Innovative Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence Launched

If an institution is very fortunate, it may, once in a lifetime, receive an investment that significantly strengthens it, expands its horizons, and generates new ways of executing its mission. Such is the case in 2010 with PDS, thanks to the forward-thinking and very generous philanthropy of PDS parents Brad and Dina Martin, whose Martin Family Foundation has established the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence. Brad Martin serves as a PDS trustee.

Housed at PDS, the Institute will provide world-class professional development not only for PDS teachers, but it will make its programs available to teachers and administrators at other private and public schools. Through an on-going series of conferences, seminars and workshops, the institute will host some of the world’s leading thinkers and researchers on education. The institute will send PDS and other public and private teachers to study at Harvard. It will include a teacher residency program, similar to Teach for America, that enables talented young teachers the opportunity to spend a year in training with master teachers at PDS.

“The institute will enhance the quantity and quality of professional development we are offering PDS teachers,” says Headmaster Lee Burns. “Even more than that, it enables us to share and leverage the resources PDS has for the greater good of the Mid-South. We believe that private schools like us should have public purposes, and the Martin Institute is a way to assist teachers and children throughout the region.”

The institute’s many programs will be partially or fully subsidized for teachers and schools who lack the financial resources to pay for them.

In a field in which teachers are often isolated, the institute will facilitate the networking and exchange of ideas and best practices among teachers at many schools, as well as create a series of formal mentoring relationships. Both new and veteran teachers need on-going professional development, especially in how to promote in students the acquisition of 21^st century skills.

Teachers new to the profession of education will have the opportunity, like a resident in medical school, to experience a year of “rounds” as they observe PDS teachers practice their craft. As the year goes on, they will have opportunities for student teaching and working with PDS boys in small groups. Their residency program will include observation and teaching at a public school as well, in addition to regular meetings with the institute’s Executive Director and PDS administrators and mentors (and even a year-long research project).

“We want to produce each year a group of highly-trained, well-supported new teachers who will be equipped to be excellent teachers at schools all over our region,” says Burns. “In receiving this training, they will also be bringing even more learning resources to the boys of PDS and students at other schools, all of whom will benefit from their work in the classrooms.”

The Martin Institute is a very innovative partnership among public and private schools, the philanthropic community, and two educational institutions: PDS and our neighbor, the University of Memphis

The annual number of teacher residents, who will be recruited both locally and nationally, will depend each year on the institute receiving additional philanthropic support. As additional philanthropic gifts are received, the institute will send an even greater number of teachers to study at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

In reflecting on PDS, the institute and the importance of teacher development, Brad Martin, the former CEO and Chairman of Saks Incorporated, says, “PDS has become one of the finest boys’ schools in America, and we are fortunate to have this treasure located in Memphis. PDS is an outstanding school in large part because it hires and invests in outstanding teachers. The Institute supports this commitment to the continuous development of PDS faculty by providing funding for faculty participation in programs at Harvard and other internationally renowned venues for teacher training.”

Martin continues, “The Institute will also help create a pipeline for more great teachers—specifically, those who would become part of PDS or other schools in the Memphis and Shelby County area.
We also believe PDS itself can become a center for excellent teacher training and development right here in Memphis. We will do so by producing excellent seminars and workshops and provide access to this programming for public and private school teachers throughout the region. 
The Institute will extend the reach and mission of PDS beyond its existing student body.”

“While the Martin family has made a very, very significant investment in teacher development in Memphis, we will need additional support to grow the impact the institute can have,” says Burns.

The institute has hired Dr. Clif Mims as its Executive Director. He has served as a professor of education at the University of Georgia, The University of Mississippi, and the Chairman of The Instructional Design and Technology Faculty in the College of Education at the University of Memphis. “We have hired in Dr. Clif Mims a remarkable educator and trainer of teachers. He is a professor, author, consultant and speaker, and his talents and experiences will assure that the Martin Institute offers world-class programs for educators,” says Burns

 

PDS and the College of Education at the University of Memphis have collaborated and partnered on the institute, and they will continue to do so. “It is a great opportunity to draw upon the talent and resource of the university, as well assist their students enrolled in the College of Education,” says Burns.

“The Martin Institute is a very innovative partnership among public and private schools, the philanthropic community, and two educational institutions: PDS and our neighbor, the University of Memphis,” says Burns. “It is exciting for us at PDS to be at the center of a synergistic collaboration centered on the most important part of a school: developing excellent teachers.”

The Martin Institute will provide professional development for teachers representing the full spectrum of educational needs, including children with special needs.

or contact its Executive Director, Dr. Clif Mims. The institute is also currently accepting applications for the teacher residency program.