BEGINNING TEACHER WORKSHOP
Dates for 2016–2017 below!
In nearly every school there are teachers who are either new to teaching or new to their respective schools. This workshop, scheduled for four daylong sessions throughout the school year, provides beginning teachers — loosely speaking, those with three years’ experience or less in independent schools — with both the practical and philosophical foundations necessary for a successful start to their careers.
The daylong sessions are hosted in Dupont Circle, in Washington, DC. Lunch and snacks will be provided for each session. Participants are expected to attend all four sessions — the workshop format suffers when participants fall off, and we have found that the times teachers have most to do are the times they benefit most from attendance.
Core workshop faculty members have extensive experience with beginning teachers, boasting combined experience of more than 20 years running similar workshops for AISGW (Independent Education) over the past decade. To learn more about the workshop faculty, click here.
Dates
The Beginning Teacher Workshop runs 8:30 to 3:30 at the Friends Meeting House of Washington, near Dupont Circle, on the following dates:
Thursday, October 6, 2016 (concurrent with the Mentor Leadership Workshop)
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Tuesday, April 11, 2017 (concurrent with the Mentor Leadership Workshop)
Sample Beginning Teacher Workshop Syllabus
Note that each session comprises significant topical conversation and exercises, as well as time for exercises in self-care (essential for teachers!), and time for “stuff” — a forum for teachers to speak candidly about the successes and challenges they’ve encountered.
Participants should ask their schools to purchase these four essential books on leadership. We will use each in various ways:
Session 1: Boots on the Ground: The Essentials of Leadership Conversations (concurrent with mentors)
- Welcome, ground rules, and goals
- Classroom culture and coaching
- Back-to-school nights and fall conferences
- Four Leadership Objectives and the Role of Positive and Negative Energy
- The Anatomy of Conversations, Part 1:
Interrogating Reality with different constituencies, or: The Big Picture - Self-care
- Collaboration and feedback
- The basics of first-year growth
- “Stuff” — what you’re dealing with
Session 2: Teaching, and Schooling, and the Difference
- Mission and Vision: Independent school culture and values
- Personal values and alignment
- Visible Thinking: Using Making Thinking Visible in lesson planning
- S.M.A.R.T. planning
- Self-care
- “Stuff” — what you’re dealing with
Session 3: The Choreography of Conversation; Differentiated Instruction
- Communication with parents
- Communication with colleagues
- Self-care
- Differentiated Instruction and Struggling Learners
- “Stuff” — what you’re dealing with
Session 4: Professional Development (concurrent with mentors)
- Technology for leadership
- Feedback as leadership
- How’m I doing? A framework for evaluating our teaching success and challenges
- Self-care
- “Stuff” — what you're dealing with
- Closing exercises