Professional development continues for staff
For the last two years, HCPS students have had off the entire week of the Thanksgiving.
Junior Grace Corcoran said “Honestly I kind of forgot that we were going to have off… you get to spend time with your family and like reconnect if you haven’t which is good.”
During this same time, teachers and other HCPS employees will spend the first three days of that week attending a wide variety of professional development opportunities.
This format of professional development and events were put into place last fall and are being repeated this year.
Teachers were required to sign up for sessions that take place on Monday and Tuesday of the holiday week.
he first two days are made up of workshops that are mostly made up of teachers from all over the country presenting ideas.
— Jacqueline Velcenbach
High schools across the county will host the seminars which will feature every subject, both academic and elective areas as well as a plethora of other interesting speakers, seminars, leadership training, and personal growth opportunities.
“The first two days are made up of workshops that are mostly made up of teachers from all over the country presenting ideas,” says math department chair Jacqueline Velcenbach. “I will be presenting a workshop connecting precalculus to cryptography.”
However, some sessions during the two-day event will feature opportunities to focus on wellness and healt related activities. “I signed up for a stress reliever … I signed up for yoga because it’s fun,” said English teacher Mrs. Christine Allred. “I was looking for things I don’t usually get to do.”
Some teachers, however, are also planning future field trips to go on during these professional development experiences.
“The math department is going to the NSA museum of cryptography,” claims Velcenbach.
Other teachers will be leading sessions
Also, some teachers, like drama teacher Mrs. Nancy Green, are leading workshops themselves. “I will be leading a session for drama teachers because I had the opportunity to go to the MSDE Fine Art briefing ealier this year,” said Green. “I have new information to share,.” Green also said meeting with drama teachers across the county does not happen often so it’s good to ‘put their heads together.”
Wednesday will spent in teachers’ home buildings. Staff will be permitted to leave the building on a two hour early dismissal that afternoon.
Though teachers agree that the professional development opportunities are good, they do have some concern about how a week off from school can impact school calendars. Most years in the past, Harford County has received a plethora of snow days, and those days are built into the calendar. However, this week off added with potential snow days means that students and teachers could end up being in school in the summer June 22 this year.
