Content

Training Work Samples
//Differentiated Instruction// presentation at the BCIU Co-Teaching Conference (September, 2009)

Link to a Wiki that I created for York City Schools with training samples.

R.A.D. Strategies to Ignite Student Learning - a presentation to the Titus Elementary School faculty (January, 2010)

**//Program Development//**

 * //Building a Community of Writers//** is a year-long professional learning experience that will be launched in August 2010. The purpose of this program is to increase nonpublic students' achievement in writing by engaging teachers in instructional strategies that work and providing them with the resources necessary to implement the strategies. The program will foster teacher leadership by asking principals to nominate teachers for participation, and then supporting the teachers in taking their new learning back to their colleagues. Participants will be organized into professional learning communities throughout the five face-to-face meetings and will also provide follow-up support in between those meetings.

__Sessions 1 & 2: August 25 & 26 - Write From the Start: Building a Community of Writers__ This full day (8:30-3:30) will prepare participants to launch the writing workshop in their classroom. We will explore what a Writers Notebook is, what it is not, and how this powerful tool can strengthen and enliven the writing classroom. Teachers will spend time generating ideas, sharing writing, and experiencing the various uses for notebooks. Participants will also delve into the most difficult part of utilizing a writers notebook: revisiting “seed ideas” planted in the notebook and growing them into drafts. Participants will receive the following resources: Units of Study by Lucy Calkins or Lessons that Change Writers by Nancie Atwell (depending on participants' grade level assignment), Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner, and a Digital Document Camera.
 * Below is an overview of the program as it is being currently developed**:

__Session 3: October - (4:30-8:00 PM) - Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing__ As students learn how to write from writers, it opens them up to a huge warehouse of possibilities for how to make their writing good writing. Participants will learn how to discover authors' crafts, facilitate an organized inquiry, teach a focus lesson, and cultivate a reading-like-a-writer habit of mind. Participants will receive Mentor Texts and Nonfiction Mentor Texts by Lynne Dorfman and Rose Cappelli.

__Session 4: January - (4:30-8:00 PM) - Conferring with Student Writers__ Conferring with student writers is the most crucial part of a successful writing workshop- but can be the most challenging! This session will focus on conducting successful conferences: the structure of the conference, teacher's and student's responsibility during the conference, and planning for and managing the conference. Participants will receive How's It Going? by Carl Anderson.

__Session 5: March - (4:30-8:00 PM) - Creating Wonder: Nonfiction Writing Across the Day__ Students come to school naturally curious. Through writing, we can encourage and nurture this curiosity. This session will engage participants in practical strategies for incorporating writing across the school day. Participants will receive Creating Wonder: Nonfiction Reading and Writing by Georgia Heard or Stuck in the Middle by Donna Topping and Roberta McMannus.

==//**Evidence that staff development deepens educators' content knowledge, provides them with research-based instructional strategies to assist students in meeting rigorous academic standards, and prepares them to use various types of classroom assessments appropriately.**//==

Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) is a professional development curriculum series designed by the staff and participants of the Teaching to the Big Ideas project. The curriculum is designed to help teachers think through the major ideas of elementary and middle school mathematics and examine how students develop those ideas. DMI curriculum is well grounded in the pedagogy and content of standards-based mathematical learning opportunities, both for children and adult learners. They provide a rigorous model for teachers to follow in their own mathematics instruction. This professional development experience will deepen participants' understanding of the four basic operations, beginning with counting strategies and progressing through algebraic thinking.
 * Developing Mathematical Ideas: All About Operations!**


 * Participants will:**
 * Explore the major ideas that underlie elementary and middle school mathematics.
 * Analyze the mathematical thinking of elementary students through video and print cases.
 * Investigate how to support the power and complexity of students' mathematical ideas.
 * Reflect on their own experiences in this learning community to consider the implications for teaching practice.