Getting Started

Teachers on Target provides teachers on-the-job activities to help them not only gain a better understanding of their teaching skills, but also to help them appreciate the depth and range of what it means to be a teacher. The activities are designed to build connections: To connect with colleagues, to connect with students, and to connect with one’s professionalism. In total, these professional development activities work to meet the following objectives…

To improve teaching competence
To build greater collegiality
To understand and appreciate the art of teaching
To discover the interplay of self, career, and professionalism

Getting started: Go to the activity List

How to Use Teachers on Target

Below are six ways in which the activities can be used to enhance professionalism:

They can be used as a self-administered improvement program. Any teacher, new or experienced, can benefit from directed professional interaction with colleagues.
They can be used as a career assessment tool. The activities will help individuals appraise their teaching careers and discover how their personal skills and values connect with institutional expectations.
They can be used as a resource for administrators and mentors as they work to help teachers improve their effectiveness in the classroom. For example, after observing a teacher the principal may suggest a Teachers on Target activity to support skill building.
They can be used as a curriculum for mentors. Supervising teachers may organize the various activities to establish an ongoing improvement plan for their teachers.
They can be used as a resource for staff development activities. Many of the activities can be readily used at staff meetings or in small groups to simulate professional awareness.
They can be used as a refresher for experienced teachers. As experienced teachers work through the activities, they will feel a sense of renewal as they explore their teaching preferences.

Organization

Teachers on Target includes two essential types of activities: self-discovery and teaching skills.

Self-Discovery Activities help participants to appraise their approach to teaching in order to clarify who they are as professionals. Undoubtedly, the teachers who understand their motivation have a better foundation for improving competencies.
Teaching Skills Activities direct teachers to search out best practices from their colleagues—what works and what doesn’t work. In short, the activities help new teachers improve their teaching skills by learning from the experience of other professionals.

Welcome

All teachers have a vision of themselves teaching the perfect lesson. They recognize however that in order to reach that vision they must master demanding challenges. Teaching is an art, but an art replete with bureaucratic responsibilities, time restraints, and the responsibility of building and sustaining complex relationships with large numbers of students, parents, community members, and colleagues. No wonder teaching has an extremely steep learning curve.

When teachers enter their classrooms, they either sink or swim, and they often have to do it on their own. Teachers must continually work to strengthen their professionalism. Teachers on Target works to build greater professionalism.

"To teach is to create a space in which the community of truth is practiced." --Parker Palmer