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Course Catalog
All District Professional Development
Hosted by:
Rochester Community Schools,
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Adams High School & Van Hoosen Middle School
Dear RCS Staff Member,
It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that we welcome you to the 2014-15 school year for ourall-district welcome and professional development day. Dr. Adolph Brown, a highly regarded motivational speaker and passionate educator, will start us off as our keynote speaker. Following that, our very own Rochester Community Schools colleagues will be presenting on a variety of topics in which our staff will find relevant, engaging, and pertinent to their everyday roles. Additionally, we are asking most staff members to attend a mini-keynote session on an initiative that has been embraced by many staff members – Cultures of Thinking (Visible Thinking Routines). Our K-2 colleagues will be attending a mini-keynote session on a powerful new diagnostic tool called I Ready. We want to thank you for your efforts and commitment to continual learning as well as thank the staff who gave time in preparation and presenting today.
Sincerely,
Dr. Robert Shaner
Debi Fragomeni
Dan Romzek
Beth Davis
RCS Curriculum Department
Board of Education
Schedule of the Day
8:00 AM / Registration/Check-In/SnacksElementary/MS in AHS Cafeteria
High School in AHS Media Center
8:30 – 8:45 AM / Welcome:(Gymnasium) Dr. Shaner, Doug Hill, Lisa Nowak
8:45 – 9:45 AM / Keynote: (Gymnasium)“Doc Brown”
10:15 – 11:00 AM / Breakout Session A
*High School – AHS Auditorium – Mini Keynote (required for High School)
** K-2 Early Schools – VH Labs – Mini Keynote (required for K-2)
11:15 – 12:00PM / Breakout Session B
*Elementary – AHS Auditorium – Mini Keynote (required for Elementary 3-5 to attend in Session B or Session D; Optional for K-2)
**K-2 Early Schools – VH Labs – Mini Keynote (continued from Session A)
12:00 – 1:00PM / Lunch
K-2 in VH Cafeteria
All Others – AHS Locations
1:15 – 2:00 PM / Breakout Session C
*Middle School – AHS Auditorium – Mini Keynote (required for Middle School)
**K-2 Late Schools – VH Labs - Mini Keynote (required for K-2)
2:15 – 3:00 PM / Breakout Session D
*Elementary – AHS Auditorium – Mini Keynote (required for Elementary 3-5 to attend in Session B or Session D; Optional for K-2)
**K-2 Late Schools – VH Labs – Mini Keynote (continued from Session C)
*Mini–Keynote: Cultures of Thinking Presentation with Todd Bidlack in AHS Auditorium
**Mini-Keynote: I Ready Training at VH Computer Labs - This is a double session! (Kdg. in Lab A; 1st Grade in Lab B;
2nd Grade in Lab C)
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Mini-Keynote Sessions
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I Ready: The District, as part of its comprehensive assessment program, will be implemented the I Ready diagnostic interim assessment program which is entirely web-based at the K-2 level. This easy to use and engaging program will give teachers valuable data and will help inform instruction in the area of mathematics and reading. The program is aligned to the Common Core State Standards. It will be administered three times throughout the year. Teachers will learn more about it at the training sessions. Please note, these are double sessions for K-2 teachers and will be held at the Van Hoosen Middle School Computer Labs (K in Lab A; 1st grade in Lab B; 2nd Grade in Lab C). We have divided the sessions as follows: early start schools will be in the morning; late start schools will be in the afternoon.
Cultures of Thinking: All teachers in grades 3-12 will attend a mini-keynote provided by our own Todd Bidlack. Todd, principal of Delta Kelly, has extensive knowledge in Ron Ritchhart’s work with Cultures of Thinking and Visible Thinking Routines. Staff throughout the district have embraced these strategies and have used them with great success in the classroom. K-2 staff are welcome to attend one of the two elementary sessions offered if they choose.
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Additional Information
Parking: We are encouraging as much carpooling as possible. Please try to meet in a common location and carpool to Adams High School and/or Van Hoosen Middle School. Do not park in any undesignated areas or in fire lanes at either of the schools as cars may be ticketed.
Lunch: We are pleased to provide lunch for the entire staff. Lunches will be served “box-style” and will include a sandwich/roll-up, chips, fruit, cookie, and drink. There will be a vegetarian offering. Participants are always welcome to bring their own lunches or snacks. All K-2 teachers will eat lunch in the Van Hoosen Cafeteria. All other staff will eat at AHS locations. Feel free to pick up a box lunch and find a comfortable spot!
