NATCHEZ — Blindfolded and taking instructions from fellow Natchez-Adams School District teachers Monday afternoon, Katangela Scott got a glimpse into the mindset of one of her third-grade students.

Scott, who teaches at Frazier Elementary School, was given a simple task — arrange cut up strips of paper in order from lowest numerical value to highest.

The challenge, Scott soon realized, came from not being able to see the strips placed on the desk in front of her, and relying on her peers’ step-by-step instructions to succeed.

“It help put me in the shoes of one of my students and let me know how they feel when they’re having a hard time understanding what’s going on,” Scott said. “Now I can see what I need to do as a teacher to help my students when they are struggling and might need some more help.”

The task was part of a professional development day hosted by the district at Natchez High School.

Teachers and other district personnel took part in a variety of instructional and developmental sessions from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Katie Wesley, who is a math academic coach for kindergarten through fifth grade, led the session Scott attended, which was dubbed, “Mathematics Madness.”

The blindfold exercise was part of six strategies Wesley said can be used to help make sure all students understand the material being taught in the classroom.

“You, as a teacher, haven’t really done your job if your students don’t get something and you move on to something else,” Wesley said. “This will help you understand how it feels to be a student who doesn’t understand what’s going on and feels lost and confused about something.”

Other sessions teachers participated in ranged from how to use Promethean boards, which is an interactive white board, in classroom instruction to creative effective lesson plans and even a bullying workshop.

Director of Curriculum and Instruction Rhonda Prunty said the event was one of two planned to give teachers time to learn new teaching methods and to communicate with others in the district.

“As teachers, often times we get isolated in our classrooms, and days like this provide an opportunity for them to find out what’s working for someone else, why it’s working for that person and how they can possibly implement that in their classroom,” Prunty said. “We want to identify those teachers that are really doing things well and have them share that with their colleagues.”

West Elementary School third-grade teacher Amanda Mercer attended the math session in the morning and the Promethean board session in the afternoon.

Mercer said the sessions provided her with valuable information about how to improve instruction in the classroom.

“It gave me an opportunity to improve on the things I already knew in my classroom and taught me some new things I didn’t know how to do, like with the Promethean board,” Mercer said. “Even though I know how to use my Promethean board, there were a lot of things I needed a refresher on and some things I didn’t know how to do.”