Letterland US Trainers Retreat 2020
Every year the authorised US Letterland Senior Trainers gather to catch up with each other, discuss the previous year’s training issues, and look forward to the year ahead. Our Director of Training, Lesley White, and US Head Trainer, Vickie Norris, have kindly written us a blog post to tell you all about the 2020 US Trainers Retreat that happened back in February (before we all had to stay home!).
Looking Forward to 2020
by Lesley White
The Letterland US Trainers Retreat is always a brilliant opportunity for our enthusiastic team to review the year beforehand and consider what could be improved in the next 12 months.
Discussion is always wide ranging, as is to be expected when everyone’s experience is different. Throughout our Retreat, the overriding determination is to help teachers help their students have the best experience possible and motivate and inspire a love of reading and writing for everyone!
This year, trainers were particularly focused on thinking of what ‘refresher’ content teachers, who have been using Letterland for a while, might appreciate.
What could be done to enhance the training experience for teachers? This is one of the many questions posed by trainers.
We also use the opportunity to share our awareness of the latest research: the current thinking that Guided Reading is ‘out of fashion’; the latest thinking about the Science of Reading, and the importance of structured and balanced literacy approaches along with the benefits of our embedded mnemonics.
This year’s Retreat also took advantage of the increased activity on all Letterland’s social media platforms with trainers ensuring that they have at least one example to share of our new downloadable step-by-step dress up craft guides.
The discussion is varied but always inspirational and helps us all recharge our batteries ready for whatever lies ahead. Without wishing our lives away, we're already looking forward to being together again in 2021!
Another Successful Retreat
by Vickie Norris
Our 2020 Letterland Annual Retreat was a success! It was great having Lesley White, our International Letterland Trainer, and our team of US trainers come together as we grow into a larger Letterland Family. This knowledgeable team have tremendous passion for Letterland’s teaching approach, and it shows when they share success stories of teachers and students. Our time together gave us opportunities to network, share ideas for small group instruction and to focus on follow up training plus much more!
It was tremendous fun seeing the trainers get into the Letterand spirit when they unveiled their step-by-step dress up craft ideas and they were indeed wonderful!
In the evenings we played Letterland games and were highly entertained with a musical performance by Flat Rock Playhouse. It is a privilege to work with such talented and enthusiastic trainers who know first- hand that Letterland is where literacy comes to life!
A HUGE thank you to Lesley, Vickie and all of our other wonderful trainers who attended!
Want to check out the social media channels that Lesley was talking about? Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.