Effective Learning Targets for Lesson Planning

Audience: 7-12 New and Beginning Classroom Teachers (all content areas)

Purpose: Support a schoolwide focus on explicit instruction and clear learning targets. During an in-service for beginning teachers, participants explored how to layer standards, essential questions, learning targets, and I Can statements. The interactive Thinglink provided teachers with additional resources to explore and build knowledge. Participants worked with their mentor teachers to critique and improve their most recent lesson plans in relation to clear, measurable learning targets.

Click the Thinglink image to visit the interactive version.

Instructional Strategies to Increase Student Engagement

Audience: 7-12 Classroom Teachers (all content areas)

Purpose: Provide opportunities for teachers to examine their definitions of student engagement and how they currently work to engage students. Provide research-based strategies for teachers to try with their students. Model effective engagement strategies throughout the session using processing strategies, movement, and interactive inquiry.

Instructional Inspirations Newsletter

Audience: Classroom Teachers (all content areas)

Purpose: Monthly newsletter shared with teachers with instructional tips and strategies. Each newsletter featured an instructional strategy to try while lesson planning, highlights of effective instruction observed the previous month, research on effective instructional practices for teachers to peruse, videos of teachers in action, and information on quarterly learning walks for teachers.

Social Studies Standards Unpacking

Audience: 7-12 Social Studies Classroom Teachers (all content areas)

Purpose: Three-day workshop to prepare secondary Social Studies teachers to begin unpacking newly approved state standards. Activities were designed to model effective student-centered, blended instruction and strategies specific to the social studies classroom. Teachers learned to create and interactive notebooks during the workshop. Teachers worked in PLCs and aligned vertically during the workshop.

In Pursuit of Excellence

Audience: 9-12 Classroom Teachers (all content areas)

Purpose: Design a personalized PD experience for classroom teachers for an entire semester, aligned to the school PD plan and school improvement priorities. Build in opportunities for teachers to work with various members of the instructional support team. Provide opportunities for core, elective, beginning, and veteran teachers with frequent opportunities for choice-based learning. Provide self-paced, individual, or collaborative options.