Teachers spend Super Bowl Monday in trainings

While majority watched and cheered for their favorite teams in Super Bowl XLIII, public school educators opted to enrich themselves yesterday by holding a whole-day professional development training in their campuses.

Nearly 5,000 students in middle and secondary schools took a break yesterday after PSS decided to schedule the school systemwide professional development training in both divisions.

“Super Bowl” is a nonholiday event for the CNMI.

Saipan Tribune learned the PSS decision to schedule trainings during the occasion was due to the “significant drop” in the attendance of students during the sports event.

As early as 9am, many students were seen gathering in restaurants where they can watch and cheer for their teams.

Yesterday, Education Commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan was seen focused on her duties. She spent three hours meeting with members of the PSS student council at the Education Board’s conference room where they discussed plans for a proposed youth summit.

Sablan was also set to attend some schools’ professional development training yesterday.

PSS records based on the Facts & Figures for the school year 2009 indicated that there are over 3,000 high school students and nearly 2,000 middle school enrollees.

Classes at public elementary schools, however, continued yesterday. PSS has over 5,000 Kindergarten to sixth grade students.

During the mostly half-day instruction for teachers and employees, many schools were taught the latest system software being used in recording attendance and calculating students’ grade.

Experts from the PSS central office were some of the guest speakers in yesterday’s professional development training.

At Marianas High School, principal Karen Borja said that about 60 personnel attended yesterday’s training.

The school has also scheduled two succeeding Saturdays, Feb. 7 and 14, for employees who were not able to make it yesterday.

Two important topics were discussed during the professional development at MHS: the “portfolio” and the “breaking ranks” projects.

Borja said the school started its portfolio project since September.

“The idea is to teach all our students and require them to prepare a portfolio of their resume…which is a great preparation for our graduating high school students,” Borja told Saipan Tribune.

MHS is home to a number of vocational and technical courses for its students.

Another project is being developed at MHS—“breaking ranks.”

“The project is…a process for continuous improvement in high schools. Our objective is to develop an action plan for all PSS goals and the wellness policy,” Borja said.

At Saipan Southern High School, all 41 staffers attended the hands-on training and exercises yesterday.

Vice principal Craig Garrison said employees were also asked on their personal assessment and evaluation of the professional development lessons they gained.

Most sessions begun at 8am and lasted until 3pm.

At Kagman High School, the half-day event tackled proper classroom management for teachers.