The Antioch Center for School Renewal (ACSR) has received a grant from PDK International to develop a new group of twenty Master Teachers in New England. Master Teachers are school coaches who are practicing classroom teachers trained in techniques for professional learning by ACSR and are trained facilitators of ACSR’s Critical Skills Institutes. These teachers learn to use ACSR’s Critical Skills Program, Critical Friends Groups, classroom facilitation, and technology as tools for one-to-one support of other educators.
The project, called Building Next Generation Master Teachers, will be overseen by Laura Thomas, ACSR director. “This project will help emerging teacher leaders gain and refine their skills as Master Teachers so that they can serve their own schools and districts as well as the larger educational community,” Thomas said.
ACSR is the service division of the Department of Education at Antioch University New England that provides professional development for teachers. It has been training Master Teachers for twenty-five years. But many of them are now retiring, Thomas said, citing the need for a new cadre of teachers.