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Breakout SessionA
10:15AM – 11:00AM
A-1 Interactive Read Aloud
Presenter: Valerie Ruckes
Room: AHS 142
Levels:K-5 Teachers
Participants will be introduced to the benefits of incorporating daily read-alouds that occur outside of the literacy block, that will engage students, improve classroom discussions, and deepen thinking. As a result, students will learn to use evidence from the text to support their thinking.
A-2 A Thematic Approach to Reading Strategies
Presenter: Melissa Duggan and Michelle Ingraham
Room: AHS 233
Levels:3rd – 5th Grade Teachers
Take a brief break from the common core units with two highly engaging thematic units. Fluency Camp and Comprehension Carnival are sure to entice and engage readers while workingon valuable skills and strategies.
A-3 Teaching Mathematics Successfully
Presenters: JoJo Dosch, Renee Lane and Nicole Richman
Room:AHS 234
Levels: Upper Elementary through 9th Grade Math Teachers
This session will focus on effective teaching of mathematics, promoting learning through problem solving, and having students do math versus telling.
A-4 Fine Motor Skills for Handwriting and When and How to Ask for OT Support
Presenter: Occupational Therapy Dept.
Room: AHS 225
Levels:Early Elementary
Describe various developmental motor skills for handwriting and methods and techniques for improving them in early elementary students. Outline various supports offered by the RCS OT Dept. and when and how to access our services.
A-5 K-2 Writing Assessment
Presenter: Laura Schiller
Room: AHS 210
Levels:K-2 Teachers
Session Repeated: B-7, C-22 and D-26
The new district writing assessment will be shared along with prompts, rubrics, and learning progressions.
A-6 Teaching Kindness Through Song and LiteraturePresenter: Colleen Mestdagh
Room: AHS 228
Levels: K-5 Teachers
Session Repeated: C-5
Kindness and self-knowledge are not explicitly written into most curriculum standards yet they are the most important qualities a child can learn in school for success in a civilized society. More than a collection of songs and lessons, Force Field for Good, is an ongoing, year long, practical approach to creating a kindly classroom community of students who share a passion for self-reflection and aspire to well-being for every member of their class.
A-7 Tech and Augmented Reality in the Classroom
Presenter: Rick Krause
Room:AHS 251
Levels:K-5 Elementary Teachers
Session Repeated: C6
Learning and technology go hand-in-hand these days. Come visit our session to learn how to effectively use technology and augmented reality, in accordance with Common Core Standards, in the classroom. This is a fun, innovative experience!
A-8 Flipped Classroom for Elementary Teachers
Presenter: Ryan Golden
Room:AHS 229
Levels:Elementary Teachers
Session Repeated: C-12
In the flipped class the typical class is flipped, where homework is done in school and the mini lesson is viewed at home. What used to be the lecture is done at home by teacher-created videos and what was once homework is to be done in the classroom.
A-10 English Language Proficiency of ELs
Presenter: Michele LaPorte
Room:AHS 231
Levels:All Participants
Participants will develop a better understanding of our English learners and their levels of proficiency. Participants will develop an awareness of expectations of ELs as well as take home a list of linguistic accommodations for scaffolding instruction.
A-11 Visual Thinking Activities for Language!
Presenter: Mary Tangora
Room:AHS 219
Levels:Resource Teachers
Session Repeated: B-1, C-2 and D-2
Exploring Visual Thinking Routines for Language! Program.
A-12 Wake Up the Neighborhood! Teaching with Passion
Presenter: Brian Dalton
Room:AHS 136
Levels:Teachers and Administrators
Session Repeated: B-13
To show how passion acts as a roadmap to a successful classroom. By being passionate, you take your classroom from forgettable and non-engaging, to a memorable experience that students want to be a part of. As noted by Denis Diderot . . . "Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things."
A-13 Kindergarten Literacy Stations
Presenters: Jen Weller, Nikki Plumer
Room: AHS 235
Levels: Kindergarten Teachers
Help teachers set up daily literacy centers and stations that are effective, engaging, purposeful, and fun!
