From August 29th to September 5th, Dr. Rachel Shepherd, Project Director for Empowering Teacher Learning (ETL), and Nancy Mangum, Co-founder of Leading Edge Learning, traveled to Greece to provide professional development for 33 teachers at the historic Athens College.
This was ETL’s second year providing professional development for this institution, having been invited back after last year’s positive experience. Rachel and Nancy shared ETL’s model for professional development and led workshops on needs-assessments, self directed learning plans, and a top-down crash course on all things micro credentials, including how to find, complete, and fund them.
Athens College is a hands-on K-12 private school in Athens, Greece. The president of the school, Dr. Spiro Pollalis, also participated in the professional development workshops. He said he invited ETL back for the second year in a row because his school is committed to “making sure teachers have access to the best professional development opportunities they can find.”
While the reason for this visit was completely focused on providing professional development instruction for the teachers at Athens College, there were still some opportunities for sightseeing and exploration in the birthplace of democracy.
"We saw the acropolis and all the museums. My history teacher heart was so happy."
Despite the beautiful scenery, Rachel said the best part of this experience for her was getting to work hands-on with the teachers receiving the PD.
“The teachers were like sponges,” Rachel said. “They were so excited to be there and so engaged in everything we did. We had everyone from kindergarten teachers to high school physics teachers, and they were all so interested in us and what we were doing.”
Rachel believes that one reason it was so easy to connect and engage with the PD participants was a shared struggle with the challenges education faces right now.
“Some of the challenges we face here in the US are very similar to what the teachers in Greece are experiencing, too,” Rachel said. “There was a lot of commonality there, but it was really cool to see the effort that the school put into making sure their teachers have the best possible opportunities so that their students can get the best.”
Back home in North Carolina, Rachel and the ETL team are still hard at work with the information gathered from this exchange.
“We are going to do a case study from what we learned,” Rachel said. “We are going to try and get something published soon to promote the work we did.”
To learn more about Empowering Teacher Learning and the Learning In the Professions program, visit https://gocollege.appstate.edu/educator-support/etl.
Empowering Teachers at Home and Abroad
