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Boeing Provides Professional Development at Austin High School

A few weeks ago, a group of teachers in the Austin High School feeder pattern attended professional development aimed at integrating strategic teaching strategies in their classrooms. Strategic teaching involves choosing methods of teaching that pair well with the planned material to keep students engaged and maximize what they actually learn.

For example, in a class of students reading The Odyssey, Candice Cameron has used a strategy called Turn and Talk, where students are placed in groups to read together and talk about what they’ve read as they go through the story. Because students are expected to turn to one another and talk about what they’re reading, it’s much harder to get distracted from Mrs. Cameron’s lesson. The strategy forces students to constantly practice reading comprehension skills as opposed to zoning out while the teacher or another student reads aloud.
Kenya Hall, who facilitated this professional development, focused on helping teachers across various subjects—from Math to Chorus—learn how to integrate literacy standards in their classrooms. Training like this helps to ensure that Decatur City Schools stays on track to meet the goals of the Alabama Reading Initiative.

At a follow-up meeting, some of the teachers who attended the sessions were asked about what they took away from the day’s lessons, and they had a lot of praise for the day they had. They said that it was so creative and relevant it made them want even more training in strategic teaching.

Dr. Scott had passed out a “cheat book” of strategic teaching strategies earlier, and the teachers who attended Hall’s professional development say that they feel more empowered now to use the strategies in their own classrooms because they feel more confident linking specific strategies to lessons.

Moving forward, this group of teachers who have learned more about strategic teaching will be given the opportunity to facilitate similar training for their peers. Their goal is to make sure every teacher in Cedar Ridge Middle School, Austin Junior High, and Austin High School is equipped to practice strategic teaching strategies in their own classrooms.


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