Woodland teachers busy over summer with professional development

Woodland — While Woodland Public School students were out of the classroom for the summer, teachers continued their work in a variety of professional development programs. Kyla Keefer, a Woodland High School social studies teacher, attended several professional development programs over the summer, including the Advanced Placement Summer Institute in preparation for two new courses she will teach this fall. She also attended the Judicial Institute for Teachers hosted by Seattle University Law School and the U.S. District Court in Seattle with colleague, Shari Conditt, a government and history teacher at Woodland High School. Conditt also attended a week-long program covering American Constitutionalism and the U.S. Supreme Court at Stanford University. She attended that program for free after she was honored as History Teacher of the Year for Washington in 2016. Conditt traveled to Washington D.C. for the National Network of State Teachers of the Year Conference, featuring seminars on innovative technology for the classroom, recent data and research on Social Emotional Learning, the EduColor Movement and strategies to use when talking with legislators and other policymakers. While there she met with Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground. Katie Klaus, an English Language Learners, English and history teacher at Woodland High School, was named the James Madison Fellow for Washington last year, which allowed her to attend a four-week institute at Georgetown University.