For the second consecutive year, Dallas Independent School District partnered with the Annette Caldwell Simmons School at Southern Methodist University (SMU) to provide targeted professional development academies and courses for district teachers.
The academies were tiered to support specific teacher needs based on each teacher’s most recent Teacher Excellence Initiative evaluation. The partnership’s goal is to improve district teachers’ classroom instruction.
Led by SMU professors, the academies and courses were designed to strengthen teachers’ understanding of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and incorporated effective use of lesson objectives, demonstrations of learning, purposeful and aligned instruction, and the use of multiple response strategies. The SMU professional development experience also included leadership, coaching and mentorship development for teachers who attended.
