Classroom leaders are chosen to lead their peers in exploring new ideas and best practices in the classroom. Each month, a different department takes the lead in the program, according to Lakota school officials.
The inspiration behind the program was an existing series of optional, early-morning professional development sessions already being offered to teachers at both Lakota East Freshman School and Lakota East High School, whose campuses are nearly adjacent in Liberty Twp.
East Freshman Principal Bill Brinkman said “our schedules don’t always make it easy for teachers to attend professional development after a long day, so we knew it had to be fun, meaningful and community driven.”
“And sometimes,” said Brinkman, “teachers just need an ear — someone who understands the challenges of the classroom. We laugh and learn together.”
Ohio public schools have a long history of designating a few days during each school year for professional development learning for teachers.
Often these all- or half-day sessions, conducted on or off campus during closed school days and on occasional Saturdays, involve contracted professional development experts from outside the school system teaching the teachers.
East Freshman Teacher Leader Anne Morrow said that “although outside professional development has its time and place, when our own teachers share what is working, it makes it more relatable because we share the same students.”
Another benefit Morrow noted is that the teacher presenter is right down the hall to answer follow-up questions.
Increasing student engagement was the topic of a recent session led by physical science teacher Nicole Brainard.
During the summer, Brainard attended a professional development session to learn about Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILD), a teaching method that actively engages students in learning through demonstration and collaboration.
Inspired, she adapted the concept for her classroom and then recently shared it with colleagues via the new East Educator Exchange program.
Brainard showed her early-morning classroom of teaching colleagues a lesson on thermal energy and kinetic motion using glow sticks and different water temperatures in lab beakers.
“Engagement was off the charts,” she told her fellow instructors, referring to her own students’ response to this lesson. “They still talk about the demonstration months later. I’ll definitely use more ILDs next semester — they make concepts stick because they connect to real-world situations.”
Brinkman has already seen the ripple effect.
“The best part is watching ideas spread,” he said. “When someone shares a tip and you see eyes light up, you know it matters. Teachers leave (the sessions) energized, and that benefits every student.”
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