{"id":12490,"date":"2024-08-12T13:39:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T17:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=12490"},"modified":"2024-08-16T10:58:02","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T14:58:02","slug":"teaching-conference-empowers-educators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/teaching-conference-empowers-educators\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching conference empowers educators"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chief Academic Officer Danielle Colucci<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hundreds of teachers spent a bright summer day deepening their insight on Aug. 6 at the Department of Teaching and Learning\u2019s annual summer conference.<\/p>\n

Under the theme, \u201cFuture ready: Empowering Educators,\u201d the conference at Kellam High School included more than 100 sessions \u2014 from learning the latest assessment tools to understanding students\u2019 cultural differences. Teachers traded tips on artificial intelligence, interactive learning techniques, small group tactics and more.<\/p>\n

Chief Academic Officer Danielle Colucci asked teachers to pause and remember a student whose life was impacted by their role as educators.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t forget your stories, because they\u2019re absolutely valuable,\u201d Colucci said.<\/p>\n

She recalled meeting a retired teacher seated next to her at a baseball game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the best career,\u201d the teacher said. \u201cI\u2019m at peace. I just loved teaching, and I know my life has had an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTeaching is a powerful calling,\u201d Colucci said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen our career is done, we\u2019re going to have peace like that woman in the bleachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The intention of the conference is to empower Virginia Beach City Public School educators to incorporate innovative and aligned learning experiences into their teaching practices with a focus on future ready learners.<\/p>\n

At a session about student behavior, kindergarten teacher Tamara Miley of Birdneck Elementary School shared an observation from last school year: \u201cWiggling isn\u2019t always a sign of disengagement. And stillness isn\u2019t always a sign of engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

She encourages students to recognize each other\u2019s positive actions. Teachers in the session exchanged ideas, such as having a \u201ccompliment jar\u201d in the classroom. When a student notices another student saying or doing something nice, he or she puts a cotton ball in the jar. When the jar fills up, the whole class celebrates with a party.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another session was titled, \u201cFlying High With UFLI.\u201d Presenter Ashlee Williams reviewed techniques that reflect the science of reading. One of many exercises in the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) program has students building words at their desks using phonetic techniques while their teacher simultaneously builds the world on a screen or board in front of the classroom.<\/p>\n

Williams voiced out and used hand signals for different parts of words, and the teachers in her session did the same.<\/p>\n

Some of the conference sessions focused on an assessment tool Virginia Beach City Public Schools is adopting called the NWEA MAP \u2014 which stands for \u201cNorthwest Evaluation Association Assessment, Measures of Academic Progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s aligned with the Virginia Standards of Learning,\u201d said Monica Robinson, coordinator of K-12 academic programs. While reviewing different facets of NWEA, Robinson received nods of support from teachers when she explained that the platform will help streamline testing requirements. Creating a spreadsheet of test results, for example, will take only one step instead of several.<\/p>\n

Courtney Hovis, a kindergarten teacher at Point O\u2019View Elementary, said the conference is energizing and motivating.<\/p>\n

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Superintendent Dr. Donald Robertson Jr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI had the opportunity to connect with fellow educators and city leaders, exchanging ideas and strategies that are sure to benefit our school, staff, students and their families,\u201d she said. \u201cThe sessions were filled with innovative approaches and practical solutions that I\u2019m eager to implement.”<\/p>\n

Superintendent Dr. Donald Robertson Jr. encouraged teachers to model the values they hope to instill in their students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m asking you to do this year is to embrace the role of leader,\u201d said Robertson. \u201cEveryone in this room is a leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here<\/em><\/a> for more information about DTAL Con 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Kellam High School cheerleaders welcome conference participants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of teachers spent a bright summer day deepening their insight on Aug. 6 at the Department of Teaching and Learning\u2019s annual summer conference. Under the theme, \u201cFuture ready: Empowering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":12500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,213,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-staff-stories","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12490"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12523,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12490\/revisions\/12523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}