2022-2023 Professional Development
The beginning of the 2022-2023 school year at Seneca High School has jumped off to a great start and we are excited to keep the momentum rolling with our Seneca Way Day initiative. Here at SHS we take pride in continuing to strive for academic excellence and our students and staff have embodied that philosophy very well. Our focus over the past couple of years has been to develop a strong line of communication within all departments across the board, to push our critical thinking amongst our student body, and collaborate new methods and ideas that are successful in the classroom. Through staff collaboration, community feedback, and administrative guided professional development, we continue to strive and keep student academic success at the forefront of our mission.
During our Homecoming School Improvement Day, staff and administration met in small groups to discuss, review, and analyze what we had started a year ago with our “Three C’s.” Part of our mission in this development is to improve our students’ critical thinking from all ends of our subject areas, to be creative in gaining student excitement and enthusiasm within our lessons, and to have staff gain further knowledge from other departments in the process. As each group met, our staff began by sharing successes and challenges that may have already come to the forefront of their curriculum and how each staff member was able to strive beyond those expectations. Teachers were able to collaborate with other departments during this time and take away key highlights that will be put in place as the semester progresses.
Each year as we go into depth with our Seneca Way Day, administration begins to challenge our staff with setting goals they know will push the limits inside their classrooms. Through conversations about how to push higher level collaboration among students, to meeting with other departments and hearing positive feedback with what is working, our staff has taken on the challenge. Taking time throughout our first teacher institute day this year to organize, process, and implement the key concepts from teacher collaboration has been very successful and we look forward to witnessing those accomplishments with student academic achievement.
Overall, the SHS administration, staff, and students have gotten off to a great start this year and want to keep that momentum rolling into the second semester. From developing and getting our RISE program up and running, to continually pushing forward with our Seneca Way Day mission, our staff looks to take on our professional development challenges. The knowledge, discussions, and amount of time our staff have dedicated in making their curricular goals rigorous, thoughtful, and productive will continue to be our focus throughout this year here at SHS.
Mark Giertz
Dean of Students