Professional Development

Pinewood allocates $2,500 per teacher per year for professional development opportunities.

Investing in our teachers' professional development helps us attract and retain educators who are characterized by joy and expertise. Because of this, Pinewood encourages our faculty and staff to participate in a professional development event each year - a conference, class, workshop, or other unique experience - that the school underwrites. Investing in our teachers is an investment in our students' educational journey as we encourage them to become kind, well-rounded people who are poised to change their world for the better.

Here are a few recent professional development experiences from our faculty and staff . . .

We asked Damon Tighe, Curriculum Training Specialist for BioRad to spend the day here on campus helping to train us to use some of BioRad's newest biotechnology kits. Our goal was to introduce a higher level of biotechnology into Honors Biology, AP Biology, and Marine Biology curricula.
– Kim Hudson, High School Science Department Chair | BioRad Biotechnology Workshop

Thank you very much for sending me to such a worthwhile, meaningful, and lovely event! The conference focused on using data for insight and improving educational opportunities for students. The underlying theme of the conference seemed to be finding a healthy balance of adequately incorporating the use of data driven instruction and technology in education to provide our students with the most advantageous learning while nurturing students emotional, psychological, and social well-being.
– Kristin Thomas, K-2 Learning Specialist | ERB Conference

We received training in GLAD: Guided Language Acquisition Design, a research-based method for teaching academic language skills within content areas. Because English Language Learners represent the fastest growing population in U.S. schools and will compose 50% of classes in the next 25 years, a field-tested, effective method for teaching language skills alongside content is necessary. The conference included four workshops, which covered unit design, key instructional strategies, and collaboration tools, along with two keynote addresses.
– Maria Johnson, 6th-Grade Language Arts Teacher | Excellence in Teaching Conference at Notre Dame