Greetings! Thank you for taking the time to visit the Professional Development System (PDS) website. For the past 30 years, the Watson College of Education at UNCW has been committed to developing and sustaining mutually beneficial partnerships with P-12 schools.
The PDS partnership was initiated in 1993 with the belief that we can only sustain reform efforts in public schools if teacher education programs are informed by research and grounded in the real work of public schools.
As I travel from district to district, I continue to be amazed by the dedication of teachers, administrators, and other school personnel. Colleagues in our school-university partnership work tirelessly to do what is best for the young people in our region. They support our student interns, model best practices, and advocate for quality public education.
Our Professional Development System collaboration seeks to positively affect public school reform and broaden professional development efforts in our region with the ultimate goal of improving student learning. By enhancing the quality of teaching and school leadership, we hope to ensure that student work is challenging, engaging, and relevant.
Furthermore, we are intensely aware of the need to prepare our students to live and work in a world where borders have been, for all practical purposes, erased with new communication technologies. For this reason, we are also committed to nurturing our relationships with schools abroad in places such as Belize, Costa Rica, Kuwait, and South Africa.
Partnerships are dependent upon the establishment of common goals, reciprocity, and collaborative work. But, they also require compassion, empathy, and integrity. We have entered into each partnership with genuine support for the work that P-12 educators do, with an understanding that such work is challenging. Together, we are committed to educate, nurture, and inspire the next generation of leaders.
Warm regards,
Somer Lewis, NBCT
Professional Development System Director
Watson College of Education