Facilitator Tips

You can use the workshop to provide professional development activities for teachers in a variety of settings:

with seasoned arts and non-arts teachers interested in cross-curricular collaborations
with new teachers who are trying to broaden their range of teaching methods
in a district or school workshop
for individual teacher study of a specific topic, method, or grade level
in professional development mentoring programs

The following facilitator tips can enhance the professional development experience:

Designate Responsibilities

Each week, someone should be responsible for facilitating the course sessions. This may be a professional facilitator or a volunteer from among the participants, or you may choose to divide and rotate duties among several participants.

Prepare for the Session and Bring the Necessary Materials

The facilitator should review the entire session in this guide prior to arriving for the session, as well as reviewing the Materials Needed for that session. The facilitator will be responsible for bringing enough materials for all the participants. If you are viewing the video programs on videocassette, the facilitator may want to preview the programs.

Before the First Session

You may want to photocopy this guide for all participants so they may follow along, refer back to ideas covered in the session, or have discussion materials handy. Or, you may direct them to this site to print the guide themselves (direct them to “Support Materials”). Either way, you will want participants to have the guide prior to the first session, so they will come prepared.

Keep an Eye on the Time

We have suggested the amount of time you should spend on each question or activity. These estimates assume a two-hour workshop session – one hour spent watching the video program, and one spent in activities and discussions before, during and after the viewing.

Record Your Discussions

We recommend that someone take notes during each discussion, or even better, that you tape-record the discussions. The notes or audiotapes can serve as make-up materials in case anyone misses a session.

Share Your Discussions on the Web

The course sessions serve as a starting point to share and think about ideas. Encourage participants to continue their discussions with participants from other sites on Teacher-Talk.

Materials Needed

To use these library programs for professional development, you will need the following materials:

A television monitor and videocassette player/DVD recorder
This workshop print guide
Background information about the program, available on the Web site and also in this print guide

For professional development, team-building sessions, or facilitated discussions, you also may need:

Copies of any handouts for the workshop sessions (available at the end of each set of program materials in this guide)
Copies of the discussion questions listed for each workshop session
Flip chart and markers
Pads and pens for individual notes and reflections

NEXT: Workshop Program Summaries