A primary value of the culture at Hamlin is to create and sustain a faculty that is a community of learners, actively engaged in substantive long-term professional growth. We feel strongly that students benefit when the adults in the community model the excitement and energy around adult learning.
On a yearly basis, Hamlin dedicates significant funds to professional development. Teachers can count on generous funds for conferences, institutes, summer grants, and trainings. Examples of recent professional development conferences and programs attended by Hamlin faculty include: summer institutes sponsored by the Bay Area Teacher Development Collaborative; technology conferences; programs on differentiated instruction, brain research, learning differences, and cooperative learning; national diversity institutes; conferences on sports, health and wellness; training programs in mathematics, reading and writing, French, global education. Teaching faculty regularly attend one-day conferences on topics such as grade-level collaboration and disciplinary study.
We recognize the broadening and revitalizing effects of conferences, school visits, curriculum projects, and in-service programs as they inform the development of program through participation and reflection. Dedicated endowment funds provide a yearly travel-study grant of $2500, and experienced teachers at Hamlin can request generous grants for summer experiences. The school brings in speakers of note for in-service training several times in each school year. Speakers that come to Hamlin for the parent education series are often asked to conduct faculty training at regular after-school faculty meetings.