A-14 Got Joy? Strategies for Perpetuating a Culture of Positive Progress in Your Classrooms and School Community
Presenter: Seth E. Berg
Room:AHS 236
Levels:All Participants
Through storytelling and the articulation of some simple & connected strategies, along with some hands on participation in personalized planning processes, participants will work to fine tune their capacity as drivers of positive progress. During this session we will collaboratively explore the limitless potential and importance of joyful engagement as a critical component of meaningful learning and growth. Participants will be introduced to & investigate related tools, strategies, and concepts including tech integration, reflective writing, and shared leadership.
A-15 Go Green with Google Drive
Presenter: Sharla Lawshea
Room:AHS 216
Levels:Teachers – Intermediate/Advanced Google Skill Level
Session Repeated: D-27
Save paper and time by utilizing the sharing features in Google Drive! Conduct a See Think Wonder, Headlines, Compass Points and many more CoT routines by sharing a template with your students. Learn the various sharing options to distribute activities and assignments with individual students or the entire class. Share, organize and assess student work with Google add-on Doctopus. Doctopus provides teachers with control over sharing configuration, folder organization, file naming, and full visibility of work in progress. All participants will leave with templates to use in your classroom.
A-16 Integrating the Arts in Mathematics and Science
Presenter: Kati Cottone and Sheryle DeHondt
Room:AHS 125
Levels:Teachers – Grades 6-8 Mathematics, Science, and Art
One of Albert Einstein’s most famous quotes states, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” To think that one of the world’s greatest contributors to science and mathematics would realize the significance that creative thinking and imagination has is surely testimony for us all to live by. In this session, we will explore innovative and creative ways to implement the arts into a mathematics and science curriculum.
A-17 The Effectiveness of Music in Every Classroom
Presenter: Tara Hammen-Bantjes
Room:AHS 238
Level: All Grades and All Subject Areas
Session Repeated: B-19
In this interactive session for core curricular teachers, we will experience how integrating skills and easy techniques from the music classroom will enhance student learning and development in every content area.
A-18 What is Your True Color?
Presenter: Michael Behrmann
Room: AHS 241
Level: Teachers and Administrators
This session is for teachers and administrators who are interested in finding their TrueColor personality trait and how it impacts their roles as educators.
A-19 Is National Board Certification for You?
Presenter: Jan Pardy, MEA Rep for NBCT
Room: AHS 243
Level: K-12 Teachers
Session Repeated: B-20, C-30, D-30
What is National Board certification? What are the requirements and timelines? How much does it cost? These and other questions about new certificationlaws will be addressed during this informational session.
A-20 Renewing Your Teaching Certificate
Presenter: Rebecca Campbell
Room: AHS 138
Level: Teachers with Teaching Certificates Expiring Soon
Session Repeated: B-25
Time to renew your teaching certificate? This overview will help you get your ducks in a row so you are good to go come May! Also, how to stay updated and keep your records ready so that you can easily renew when it is time to renew, even if it’s a few years away!
A-21 SMARTBoard Lessons
Presenter: Matt Cottone
Room: AHS 154
Levels: K-12 Teachers
SMARTBoard Basics for outstanding lessons
A-22 Supporting English Learners in the General Ed Classroom
Presenter: Karen Gelardi
Room: AHS 140
Levels: K-12 Teachers
Session Repeated: B-23
Participants will be provided a brief overview of Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) and learn some strategies to support English Learners vocabulary development in the content areas.
A-23 Bumping Up Instruction – How To Easily Create Amazing Lessons
Presenter: Megan Maguire, Lisa Newman and Dan Mooney
Room: AHS 144
Levels: All Participants
Session Repeated: D-29
Creating amazing authentic lessons is very rewarding, yet very time consuming. Come and learn about how to "bump up" a lesson you already have to make it more engaging for students and to promote higher levels of thinking.
A-24 Formative Assessment
Presenter: Geri Devine
Room: AHS 248
Levels: K-12 Teachers
Session Repeated: D-28
Learn about ways to incorporate formative assessment into your daily instruction.
Breakout SessionB
11:15AM – 12:00PM
B-1 Visual Thinking Activities for Language!
Presenter: Mary Tangora
Room:AHS 219
Levels:Resource Teachers
Session Repeated: C-2 and D-2
Exploring Visual Thinking Routines for Language! Program.
