Teacher Fellowship Goes Online

(July 2020)

Our nine teacher fellows transitioned to online training in July, starting with four days of two-hourly meetings. Scott Stambach and Jim Lane, experts in teacher training, mentor the teachers. The fellows meet every other week for 70-minute sessions. Driven by a collaborative spirit, the online meetings are platforms for the fellows to design and share lesson plans, and to receive and give feedback on them. The group also examines classroom dilemmas and discusses possible solutions to them. Through exchanges and deliberations, the fellows identified four key areas for improvement: incorporating student voice, using teacher-student proximity, establishing classroom culture, and restorative conversations. At every

meeting, members bring their experiences, sometimes in the form of videos of their classes, to the conversation on teaching. Each shared experience leads to discussions and reflections, and the fellows grow and learn as individuals and as a community.