Summer Class Sharpens Teaching Skills
By Space Coast Daily // June 12, 2012
Developing Success Strategies
BREVARD COUNTY • ROCKLEDGE, FLORIDA – Teaching may just be one of the toughest professions to enter these days.
It requires a great deal of patience, effort, technical knowledge, communication skills, loads of paperwork and never enough pay for the amount of time invested in seeing children succeed in life.
Yet an outstanding teacher can change the direction of people’s lives and maybe even the course of history.
This summer the Brevard Federation of Teachers is taking the time to help teachers improve their abilities through a 15-hour class called “Strategies for Student Success.”
It is a research-based program that addresses specific teaching strategies and learning aspects of the classroom for both new and veteran teachers, according to Tina Newman, Local Site Coordinator for the Brevard Federation of Teachers.
Newman said the class consists of the following three-hour modules and brief descriptions of each:
• FEEDBACK: Friend or Foe — This area offers guidelines for effective feedback to students, including an awareness of unacceptable praise and guidelines for acceptable praise.
• LINCS: A Vocabulary Strategy — Strategies are covered for the efficient and effective support of learning new concepts and vocabulary using visual imagery, mnemonic devices and relating prior knowledge.
• HOMEWORK: Let’s Get it Right — A review of decision-making regarding homework (for example: what is appropriate, how much to give, how often to give).
• BEYOND CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT — This instruction covers differences between rules and procedures and how these concepts promote an environment that is conducive to learning; appropriate room arrangements to effectively facilitate learning and minimize distractions.
• RETHINKING PUNISHMENT –– Addresses appropriate interventions to address behavior and academic concerns.
Newman said the class instructor is Liza Johnson, a special education teacher from Pinellas County.
The course began Monday and concludes Wednesday at the BFT offices on Florida Avenue in Rockledge.
