P 4, a District 75 elementary school with five sites in Queens, serves a diverse population of learners. With so many students receiving services outside the classroom — from physical and occupational therapy to speech and counseling — it’s sometimes a challenge for teachers to see the bigger picture of how these services coordinate.

“People will see their students doing jumping jacks with me and think, ‘Why is a kid doing jumping jacks in school?’” says Ed Santiago, a physical therapist. “They think PT looks like fun, but no one asks why we’re doing what we’re doing.”

So with the new time allotted in the UFT-Department of Education contract for professional development, the staff development committee at P 4 seized the opportunity to allow educators to showcase their skills for each other.

“This time gives us what we needed and what we were requesting, which was more time to work with everyone together to understand what teachers are doing so that everybody’s on the same page,” says Paula Thomas, a paraprofessional and the school’s chapter leader. “Our staff development committee team is composed of teachers, paras and different titles from all our sites so that everyone is represented and can give feedback.”

During a recent weekday session, the staff at the Fresh Meadows site gathered in the gym for a presentation by four of the school’s physical therapists. For the teachers, it wasn’t just hands-on — it was legs and feet on, too, as Santiago put his colleagues through their paces in the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, a physical therapy assessment designed to gauge deficits in children with developmental delays. Teachers practiced balancing on one foot with their eyes closed, hopping from side to side and even catching a ball with two hands.

“You need core strength to be able to sit up at a table,” Santiago pointed out. “You need bilateral coordination to be able to reach for a pencil and grip it. There’s always carryover into the classroom, and this will help a teacher get a better picture of a child.”

For teachers and paraprofessionals, it was an eye-opening window into the work that students do outside their classrooms.

“This gives everybody an opportunity to share their expertise with everyone else,” says Thomas.

Because weekly professional development is new to P 4, the staff development committee has worked hard to ensure that their work is collaborative and flexible.

“Because it was so new, we took it month by month,” says Thomas. “In the beginning, all the sites were doing the same thing. But we learned along the way what worked at one site wasn’t necessarily working at another site, so in January, one of our sites got the freedom to develop its own agenda.”

The team is looking forward to setting long-term goals for professional learning in the next school year, as well as expanding its roster of staff presenters.

“We have some incredibly talented paras who can hold workshops, but it’s about a change in mindset,” says Thomas. “That’s been the biggest challenge, getting the staff to understand that they have a voice and that what they say and feel matters.”