While the waning days of summer provide one last chance of a holiday for students, most teachers in Eden Prairie have been back at work participating in a number of staff training sessions.

“There’s a lot of deeper work that continues all through the summer,” noted Sue Feigal-Hitch, a gifted education teacher at Forest Hills Elementary.

Feigal-Hitch was one of five other staff members training teachers at Forest Hills in the new literacy model, one of the many changes put in place through the Forest Hills Design Team. The Design Team plan calls for improvements to “instruction, school culture and student well being. All changes are being implemented with the goal of improving student achievement,” according to the Forest Hills Web site.

Feigal-Hitch, along with Shana Jensen, a teacher, Mike Savage, education coordinator, Jeff Thelen, reading specialist, and teacher Nicola Huss were holding three-day training sessions all this week.

Jensen said they’re asking that all teachers use the same framework, scope and sequence for their literacy instruction.

“It’s establishing a framework and then giving very specific ways of how that framework could play out,” said Thelen, about the training.

Savage added that the initiative is being geared for the entire student population.

“We just have this expectation that kids are going to flourish as a result even more than they have in the past.”

Jensen noted teachers are not required to come in during the summer sessions, but they’ve had full houses for both training sessions.

“People are coming because they know it’s important.”

Technology

The training at Forest Hills is by no means the only work going on in the summer. Also this month, teachers had the option of trying technology camp at the High School. The training session is part of the Classrooms of the Future initiative offered by the district. Gradually, all teachers in the district are being trained on how to incorporate technology into their classrooms.

This year, more and more classrooms will be equipped with a SmartBoard, an interactive white board that teachers and students can use in class. The Classrooms of the Future Teacher Training Week included instruction on how to use the SmartBoard, how to use digital images in instruction, make podcasts and use Google Earth. This is the third year of the session.

The idea is that teachers can enhance their instruction with the help of these tools.

“It’s really about instruction,” added Janet Pladson, director of teaching and learning.

During the training session, Mary Parenteau and Karen Fogarty, two teachers from Eden Lake in Eden Prairie, shared their thoughts about the training session.

“We’ve learned a lot about the new technology that we’ll have at our school,” said Parenteau.

Through use of the SmartBoard, students can interact with what’s up on the screen. For instance, if teaching probability, kids can roll dice on the screen. They can move items across the screen and click on links that lead them to instructional videos.

“The kids will be more actively involved,” said Fogarty.

“I’m looking forward to the creative part of it,” noted Parenteau.