Our Approach to Adult Learning

City Schools’ continues the work of improving the quality of educators’ experiences on Systemic Professional Development days. We strive to offer robust, engaging  professional learning to give our educators the opportunity to advance knowledge, skills, and practices with direct connection to the classroom. Grounded in best practices in adult learning, offerings are designed to bring teachers and instructional staff together for collaborative sessions, rich discussions, and peer reflection. 

As you browse the SY 23-24 Systemic Professional Learning Catalog, you will find that the opportunities offered continue to reflect staffs’ learning needs and the feedback we collected on PD throughout the last year.  Sessions are designed and led by City Schools classroom-based and district-office educators. Ninety percent of content sessions have now fully returned back to in-person. Traditionally rich with sessions on curricula and academic content, the upcoming August sessions reflect a continued increase in content-agnostic sessions to support the complex nature of the teaching profession. 

Throughout the course of the school year systemic PD sessions will be increasingly differentiated by teachers' backgrounds and needs (e.g. Early Career Teachers, veteran/tenured teachers, Special Educators, Paraprofessionals),  will engage participants through smaller groups/break-out rooms to deepen and focus learning, and will continue to emphasize community-building, year-long learning arcs, and teacher Professional Learning Communities.  Look for these logos when searching for sessions for Early Career Educators and Paraprofessionals: