Intense Training

Don't get too excited.  I am not talking about physical training (The only way you'll ever seen me running is if someone is chasing me!)

I'm talking about mental training!  I seriously have not worked my brain this hard since school ended! 

The past 3 days have had me holed up in my school district office for SAFE-T NET training.  This is training to be an evaluator to second year teachers in South Carolina.  Come to find out, SC has some of the highest standards out there when it comes to evaluating teachers.

Our training leader was so enthusiastic and knowledgeable that it actually made these three days fly by!

I learned some new words while I was there...see if you know what any of these mean:

Dossier (pronounced doss-ee-ay): a French word meaning a collection or file of documents on the same subject.  We create a dossier for each classroom teacher going through SAFE-T.

Preponderance: superiority in weight, power, numbers, etc.  We learned to base our judgements on the preponderance of evidence; to look at the teacher as a whole and not judge based on one specific piece.

Iterative: repeating; making repetition; repetitious.  Teaching, in and of itself, is an iterative process--meaning that we do things over and over again.  We plan lessons, teach lessons, reflect on those lessons, modify those lessons and then start back again planning! 

All 16 teachers in my training had to take and pass a test at the end of our three days together to officially become SAFE-T certified.  Good news.......we all passed! 

All this training took me be in time to when I was just a 2nd year teacher.  It was a good reflection tool for me just being able to see how much I've grown and changed as a teacher.  I am lucky to work in a district that provides these opportunities for me.