Principles of Staff Development

Professional development is central to our organization's work in schools. All of our workshops are carefully crafted to meet the needs of the participants. Each session will:

• Respect the participants' experience and knowledge
• Provide the participants with opportunities to reflect on their practice
• Mirror the constructivist pedagogy of our materials, namely:
• Activities are structured so that the participants are actively engaged in building their own understanding of the program; and presenters use facilitation techniques and cooperative structures to support thinking and interaction.
• Contain model lessons
• Help the participants understand the program well enough to begin teaching it
• Generate excitement about the program