You may remember I had some choice words for the School District of Philadelphia’s Induction program (see here and here).
What I didn’t write about was my trip to the Office of Instruction and Leadership Support last quarter to voice my concerns over the entire process and offer up some possible solutions.
Evidently, I violated some protocol by stopping by unannounced and asking for some time. Once we moved past the idea that I was there because I had questions about the program and, instead, there because I had some ideas (this took several attempts on my part), many notes were taken. In the end, I was told the district would be forming a task force or committee or council or something to examine the program and make it work for the teachers and not against them.
That was months ago.
Friday, I got an e-mail with the following:
[T]he Office of Instruction and Leadership Support invites you to join our District’s Induction Council [turns out it was a council]. It is our intent to create a dynamic, professional and productive Induction Council who is committed to providing new teachers with the highest level of support.
We’ve three 2-hour meetings scheduled. That should be plenty of time to reshape the way the entire district welcomes new teacher into its ranks, right?
I’m actually excited about this.
More later.