Berry College - Charter School of Education & Human Sciences

Berry College Professional Development School Partners

Professional Development School Council

Chris Love, Chair; Debra Belvin, Berry Middle School; Rhonda Gentry, Graduate Assistant; Duane Inman, Teacher Education; Jackie McDowell, Teacher Education; Chris Muire, Teacher Education; Mary Niedrach, Berry Elementary School; Paul Atkinson, Berry Elementary/Middle School; Susan Reeder, Child Development Center; Ann Tankersley, Child Development Center.

Professional development schools that work with our teacher-education program are a wonderful cross-section of K-12 schools in the Berry/Rome/Floyd County community. The teachers, principals, superintendents, education faculty and other professionals work together to nurture our college students during their field experiences and student teaching. We also strive to nurture each other through our own professional development stages. We share in the ongoing review of our programs, carry out collaborative inquiry in classrooms, and provide appropriate learning experiences for the children and our college students. Our teacher-education program at Berry College is richer because of our PDS colleagues; they join us in our commitment to educate teachers who are developers of the human potential in all students.

Mission and Goals

The mission of the Berry College Professional Development School partnerships is to facilitate and expand the continuous reflection of theory into practice within a learning community who shares four common goals:

1. to provide in-depth field experiences for teacher candidates in diverse settings.

2. to provide leadership opportunities for classroom teachers.

3. to engage in action research and inquiry for the purpose of improving professional development.

4. to support the learning outcomes of students.

We are a founding member of the National Association for Professional Development Schools.

Our framework is grounded in the following works:

Goodlad, J. (1988). School-university partnerships for educational renewal: Rationale and concepts. In K. Sirotnik & J. Goodlad (Eds.), School-university partnerships in action: Concepts, cases and concerns (pp. 3-31). New York: Teachers College Press.

Levine, M. (2002). Why invest in professional development schools? Educational Leadership, 59(6), 65-69.

Teitel, L. (2003). The Professional Development Schools Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)

PDS Resource Workshop for Partner Schools held Oct. 28, 2004

Berry College faculty and staff shared resources that teachers can use in their classrooms. Participants included Dr. Marti Cipollini (Longleaf Pine Project), Mike King (BOLD), Rebecca Roberts (Berry Archives), Dr. Chris Muire (Project Wet) and others.

Professional Development School Partner Sites

Berry College PDS Council