Essential Bulletin for Educators
August 2024
This bulletin will provide you with tools and strategies for classroom use and professional development opportunities.
If you have questions or content recommendations, email us at bsebulletin@pattankop.net.
With appreciation for all you do,
The Pennsylvania BSE and PaTTAN Staff
Edutopia's comprehensive, all-in, research-based look at the design of effective learning spaces.
- Lighting - Allow as much filtered, natural sunlight into your room as possible.
- Ventilation - Open a window or door to reduce the accumulation of carbon dioxide.
- Complexity and Color - Hang academically relevant work on the walls, and avoid extreme colors and clutter.
- Data Walls - Using data to inform instruction is good practice, but public displays or public ranking are neutral or beneficial for only a subset of higher-performing students.
- Nature, Plants, and Greenery - If you don’t have open spaces outside your window, bring in plants and other natural decorations.
- Representation - Display inspiring, inclusive posters and other visuals that mirror student interest; and, use your walls to showcase your students’ nonacademic talents and activities.
- Flexibility - Consider options like rugs, standing desks, and reading nooks with pillows, and use the full range of seating alternatives to support independent and group learning, as the educational tasks demand.
- Learning Differences and Neurodivergence - Align wall displays with current topics, use the front wall for daily materials such as a calendar and word walls, and create distinct activity areas to help students transition between tasks.
- Heat - Use a fan to pull cooler air into your classroom and replace window shades with stained glass art to soften sun glare.
- Acoustics/Noise - Create quiet spaces for focus during independent learning.
- Seating Arrangements - The best arrangements match the learning task. Consider the space between desks and find ways to allow for movement during the day.
- Learning Zones - Create multiple learning zones in your classroom—a main space for teacher-centered instruction and several smaller areas that can be rotated throughout the school year that involve “students actively working on learning tasks and reflecting on their work, apart from watching, listening, and taking notes." You can set up a learning zone in a bookcase, on a shelf, on one bulletin board, or on a small desk or table.
A collection of Edutopia’s popular articles and videos on budget-friendly, research-backed ways to set up your classroom—and how to keep students, spaces, and SEL in mind—can be found at the link below or by clicking the button below.
A bell ringer is a short assessment, activity, or assignment that students complete as soon as they enter a classroom. Typically, bell ringers indicate to students that class has begun and immediately engage students' attention by priming them to think about the course material.
“This, Not That” bell ringers are mind-challenge puzzles. Each puzzle gives you five statements, and the goal is to figure out a commonality from the five statements. Explore the bell ringer examples through the links to Canva and Google Slides.
TCEA: “This, Not That” Bell Ringers
From TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association)
Instead of cleaning up or going over homework assignments, try these creative activities that can help students make sense of new material—and have fun in the process.
Here's one example:
Traffic Light: Affix a picture of a traffic light on the door as a quick check for understanding at the end of a lesson. Before students leave the room, they take sticky notes and write one thing they learned in the lesson and place it on the green light, one thing they’re still mulling over and place it on yellow light, and one thing they’re struggling to understand and place it on the red light. The activity takes a minute to do, and after students leave, teachers can easily discover important insights about their students’ grasp of the material at hand.
Governor Shapiro, Secretary Mumin, BSE Director Clancy, and others joined Special Olympics Pennsylvania athletes and coaches on the bocce court in late July for the annual Unified Bocce Government Challenge, taking home silver!
We are #PAProud of all the incredible athletes who participated in the tournament, and are especially thankful for PDE's teammates: Lydia, Abdul, Dan, Davis, and coach Chloe!
Beginning with the 2024-2025 school year, Pennsylvania will transition administration of the science PSSA and PASA from grade 4 to grade 5.
While revised science essential elements (EEs) will be released this year, a PASA science assessment aligned to revised EEs will not be administered until 2026-2027.
More information will be shared through the newsletter for PASA Assessment Coordinators (ACs) and online at the Pennsylvania DLM website in the new school year.
TeachersFirst offers free, hands-on OK2Ask® workshops for teacher professional learning.
This collection of on-demand session recordings is available for those who attended as a recap and for new viewers to watch any time. Gather your teacher friends and learn together! Topics include:
- Learning How to Use FigJam,
- Tools for Building Communication Skills,
- The Science of Reading,
- Using AI in the Classroom,
- and so much more!
Register to watch the recording and you will receive an email with a link to the session that you can access whenever you’re ready. The recording will play in your browser, so there’s no need to download software or a specific app.
TeachersFirst: OK2Ask On-demand Professional Learning Archive
They’re a small thing that makes a big difference.
Dr. John Spencer shares 12 tips to enhance learning in our classroom using the analogy of bay leaves that chefs put in their dishes to enhance flavors. Dr. Spencer asks: What are the bay leaves in education? What are those small, seemingly invisible tweaks we can make that end up having a huge impact on our teaching?
The NFL and Visa teamed up to help teach financial concepts with this fast-paced interactive game that engages students while teaching them money management skills.
Visa's Financial Football is a fast-paced, NFL-themed game, but it's also a learning tool. Make it a part of your classroom curriculum with these integral, engaging lesson modules. Each lesson module is structured as a comprehensive teaching tool for easy integration into your own classroom curriculum.
Students of all ages learn key concepts about saving and spending, budgeting, and the wise use of credit in preparation for game play. Select an age level of Rookie, Pro or Hall of Fame and download the modules.
Get Matched with a Mentor!
Join the 2024-2025 APR Mentoring Project and learn alongside a current or retired special education professional in one of the following areas:
- NEW! Orientation & Mobility Specialists
- NEW! Speech Language Pathologists
- School Psychologists
- Special Education Administrators
- Special Education Teachers
- Teachers of the Deaf
- Teachers of the Visually Impaired
The Mentoring Project begins its third year in October 2024!
The Pennsylvania Bureau of Special Education, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) is sponsoring a year-long opportunity for early career (three years or less) special education professionals in one of the targeted roles to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of an individual with five or more years of experience.
If you’re new to the field of special education with three or less years of experience in your current role – this opportunity is for you!
To learn more specifics about this opportunity, visit the APR Repository Mentoring Project Page: https://sites.google.com/pattan.net/pa-apr/apr-mentoring-project?authuser=0
Review the project details and complete the online application: https://fs25.formsite.com/3fHiZQ/mentee24-25/signup
Application Deadline: Monday, August 19, 2024
For questions, contact:
Christine Moon, APR Lead at cmoon@pattanpgh.net
Providing opportunities to attract master’s level speech-language pathologists to school-based placements is critical for Pennsylvania’s students with speech-language needs.
Join us on Monday, August 5 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM to learn more about the Master's Level Speech-Language Pathologist Stipend for School-Based Placements. $5,000.00 will be available from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025, to provide the master's level speech-language pathologist extern a stipend for their school-based placement.
To be an eligible site for either the Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 semester, completed applications must be received prior to the start of the semester.
During the August 5th overview, Local Education Agency staff will learn of the requirements and timelines for the 2024-2025 Master's Level Speech-Language Pathologist Stipend for School-Based Placements.
Register for the session using this link - https://pattanpgh.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAldOGuqzguE9H5AsKs1Uo8TZoqR_qPQa8b
Email Amanda Winnor, awinnor@pattanpgh.net, with questions regarding this opportunity.
