Each educational institution has its own system of teaching staff. Somewhere this work is clearly regulated, somewhere is fragmentary. The pedagogical growth school includes seminars, workshops, lectures and case studies that share a common goal – the development of teaching skills and abilities of the teacher.
Who can be the curator of the system?
Naturally, the organization of any business responsible persons should be chosen. They may be representatives of the school: head teachers, psychologists and social workers. They allocate an equivalent load between each other and together make a plan of the pedagogical growth school. Curators may involve all teachers in the planning of school activities. Naturally, the overall plan is made for a year during summer vacation. Then, during the school year, it is supplemented and corrected.
How to make a work plan?
The plan is made on the basis of general educational plan of the school and its goals for the year. Most often, the active component of the school is in the holiday period. The timetable of the teaching staff on vacation is formed of days and hours that are given for these purposes. Thus, autumn, winter and spring holidays are the optimum period for the pedagogical growth school. Each period is subjected to the general topic and its tasks.
For example, during the autumn holidays the work on the block “Optimizing interdisciplinary connections in the lesson” is performed. The next step (in the winter) is devoted to the thematic section “Development of cognitive processes of students in the lesson”. On spring holidays the theme of “A new approach to modern combined lesson” is worked on.
After determining the subject there is its division into parts. This is reflected in the theoretical, practical and reflection parts:
– The first part is the teachers’ introduction to the theory of matter, its modern lighting in the methodological literature. The lecture is accompanied by a multimedia show, which increases its efficiency.
– Then the topic is developed at a workshop or seminar. Workshops are important; the development of a new skill is performed during them. Teachers try to implement the knowledge practically, considering them as part of their subject. The seminar is an exchange of experiences, impressions from the new developments, the importance and effectiveness of issues is evaluated. Also work goals are set, and the position of new methods and techniques in the work are determined.
Features of the pedagogical growth school operation
Of course, the burden on teachers in the school will be different. Therefore, those teachers who prepare lessons should be encouraged. All developments are saved and can then be published by methodical center of the educational establishment. Product of the school on the same block may be a collection of the application in the form of a disk (multimedia presentations, drawings, charts, photos, and video). These collections are then stored in the library and teachers used in further work.
At least once a year, curators of pedagogical growth school can ask for help colleagues from other schools. Exchange of teaching experience, communication, comparing of own work with that of colleagues – that’s what goals such cooperation prosecutes.
During the active part of the learning process the intermediate classes of the pedagogical growth school should pass. They are meetings of the teaching unions, student leaders. The aim of such studies is the preliminary results of the quality and the need for new skills, techniques and methods.
Which thematic units may the school plan be based on?
Features, on which a pedagogical growth school works, dictate its direction. This may be the “Improvement of the overall literacy of students”, “Development of children’s creativity”, “Work on the development of oral language of student”, “Intelligent operations in the lesson”, “Team development”, “Development of abstract thinking of students”, etc.
Demo lessons are good practical output of the school. The following solution can be offered: after a thematic cluster the representatives from each of the subject departments prepare demo lesson that reflects work on the topic. Who will show the lesson is solved by teachers within the department. It is advisable to capture these lessons on video, so those teachers who have not been able to attend the demo lesson, could see it. Video lessons can then be analyzed, divided into pieces.
In short, there is nothing supernova in the operation of pedagogical growth school. But its constancy, loyalty to traditional schemes and activities, maturity of the work make such methodological meetings efficiently. Well-written plan, regular classes allow to monitor performance and to use the maximum number of teachers in the practical component of the school activities.
