Professional Development (AVID)

Seeing that I'm a new teacher and my contract doesn't start for another month, I was surprised when my principal asked me to attend a professional development. I figured that the only teachers who would get to attend the rather expensive conferences would be veteran teachers who have been with the school for at least a year, but I was more than happy to go; ultimately, I would be getting even more tools for my "teacher toolbox" to use in my classroom!

I had the privilege to be invited to go with some of the teachers and administrators from my school to an AVID Summer Institute. AVID is a program created to help students achieve their highest potential. Students can take AVID elective classes at their school which are designed to give them the tools and support they need to be successful. The program also provides teachers school-wide with tools to help their students connect to the class, be engaged, be successful in a rigorous class.

Summer Institute is a three-day intensive training session during the summer (I know, who would've guessed it would be during summer). At their institutes, AVID provides many different 'strands' for attendees to choose which area they want to focus on and learn more about. The strand I attended was their "Critical Reading 1", designed to help teachers provide students with techniques for understanding a complex text.

I had some apprehensions about attending something based solely on reading, after all, I am a science teacher. But it was the strand that my school had put me in, so I figured that they knew more about it than me, and I was right. I learned many useful tools that I can actually apply in my classroom. Not only did I learn what these tools were, but I also learned how to teach these strategies and experience what it's like to be a student using these strategies. That was probably my favorite part of the whole conference (aside from getting to know the other people from my school who came), the learning experience wasn't simply a "do as I say, not as I do" experience. I actually was required to use these as a student would.

For many of the English teachers in the class with me, it seemed review, but I had never been taught a good way to mark a text, chart a text, make a writing template, give a prereading or summary prompt, or change what I was asking students to do in order to give purpose to rereading.

I had a great time at the AVID summer institute and learned a lot...up next, the AP Chemistry Conference in Phoenix! Not that I'm a nerd or anything, but I'm super excited to be a student doing the lab experiments.