We have a vital and enriching method ensuring teacher development through
our Master Teacher Growth Program (MTGP). This formative program allows
an assessment of strengths and weaknesses and the opportunity to participate
in the professional growth opportunities that enhance teaching skills.
Our school corporation has demonstrated a commitment to supporting staff
development by providing release time and resources necessary for staff
members to attend training opportunities. Evidence of support for staff
and curriculum development comes from the willingness of our system to support
teachers' attendance at conferences, serving as consultants to other school
systems, and training both within and outside of the School City of Hobart.
In technology training, we have an extensive offering of courses in a corporation
catalog. The corporation hosts classes such as word processing, database,
spreadsheets, hypermedia, slide shows, animation, graphics, scanning, CD-ROM,
laser disk interaction, grading, and troubleshooting. These classes are
taught by teachers and students. We offer a complete series of workshops
throughout the fall and spring semesters with mini workshops in the summer
months. During the 1995-1996 school year, 697 records of teacher training
were recorded for inhouse workshops; this equals 1,394 hours of training
for technology.
We are proud of our use of students in a role reversal in which they teach
teachers computer skills and applications during some of our workshops.
We have found teachers are comfortable with this student help. In fact,
the teachers often find they can learn more with student help than with
the traditional one teacher classroom.