Re: CAMP Summary: Professional Personnel Development

I read with interest a summary of the discussion on professional personnel development.  I was employed as an elementary teacher in the state of Michigan for 26 years.  Most significant to me was the method of preparation.  I was screened by the Grand Rapids Board of Education prior to being accepted in a program run by Mich. State Univ. called the Education Intern Program (EIP).  My undergraduate classes included focused observations in public school classrooms.  After completing about 3/4 of my undergraduate education, I was hired as a non-degree teacher for the next 2 years.  The plan included supervision by a MSU master teacher who spent 2 days/week in my classroom for the first of those 2 years and 1 day/week for the 2nd.  Her help was invaluable--on-the-job training; and, of course, I spent 2 summers completing the requirements for my degree.

Throughout my teaching career, class size emerged as the most obvious factor in achieving desired educational outcomes.  But perhaps a close second to class size was the inadequate and irrelevant training student teachers who were placed in my classes received from other state universities.  There the "traditional" curriculum was simply and obviously not appropriate nor effective.  A third point would be the importance of employing master mentor teachers throughout a new teacher's probationary period and, in some cases, for experienced teachers who are in need of specialized, maybe situational, help.

Nancy Campbell