Starting this month, 225 LAUP teachers will engage in professional development training aimed at enhancing instructional skills in the classroom to promote preschoolers’ critical thinking skills and strengthen their language development.

Dr. Randi Wolfe, LAUP’s Director of Workforce and Professional Development. “Providing a three-day seminar reflects research that consistently advises against short-term, one-time trainings in which information is not retained and classroom behavior is not impacted.

Free of charge, this  first annual LAUP Teacher Institute consists of three-day seminars that take place from January through May in four regions of Greater Los Angeles (Carson, Baldwin Park, Los Angeles and Valley Glen). “The overall goal of the Teacher Institute is to strengthen lead teachers’ capacity with respect to classroom behaviors and competencies,” said

“The three-day Teacher Institutes will afford our lead teachers repetitive opportunities for reflection, internalization of information and concepts, experimentation in their classrooms, and continuous improvement of instructional skills and teaching effectiveness,” she continued.

Annette Marmolejo, of Newton Academy, said the professional development training provided by LAUP will be beneficial to teachers.

"I'm hoping to gain new strategies for my weaknesses, things I need to work on," she said. “I'm actually going to another conference that I have to pay for. I appreciate that LAUP offers the same kind of information at no cost and continues to motivate us."

The professional development training will be highly interactive, hands-on, practical in orientation and geared to the specific needs of each group of teachers.