Professional Development

During the last two years, I've attended many professional development workshops with the goal of adjusting my approach toward teaching and improving my style.

For the three workshops, FIT: Managing Disruptive Behavior, FIT: Learning Styles, and FIT: Effective Questioning Strategies, I have a Synthesis Essay discussing what I learned and how I will apply what I learned in the classroom. The theme among these three workshops is to understand the student's perspective in order to be a better teacher.

For the four workshops, FIT: Motivational Teaching Strategies, FIT: Shaping your Teaching Philosophy, FIT: Classroom Management, FIT: Active Learning, and the seminar “How to Feel as Smart as They Think You Are”, I have a Synthesis Essay discussing what I learned and how it will change my approach in the classroom. That is, I learned from these events that self-confidence and self-awareness helps you identify who you are as a teacher and this helps you become a more effective teacher.

Both of these Synthesis essays and all the workshops occur prior to my ability to practice what I learn. Therefore, the artifacts included at the end of each essay are artifacts I would like to have used at that time. Since then, I’ve taught two classes. I now update the artifacts at the end of each essay (which are a lesson plan and an activity) to skeletal notes and The Game. These are intended to practice the pedagogy learned in the Learning Styles and Motivational Teaching Strategies workshops, respectively.

Here is a detailed list of the workshops I attended...

Department of Mathematics at North Carolina State University:

• Teacher's Assistant Workshop, Part II (May 2013)

  • This workshop gives a general introduction to teaching, covering topics of pedagogy such as Bloom's Taxonomy.

Preparing Future Leaders (PFL) program at North Carolina State University.  I briefly describe the workshops below, but more detail can be found on the PFL website. Note, FIT stands for Fundamentals in Teaching.

• FIT: Effective Questioning (September 12, 2013)

  • In this workshop, we explored strategies and techniques for asking questions effectively to generate more student participation. This involved learning about word choice, timing, types of questions, and overall presentation style. 

• FIT: Introduction to Teaching (September 13, 2013)

  • This workshop introduces participants to basic skills in lesson planning, course organization, active learning techniques, and assessment strategies related to effective teaching 

• FIT: Classroom Management - Managing Disruptive Student Behavior (October 24, 2013)

  • The workshop covered techniques to re-direct, manage and calm disruptive students. The focus was on techniques of motivational interviewing to offer theory and clear examples of how to address today’s classroom problems. 

• FIT: Learning Styles (November 7, 2013)

  • In this workshop, we learned about the 8 different learning styles and we explored how making simple adaptations to your teaching can enhance the learning process. 

• FIT: Motivational Teaching Strategies (January 30, 2014)

  • The workshop covered teaching strategies and instructional behaviors that encourage student motivation and participation, challenge and support students’ learning, and inspire students to perform to the best of their ability. 

• FIT: Classroom Management (February 20, 2014)

  • This workshop is designed to address classroom management issues and concerns. Topics included: creating a welcoming environment, establishing guidelines and expectations, maintaining professionalism, and handling disruptive students. 

• FIT: Shaping Your Teaching Philosophy: Instruments for Finding your Identity as a Teacher (February 21, 2014)

  • In this workshop, we learn more about ourselves as teachers by characterizing the goals, perspectives, approaches, and styles of all teachers.

• FIT: Active Learning (February 26, 2014)

  • In this workshop, we explored a variety of active learning strategies that can be used in any classroom or lab setting.

• FIT: Establish Credibility and Authority (September 12, 2014)

  • In this workshop, we learned how credibility and legitimacy is established or lost and explore ways to respond to subtle and direct challenges to your authority.

• "How to Feel as Bright and Capable as They Think You Are - Why Smart People Suffer From The Impostor Syndrome and How You Can Thrive In Spite of It" (March 5, 2014)

  • Speaker: Dr. Valerie Young

  • In this amazing symposium, we learn that there are many reasons people feel like an impostor. This is a confidence building workshop.