450 Teachers Head Back to the Classroom for Training in Baton Rouge

Many teachers treat their summer vacation as just that: vacation. But this week, more than 450 elementary, middle and high school teachers took a vacation from their vacation, returning to the classroom to participate in fun, hands-on training in math, science and English instructional strategies as part of NMSI’s Laying the Foundation Teacher Training Program.
 
LTF teacher training, led by a national corps of expert classroom teachers, is designed to arm teachers in grades 3-12 with resources and strategies they can implement in their classrooms to engage students, and enhance math, science and English instruction to increase academic rigor and build college and career readiness.
 
“This has been an awesome experience,” said Velma Snow, an assistant principal at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, MI.  “As an assistant principal, seeing this training first hand has helped me have a great understanding of what our teachers need to teach in order to best enable our students to succeed.”
 
Teachers from 17 parishes and school districts across Louisiana, and seven other states including California, Utah, Kentucky, Georgia, Michigan, New York and South Carolina are participating in the four-day LTF Summer Institute June 27-30. These teachers are expected to positively impact the learning experience for an estimated 45,000 students during the school year ahead.
 
“One of the biggest things I have taken from LTF training is to use multi-tiered concepts in the classroom,” said Maurice El Amin, a Calculus teacher at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, MI.  “It really allows students to apply what they have learned in previous courses to some of the more advanced concepts and promotes a higher level of thinking.”
 
“The combination of math and science that I am learning here is perfect to take back to my school.” Said Roxanne King, an elementary Math teacher at M. Agnes Jones Elementary School in Atlanta, GA.
 
Support for the majority of teachers attending training in Baton Rouge is provided by funding from ExxonMobil, the Department of Defense and a Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) grant.
 
“We believe that teachers are one of the most important factors in the success of our state’s future workforce. We hope that Laying the Foundation helps provide teachers with tools, strategies and real-life solutions that can enhance math, science and English instruction in the classroom,” said Ken Miller, Baton Rouge Area engineering services manager for ExxonMobil.
 
Want to learn more? Read a recent article in The Advocate about the training taking place in Baton Rouge.
 
LTF Teacher Training will take place at 25 locations across the country this summer. Interested in attending? Click here to register for a training near you. 
 
PHOTO ABOVE: Roxanne King, an elementary Math teacher at M. Agnes Jones Elementary School in Atlanta, GA, works on an assignment to help explain fractions during LTF Teacher Training in Baton Rouge, LA, on Tuesday, June 28.