PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom."- Socrates Inquiry is the basis of great teaching. In this three-hour introductory workshop, educators will begin to develop and practice ways to support their students through remote learning. Research-based strategies included in this presentation are crafting essential questions and hooks that ignite student curiosity and wonder, facilitating conversations that promote student-generated questions and launching project-based learning options.

In this time of global crisis, educators stand by their commitment to teach America's children. And, they are doing it with honor and integrity despite challenging external factors. Distance teaching can be daunting with so many platforms, supports, and tools offered on the internet. This three-hour workshop will support teachers in navigating and implementing a google remote classroom. Teachers will be guided step by step through google classroom, google hangouts, and google forms. A question and answer portion of the workshop will be designed to meet teachers where they are and lead them to where they need to be.

Although the classroom setting has changed, the diverse needs of students remain constant. Special education teachers, as well as general education teachers, are required to modify lessons to accommodate the special needs of their students. Distance learning makes this requirement more of a challenge but nonetheless mandatory. This three-hour workshop presents strategies, tools, and apps that will support teachers to differentiate, meeting the needs of all their students.

Never in America's history have teachers been asked to transition so quickly from brick and mortar classrooms to virtual classrooms. Although educators are not on the frontline, their role during this pandemic is undeniably heroic. Educators may be facing their own personal crisis, such as family illness, loss of finances and/or debilitating anxiety. Yet, amid the pandemic, they still must teach. This workshop is designed to support the emotional needs of America's resilient and dedicated educators. Collegial conversations, self-reflection with goal setting and mindfulness techniques will be presented and practiced, to support and honor the educator.

In the midst of a global pandemic, educators across the United States have recently been called on to move their classroom to their living room. Some tech-savvy educators feel very equipped to handle distance learning, while other educators are feeling quite over-whelmed and anxious. This three-hour workshop aims to quell the fears and ease the stress of those inundated educators by introducing the, “most knows” of Microsoft TEAMS. Upon completion of this session, teachers would have acquired the basic skills of TEAMS to lead and instruct their students with confidence.