Zula's professional development program for educators provides guidelines, interactive exploration, dialogue, modeling, and hands-on investigation supporting STEM and an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning. Sessions position teaching and learning as individualized, cross-curricular, and multi-sensory experiences for children based on diverse learning styles and abilities – including special needs. They model a deeply collaborative relationship between children and teachers, and between teachers and families. For two day professional development sessions we can review 2-3 modules of your choice and include time for staff to work on lesson planning and pacing with our guidance.
Training Goals
Participants will:
• Understand how to incorporate an inquiry-based foundation to teaching and learning
• Understand how to incorporate Zula STEM modules easily and seamlessly with existing curriculum and teaching practices
• Become motivated and empowered to act as guides and facilitators in the classroom – using an open-ended, child-directed approach to teaching
• Understand a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to teaching
• Understand how to extend STEM and language arts from the classroom to the home, neighborhood, and community environments
• Understand how to incorporate media literacy and 21st century thinking skills
• Learn effective use of evaluation tools to assess children’s ongoing concept understanding, through traditional, performance-based, and portfolio-based assessments
