Educators from St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools lead teachers and administrators from school districts across the state during the recent Teacher Leader Summit in New Orleans.
St. John the Baptist Parish had more presenters than any other school district in Louisiana. Presenters were selected by the Louisiana Department of Education to share their knowledge after an application process that included submitting a topic and then presentation material that was reviewed by LDOE officials, who offered feedback.
“Our sessions were packed,” Assistant Superintendent Quentina Timoll said. “For our Early Childhood session they had to open one of the walls to accommodate more people. We had some awesome feedback about the information our educators shared.”
The June 6-9 summit brought together more than 5,000 educators and content experts from across the state to share their knowledge, learn new skills and prepare for the 2017-18 school year. The goal of the summit is to improve the everyday practice of educators in Louisiana by building their knowledge and skills in key areas related to their role, provide opportunities for educators to collaborate and share best practices, introduce high-quality resources and professional development that can be adopted and scaled in schools and districts across Louisiana and foster a culture that engages, empowers and inspires educators.
Sessions are lead by LDOE staff members, partner organizations and educators from across Louisiana. In all, St. John had 18 educators who lead sessions. They were:
· “Letting Text Talk to You: Engaging in Conversations with Text”: Jenna Chiasson and Robyn Gibson-Bazile
· “Play By Play: Planning and Implementing Literacy Interventions”: Shanna Beber and Shelly Chauvin
· “Implementing a Quality SLT Process:”: Stephen Zafirau
· “CLASSabration! Strategically Improving Interactions”: Patricia Triche, Alecia Johnson, Melissa Watson and Valencia Green
· “The REAL Teacher Support Plan”: Zafirau, Jason Beber and Natalie Klibert
· “Speaking with One Voice: Shared Leadership”: Chiasson, Chantell Walker and Melissa Green
· “FIRE Up School Culture and Performance”: Shanna Beber, Stacy Bradford and Johnika Gayden
· “Data Visualizations for Effective Communication in Education”: Zafirau
· “TEA Time: Task, Evaluation, and Assessment”: Christal Sylvain, Monica Brown and Jasmin Porter
In addition to leading sessions, teacher leaders, principals, assistant principals and central office staff from St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools attended the summit to build their skills going into the new school year.