Providing its faculty with professional development is a priority for the Warwick Valley Central School District, which holds four Superintendent’s Conference Day sessions each school year.
At Superintendent’s Conference Day on Thurs., Feb. 11, teachers will participate in professional development sessions targeted to their specialty areas.
Preliminary activities for Superintendent’s Conference Day Design Teams
Preliminary activities will involve “Design Teams,” with faculty members collaborating to come up with a framework and ideas for #TheirFuture, a multi-faceted effort that will take place over 18+ months to help the district better prepare all students for their future. This initiative will allow the district to imagine, design and implement innovative programs and align resources in support of those programs.
Design Teams will focus on exploring the following areas for the 2016-17 school year:
Summer Enrichment – This design team will work to innovate a summer enrichment program for Middle School children in grades 7-8 who need an intervention as they transition into 8th grade and the High School, respectively. The curriculum will be thematically based and differ from what students study during the regular school year.
Online Gradebook – This design team will work toward creatively framing out the parameters for an online gradebook (grades 5-12).
Instructional Rounds Conducted by Teachers – What if teachers visited classrooms with their colleagues, and looked at students and what they were learning? Building upon the administrative learning walks which have taken place in the district over the last two years, this design team will “hand the keys over” to teachers and ask…what should teacher walks look like? What do teachers value in the concept of learning walks? These walks will be designed for teachers by teachers.
High School Common Assessments (grades 9-12) – To simplify and clarify grade-by-grade learning goals, including the “big ideas,” high school teachers will work on a plan toward designing common, high-quality student tasks in all subjects.
Elementary Report Cards – With a focus on literacy, this design team will begin the process of revising the elementary report card.
Student Leadership – Students involved in the student leadership academy will be devising ways to get feedback from parents, community members and other groups to help with the direction of the school district.
Examples of targeted professional development for teachers on Superintendent’s Conference Day
● Music & Art – NYS leaders will discuss new Regents “4+1 Pathway to Graduation” which involves art & music
● Innovator’s Workshop – Planning for Innovators Workshop, a new program for HS juniors and seniors interested in entrepreneurship, or who have an innovative idea or solution to explore. Innovators Workshop combines three high school course disciplines into one of three groups of courses, depending on the student’s interest.
● Training workshop with educational consultant on the Danielson Framework for administrators and teacher-leaders at all grade levels
● Environmental – The “Green Team” will begin work on sustainability curriculum at each grade level
● Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation (CELF) – Planning summer curriculum work; also related to the EPA Grant received by the district
● Elementary teachers – reading and writing workshop
● MS and HS Earth Science teachers – Work with college professors from Montclair University on ways to integrate the district’s Little Bear Observatory and astronomy into the curriculum
● Kindergarten teachers – Learn more about Kindergarten screening
● Ag Committee – Discuss agriculture courses, programs and projects at the MS & HS levels
● Physical Education – Learn about a cross-curricular approach called “actionable play” which uses movement to help students with skills in all academic subjects
● Speech Pathology – online professional development, including lectures from renowned experts in the field
● Health/School nurses – Learn about new diabetic instruments and technology
● Foreign Language – Training to administer AAPPL world language assessment
● Math – Curriculum development for math courses, and review new MS math series
● English – Discuss reading strategies for Regents exam, ideas for new film course, Criminal Justice research project, writing tasks at each grade level
● HS Social Studies – Work on new courses for 2016-17
● Social Work, Guidance, Psychology, Special Education – Discuss transition planning, articulation of students and enrollments, mental health workshop
● Technology – Plan curriculum for new MS class, “Medical Detectives”
● English Language Learners (ELL) – Collaborate on strategies to address the needs of ELL learners
● MS Academic Intervention Services (AIS) – Discuss using “STAR 360” to help student performance in meeting Common Core standards, and college & career readiness