For Your Staff PD Video Highlight - September
Hi friends,
Today marks the inaugural monthly email of ‘24-25. Last year, we sent out a monthly video to share with your staff. This was exceptionally well received and folks continue to use the videos today. (If you haven’t become a paid subscriber yet, please consider it! You get access to all of last year’s videos and pre-made Google Slides right away).
The only downside to last year’s method was that you had to wait a whole month to know if the video was going to be a good fit for you and your staff. We’ve done everything possible to make these types of videos even more accessible at any point in the year.
If you’re already a paid subscriber, you know that when you log in, you have immediate access to ten “For Your Staff” videos (with more to be added), including pre-made Google Slides with discussion questions for your staff. All videos feature real, full-time classroom teachers discussing their best practices on a variety of topics and at different levels.
The beauty of this setup is that you can plan staff PD months in advance, or you can offer differentiated PD to your staff by sending certain teachers videos that are relevant to their specific circumstances.
Even though we’ve already given you access to this content, we’ll send out a monthly email highlighting one of the videos and the featured teacher. This is the first of these emails!
Note: If you’re already a paid subscriber and haven’t logged in to our membership site yet, see the details below on how to get access right now!
September’s Highlight
One Elementary Teacher’s Plan for the First Day
In this month’s video, veteran elementary teacher Michelle Weaver verbally explains her classroom setup and her first-day routine. Kick off the year right with some solid forethought into how and why your room operates the way that it does. "It's one thing at a time. This is how we do it."
Topics Covered:
Classroom tours
Establishing expectations
The “why” behind everything
Managing transitions
“Call back” strategies
The “long game” strategy
Student incentives
Communicating with and involving parents from day one
and more!
Staff Learning Targets:
I (the teacher) can develop a plan for touring the classroom and teaching routines on the first day
I can explain to my students the “why” behind various procedures
I can identify portions of my current plan that may need additional structure or explanation before school starts
Potential Discussion Questions:
How can you help students learn the routines during the first week without a lot of pressure?
How can you get creative with your student incentives? How can you offer different students different types of motivation?
How can you involve parents in your students’ education at the beginning of the year?
Google Slide Access:
