It was a day off for the students, but a day of hard work for Berkeley County School District’s teachers and staff members.
BCSD’s annual Conference Day event is one big professional development day, organized by the district’s Office of Curriculum and Instruction. Teachers and staff participate in sessions, structured as classes, to learn new, unique and innovative ways to better promote teaching and learning in their classrooms. The sessions are led by fellow teachers, district officers and even some outside groups.
Conference Day was spread out across the district but most sessions were held at Cane Bay High. Sessions included delving into supporting multilingual students, finding ways to incorporate robotics into classroom lessons, learning how to collect and use classroom data and more. There were groups that explored the new StarLab and got introduced to its software system, some teachers learned some new games they could bring into their physical education classes, and some staff participated in refresher courses, such as “Stop the Bleed” training, and CPR/first aid training.
At College Park Middle, a cluster of visual arts teachers participated in “Monster Can Monster”, a fun introduction into mixed media sculpture. BCSD’s Security and Emergency Management team led safety training at Cane Bay Middle. School counselors also participated in a mini-conference event at Fishburne Educational Center.
In all sessions, there was teamwork, connectivity and collaboration that will better help BCSD’s students be engaged in their learning.