District 228 Teachers Hone Their Skills While Students Stay Home

While Teachers Institute Day may be a free day off for students, it's a full day on for staff members who spend the eight hours collaborating and swapping ideas to improve success in their classrooms.

At least that's the bulk of what was discussed Tuesday at the regular Board of Education meeting for . Teachers from across the district convened Oct. 7 for an institute day that included presentations given by their peers on various educational topics, officials said.

“What we have tonight is a nice smorgasbord of things that we're doing to support kids, not only academically, but also to support teachers helping each other get better at their craft," Assistant Superintendent Corinne Williams said. “We're looking at social-emotional well being, we're looking at behavior, how we can change behavior, how we can differentiate instruction. So we have a nice, rounded mix.”

The synopsis—it centered on six featured peer presentations—was provided Tuesday by the district's teachers, deans and other employees who took part in the October institute day.

The board votes this week on which of the six was the most informative and interesting, officials said, and the winning presenter—or presenters—will be awarded a trip anywhere in Illinois to attend a teaching convention where he or she will share ideas.

The nominees were as follows:

• “Bodily/Kinesthetic Learning in Social Studies,” by Ed Lipowski.
• “Building a Better Webpage,” by Ben Selgado.
• “Effective Use of the iPad as a Teaching Tool” by Matt Spreadbury and Pat Banach.
• “Healthy Choices,” by Andrea Johnson and Theresa Nolan.
• “Intervention and Prevention — Gang Awareness,” by Otis Lane.
• “Keeping Kids in Class – Loss of Privilege versus Suspension,” by Michele Jurgens and Wendy Podbielniak.

Which overall presentation concept do you believe would be most useful to both teachers and students?

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