Taking Charge of Professional Development (PDF)

How can every teacher, school, and district improve the quality of their schools? The answer is to empower teachers to take charge of their own learning, says author and teacher Joseph H. Semadeni. In this book, you'll learn how the Fusion professional development model can help you do just that.This accessible, customizable, and affordable model gives you proven ways to successfully establish teaching and learning practices that are grounded in solid educational research. In some schools, you may wish to begin the program with just a few teachers and let it gain recognition, support, and buy-in from the biggest skeptics. In other schools, the whole staff may be inspired to create their own lists of best practices, funding levels, and new school-day schedules. In both scenarios, schools have successfully implemented Fusion where it was needed the most.What's most appealing to teachers is that this approach gives them the chance to determine what strategies they want to learn, how much professional development they want to access, and when it best fits their schedules. As teachers learn, use, observe, and are observed practicing the strategies in their classrooms, they determine which practices best fit their students and foster achievement. With experience, teachers become eligible for related pay increases and Fusion helps teachers to foster the qualities, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to establish and nurture a collaborative culture within the school community.