Having Choice

Hawthorn teachers are differentiating instruction with their students and administrators are differentiating professional development offerings with their staff.

Based on a staff interest survey, teachers were encouraged to meet with colleagues across the district during regular faculty time to further their understanding of topics like utilizing and designing rubrics, using technology to differentiate testing, standard based grading and reporting, and so on.

During some recent professional development time, teachers selected a topic that they believed they could learn the most from and attended a session on it. In a follow up survey, the majority of teachers stated that they felt it was a success to offer them a variety of professional development choices that would best help them in the classroom.