Professional Development in Schools

I have been gaining experience in the classroom for the past three years. During my time in the schools there was always a day of the week that the school was dismissed early. Most of the time it has been Wednesdays but I have been in one school where the early dismissal day was Monday. When the school is dismissed early the teachers are encouraged to participate in after school professional development opportunities. I attended some of the professional development opportunities. One was for the current teachers to get their ELL endorsement. It was a three year long program and classes were only held on Wednesday afternoons. It was lengthy but free for the current teachers. Another professional development opportunity was for teachers to earn their reading endorsement to provide better reading instruction to students. Sometimes the after school meetings were for the teams of teachers to develop units or plan upcoming lessons. During the meetings the reading or math specialists are visiting the teams to answer questions or share ideas. I thought it was a very worthy way to spend time after school for teachers to better themselves and their teaching.