River City Professional Development

Overview

Throughout River City Teacher Professional Development (RCTPD), participating teachers: (a) work through the curriculum as learners and instructors, (b) connect their content and instructional expertise with the River City interface and materials, (c) measure their own understanding by reflecting on activities, and (d) build confidence in themselves and the curriculum. RCTPD focuses not only on the skills needed to implement River City, but also on skills of scientific inquiry and inquiry-based pedagogies that teachers can use after River City is completed.

Train-the-Trainer Model

When working with large school districts or geographic areas with large numbers of interested teachers, we utilize a "train the trainer" practice in which local trainers, trained by the research team, work with area teachers. In these instances, RCTPD takes place in two phases. In phase one, teachers work through an approximately 8-hour pre-session with their trainers. In phase two, teachers receive ongoing support from those trainers and various online resources while implementing River City with their students.

Professional Development Over Distance Through Elluminate

For those teachers working outside of our trainer-based areas, we offer professional development and support over distance through Elluminate. Elluminate is a user friendly and intuitive web-collaboration tool the River City Research Team is using this year to provide teachers working outside of our trainer-based areas with professional development and support.

Contact the Research Team at rivercity.support@gmail.com to learn how to sign up for one of our upcoming training sessions. Note: training is limited to those intending to implement River City in academic year 2007-08.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 9980464, 0296001, 0202543, 0310188, and 0532446. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.