Arkansas Teacher Corps fellows and staff met at Chicot Elementary in Little Rock on Saturday, August 24 for the first All Corps professional development of the 2024-25 year. We had so much fun while learning new skills, developing our content knowledge, and growing as professionals. The day began with a special icebreaker where fellows shared pictures on their phones that demonstrated something that defined their summer, something tasty they ate, and something that brings them joy. Fellows completed additional team-building activities in smaller groups based on geographic regions, including a competition to build a free-standing bridge that could hold a cup of water out of materials like plastic straws and aluminum foil. The morning ended with a session on MTSS and tier 2 behavioral interventions, providing fellows an opportunity to use the Student Intervention Matching Form provided by DESE’s behavior support specialists to develop tier 2 interventions for specific students.
After lunch catered by Three Fold Dumplings. fellows met in their content-specific groups to discuss various instructional planning topics in-depth, such as vertical alignment of math standards, engaging phonics strategies for elementary students, reciprocal teaching strategies for ELA instruction, professional learning opportunities for art instructors, and student engagement strategies for the CTE classroom. The final session allowed fellows time to reflect on and plan for building relationships with students, including learning more about students with whom they have struggled to connect previously. The day then concluded with announcements, celebrations of those who had passed Praxis tests, and several raffle prizes for things like being on time, wearing your ATC nametag, and completing the day’s “getting to know you” bingo card (itself a strategy to encourage fellows to get to know one another better). Overall, on the end of day survey, 99% of fellows said that the day’s PD gave them skills and/or strategies that they will begin to use in their classroom immediately.
