TALWG Professional Development
Professional Development Tips
The model workshops and supporting materials (agendas, participant activities, lesson plans, and additional products and resources) are being developed by a steering committee of master teacher-consultants and university faculty including Sarah Bednarz, Judy Behrans, Mary Curtis, Marci Deal, Betto Ramirez, Phil Rodriguez, Ann Wurst, and Tom Wurst. This organizational scheme continues a 20-year Alliance tradition of melding subject matter expertise with classroom experience and wisdom to prepare classroom friendly professional development experiences for teachers.
A group of approximately 15 additional teachers, social studies supervisors, and university faculty will meet in the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University April 5 and 6, 2008, to be trained as teacher-consultants to deliver the workshops. The training-of-trainers will include activities to familiarize participants with the modules and a refresher on effective professional development strategies. The TALWG teacher-consultants will be expected, in turn, to share their expertise in their own school districts, at regional Alliance meetings such as FOG and SAGE, and at statewide meetings such as the Texas Council for the Social Studies.
The workshop development and delivery system will be supported by this website featuring all the materials and resources developed for the project as well as online coaching and suggestions on effective professional development strategies.