February Happenings

Here are a few things that have been going on in the ESU 6 PD department:

The Professional Development Advisory Council (PDAC) met to discuss professional development opportunities in the near future and to also discuss the viability of projects for 2013-14. Lynne her led a technology highlight session that focused on how to use twitter hashtags for professional learning and Google Hangouts for video conferencing. The professional development team received positive feedback about some new ideas for 2012-13 which included a new administrator program and self-directed professional development. To learn more about this please visit http://esu6pdac.wikispaces.com/2012+-+13+Meetings


February 8 was session 2 of the ESU 6 Adolescent Literacy Series. For this session, individuals and teams learned from Dr. Kevin Feldman who presented insight on Tier 2 & 3 Intervention Systems for middle and high school literacy. Jen looks forward to continuing work with schools intent on developing literacy supports and interventions for their adolescents! She will facilitate two additional sessions in June focused on engagement, comprehension, and extended discussion. For details about this project, please visit http://esu6als.wikispaces.com/.

       

Toby had an excellent day with 40 social studies teachers on February 26. The teachers learned about the new social studies standards and began the process of aligning their local curriculum. Harris Payne, our NDE social studies consultant, provided excellent information and insights about the standards, and we look forward to future collaboration. To learn more please go to the social studies wiki at http://esu6ss.wikispaces.com/home

This past month, April spent some time working with both Wilber-Clatonia’s and Milford’s Response to Intervention (RTI) Leadership Teams. At Wilber-Clatonia, they’re continuing to write their RTI plans and are now working on developing a Big 5 Trouble-Shooting Guide. This guide will help teachers determine which interventions and programs to use with students that are struggling with reading based upon their specific skill needs. At Milford, they made some major decisions about assessments and interventions and documented the process in a flowchart. She also spent 2 days observing reading instruction in the classrooms and providing feedback to these teachers. April will join them in May again to continue their work on RTI. Another highlight for April this past month was facilitating instructional rounds with administrators at Beatrice Public Schools. After observing in each Kindergarten classroom at the 4 elementary schools, they spent the afternoons discussing what they saw and planning for future professional development based upon the needs. In addition, she spent an afternoon with the Kindergarten teachers helping them understand how to interpret their current assessments and adapt their instruction based upon the results.

   One highlight of this month for Jen was the opportunity to work with a teacher and two student teachers from Milford. After sharing some strategies for pacing and engagement, Jen observed a class and discussed immediate application. These opportunities to work with small groups or individuals at the classroom level are often very powerful professional development! Jen was also able to serve on two school improvement external teams this month, one as a team member and another as the leader. Though these visits take time, they allow Jen to learn from team members and the host school’s insights and experiences for practical solutions to the issues our schools face.

       

    Tammy has been working with ESU 2 to coordinate the final MRL Academy II training.   This training will again be held at the Holiday Inn Downtown Lincoln on April 8 & 9 with Dr. Tammy Heflebower presenting both days and Dr. Phil Warrick along with the ESU 6 Professional Development consultants co-presenting on April 9^th.  The ESU is again acting as the fiscal agent between Youth Frontiers and our participating districts to provide retreats this fall.  Tammy has finalized those dates with our three host districts:  Dorchester, Malcolm and Milford.  We anticipate this being another well attended event by multiple districts!

   Lynne worked with staff at Exeter Milligan to help them learn about Google+ and hangouts for professional development and networking. She conducted student focus groups at Waverly High School to help school leaders better understand how to help students be successful as they transition from middle school to high school. She worked with York’s Project Search students to help them understand how to make good decisions about information posted online, texting and and other digital citizenship issues. She led the NETA contest judging process and continues to support planning work for statewide professional development through NETA, the Great Plains Google Summit, NCSA Admin Tech Bootcamps, etc. She served on an external school visitation team at a school with a 1 to 1 tablet program to help provide technology-focused expertise to the team. Lynne also hosted online hangouts for the tcadre folks and our Reboot Alums.