Educators use summer break to learn how to ‘Teach Like A Champion’
While many people are in the middle of summer vacations, one group of HISD teachers is using this time to learn how to become more effective teachers for the coming school year.
HISD teachers attended a series of seminars based on Doug Lemov’s book, ‘Teach Like A Champion’ which trained them on effective teaching techniques.
More than 320new and veteran teachers attended the district’s “Teach Like A Champion” seminars, which began last week. During the sessions, educators will learn about and practice classroom management techniques that keep students engaged. The class is based on the book of the same name by Doug Lemov.
Farrah Abouekde, a first-year teacher, said she decided attend the Teach Like A Champion seminars because she grew up going to private school and wanted a better understanding of what she could expect in a public school setting.
“If I go in there and not know what to do, I’m not going to have (my students’) respect,” Abouekde said. “These classes provide good examples of what we need to be doing.”
And those examples, the teachers said, are what prove to be most useful during the seminars. Stephanie Camacho, who also will be entering her first year as a teacher, said her university coursework included Teach Like A Champion techniques, but having the presenters engage the participants in practical applications of them is where she found the most benefit.
“The more you do and walk around, the more the kids see you care about what you’re doing,” Camacho said. “We also learned that you can tell the students, ‘It’s OK to be wrong. You learn from your mistakes. It’s called Teach Like A Champion because it creates champions out of your students.”
Attendance at the seminars is voluntary, and attendees are not paid for their time. Abouekde said she decided to attend because of the value of the training.
“Before, it was all about, ‘How am I going to teach all this?’ It’s changed my focus to ‘how I am going to set myself up for the whole school year,’” she said. “I don’t want to sit around this summer and do nothing.”
A number of HISD schools use TLAC strategies in their classrooms. You can read more about some of them here.
