The Resource of Time| Professional Development

the resource of time

Teacher of the Year Nancy Larsen works with her second-graders.

The thinking behind Coeur d'Alene's lead teacher program started a couple years before the official launch in 1998. Pam Pratt, Principal at Fernan Elementary, Patti Perry, first-grade teacher at Fernan, and Hazel Bauman, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the district, wanted to better serve the students most at risk of not succeeding in school. They noticed that many children from low-income families had to move during the school year. Settling into a new school, with a new teacher, became another risk factor in young lives already disrupted at home. Reading and other literacy skillsfoundation for so much classroom instruction — were a special concern. What's more, administrators worried about the number of new teachers who were either unprepared for the challenges of teaching at-risk children, or who were burning out after just a few years on the job.

Rather than seeking an outside solution, the district turned to its own in-house teaching experts. "We knew we had pockets of knowledge and expertise in our own district," says Bauman. "And we knew that teachers have great credibility with other teachers, because they're in the classroom every day. They know what works. And teaching is their passion. We wanted to find a way to share that knowledge, so that classroom practices would be more effective and consistent throughout the district."

With a three-year literacy grant from the Albertson Foundation, the district has found a way to make staff training more ongoing, intensive, and multifaceted. Every elementary school now has a lead teacher, chosen through a rigorous application process, who is available to help her colleagues develop new skills in language arts. To allow time for that growth to happen, lead teachers are paired with interns who can cover the classroom for part of the day, giving the leads time to consult with colleagues, model a lesson, or observe what's happening in other classrooms. The interns aren't student teachers; they're fully certified, although they've never had responsibility for their own classrooms before. Being matched with a lead teacher for a year gives these rookies a chance to learn the ropes from a master practitioner. But the learning isn't all one-sided. Being in the lead teacher position turns out to be a powerful learning opportunity, as well.

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