Endorsements

A 1-day random sampling of feelings and comments by staff members gives a good sense of the direction that staff development is taking at Destrehan High School:

• Innovative and worthwhile --Charles, teacher, 22 years
• Helpful and useful --Jemi, teacher, 8 years
• Laissez les bons temps roulet --C. J., counselor, 18 years
• I see more research-based strategies than ever before. --Linda, administrator, 30 years
• More teachers willing to try ideas because they come from other teachers --Chuck, teacher, 30 years
• Ongoing, diverse, up-to-date --Mary, teacher, 5 years
• Individualized --Jenny, teacher, 14 years
• Outstanding: It gives teachers options, attempts to meet every teacher's needs, and is directed by an outstanding staff development coordinator. Best in all my years of teaching --Glen, teacher, 35 years
• Advocates personal and professional growth --Nina, teacher, 3 years
• Allows teachers to meet students' needs by its openness --Kelly, teacher, 7 years (2 months at Destrehan)
• Outstanding, excellent. I have learned more about teaching in my 4 years at Destrehan than in the rest of my 12 years --Joey, teacher, 12 years
• I have learned more from my school's staff development about practical teaching strategies than in most of my university methods courses --James, teacher, 4 years
• It has freed teachers to use strategies in the classroom that have a purpose, and it makes learning fun. It has empowered teachers and given them permis-sion to really teach --Debra, teacher, 25 years
• Accommodating, personalized --Stephanie, teacher, 10 years
• Personalized, dynamic, motivating --Rob, teacher, 4 years
• The number of required hours in the parish is excessive. I like the idea of study groups --Anonymous, 5 years
• Our staff development days give us time to be professionals. We actually have the time and resources to develop the research-based strategies which aid us in meeting our students' growing needs!! --Cherie, teacher, 5 years
• It gives us time to dialogue with our colleagues rather than just those in our discipline --Karin, teacher, 4 years
• Teachers can work together --Eric, teacher, 3 years

The staff development coordinator at Destrehan High School insightfully challenges our schools and us when he inquires, "If you were to ask every faculty mem-ber that passes your door or that you see in the hall tomorrow to describe staff devel-opment in your school or district, what would your results be?" The scores at Destrehan High School are improving. Teachers do feel differently about staff development. Staff development is based on student needs and is job embedded. And as their staff development coordinator says, "The future looks brighter because, thank goodness, the WFSG process evolution continues."