PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

INSTRUCTIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL ENHANCEMENT

Building a Culture of Empathy

1.5 hours

Appropriate for teachers of all grades and subjects, this workshop focuses on building a schoolwide culture of empathy. Learn practical approaches, exchange ideas, and devise opportunities for students to become involved in creating positive social change at the local, national, and international levels. The session will be interactive and include group discussions as well as role-playing activities to explore how we learn to empathize.

Classroom Management

2 hours for overview; 8 hours for entire training with modules

There are so many things new educators need to know and be able to do, but perhaps the most important is how to manage a classroom. This interactive, informative training, based on the “I Can Do It!” program, addresses seven practical and immediately actionable aspects of classroom management, including cultural responsiveness and—everyone’s favorite—dealing with difficult behaviors.

Maximizing Your Time

1.5 hours

Planning, grading, chaperoning, and committee work are just a few of the responsibilities teachers take on. In this workshop, designed for newer teachers, participants will learn strategies for managing their time, staying organized, and identifying and coping with stressors.

Maps Are Cool: Integrating Mapping into Your Classroom

1.5 hours

  • Mapping Series Workshop 1: A Review of Free Mapping Software for Grades 9 to 12
  • Mapping Series Workshop 2: Integrating Mapping into the Common Core Curriculum

This two-part workshop is taken in succession on separate days. Expanding a teacher’s toolbox can improve instruction by extending the reach of lessons to multiple intelligences and learning styles. This unique opportunity will help teachers incorporate visual representations of information with mapping software. The applications from math to science to social science and history are endless.

Note: Mapping workshops require participants to have access to a computer with a robust Internet connection and the authorization to download the necessary software.

Promoting Student Autonomy in the Classroom

1.5 hours

This workshop is designed for teachers of all levels and focuses on encouraging students to gradually take ownership over their learning goals and take a more active role in achieving them. Practical classroom tools include total class participation strategies, student-generated performance rubrics, student-led parent conferences, and more.

Reworking Homework: Maximize Student Achievement and Minimize Stress on Students and Families

1.5 hours

Homework is a hot topic. When relevant, carefully designed, and given in moderation, homework has been shown to increase student achievement (at the high school level). It can also, however, contribute to high levels of stress, anxiety, and family discord. This workshop provides an overview of the extensive research into the subject of homework and offers practical tips for minimizing the harmful impact while maximizing the positive outcomes. Designed for middle and high school teachers, this workshop can be customized for any grade level.

Social Media Safety

1.5 hours

Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. These are just three popular social media sites used by teachers&##8212;and they’re also used by students, parents, and administrators. In this interactive session, participants learn how to keep information private and ensure that they are as protected as they can be if they choose to use social networking sites.

Strategies to Foster Social-Emotional Well-Being in School

1.5 hours – beginning January 2018

Students need more than just strong academic skills to be successful in college and career. While they do need strong content knowledge in core subjects, they also require a wide array of non-cognitive skills, behaviors, and attitudes to help them meet the unknown challenges of the future. Students who are experiencing trauma, poverty, hunger, anxiety, or bullying are unlikely to perform well academically. Learn what school districts in Connecticut and across the country are doing to promote the social-emotional health of students and how that is translating to improved academic outcomes. Teachers will identify strategies and programs that can be adapted to suit the unique circumstances of the students in their school or district.

Strategies to Help New Teachers Survive and Thrive

1.5 hours

This workshop is designed for new teachers, mentors, cooperating teachers, instructional coaches, and others who want to learn how to better support and strengthen the practice of early-career educators. Included in the workshop will be useful teacher evaluation tips for new teachers, mentoring strategies, and classroom structures and routines to help new teachers maximize instructional time.

The Gender Achievement Gap: Why Boys Are Falling Behind and What Can Be Done About It

1.5 hours

Boys are falling behind girls academically at every level, from kindergarten through graduate school. Girls dramatically outperform boys on every standardized measure of reading and writing achievement and have reached rough parity with males in math and science, except at the very top of the curve. Boys are also far more likely to get in trouble at school and experiment with drugs, and they are three times more likely to drop out of school. Sixty percent of students graduating from college are now female, and for the first time in history we see more women than men getting advanced degrees. What is the trouble with boys? Learn what schools can do to support males academically and emotionally and begin to close the growing gender achievement gap.

Unconscious Bias: Its Powerful Effect on Instruction and Learning

3 hours; Beginning January 2018

Social psychologists and scientists have found that all of us, regardless of race, have cognitive biases that influence how we perceive and make decisions about other people. Implicit attitudes regarding race, stereotyping, and prejudice are a few of the many factors that can prevent African American, Latino, and ELL students from achieving in school at the same level as their white counterparts. This workshop will raise participants’ awareness of unconscious bias and its powerful effect on student learning and teacher/educator performance, while explaining how unintended thoughts can contradict our beliefs and how acting according to our values can require more than good intentions.

Contact CEA’s Professional Learning Academy

at 860-525-5641 or at myprofession@cea.org