MIAMI (WSVN) - Miami-Dade County Public Schools teachers and administrators are getting educated on the latest tech tools to use in the classroom at an annual workshop.
Classes will be back in session in less than a week, but the learning has already started for teachers, Tuesday. More than 2,400 school administrators and faculty attended the Synergy Summer Institute’s workshop at Miami Jackson Senior High School.
This year’s theme is “Making Magic Happen.” Dr. Sarah Chatel, with Miami-Dade County Public Schools said, “We look at our teachers and our educators as magicians in our school system, and you really feel the magic in here.”
“On August 21, we are reawakening the sleeping giant called Miami-Dade Public Schools,” said Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools Alberto Carvalho. “For that day to be perfect to the eyes of a child, we need to make sure that our teachers, our administrators, our councilors, our professionals are ready.”
Synergy, which is now in its fourth year, focuses on giving teachers the tech tools needed to engage nearly 350,000 students this school year.
The principal, one assistant principal, and four teachers from each of the 392 schools gathered at Miami Jackson to participate.
“They start off as a school team working at a strategic planning course for three hours,” Chatel said, “and that’s where they do a lot of their reflections from their previous year and start planning and identifying possible barriers that got in their way of success this year and find strategies to address those.”
The groups then split up and participate in individual courses. They later come back together on the final day to share what they’ve learned and polish their teaching plans for the coming year.
“They really think about their schools in a holistic way,” Chatel said, “not just academic programs but school culture, how professional development is implemented, as well as the school leadership.”
The goal is for teachers and administrators to take the lessons they learn back to their schools. “We’re coming here to work together, so we can take it back to our community and try to get parents involved and stakeholders involved in the community,” said fourth-grade teacher Marthe Jackson, “to just push our students to even higher heights.”
“August 21 is going to be a fantastic first day of school,” Carvalho said.
As this workshop comes to a close, teachers and administrators hope this school year will be a smooth one.
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