Senior Instructor Bill Cornwall, of Coral Springs, presents a certificate to Deonn Clarke at a NSCF teacher training event conducted with the Children’s Services Council earlier this year.
By: Sharon Aron Baron
Over the past two school years, the National Scholastic Chess Foundation has trained over 350 people to teach chess in the classroom, in after-school and in community programs. To date, over 150 chess clubs and classes have been established across Broward County teaching all grades from pre-K through high school. The goal of these scholastic chess programs is to help improve educational outcomes for children in our communities. Now the NSCF is expanding its trainings to include more parents and high school or college students who want to volunteer to teach chess in school and community programs.
“Chess is a tool that helps students develop independent study and problem-solving skills and helps educators attain positive learning outcomes in all core subject areas,” says NSCF executive director Sunil Weeramantry. ”While our focus has been on training teachers, we recognize a lot of education happens beyond the school walls in libraries, aftercare, church youth programs and with other community partners. This is why we have opened the door to involve more people to create a chess culture across all of Broward County.”
The NSCF will be offering two workshops in Sunrise beginning on November 28.
The Demystifying Chess Workshop #1: Teaching the Basics, normally held as a full-day on a Saturday has been broken into two evenings. The dates are Monday, November 28 and Wednesday, November 30, both evenings from 5:45 to 8:45 pm. When someone registers for the 28th, they are automatically registered for the 30th as well. The lead instructor is Bill Cornwall, a National Master from Coral Springs who has been one of the leading chess educators in Florida for over 30 years.
Demystifying Chess Workshop #2: Moving Beyond the Basics will be held on Saturday, December 3 from 9:15 am to 4:45 pm (lunch is included) with FIDE Master Sunil Weeramantry, one of the nation’s most successful chess coaches and teachers, leading the class.
Thanks to a grant from the City of Sunrise, and with the continuing support of the Broward Education Foundation, and the Sheriff’s Foundation of Broward County, these workshops, usually $250 each, are free for qualifying participants. The trainings will be held in the community room at Rick Case Kia in Sunrise.
With NSCF’s two Demystifying Chess workshops, teachers and other youth workers, mentors and parent/high school/college student volunteers will be able to help students achieve success with chess and apply the skills they acquire to other subjects. The goal of the workshops is not to dictate a specific curriculum but to provide the outline of key concepts and the order in which they should be introduced to have children playing chess successfully in a short period of time.
Even if you’ve never played chess, Workshop #1 will prepare you to teach a chess program at your school. The workshop covers key topics for a 13+ week program of chess instruction, across all grade levels. Workshop #2 begins with a review of Workshop #1 concepts, then moves beyond the basics of chess to cover topics taught in weeks 14 through 22+ of the NSCF in-the-curriculum program. The class builds upon the skills taught in workshop #1, teaches how to combine tactics, recognize patterns and analyze master-level games. Both workshops include additional materials and online resources.
Open to all Tamarac, Lauderhill, North Lauderdale and Broward County Public School teachers. For more information, visit the Next Move Teacher Training page under the Florida tab at www.nscfchess.org or email Robert@nscfchess.org.
