Hours-long lectures on dry, vague subjects like content or the intricacies of reading instruction, presented by administrators or coaches who haven’t been in the classroom for years, are what some teachers apprehensively think of when they think of “professional development workshops.”
Most don’t think of a party with strobe lights, hands-on activities and a well-known teacher turned rapper as the keynote speaker – but that’s exactly the atmosphere that Lauren Swanson and Chelsie Durham hoped to provide in this summer’s “Teach Like A Boss: The Summer Session” workshop.
“We found that the professional development [workshops] we’ve been to were good but they are often curriculum heavy,” Swanson, a third grade teacher at Lakeside Academy, said. “Instead, our workshop is for teachers, by teachers. It’s other teachers helping each other feel more successful in their classrooms.”
The workshop consisted of breakout sessions of hot topics including classroom management and student engagement, topics that Swanson and Durham say aren’t always included in most teacher training.
And relationships are the most important part of teaching, said Dwayne Reed.