B-2 Thinking Routines for Close Reading Across the Curriculum
Presenter: Emily Sommer and Katie Antrup
Room: AHS 234
Levels:High School Teachers
Examples of thinking routines that any high school teacher could use to help students be more analytical readers of informational texts.
B-3 Visible Learning Strategies for Social Studies
Presenters: Michael Bennion and Bryan LIndstrom
Room: AHS 231
Levels:High School Teachers
Session Repeated: C-1
To encourage teachers to reflect on the type of thinking they are asking students to do. Focus will be on matching the routines with the type of thinking teachers are asking students to do. Also, how to use routines as formative assessments will be addressed in the session.
B-4 Using Visible Thinking Strategies to Teach the Math Common Core Standards
Presenter: Amy Hoekstra and Natalie James
Room: AHS 229
Levels:Upper Elem., Middle, and High School Math Teachers
Learn how to use visible thinking routines and effective questioning to promote deeper level thinking in the math classroom. Some of the routines that will be explored are Zoom in, Generate-sort-connect-elaborate, Concepts maps, Claim-support-question, and Micro-lab protocol.
B-5 A Fine Arts Visible Thinking Adventure
Presenter: Alison Ma and Laura Cline
Room: AHS 225
Levels:K-12 Art and Music Teachers
In this break-out session we will explore examples of Visible Thinking routines in the elementary music and art classrooms. Come join us as we share our experience implementing two school-wide projects and view videos of students in action. Participants will also have an opportunity to discuss examples of student work and discover new ways to encourage creative thinking.
B-6 Gizmos: Online Science Simulations
Presenter: Lisa Ogiemwonyi
Room: AHS 147
Levels: Middle and High School Science Teachers
Session Repeated: D-22
Science students in grades 6-12 will have access to online interactive science simulations called Gizmos for the 2014-2015 school year. Through Gizmos, students can change key variables, generate and test hypotheses, and engage in extensive “what if” implementation. Gizmos will help students become familiar with manipulating and analyzing science scenarios in an online format. Come set up a Gizmos account and learn how to use them with your students.
B-7 K-2 Writing Assessment
Presenter: Laura Schiller
Room:AHS 210
Levels:K-2 teachers
Session Repeated: C-22 and D-26
The new district writing assessment will be shared along with prompts, rubrics, and learning progressions.
B-8 Improving Note-Taking Skills as Part of the Research Process
Presenter: Ashely Painter and Julia Satterthwaite
Room:AHS 228
Levels:Middle and High School Teachers
We will present ideas on how to help students better read and take notes during the research process to improve their ability to both write and present research effectively.
B-9 Strengthening Teacher/Student Relationships in the Classroom
Presenter: Mary Jo Hickey
Room:AHS 241
Levels:Middle and High School Teachers
Session Repeated: D-5
All teaching protocols work better when a teacher has good relationships with students. This workshop will focus on how to identify and foster those relationships
B-10 Overview of Anxiety Geared Toward Secondary Counselors and Teachers
Presenters: Angie Wornson, Whitney Cuson and Lauren Greve
Room:AHS 144
Levels:Middle and High School Counselors and Teachers
This session will be overview of what anxiety looks like at the secondary level. Strategies and tips for counselors, teachers, and parents will be given. On-line and outside resources will be shared.
B-11 Pesky Primary Sources: How to Help Students with Common Core Reading
Presenter: Gayle Martin
Room:AHS 146
Levels:For all levels and subjects but best for teachers who are uncomfortable teaching non-fiction/complex texts
Session Repeated: D-4
This session will explain the “3 Draft Reading Process” that can be adapted to any level to help students understand complex tests, especially primary non-fiction texts. It is a process that can be done with teacher guidance, with peers, or independently. The process can serve as an end in itself, or it can be preparation for a class discussion or Socratic seminar.
B-12 Integrating Informational Writing and Current 1st Grade Units
Presenters: Ember King, Patricia Galuszka and Barbara Wilkins
Room:AHS 142
Levels:First Grade Teachers
Are you ever feeling like you are running out of time for all the curriculum? This session will have you feeling less overwhelmed and more prepared. We will take a look at Writing CCSS, Battle Creek Science units, and NGSS for 1st Grade and share some ideas on how to integrate them.
B-13 Wake Up the Neighborhood! Teaching With Passion