AUSL leads professional development sessions throughout the year for all members involved with the Chicago Teacher Residency (CTR) program including Residents, Mentors and Principals from our CTR Partnership School Training Sites. These sessions play a key role in building community and a strong professional network for educators and school leaders to learn new and effective strategies to apply in their relationships, classrooms and school communities.
The ultimate goal is for Residents to successfully complete the CTR program and be fully prepared teachers in CPS.
“It’s important for AUSL to have our key players of the CTR program grow alongside one another. As the year unfolds they gain new perspectives and skills they can put into practice to further build their learning,” said CTR Program Director Kate Rhodes Peterson.
“The CTR team is eager to provide valuable and effective tools to support teacher training, relationships, and partnerships taking place throughout the year.”
The CTR hosted multiple professional development programs the first week of October, demonstrating how the program supports stakeholders at every level of the residency experience.
Mentor Teachers’ Professional Development
Mentors engaged in professional learning about the dispositions of a transformational coach and built their coaching toolkit with specific activities to support their Resident’s development.
In the afternoon, first-time Mentors of the CTR took part in SEED training, or Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity, a program that builds self and others’ awareness through discussions on race, gender, class, and other equity issues in their schools and communities. Returning Mentors worked on High Leverage Practices for Inclusive classrooms, exploring research based practices that support students in K-12 classrooms.
This day of training allows mentors to build their skillsets in the instructional practices they model, the emotional intelligence they use in working with adult learners and the best practices in coaching.
Residents’ Professional Development
AUSL’s current class of Residents started their Professional Development day with an Onward educator resilience builder and preparation for their upcoming lead teach experiences. In the afternoon, Residents reflected on the teacher moves they were practicing over the last few weeks. Then Residents were given the opportunity to choose from a variety of presentations on teacher moves they will practice over the next few weeks including Questioning, Habits of Discussion, Using Stories in Instruction, and the Gradual Release Model of Lesson Design.
“Professional Development days have given me confidence and the support that I’ve needed to find my own path and incorporate my skills into teaching,” said current Resident LaLane Wiley.
“I feel valued and celebrated as an educator and I love that I find commonalities with my cohort on how we approach teaching with our students.”
As Residents are training with their classes, they are applying multiple classroom strategies in real-time to make sense of effective methods they will continue to use as full-time educators.
“They have given me the proper context for when I should use certain practices in specific situations as I have already encountered them in the classroom. It encourages me to not be so reactionary to certain behaviors because they are to be expected when working with students,” said current Resident William Melvin.
“We recently learned how to adapt the curriculum to be student friendly and then expand on that by incorporating social-emotional learning. I take different bits and pieces of our professional development days to combine them and bring them into the classroom.”
Partnership School Principals’ Professional Development
To complete a week of professional development programs, AUSL hosted the CTR Partnership School Collaborative at Funston Elementary with the CTR Partnership School Principals and school leaders across Chicago Public Schools. Chicago Public Schools Chief Talent Officer (CTO) Ben Felton welcomed our leaders on the importance of programs like the CTR in education and the value of their partnership.
The CTR team created a dynamic professional learning community for our partners to deepen their knowledge of CTR resources and share current best practices to strengthen their network of support across Chicago.
Funston Elementary Principal and CTR Alumni Sarah Trevino-Terronez shared her approach to leadership with collaborative community partnerships. Principal Trevino-Terronez presented how her school community fosters student, parent, and community engagement with multiple partnerships, including local organizations.
School leaders viewed video examples of the teacher moves that Mentors have been modeling and Residents have been practicing this Fall. Through reviewing examples of Resident videos and reflection, school leaders deepened their familiarity with the CTR program structure of Resident practice through Performance Assessments and also expanded their familiarity with the CTR Teacher Moves and Observation tools. Many school leaders were excited to use the CTR Observation Tools and Performance Tasks to develop teachers across different contexts within their school community.
Professional development takes on different meanings for Residents, Mentors and Principals in the CTR program, but all of the program’s training supports the growth and learning of Residents as they adapt and practice effective strategies to lead their classrooms and school communities to complete success.
AUSL is intentional in supporting Principals and Mentors that guide Residents in their program year through ongoing professional development that helps set them up for success on day one of leading their own classrooms!
