When planning for your professional development or product training, it is important to consider the purpose of the event to ensure that your educators get the most out of their experience and walk away feeling confident in their newfound knowledge of MasteryPrep.
While gyms, cafeterias, and auditoriums do have high capacity and are great for student boot camps, we like to keep the discussion flowing in our educator-facing events. A large room where attendees spread out creates a lecture-style environment that detracts from group discussions and engagement practices. See below for a few notes on where to best hold a few of our educator-facing events.
Product Training
If your educators are going to be learning how to navigate the MasteryPrep Platform, they should be in a computer lab or a classroom where they can comfortably use a computer or laptop to navigate the platform along with the trainer.
Professional Development
If your educators are going to be attending one of our Unofficial Teacher's Guide to the ACT or SAT sessions, they will need to be able to spread out their materials and work through practice and also take notes while still having the flexibility to split into groups and discuss topics with the group. (For this kind of PD session, a computer lab may actually hinder engagement and the ability to converse among attendees.)
Implementation Planning
For this kind of session, we encourage all stakeholders to be together in the same room, ready to plan with their calendars, planners, and implementation goals available to them. This could be done in a meeting room or smaller space where planning can take place without too many distractions.