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Jackson Teachers And Staff Continue To Learn
JACKSON - With titles
like "I'm Talking, Why
Aren't They Listening?," "Making Math Fun" and "Who Moved My Cheese?," last week's In-Service Day in the Jackson school district was designed to provide a little something for everyone. "We tried to cover all the areas that can help us be better educators," said Assistant Superintendent of Schools Lu Anne Meinders, who coordinated and supervised the event.
"From classroom management to subject-area training to technology, I think we have created a comprehensive event that will be useful to many people," she said.
The In-Service Day was held the day before students returned to school September 5.
"What better way to begin a new school year than by coming together as a group and spending time learning from each other?" said Superintendent of Schools Thomas Gialanella. "I think it resulted in a very positive, very pro-active beginning to a great school year."
The event featured more than 1,000 staff members who were scheduled into four different sessions, with each focusing on how to perform better in the classroom, how to increase knowledge of various subject area disciplines, how to be more creative in the areas of science, math, literacy and social studies and how to embrace some of the new technology available to educators.
Although the district has held in-service training for years, this year marked the first time the event was held for all K-12 educators in the same location, taking place at Jackson Liberty High School.
Meinders said the breadth and depth of the sessions is a testament to the talent and initiative of the staff members in the district.
"We brought in people from the outside as well, but a great number of our workshops were presented by our very own staff members who have demonstrated excellence
in the classroom and ingenuity in their
approach to education," Meinders said. "When we consider the 126 workshops we offered to our staff, our administrative team should be proud of what we can offer to each other."
Some of the sessions offered included:
The Civil Rights Movement - An in-depth content knowledge and understanding of the movement to enrich classroom lessons.
The Special Education Child - How it feels to be a special education child in a regular education class.
Reading with Meaning - Ways to teach comprehension in a way that is more meaningful
for students.
Integrating Literature and Mathematics - How to maximize your time with lessons that integrate literature with math topics.
Borrowing from our Bag of Tricks - A workshop for new teachers on what to expect the first day and tricks and ideas for teaching strategies.
Lab Activities with Microscopes - Handson workshop to learn new strategies for microscope use in the classroom.
Anti-Bullying in the Classroom.
United Streaming - How it can be incorporated into the classroom lesson to help differentiate instruction.
Body Image - an interactive workshop that deals with defining body image and the realistic and/or unrealistic goals that we develop for ourselves and our children.
Board of Education Vice President Marty Spielman said he was impressed with the workshops he visited during the day.
"There is so much to choose from and every area of education is covered," he said. "I talked to a lot of people and I really believe that this was an incredible resource for our staff. Our students are certainly going to benefit from their commitment to learning and to keeping themselves informed."
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