LAKEPORT >> While Lakeport Unified School District students were snuggling under their covers on a cold and sometimes snowy morning on Friday, March 2, 2018, Lakeport Unified School District (LUSD) teachers were hard at work taking part in an in-service day.
It was one of six annual professional development days scheduled into their teaching calendar for the 2017-2018 school year.
The morning sessions of this professional development training were different from anything LUSD teachers experienced before. These professional development courses were developed and implemented based on LUSD teachers’ needs, thanks to the hard work of the Lakeport Unified Instructional Leadership Corps (ILC.)
Formed at the beginning of the school year in the fall of 2017, the ILC team was developed by Jessica Libbee, Curriculum Director of LUSD. The concept behind ILC is that professional development for the District’s teachers is developed and planned based on LUSD teacher input and needs.
The California Teachers Association (CTA), the National Board Resource Center (NBRC) at Stanford University, and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (Scope) launched the statewide ILC in 2014.
The idea is that Lakeport ILC will grow the ability of local educators to enrich instruction and assessment practices in their schools, increase student learning, and create professional learning experiences for other educators.
The Lakeport ILC team is comprised of:
1. Aaron Carter — Principal Lakeport Elementary School
2. Ana Goff — ELS Teacher Lakeport Elementary School
3. Anna Cross — First Grade Teacher Lakeport Elementary School Teacher
4. Elisa Prather — Science teacher Terrace Middle School
5. Kristi Tripp — English Teacher Clear Lake High School
Tripp says, “The ILC team is proud to be serving our school district and to act as messengers and facilitators for building professional development that is teacher driven and determined.”
Prather adds, “The Lakeport team has attended ILC training seminars and meets weekly to develop and plan professional development based on teacher input and needs.”
The March 2, 2018 professional development training included a selection of five different sessions which teachers could choose to attend:
1. Student Centered Learning
2. Mindfulness in the Classroom
3. Growth Mindset/Resilience
4. Understanding our Student Population and Learning
5. Conflict Resolution & De-escalation
At the end of the each professional development session, the instructors set aside time so that the teachers could create a plan to implement something new they learned into their classrooms within the next few weeks.
LUSD teachers will meet again in April to determine how successful the implementation of those new techniques were.
“We hope to expand the work of the ILC team to school districts throughout the county so that we can build capacity and improve learning countywide,” said Prather.
Tripp is very enthusiastic about the ILC program. “I really think this program can make a huge difference for our students.”
