Windham Staff Development Highlights

It was a glorious morning as I left my home in Fresno on my way to staff development in Dayton, Texas. I had never traveled to Dayton before and was quite excited for the opportunity to be away from my normal routine. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as I travel down 610, I -10 and all the other thoroughfares in order to arrive at my destinations. It took about an hour and I arrived at about 730 which was about one hour earlier than was scheduled.

The first session was quite fascinating. The presenter showed us many ways to make our classless interactive, interesting, and dynamic. The presenter demonstrated tools that she used in her classroom. I was quite impressed with her ability to do more with less. She stress the fact that she used all the materials. To avoid waste,  she requires her students to write on both sides of the paper and she made available colored paper to to distinguish from various activities or lessons that was included in their folder. I was particularly impressed with the countless ways that she could fold paper. I never incorporated foldables in my classroom; however, I am considering it now that I see how interesting it is and how it adds to instruction. One activity that fascinated me was how to draw a perfect circle using a paperclip and two pencils. I always wanted the students to draw a perfect circle in order to teach  radius, diameter and circumference; however, I did not know how to create neat circles but now I do.

She demonstrated how she taught social studies and science using the table of  contents of the Common Core book. She showed us how, by using the table of contents,  she instructed the students how to write the information onto foldables. This was extremely creative to me.

The next session concerning exit tickets was information presented that I was familiar with. We talked about how long the warm-up should be and she gave sample demonstrations as to how we can create an effective exit ticket for our classes.

The next session had to do with how to implement math in our classrooms and some shortcuts and explanations of how to teach various topics such as slope, geometry, equations, and integers. I learned a lot about different strategies and  ways of presenting some of the same activities that I previously presented. The discussion was robust and very informative and the presenters were well prepared.

There was plenty of snacks and the teachers were very friendly and welcoming.

All in all it was a fantastic day.

Update: Currently,I teach GED at  a state jail.