The Dominica Association of Teachers (DAT) has just finished training about 400 school teachers and principals. The training was organized together with the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF) and the Ministry of Education Summer Institute 2019. The two-week Professional Development Training event focused on training attendees on classroom ethics and professional excellence.
Acting Chief Education Officer, Melena Fountain, told participants that the courses taken at the workshop were systematically chosen by both the DAT and CTF to provide the utmost benefits to attendees. From a practical angle, the training was aimed at exposing participants to professional skills that would make their students excel at areas of academic studies. Fountain said it is now left to the teachers “to transfer the knowledge and skills acquired, to your classroom and for students’ success.”
The training workshop focused on literacy, numeracy, special education computer technology, mental health, managing stress, gender-based violence, fitness and exercise, and unionism among others.
The chief education officer further encouraged individuals who are interested in the teaching profession to enroll with the Dominica State College (DSC) for their formal training. A teaching program at DSC, said Fountain, will expose potential teachers to the professional foundation they require for their teaching career.
To galvanize the teachers into action, Fountain tasked the workshop participants to ask themselves a number of questions pertaining to their career:
As educators, are you positioning yourselves to lead by example? Are you leveraging the skills and the talents of your students towards the realizations of their dreams? Are you resourceful in utilizing best practice evidence-based strategies to facilitate learning? Are you helping to build strong resilient and responsible citizens? Are you focused on the development of human capital that is creative, innovative and productive?
Melena Fountain: Acting Chief Education Officer
Fountain, who revealed that she is about to embark on pre-retirement leave as an outgoing chief education officer, stated that the correct answers to these questions are important to active educators. She expressed hopes that the results of the just-concluded workshop will become apparent when all teachers and students resume for the new academic year on September 2nd.
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
