Staff Development Plan - Personal Statement Example

Although I do encourage my staff to attend seminars, orientations, and workshops in addition, I have now planned on introducing job-embedded development as it is a professional learning experience that relates to the teachers' daily work. Job embedded development is a more effective type of staff development as it connected to what the educator is doing in class on a daily basis so teachers can practically apply what they have learned which in turn helps sustain their learning. Some of the main characteristics of job-embedded development are teachers working together in groups and holding regular meetings.

Research shows that these development activities lead to better problem solving as the problems that exist within the school are better solved by those who work there and have a one on one interaction with the students. Also, teachers working in groups get to analyze the students' work more carefully and thus result in an overall increase in student achievement. (Galloway, n.d.)I would also want to help my staff develop through coaching and on job instruction and for that purpose I will appoint staff developers.

According to researches, staff developers have a huge impact on what students and teachers learn. Staff developers can work with the teachers to increase student achievements, to reach the goals of student improvement programs and to provide ongoing coaching to teachers who are struggling or teachers who want to enhance certain skills. In my opinion, the best thing about staff developers is that they are not in evaluating positions and thus the teachers will be encouraged to be open and honest with them about their problems and weaknesses and in this way, a more effective development can take place.

(Galloway, n.d.)I would also encourage distributed leadership rather than a top-down approach. I would encourage interaction between teachers, students, and my self not only within the school but also with other schools, I would also encourage the parents to participate in order to facilitate better learning and development. I would be open to suggestions brought in by the teachers, the parents, and even the students. I would give students and teachers a chance to voice their opinions. I will hold regular meetings with the staff and coaches so as to always be in sync with the progress that is taking place.

And I would also arrange regular meetings with the parents and students so that they can also be involved in the development process. (NSDC, 2008)Apart from all the above, I would encourage regular assessments to be held in the form of closed-book quizzes or tests. Theses quizzes would be made up of fill in the blanks, MCQS and short questions that would require the students to recall what they learned in class. These quizzes would facilitate students as well as teacher learning.