ALLENTOWN — Ever wonder what teachers do when the school halls empty of students on half-session days?

Students might like to think that their teachers stay behind to sing over the public announcement system and to dance on desks, but that's definitely not the case in the Upper Freehold Regional School District. While the students are away, the teachers learn.

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Stephen Cochrane said personal development days are critical for teachers.

"Just as we would expect our doctors to be abreast of the latest research, the newest techniques, and the very best practice, so too should we expect the same of our teachers," Cochrane said.

Since teaching is a continuously evolving profession, with content, technology, students and the world always changing, school districts offer professional development experiences to help teachers process those changes in ways that enhance instruction. Professional development days also provide opportunities for teachers to come together to collaborate in planning, share ideas, ensure consistency of instruction at a given grade level, and talk across grade levels to make sure there are no gaps or repetitions, according to Cochrane.

"Teaching can also be an isolating profession," Cochrane said. "We may spend six hours a day in our classrooms with very little time to talk to our colleagues down the hall let alone our colleagues across grade levels or in different buildings."

The school district presented teachers with a full schedule of professional development programs from 1 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. Oct. 29-30. The district-wide focus was the use of assessments. However, teachers in each school building approached the topic differently.

The Upper Freehold Regional School District designs its professional development programs using teacher feedback to assure that they will be as helpful and useful to educators as they can be. Elementary school teachers wanted to learn more about conferring with and assessing students during Reading Workshop and using the online component of the Envisions Math program.

Elementary school teachers learned how to quickly assess what reading strategy a student might need and how to coach a student to apply that strategy in workshops on Oct. 29-30, according to Cochrane. For the remainder of the day on Oct. 30, teachers explored the online components of the Envisions math program.

Middle-school teachers involved with language arts instruction brought student writing samples that represented average and above average work to workshops on Oct. 29 to further explore how to assess their students' writing abilities. The next day, they looked at various ways to assess students' reading comprehension.

Middle-school teachers of science, social studies, math, Spanish, and special areas joined their departmental colleagues at the high school both days to promote greater articulation across the grade levels. Cochrane said co-planning is critical to effective instruction and also a highlighted element of the district's approaching Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC) review by the state.

Allentown High School English Department Supervisor Joanne Snook and Cochrane provided middle- and highschool teachers with an overview of assessment and a more in-depth examination of the process for designing authentic and performance-based tasks for students.

"We spent the personal development days examining and creating authentic assessments— assessments that require students to apply their knowledge to solve real-life problems," Cochrane said. "These types of assessments challenge students to think at a higher level and better prepare them for success in the 21st century."

Snook said the most useful parts of the session were the examples of assignments and classroom practices that three teachers shared that make their assessments more grounded in real world applications.

"Learning what's working in the classroom down the hall and what is happening in other departments provided practical and understandable examples that have worked with this student body," Snook said.M

iddle-school and high-school teachers finished the in-service days working together to create or revise student tasks based on the learning goals for the courses they teach.

Allentown High School teacher and mathematics supervisor Lynn Folino said, "Time to work together is precious!"

Folino said the professional development days provided teachers with the time to work in their departments on departmental benchmarks, and with other teachers on the district's goal to improve student assessment.

Allentown High School information technology teacher Robert Wicks said, "Personally, the topic of assessment allowed me to take a look at some of the ways that I assess students in the classroom now and compare this to how my peers are using assessment."

Wicks said he had the opportunity to look at new ways to assess students in order to reach desired outcomes and goals. As a result, he said he would continue to use different types of assessments to evaluate student comprehension, use current curriculum mapping to compare curriculum goals to other teachers' goals and continue to adjust his teaching according to changing technology standards.

Eighth-grade teacher Arlene Goldstein said she worked with teacher Laura Carlton on rubrics to use in class.

"It was a big help to have the time provided because our schedules make it almost impossible for us to work together during the regular school day," Goldstein said.T

he state of New Jersey requires all teachers to receive 100 hours of professional development over the course of five years.

"Many of our teachers get close to that mark in just one year," Cochrane said.

The half-days the district sets aside for professional development are a very small part of the overall professional development experience of Upper Freehold Regional School District teachers. Other ways that teachers refine their professional knowledge and skills include workshops before school and after school, planning days, conferences, webinars and online training.

"In the past few years, we have provided teachers with week-long training in the summer to help launch our initiatives in reading and writing workshop," Cochrane said.

Cochrane mentioned that last month, 18 teachers gave up a Saturday to go to a conference at Teachers College in New York that focused on reading and writing workshop. Teachers also gave up hours of their summer vacation collaborating on the writing of curriculum for every course at the high school and for all subjects in grades K-8.

"To be a mediocre teacher is not that hard," Cochrane said. "To be a great teacher is the hardest job in the world and the most rewarding."