Byron-Bergen Central School District has been leading the way in providing innovative professional development opportunities to teachers. The district introduced instructional coaching for teachers over two years ago, allowing educators to videotape live lessons and then review and critique their technique with an experienced teaching coach. More than 60 Byron-Bergen teachers from all grade levels are now participating in this training.
Byron-Bergen teachers are excited about the chance to perfect their skills and make education the best it can be for their students. That is why the district has recently added another teaching technology – a classroom simulator. The simulator creates a virtual classroom environment, populated by representative middle school- or high school-aged students. Teachers can interact in a remarkably realistic and productive way with the student avatars.
“Teaching is no exception to the rule: practice makes perfect,” said Elementary School Vice-Principal and Coordinator of Teaching Simulator Amanda Cook. “However with the simulator, instead of refining lessons and teaching techniques over many long years of experience in real classrooms, our teachers can quickly practice different approaches and experiment with their presentations in virtual classrooms.”
The tool is being introduced first to the district’s Junior/Senior High School Content Leaders, who specialize in the subjects of science, ELA, math or social studies. This was the group’s first foray into the world of classroom and instructional simulation. The objective for the initial two-hour session was to engage the teachers in how the avatars interact as students with individual personalities and learning styles.
The team will help develop more scenarios and strategies for optimizing the use of the technology for professional development and instructional scenarios by all Byron-Bergen teachers.
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