April 3, 2017: My first blog post will address the question “Why did I decide to become an educational trainer?” After many years of teaching in a variety of settings (both high- and low-achieving districts, with minimal parental involvement to over-involved parents), I realized that I can incorporate my experiences in the classroom by training teachers, principals and other staff in Time to Teach™ techniques. My own experience with site-based staff development is usually done by an internal trainer, and follows the school’s UIP (Unified Improvement Plan). These training give teachers some new ideas and help them perhaps implement a few things into their teaching, but the training often isn’t revisited throughout the year. With Time to Teach™, I hope staff will incorporate the training into their PD discussions throughout the year, even perhaps inviting the speaker (me) back for a 2nd session later in the year for a follow-up. While most experienced teachers have good techniques to use on “challenging” students, Time to Teach™ will give them things to add to their “bag of tricks”. I am not trying to replace what they’re using or add to their large list of items that need to be completed, I’m just giving them tools to gain more time to focus on the lesson at hand, and less time wasted on distracting behaviors.
More to come…