, coming back a day ealier than the students. The whole faculty discussed the mission. Lower school is so homeroom based that some specialists don’t really want to hear things that don’t apply to them.

Masters School – tend to meet in small groups- once a month –voluntary meetings at the Head’s house with wine and food – around 12 teachers usually show up- go depending on the topic-. One was on your experience with your first lesson of the year – what worked and what didn’t. It changes the dynamic when teachers go because they want to. Monthly meeting of faculty run by two elected faculty members. They do delayed starts for faculty meetings sometimes. Nice because teachers aren't thinking about getting home.

Town – the whole faculty gets together once a month - broad theme like mission or diversity. Unconference can work well. It’s good for the faculty to hear different points of view but the topic has to relate to the whole school. Division meetings twice a month; full faculty once a month; and a subject study once a month – might be a few grades at a time. They have a built in time for guidance – every ten days- there is time as a grade level team to discuss students.

Brick – has a theme this year for professional development – language development- 6 workshops with outside presenters. They also have teachers present to the faculty on areas they specialize in and they get compensated for being a specialist. They give teachers a form in the beginning of the year on their professional development and how it has affected their practice and how professional development has helped with their goal for the year. They hand it in at their evaluation meeting in May and discuss it then.