You know summer is around the corner when when Aim High’s Preview Week begins. Preview Week is a series of professional development workshops offered to all Aim High teachers. Through these trainings, teachers prepare for the summer and adjust to the Aim High culture, which differs from a typical school environment.

“Working with people who are involved in a larger array of social justice issues in the Bay Area is exciting,” said Humanities teacher Tim Rottenberg. “Aim High is an incubator space for people you don’t usually meet and Preview Week is just the beginning.” This year, Tim is one of more than 110 Aim High teachers registered for Preview Week workshops. “Preview Week helps teachers get into the groove of Aim High,” says Laney Corda, a site director who has been with the program for four summers. Workshops are taught by seasoned educators. Courses range from Classroom Management and Restorative Justice to Film Editing and Design Thinking in Science. “It’s great to meet fellow teachers and start brainstorming about how best to use every minute of the summer,” said Dimitri Barton, a teaching assistant at the Lick-Leadership campus.

While some workshops are skills-based, such as Classroom Management, others help teachers delve deep into a topic or content area. One such course is for Humanities teachers and is led by Voice of Witness, a San Francisco-based non-profit that publishes the narratives of typically “unheard voices.” The workshop is designed to help 8th grade teachers develop lessons that use narratives to explore social justice issues and to empower students to become oral historians themselves. In addition to the workshops, teachers have the opportunity to speak with representatives from teacher training programs around the Bay Area, such as the Bay Area Teacher Training Institute.  “We want to make sure our teachers understand their options when it comes to entering the field of education,” said Michelle Capobres, Director of Academics and Evaluation at Aim High. And of course, there is also plenty of time to network and lesson plan. Whether new to Aim High or a seasoned veteran, the professional development gained during Preview Week is transferable to any classroom, and will ensure Aim High teachers stand out during the school year. See our teachers put their knowledge to use this summer at one of our manyVisiting Days.