PD News Update

We are pleased to share with you highlights of some of the many professional learning experiences that we offer to the school districts in our region. This update includes descriptions of sessions by national and regional presenters designed to support leadership opportunities, literacy instruction, and diversity, equity and inclusion. Be sure to also visit our website to view our full Summer/Fall PD catalog and the link to our Course Catalog in Frontline.

Through participation in the Academy for Instructional Coaches, participants will engage in the development of skills related to building relationships, leading professional learning, and coaching individuals and teams of educators on the implementation of the Next Generation Learning Standards and the impact on student learning. Participants will engage in a student-centered model of coaching which centers data at the forefront of decision-making.

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Dates: 9/19, 10/31, 11/28, 12/19, 1/30, 2/27, 3/26, 4/23, 5/21

Time: 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Location: Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, 3599 Big Ridge Road

Cost: $650

The sessions will be co-facilitated with 4 individuals from districts who have already been trained to build their competency and capacity in executing the Culturally Responsive Sustaining (CR-S) education training. The CR-SE co-facilitation team will co-facilitate the CR-S education content, in which an NYU Metro Center IESC associate will coach CR-SE co-facilitators before each upcoming session, co-present during the sessions, and observe district CR-SE trainers. After the session, feedback will be offered to the CR-SE co-facilitators. This session will help educators shift deficit thinking mindsets, specifically focusing on how race, identity, power, and privilege create education barriers that have historically created educational inequities for marginalized children and families. The CR-S education series supports the development of educators' ability to use race and culture to improve educational outcomes (Howard, 2010) and supports educators' engagement in a process of self-transformation in order to ensure equitable outcomes for every student (Banks, 2007). In this session, we will explore how microaggression, stereotype threat, and risk and protective factors are central in considering the role that schools have in creating welcoming, affirming, and validating environments, inclusive curriculum and rigorous instruction that mitigate vulnerability.

Session 5 and 6 will focus on identifying CR-S education school and classroom practices, developing competency around using the CRE Toolkit (CRE Curriculum Audit, CR-SE problem solving teams, CR-SE classroom tool), and developing district/school level Guardians of Equity teams.

Cohort 7 - Click here to register

Dates: 9/20, 10/25, 11/8, 12/6, 1/17, 2/7

Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Cohort 8 - Click here to register

Dates: 9/21, 10/26, 11/9, 12/7, 1/18, 2/8

Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

The Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Educator Network is a series of monthly collegial circles intended to provide educators who identify as BIPOC with opportunities to build connections across multiple districts and develop a network of support beyond the confines of their school building. Through access to the BIPOC Educator Network affinity group, educators can receive support and affirmation from those with similar lived experiences, share strategies, develop resources, problem solve collaboratively around addressing issues of inequity, build skills for self-awareness, and celebrate BIPOC excellence. It is important for educators of color to share in trusted vulnerable spaces, and to be strengthened and fortified within predominantly white school spaces. This monthly collegial circle will provide a network of support to share in collaboration, affirmation, and connection with fellow BIPOC educators. Educators participating in the BIPOC Educator Network will have opportunities to experience:
• Connection, collaboration, and growth
• Access to resources (sharing strategies, articles, practices etc.)
• Development of resources
• Peer coaching
• Greater sense of belonging
• Celebration of BIPOC excellence
• A network of support The goal of this network is to ensure BIPOC educators feel a greater sense of affirming connection and opportunities for collaboration with fellow BIPOC educators ultimately leading to greater likelihood of staying in the profession.

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Dates: 10/18, 11/15, 12/13, 1/17, 2/28, 3/20, 4/17, 5/15, 6/5

Time: 4:15 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Location:

• First Session: Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, 3599 Big Ridge Road
• Remaining Sessions: Children's Institute, 274 N. Goodman Street Suite D103

Cost: $500

Join your administrative/leadership colleagues for an ongoing series related to understanding the research around best practices in literacy instruction that make up the Science(S) of Reading. Session topics may include comprehension, fluency, assessment, bridging processes, text selection, instructional practices and more. These sessions are designed to support leadership in literacy.

