Innovating Burke's Professional Development
A commitment to creating a standard-setting professional development program for faculty and staff is a key element of Burke’s Strategic Plan. As part of this commitment, Mike Matthews was appointed the first Director of Curriculum & Program Innovation in 2014. As Director, Mike has been creating a thoughtful and well-organized professional development program whose objective is to foster ongoing curricular innovation among the Burke's faculty and staff.
In the 2015-16 school year, Mike has worked closely with Burke’s academic leadership and faculty to develop a fresh and engaging approach to professional development. Two exciting examples of this work were Burke’s Innovation Day, held in August, and Burkeshop, held in April. Both of these days provided opportunities for Burke’s employees to learn from not only outside experts, but also from each other regarding topics that were relevant to what they are trying to achieve in the classroom. Debuting a new format that offered multiple choices of workshops throughout the day, faculty and staff emerged energized and excited about what they learned. After the most recent Burkeshop day, 98% of attendees said that they would apply something that they learned that day into their classroom, and 85% said that they identified a potential collaboration as a result of the workshops. Additionally, more than 75% said they would consider presenting a workshop at a future PD day. Going forward, Burke’s will continue to develop professional development days like these that inspire and nurture innovation, collaboration and leadership.
