Wendy Wise, with River Heights School, speaks to public school board trustees on Tuesday evening.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
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Medicine Hat Public School Division continues to focus on implementing more professional learning strategies for staff across its schools, trustees heard Tuesday during a presentation by three school administrators.
The administrators also serve as Optimal Learning Coaches for their teachers and have expanded the scope of workshops available for educators during professional development time.
Wendy Wise, with River Heights School, spoke about how the division is using a variety of professional development options that teachers can access during PD days.
Tailored to different teachers and levels of education implementation, from elementary to high school, groups of teachers work with Optimal Learning Coaches who focus on key education areas, including literacy and numeracy, while providing teachers support in dealing with complex student needs.
“Really at the end of the day, it’s about kids,” Wise said. “It’s always about the kids, it’s about how do we support our teachers, and how do we support each other so that we can impact our kids and our kids continue to learn and grow?”
The collaboration between teachers and Optimal Learning Coaches aims to develop a cohesive, system-wide approach to supporting teacher development and improving student learning.
“It’s just that consistent piece and that collaborative piece and that shared vision, which is exciting.”
