No School Friday, February 16th, 2024 For Staff Training
Crestview local schools will be closed on Friday, Feb. 16th for staff development training. Teachers will be split up into two groups on this day, the two groups being the elementary school teachers who make up the first group and teachers from 4th grade to 12th make up the second group. This training will take up most of the day.
The Elementary teachers will be trained in Universal Design Learning (UDL). UDL is an educational foundation that allows teachers to teach in a flexible learning environment. UDL allows teachers to serve and help develop students with learning differences. In other words, it will allow all students to have equal opportunities to learn. This includes strategies that meet the needs of all students.
Teachers from 4th grade to 12th grade will have an adolescent literacy training day in the high school. Training will emphasize the importance of vocabulary in each of the content areas and how student mastery is dependent on being fluent in the content. For example, teachers will teach students “how to read like a historian” in social studies.
The specific sessions will include starting with a presentation of a book written by Douglas Reeves, an author of more than 100 books on education. After this, the teachers will learn the background of literacy and dyslexia. This emphasizes how young students learn to read - based on 50 years of brain research. Once this session is complete teachers will attend a presentation on adolescent literacy and the importance of vocabulary and background knowledge. To end the day teachers will meet with each other to discuss their learnings and how they will use them in their classrooms.
The ultimate goal for both groups is to build the capacity of our teachers so they can reach their students in the best way possible using research-based strategies.
As a reminder, students who attend Crestview Local Schools will not have school on Friday, Feb. 16th. The students will have a four-day weekend due to Presidents Day on Monday, Feb. 19th, and resume their normal school schedule the following Tuesday, February 20, 2024.