Prairie Creek Community School - Create Professional Opportunities for Teachers

Prairie Creek Community School has developed an innovative, teacher-led system of professional development that is completely responsive to our progressive curriculum. Our progressive mission guides our work as child-centered educators who plan and implement emergent, hands-on, interdisciplinary curricula. We value teacher autonomy, and our professional development structure supports teachers in asking questions and taking supported risks in their practice. Our weekly sessions are directly relevant to our ongoing work with children. These sessions provide a place where we support and challenge each other. They honor the original mission of charter schools that teachers be empowered to be leaders and risk-takers. Through this professional development structure, we have engaged deeply with topics including lesson study in math, interdisciplinary teaching, authentic assessment, social justice, and literacy. We have used our PD structure to support our work in annual arts residencies and to reach out to other educators.