District 58 offered 113 unique learning sessions during Monday's Teacher Institute Day, many of which were led by the District's teachers and administrators!
Organized in a professional-conference style, teachers could choose from a broad range of sessions to attend including “Effective Math Teaching Practices,” "Questioning Techniques" and "Trauma Informed Schools." The sessions helped teachers enhance their instruction, learn new skills and discover creative ways to leverage technology in the classroom. In addition, all teachers attended a session on implementing restorative practices in the classroom.
Many of the skills teachers learned could be immediately implemented in the classroom. For example, Fairmount Fourth Grade Teacher Bob Luciano incorporated a new circle meeting today to enhance his social-emotional and restorative learning curriculum, and Lester Second Grade Teacher Matt Leiser plans to create an iPad photo scavenger hunt to help engage his students when learning vocabulary and concepts in many subject areas. During a session on adaptive classrooms, Art Teacher Jon Belonio created new visual supports to better direct students to the different centers in his classroom.