Professional Development

InterPrep frequently provides professional development to schools, school districts and consortia of schools/districts, professional organizations and colleges/universities.

InterPrep´s experience includes work in 40 states; internationally in Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico and Spain; and, represents over 200 institutions that have engaged its services. Each year, an average of more than 2,000 educators profit from InterPrep´s leadership through work with schools, colleges/universities and professional organizations.

InterPrep frequently provides professional development seminars and workshops for foreign language educators including, but not limited to, the following topics:

• STANDARDS
  Helping teachers understand national and state foreign language standards and using them to direct local curriculum and instructional design
  
  
• PROFICIENCY
  Understanding what it means to be Novice, Intermediate and Advanced language users (according to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K-12 Learners both developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages)
  
  
• BACKWARD DESIGN
  Training teachers in the concept of Backward Design and how it can help them draw direct lines from the district curriculum to classroom instructional planning
  
  
• THEMATIC PLANNING
  Providing teachers with hands-on experiences in thematic planning, connecting their local or state curriculum directly to classroom instruction and thrusting the textbook into a support position to the curriculum, as opposed to the textbook becoming the "default" curriculum of the school
  
  
• ENGAGING INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES
  Designing classroom activities that capture student interest, elicit their buy-in due to their real-life nature and reflect the characteristics of the various proficiency levels of our students
  
  
• PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT
  Assisting teachers in learning about the concept of performance-based assessment and in creating assessments that are directly tied to their curriculum
  
  
• MOTIVATION & STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
  Understanding the important role of motivation in the foreign language classroom and its effect on student achievement and in student decisions to continue--or not--into upper level courses
  
  
• ARTICULATION
  Providing assistance in the articulation of foreign language programs from elementary to middle to high school
  
  
• LONG-RANGE PLANNING
  Helping foreign language faculty in schools and school districts to develop long-range plans and specific goals and strategies for program growth and improvement
  
  
• PAIR AND SMALL GROUP WORK
  Making teachers aware of the power and efficacy of pair and small group work in the development of targeted student proficiencies