BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IN an effort to further equip themselves with the knowledge and strategies necessary to properly educate their students, the teachers of the Dean Glasford Primary School were given a refresher course to mark the 2012 Teacher's Professional Development Day.
On Friday (February 17), the teachers went to Ma Pau where they attended four one-hour training courses in Teaching Comprehension, Teaching Problem Solving, Leading to make a Difference, and Social Security and You.
Facilitators for the courses were Eleanor Phillip, Calwyn Morton, Hon. Curtis Martin, and Elvin Bailey.
According to the school's Principal, Avonelle Martin, the Professional Day is all about keeping the teachers up to speed with their strategies and understanding to better prepare them to meet the challenges that they may be facing in the classroom.
"Professional Day is a means of keeping teachers current with changes in education and how they affect teachers' performance as effective classroom practitioners. Such changes include the use of new technology, new methodologies about teaching and learning, and different community needs," she said.
She elucidated that the topics were garnered from the school's improvement plan which took into consideration the results of the National Test of Standards.
"Statistics indicated that our students' level of Comprehension was weak and the overall performance in Mathematics was satisfactory. However, problem solving was a weak area. It is believed that Reading and Comprehension affect students' ability to solve problems," the Principal explained.
The Professional Day was held under the theme "Creating great thinkers through Literacy, Numeracy and Leadership.
Martin said that the theme derived from the need to teach children to be critical thinkers which would not only help them in school but when making life choices as well.
"With all the social ills and economical problems that our homes, schools, communities, nation and the world at large are facing today such as drugs, crime, violence and unemployment, we have to teach our children to become critical thinkers so as to be good decision makers and make wise choices," she explained.
She said that if teachers are to help the students become great thinkers then they have to incorporate critical thinking skills in their daily lessons in all subject areas, for all age groups and for all abilities.
The Teachers Professional Development Day is a bi-annual event that all teachers of the school attend and partake in courses to assist them in to keeping abreast of new developments in education.
