Our professional development
• Direct service
• Regional Staff development
• National Staff development
• Link to our National Professional Development Offerings
Our contract with a school is fully inclusive of all our professional development opportunities. We believe professional development is the driving force behind comprehensive school improvement and takes place primarily in the school setting and is enriched and deepened through participation in Expeditionary Learning national offerings.
Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound's commitment is to provide customized, high quality technical assistance and professional development at the school site and at regional and national conferences, institutes and workshops to improve school infrastructure, school culture and student learning and to connect the network of Expeditionary Learning Schools in mutually reinforcing ways.
Research shows that most practitioners teach the way they were taught, and as Michael Fullan, Dean of the faculty of education at the University of Toronto, has observed, the absence of personal transformation hampers many school change efforts. Since we ask teachers and principals to teach and lead in new and different ways, we offer professional development opportunities that are created to challenge assumptions and to support educators in their own growth.
Our direct service to schools includes on-site coaching and professional development.
Our regional and national professional development models and reflects our design principles while engaging participants as active learners. In true Outward Bound fashion, we offer and ask of educators what we expect them to offer and ask of their students: a greater challenge and a higher level of accomplishment than might seem possible.
Direct Staff Development
Direct services average 25-30 days per year beginning with a retreat for school leaders and a planning institute for teachers during the summer and continuing throughout the school year. An EL professional developer, called a school designer, is assigned to each school. She or he carries out most of the direct work in collaboration with the regional director and other EL staff and consultants, often at the school. Professional development for each school is planned jointly with the school's leadership team and is coordinated with state standards and district goals, curriculum requirements, and tests and assessments.
Regional Staff Development
EL is organized into seven regions: the Northeast, New York City, the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Northwest, and the Southwest. Regional staff development is designed to strengthen local networks of EL schools and to provide an opportunity to build ongoing relationships with colleagues from other schools also engaged in using the design. It includes:
- Workshops focused on particular content areas or practices such as math, science, portfolio assessment, and leadership development and on particular grade levels, e.g., primary literacy or high schools.
- Site seminars, structured two-day visits to exemplary EL schools that showcase the implementation of the design.
National Staff Development
School staff from across the national EL network join together for national professional development. Each network school has multiple slots for these extraordinary opportunities as part of their contract with EL. The number will depend upon the size of the school and the contract.
Offerings include:
- Summits, weeklong intensive learning expeditions for teachers. In 2004, these included Writing Children's Books, in Boston; Physiology, Fitness, and Art, in Estes Park, Colorado and Endangered Species an environmentally-focused expedition that builds skills in art and technology, in Portland, Maine. Schools have on average six Summit slots per year.
- Outward Bound educator courses, five-to-seven days, for EL teachers and administrators. In 2004, these included hut-to-hut skiing in Washington State; whitewater rafting in Colorado; sea kayaking on Lake Superior; sailing in the Florida Keys; canoeing on Ross Lake in the Pacific Cascades and an urban backpacking expedition in New York City. Schools have an average of four Outward Bound course slots, one of which is reserved for a principals' course.
- Institutes, four-to-five day intensive seminars in particular practices or content areas. In 2004, these included literacy including early literacy, math, work in high schools, and leadership. Each school has approximately eight institute slots per year.
- The EL National Conference, a two-day conference focused on a particular theme. In 2005, the National Conference will focus on Making Subjects Matter. EL teachers will offer master classes highlighting particular practices and will provide participants with the opportunity to practice what they have learned. The Conference is preceded by a day during which participants can attend a variety of pre-conference activities including Each school receives on average six Conference slots.
- The EL Leadership Strand is a strand throughout the EL National Conference that addresses leadership issues and practices.
• An example of Year 1 with Expeditionary Learning
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