NEW ORLEANS —Eleven educators from St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools were chosen to share their expertise recently with some of the top educators from across the state.

The St. John educators were chosen to be presenters during the Louisiana Department of Education’s Teacher Leader Summit in early June at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

The summit brought together about 5,500 teacher leaders, administrators and content experts from across the state to share their knowledge, learn new skills and prepare for the upcoming 2015-16 school year.

Teacher leaders are classroom educators who have taken on leadership roles at their schools and pursue additional professional development to share with their colleagues.

To become a presenter, educators had to go through an application process that included submitting a topic and then presentation material that was reviewed by Louisiana Department of Education officials, who offered feedback.

“The thinking about teacher leaders is you get the experts who are doing the work to be the voice of how it’s done so, if you’re talking about more rigorous standards, who better than those in the classroom,” St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Quentina Timoll said.

“They are who we lean on because they are the ones who do it.”

Eighty-five teacher leaders, principals, assistant principals and central office staff from St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools attended the summit.

“Our goal in St. John is developing teacher leaders who can also build a network of experts at their own schools who are capable of leading professional development,” Timoll said.

Sessions led by St. John educators included “We’ve Got CLASS: The Importance of the Emotional Support Domain” by Melissa Watson and Alice Washington, “Understanding Social Studies Content and Claims, Grades 9-12” by Brett Zimmerman, “Facilitating a Socratic Seminar, Grades 3-12” by Jenna Chiasson, Jasmin Porter and Stephanie Haniford, “Literacy Integrated Social Studies Lessons, Grades 3-8” by Shanna Beber and Natalie Klibert and “Instructional Leadership Through Data Teams, Grades K-12” by Christal Sylvain, Monica Brown and Jasmin Porter.