Pine Plains Central School District offers a comprehensive professional development program to staff through both in-district and out of district professional learning opportunities, workshop offerings, college courses, and conferences. District initiatives for professional development in Pine Plains include: 

LITERACY

Our goal is to ensure that students are educated to meet the challenges and demands of the twenty first century. Literacy encompasses the ability to read, write, communicate, and comprehend.

PRODUCTIVITY AND MANAGEMENT

Our goal is to develop and utilize the leadership abilities of our administration, faculty, staff, and students to encourage and support student success. To be effective and efficient, well-run departments implement and sustain communication within and between all their constituent groups.

EFFECTIVE TEACHING

Our goal is to provide all our students with educators who strive to achieve and maintain the highest standards of excellence in the classroom. Utilizing classroom design and behavior management in combination with mastery of content, the quality teacher promotes critical thinking by employing what research has shown to be best educational practices. Effective teachers are responsive to the needs of their students, reflective on their practice, and representative of the highest standards of excellence as defined in the District’s APPR.

COLLABORATION AND PLANNING

Our goal is to provide regular, consistent blocks of time for consultation and communication among all grades, classes, departments, buildings, and constituent groups. Collaborative planning involves the use of data to inform curriculum development, curriculum mapping, and classroom instruction. In order to be successful, all support services personnel (e.g. technology, food service, teaching aides, etc.) must be included in the process.

CURRICULUM  DEVELOPMENT

Our goal is to ensure that our program of study aligns with NY State Standards and reflects a clear understanding of the scope and sequence inherent in all subject areas.  A well-developed program of study that results in achievement is a dynamic representation of the skills and resources needed for success and remains so when it is examined, re-written and updated regularly through collaborative planning.

CULTURE AND CLIMATE

Our goal is to educate the whole child in a clean, safe, and supportive environment in which learning is fostered through effective leadership, parental involvement, community support, and positive social interaction. An effective learning environment acknowledges the unique contribution of each constituent group.  

These focus areas will allow faculty to improve student learning by increasing teacher effectiveness, and embedding instructional practices into the daily activities in the classroom. This will ultimately result in a greater percentage of students meeting and exceeding National, State and Pine Plains standards.

• Mylearningplan.com
  Register for and manage district professional development opportunities.

• Professional Organizations
  Professional Organizations offer the opportunity to extend resources and networks for educators related to professional practice. The following is a list of organizations that various members of the PPCSD faculty and staff belong to as part of their effort to remain life-long learners.