Warsaw Community Schools’ Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert talks with the Board of Trustees. InkFreeNews File Photo.

By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WARSAW — Warsaw School Board heard about the school corporation’s peer-to-peer program Tuesday, March 12.

Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said the peer-to-peer program goes back about 12 years. It is an opportunity for teachers to go see what’s been successful in another school building, “especially within our school corporation.”

The idea was to get teachers out of their specialty, grade level or building to see what someone else is doing. The viewing teacher can give an evaluation of the teacher they viewed.

“That’s where the peer-to-peer comes in,” Hoffert said. He said teachers are able to chose what teacher they are able to view.

Krista Polston, Warsaw Community Schools director of communications, said the program used to be “totally optional,” but the school corporation wanted to incentivize it. There was some grant money put into the program. Teachers are able to have as many peer-to-peer experiences as they want, but they only get paid for two experiences a year. Polston said the payment wasn’t a lot of money.

Courtney Walters, teacher, said participating in the peer-to-peer program was important to her. She chose to observe a math class as she said she needed a little help in teaching math.

After seeing what was done in that class, she said she reflected on what she saw and how she can bring that into her class.

Emily Stiers, another teacher, said it is a great opportunity for any teachers who want to come in to view her class and get ideas from her, as well as for the teachers to give feedback to Stiers.

David Knouse, assistant band director, said he was able to do two peer-to-peer experiences last semester, which he said was beneficial to collaborate in that way.

One of the experiences was he was able to observe an English teacher. As a band director, it was an interesting process to see how the two teachers taught similarly to different concepts. He said there were some things he saw in that class that he tried to incorporate in his own classes.

In other business, the board heard the school corporation could always use more bus drivers. Director of Transportation Mark Fick said he tested two people last week and they passed and he hired another bus driver last week.