As the spring drew to a close and teacher summers started in the end of May through June, teachers began thinking of the fall and I also started to brainstorm how I could help teachers this summer and this fall. Ways to support teachers as they enter the new world of blended learning were at the forefront of my mind.
Teachers need professional development that will make every moment of the course count, because teacher time is precious.
Teachers need editable templates.
Teachers need processes.
Teachers need PRACTICAL streamlined tech tool suggestions.
And teachers need professional development they can complete on their own time, because we have families and parents and home-fixes and all those summer things we have to do.
So I started brainstorming and talking with some of my teacher friends on how we could help teachers this summer.
Karen Randazzo (my awesome teacher friend and brain behind Ms Razz Chem Class) and I started talking and we kinda just never stopped! We dreamed about ways to help teachers prepare for the unknown.
The Teacher Prep Room was born.
The Teacher Prep Room is a website we built where we are hosting courses for teachers. These courses are designed to truly support teachers with actionable tips. We set out to create courses with templates and worksheets teachers can use directly in their classroom planning. In the courses, we also write about our favorite tech tools and we provide tips on using them. We demonstrate lesson and assessment ideas that we hope will inspire teachers and, at the same time, help them feel less anxious about the fall when they will have to adapt to a blended learning environment.
And we believe the learning doesn’t stop with watching our chapter videos! We have an exclusive Facebook group JUST for Teacher Prep Room students and in our group, teachers can ask us questions, ask each other questions, or share ideas or mindset breakthroughs they have while they learn.
We also are excited to use Flipgrid to allow students to interact with each other, show off their own unit plans and weekly plans, and demonstrate what they have learned throughout the courses.
In my first course “Planning for a Blended Classroom”, I focus on lesson and unit planning for Blended Learning. In this course, there are planning templates, lesson examples, and tech recommendations. In Karen’s first course “Assessment Strategies for Remote Learning“, Karen demonstrates how to authentically assess students while you’re remote with example assessments and opportunities to learn about different platforms from a teacher and students’ point of view.
We are really happy with how they turned out and we are so excited to be helping teachers this summer with these needs.
Here are some reviews from teacher-students of our courses:
This course gave me an opportunity to rethink this next school year and learn about some strategies to make it go more smoothly than last Spring! The lessons were evenly paced, lots of good info in each lesson. I’m sure I’ll head back to rewatch some once I know my school’s plan for the fall. Thank you!!!!! I’m not as anxious about beginning my year virtually!
~J.P.
The materials were easy to access, simple, and contained a lot of pointers and tips for success. The course motivated me to start planning and I felt less overwhelmed changes that will occur in the fall. Presentations were personable, short and to the point and fun to watch.
~S.H.
The materials were easy to access, simple, and contained a lot of pointers and tips for success. The course motivated me to start planning and I felt less overwhelmed changes that will occur in the fall. Presentations were personable, short and to the point and fun to watch.
~L.M.
Taking this course was such a great decision. It has giving me a new prospective to assessing my students. My biggest struggle in the spring was having students just google answer sheets and copy and paste responses. I now have many ideas and tools that I can use to help students shy away from the “just get through it” mentality. I enjoyed the course and I can wait to see what’s next! I have learned so much and I am excited to hit the ground running this fall. đŸ™‚
~R.T.
I found this course to be extremely helpful as it really focussed on strategies that I can apply directly to my classroom in the fall whether we are remote, in person or both. Multiple tools were covered and ways to use each tool were demonstrated with real-life examples. Before this course, I wasn’t sure how I could possibly put together remote summative assessments for my AP Bio classes but now I have a few ideas on how it could work (along with a bunch of new ideas for formative work). Thank you for putting together such an awesome course!
~A.S.
If you would like more information about our courses, please check them out at the Teacher Prep Room here! If you’re a secondary teacher looking for actionable, practical, and rewarding professional development, you will love them.
