ISS Communicator 11/2 - 11/6

The purpose of this weekly newsletter is to provide professional development,

support, resources, information, connections and best practices to foster adult

learning and student achievement. You will find offerings from

Instructional Support Services, Distance Learning and Model Schools Teams.

Online professional development offered by
CiTi BOCES ISS and Model Schools
Register in MLP for CTLE Credits

Each time I ask educators what emotion is most present, the most common answers are "overwhelmed" and "anxious". I then think of Parker Palmer's words - "We teach who we are" and know that now more than ever, we must build into our schedule the habit of mindfulness and self-care. Our ability to maintain steady ground, presence, and calm in the face of uncertainty will have significant impact on our students and be a strong factor in keeping burnout at bay for ourselves. This weekly offering will focus on creating space for sharing together, building community and engaging in mindfulness practices that will sometimes be guided and sometimes be simple moments of silence and then dialogue. Register for November 4th.

See other dates and registration links in MyLearningPlan

The mindset and skills of SEL are needed now more than ever as we navigate our current world in our own lives and as we educate and support our students, colleagues and our community. This group continues to learn and grow in our efforts to foster SEL and mindfulness practices in our schools and classrooms through modeling of practices in our meetings, sharing of strategies and resources, and exploring a deeper understanding of our own lives in service of others. Join Kate and Liane for these collaborative conversations!

Remaining Meeting Dates (all meetings scheduled for 3:45 - 5:00 PM):

• November 9th
• December 10th

Register in MLP

Upcoming Dates:

• 11/18
• 12/16

Meetings are scheduled 3:30 - 4:30 PM

Registration for November 18th 2:00-3:30 p.m.

OR

Registration for November 20th 2:15-3:45 p.m.

Dignity for All Students Act (The Dignity Act or DASA) Workshop: Six hour training in Harassment, Bullying, Cyberbullying and Discrimination in Schools: Prevention and Intervention. New York State's Dignity Act seeks to provide the State's public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying on school property, a school bus and/or at a school function. School professionals applying for certification or license on or after DECEMBER 31, 2013 are required to complete six clock hours of course work or training in this area. This training is designed to fulfill that requirement. Tuition is $75.00 for employees of districts which subscribe to the Oswego BOCES School Improvement Co-Ser. Tuition is $100.00 for all other attendees. If you are self-paying, please mail a Money Order or Bank Check made out to CiTi Treasurer. NO CASH please. Send to: CiTi BOCES Attention: Staci Silliman 179 County Route 64 Mexico NY 13114 All registered participants will receive an email with the Zoom link the mornings of the training. This email will be delivered to the email address associated with your MLP account. This workshop will take place over the course of two sessions, three hours in length. Full attendance to both sessions is necessary for DASA requirements.

Registration: https://www.mylearningplan.com/WebReg/ActivityProfile.asp?D=12396&I=3639477

The event is FREE for OCLI educators. Use passcode: OCLINOV2020 at checkout. Can't make that date/time? The recording is available after the event to watch at your own convenience.

Event description: Teacher knowledge and skill about what to do in early literacy classrooms matters, but so do appropriate approaches to instruction and intervention grounded in science. In this session, you will learn about the features of effective scientifically aligned instruction also known under the umbrella term, Structured Literacy. You will learn about why using Structured Literacy makes a difference in all students’ lives and most specifically, the lives of those at risk for reading difficulties including English learners (ELs) and our students with dyslexia. Click here for registration.

Zoom Date: 11/2/2020 3:30-4:30

Registration Link:

https://www.mylearningplan.com/WebReg/ActivityProfile.asp?I=3649584&D=12396

Zoom Date: 11/4/2020 4:00-5:30pm

Registration Link:

https://www.mylearningplan.com/WebReg/ActivityProfile.asp?I=3619262&D=12396

This series of workshops is designed to help with computer skills and productivity through the understanding of similarities and differences between Microsoft and Google products and when it is best to use each platform. Each session, taught by CiTi Model Schools Staff, will have information related to a specific type of product and will include tips and tricks to assist you in your position.

6 Online Sessions from 1:00 - 2:00 PM (Zoom)

Please register on MyLearningPlan/Frontline.

11/17 Microsoft Excel & Google Sheets

Many of us are familiar with the ins and outs of Microsoft Word. We are going to look at the similarities and differences between Word and Google Docs, and see which program is better for doing specific functions.

1/26 Microsoft Excel & Google Sheets

During this session, you will learn the basics of creating and using a spreadsheet, as well as, identify the similarities and differences between Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. You may leave this training with a favorite, but it is intended to help you pick the best tool for each job.

2/23 Microsoft PowerPoint & Google Slides

Compare similarities and explore the differences between Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides. We’ll explore the unique features for each platform to help determine what works best for you.

3/23 Adobe PDF, Microsoft Fillable Forms & Google Forms

In this session, we will look at the similarities and differences between three tools commonly used to collect information: fillable PDFs made with Adobe, Microsoft Forms, and Google Forms. We will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each to help determine which might be most useful in different areas of your work.

4/20 Microsoft Outlook & Google Calendar/ Gmail

We will first explore Microsoft Outlook Email & Gmail, identifying features that differentiate the two platforms and discussing the pros and cons of each. We will then look at Microsoft Outlook Calendar & Google Calendar, examining their defining features. We will close with a discussion about how to decide which tool best fits your needs, and how the platforms can work in conjunction with one another.

5/18 Microsoft Publisher & Google Suite
In this session, you will explore the differences between how Google and Microsoft handle publishing and basic paint/drawing tools. First, we will look at Publisher and understand the limitations of Publisher files and publishing generically in Google. We'll close out by comparing and contrasting Microsoft Paint and Google Drawings. We'll also have a quick detour of the Snipping Tool, and how to take screenshots on Chromebook devices.

NYSED has released resource documents for the NEW US History and Government Regents Exam scheduled for June 2021. Included in this resource are the documents and short answer questions, the specific scoring rubric, sample student papers and an anchor paper and practice paper at each score point on a 5-point rubric. NYSED OSA released these materials to provide further understanding of the Part III Civic Literacy Essay Question and rubric for scoring actual student papers. Also included are Scoring Worksheets A and B, which can be used for training in conjunction with the practice papers. The 5-point scoring rubric is the same rubric used to score the Document-Based Question essay on the current United States History and Government Regents Examination.

Click here for access to documents.

Below are the meeting dates/times for each subgroup. Individuals can be apart of as many groups as they would like, we just ask that attendance is consistent throughout the year as maintaining a strong community climate is very important to the group. If you or any of your Fine Arts staff would like to take part in any of these groups, please feel free to reach out directly to our Arts in Education Coordinator, Will Jones for the meeting links and further information.

Tuesday, November 10th @ 3:30 - Best Practices in Fully Virtual and Hybrid Learning Models

Wednesday, November 4th @ 3:30 - Essential Standards/ Curriculum/Arts Literacy

Thursday, November 3rd @ 3:15 - Advocacy

If you weren't able to catch the virtual showcase live, we are happy to share that we have a link to watch a recording of the showcase when its convenient for you. The link will be available for a few weeks for schools to preview available shows so take advantage of the opportunity while you can.

https://www.academicentertainment.com/showcase1

Email: CiTiISS@citiboces.org
Website: CiTiboces.org/ISS
Location: 179 County Route 64, Mexico, NY, USA
Phone: 315-963-4425