Teacher Workshop Week

If you ever look at the Milaca one page calendar, you will note the days set aside for Teacher Workshops.

So what do teachers do on these days? We had an all staff breakfast. We appreciated Nexus Solutions and First National Bank who sponsored our breakfast. It is fun to start the day with initial catching up.

Then we went into the gym for some presentations. Superintendent Truebenbach welcomed us back. Mr. Garber spoke about the Scholarship Committee. Then we got down to business. We had two hours scheduled for Olweus (bully prevention) plan. Each year we add to our work and plan. High School Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Bell, and elementary social worker, Mrs. Stupar led the review and training. We always have a kick-off event, weekly meetings, and a week-long awareness week later in the month. From the first year, when a helicopter landed on the football field (see "W.O.W." on September 17, 2014 in this blog) when "Captain Olweus" himself stepped out, to the year, when Captain Olweus and Friendship Girl arrived by motorcycle (see the "Olweus Kick Off" posted on September 29, 2015 in this blog), we look forward to work ahead!

We had some time to work in our classrooms. Three of our custodians were working in my room to remove my smart board that was no longer effective. Just another example of how much teamwork goes into a school experience. The boards are heavy and expensive, so having three staff members helping out is important.

We had additional trainings on ALICE, our safe schools plan. Homeland Security themselves visited our school this summer to review our plan and share some ideas. We had our mandatory reporting meeting with experts from the County. Then Mr. Bistrup spoke to us about technology updates, reminders, and supports.

Tom Gonzalez, former pastor, now full time ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) expert came to talk to our staff. He was engaging and share helpful and important information to support our students and families.

That was just the first day, and it wasn't everything!

On Tuesday, the elementary had a staff meeting with Mr. Voshell and Mr. Meyer. They have a knack for sharing the important, with some fun, and inspiring us to come together for our school year.

We had a Writing training.

The Milaca teachers union, MEA (Milaca Education Association) sponsored lunch. It is important that we take time to get to know each other and work together.

Fourth grade had a team meeting. We determine who will represent on what committees. We report from the committees and groups that met over summer. We make grade level decisions for consistency. We have an agenda and work hard to be productive, so we can return to our classrooms to prepare for Open House. There are so many details to have ready before our big day!

AND, we there was more workshops planned for Thursday to work on our Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Each teacher has an area of practice they will investigate and work with other staff members to focus and improve our practice. We meet regularly, sharing our successes, failures, and learning.