Part I.

JEPD is professional development that is rooted in day-to day practice. It is school or classroom based
and is imbedded into the work day. JEPD is often inquiry based, making the learning authentic and
based in real-time problems and solutions. Much like authentic assessment, job-embedded PD is real-
word driven, involves collaboration, and teaches skills and applications that are relevant to that
educators current world of teaching. Like all high quality PD, the JEPD should be continual and focused
on improving teaching and learning.

Part II.
The format that best works for an individual teacher likely depends on factors such as their content
knowledge, confidence teaching (in the focus PD area), resources, willingness to collaborate, building
culture, personnel support, etc., but from my experience, the most powerful JPED format was
Coaching. Often times, we as educators feel alone in our practice. We are left to fend for ourselves,
and a Darwinistic system of only the strong survive emerges. Because of this fear, and
counterproductively, teachers conceal their shortcomings by retreating deeper into their classrooms
and, for fear of being judged, isolate themselves from their peers. Enter instructional coaches. When a
teacher seeking development has an opportunity to see quality instruction being modeled with their
very own students, then has the ability to debrief and bounce ideas off a non-evaluatory instructional
coach, prior to giving it a go on their own, the guard is lowered and the results are powerful. I liken
the Coaching format to an athlete say a golfer having a one-on one golf coach that travels from
course to course, hole to hole, with him or her, confers about each shot, club selection, hole placement,
etc., models the shot beforehand, observes the developing golfers shot, confers about what was
observed, and continues the cycle again on each hole. Imagine the improvement in said golfers score
over a season!
Part III.
If I were advising a principal on how to go about creating an environment that fosters and sustains a
system on quality JEPD, I would likely start with building culture how we meet, greet, celebrate, learn,
approach problems , interact, etc. In order to ensure an ecosystem is JEPD friendly, staff members must
be willing to accept one- another for who they are, embrace each others differences, listen
empathically, and understand and appreciate the difference in collegiality and being collaborative.
These are all traits that create a foundation of trust! I would stress to a principal that, in the current era
of accountability, high-stakes testing, and teacher effectiveness rating being tied to employability,
relational trust is key. Principal walk-throughs and observations should be used as professional growth
opportunities, not gotcha! moments. I would also suggest that by going on a listening tour a
principal identify those teachers (instructional leaders) that have the expertise and personal skills set
necessary to help others improve. Provide release time or time embedded in the day for these
instructional leaders to work with other teachers at developing their craft. Lighten the load for teachers
by sifting through the busy work (taking as many nonsensical duties off of their plate as possible) and
provide for them the PLC time necessary to truly analyze data and make instructional decisions.
I know these are high hopes, but this would be my idea of a utopian principalship