LAUNCHing new ideas
Courtesy of Louisa County Public Schools Facebook
Louisa County teachers pose around the LAUNCH sign.
November 18, 2022
On Nov. 7, Team LCPS hosted LAUNCH, a professional development program in which teachers and staff members from all over the school division came together to share ideas, collaborate, and learn new things all while incorporating the 5 C’s.
“When our students leave us as graduates, we want them to be good communicators, good collaborators, good critical thinkers, be creative, and show good citizenship,” Superintendent Doug Straley said.
Teachers have knowledge in different fields including agriculture, technology, and critical thinking. LAUNCH gave teachers the opportunity to share their knowledge as well as learn about topics they are not familiar with.
High school Career & Technical Education teachers Kristin Watkins and Mackenah Roberts presented their lesson titled, Live with Livestock. They showed other teachers how to incorporate production animals, animals that are raised to be sold, into their lessons.
“Teachers were able to meet our bottle calf and develop ideas for their own classes,” Watkins said.
LAUNCH is a great way for teachers to learn different teaching methods and use them to bring students closer to achieving the 5 C’s: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Citizenship.
Thomas Jefferson Elementary teacher Whitney Smith held a presentation titled Bringing Learning to Life.
“Teachers learned how to teach the standards through hatching chickens, creating an ancient cultures museum or taking students back to the Jurassic Period with a fossil dig,” Smith said. “Incorporating hands-on experiences, projects or even room transformations helps to engage students, develop vocabulary, and most importantly implement the 5C’s.”
Teachers had the opportunity to attend four seminars as well as a lunch break, where they were treated to a variety of food trucks. LAUNCH gave teachers the ability to meet other teachers, learn from them, and collaborate with them.
“As teachers, we often talk about how students learn best from each other, well the same goes for teachers,” Smith said. “Learning from colleagues is absolutely the best way to generate ideas that will work for your classroom.”
Having so many teachers in one building meant the excitement level was high. Teachers are enthusiastic about learning new things that they can use to benefit their students.
“My favorite part of the day was seeing our staff excited about learning, growing and bettering themselves as professionals,” Straley said, “That day was full of excitement about learning and it was very uplifting.”