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Dates: 9/25, 11/27, 3/18, 1/29, 5/6

Time: 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Location: Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, 3599 Big Ridge Road

Cost: $130

Presented by Dr. Julia Lindsey

Keynote: The Grounding Principle of Decoding

Dr. Lindsey will discuss what research tell us about reading, focusing on the importance and power of decoding. Then, she will help you understand how to empower yourself and your students with the highest leverage instructional practices to make sure children are able to efficiently and effectively become proficient word readers and spellers. Dr. Lindsey will offer you something to change or consider to make your foundational reading instruction more research aligned without sacrificing joy, cultural responsiveness, or comprehension.

Workshop 1: The P Words: Phonics and Phonemic Awareness

Understand the critical aspects of whole group phonics and phonemic awareness instruction. No matter what curriculum you use, you'll be able to add new routines or swap your language to create more powerful phonics lessons.

Workshop 2: Beyond Phonics: Having "It All” in Small Groups

Learn about how to rethink small group reading (centers, stations, guided reading, etc.) to better match research and to support multiple purposes. Dr. Lindsey will offer you two ways to think about the utility of this time of day and a framework for evaluating the purposefulness of small group time. Then, Dr. Lindsey will discuss how content-rich decodable texts can support children's decoding and beyond. You'll leave with resources to ensure your next small group is even more purposeful for developing decoding skills.

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Date: October 12, 2023

Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Location: Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES 3599 Big Ridge Rd

Cost: $175

Presented by Dr. Kelly Cartwright

Many times, our students seem to have all of the necessary skills they need to be good readers (things like phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies, to name a few), but somehow, they still struggle with putting all of these things together in order to comprehend texts.

In this session, we will dig a bit deeper than the familiar skills listed above to explore essential thinking skills, called executive skills, that support successful word reading and reading comprehension. Executive skills are self-regulatory skills that help students manage their thoughts, emotions, and actions, and include things like working memory, inhibitory control (or self-control), and mental flexibility. These skills are often invisible to teachers and students. However, when students have weak executive skills, the results are often painfully obvious in the classroom. In fact, students who struggle with reading comprehension, despite appropriate word reading skills, show deficits in executive skills that can persist into adulthood!

The good news for classroom teachers is that executive skills can be taught, resulting in improvements in these and in reading. In this session, participants will learn (1) more about executive skills, (2) specific ways that they support skilled reading, and (3) research-tested strategies for assessing and strengthening students' executive skills and reading.

NOTE: This session will occur in a hybrid format, with Dr. Cartwright presenting via facilitated webinar for the morning session, and a facilitated discussion with leaders from Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES about implications and application for the afternoon session.

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Date: November 8, 2023

Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Location: Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES 3599 Big Ridge Rd

Cost: $150

"Sometimes, in an early-literacy classroom, you'll hear a teacher say, ‘It's time to pick up your pencils,'” "But your pencils should be in your hand almost the entire morning.” Wiley Blevins Wiley's wise words are true for all elementary classrooms. If you are interested in learning more about how to integrate writing instruction into all parts of your day, join Leah Mermelstein for a practical session on this topic. Leah will show you how to leverage all of your literacy and content area instruction towards helping students learn how to write with precision, clarity and joy. She will also show you how writing can be used to cement what students are learning in literacy, science and social studies. Leah will address topics such as:

• How can the sciences of writing instruction help us customize our writing curriculum?

• What is the role of phonics/phonemic awareness in writing instruction? How can I focus on this across the day?

• What is the role of grammar in writing instruction? How can I focus on this across the day?

• What is the role of vocabulary in writing instruction? How can I focus on this across the day? Leah will share integrated units that she has created with different school districts, so you can see how to bring this life into your own classroom and schools. You will leave this workshop with lots of ideas on how students can pick up their pencils all day long!

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Date: January 24, 2024

Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Location: Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, 3599 Big Ridge Rd

Cost: $175

Monrroe 2-Orleans BOCES

3599 Big Ridge Rd.

Spencerport, NY 14559

profdev@monroe2boces.org