professional development ideas

Hello. I am in need of some great activities I can do with my staff for our professional development in March. The theme is climate and culture.

If you know of any great activities or websites, please send them my way.

Thanks

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on February 23, 2010 at 8:24pm

If by climate, you mean improving academic performance of ELLs, let me suggest a great site for webcasts on all issues related to ELLs: http://www.colorincolorado.org/webcasts/

I use them when I do teacher trainings as well as for consulting assignments in districts where ELL test scores are weak. All grade levels are addressed here along with good strategies to improve instruction.

I also included a great power point on culture and diversity. If nothing else, it is a place to start.

Good luck!

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com

www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

Attachments:

Diversity powerpoint awesome.ppt, 374 KB

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Katy Scott on February 23, 2010 at 8:44pm

I worked at a KIPP school in inner-city New Orleans last year. I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but KIPP schools have culture-building down to a science. It's amazing what can happen when you focus on building culture within a school.

Scroll down to page 48 of this document to read about some culture-building activities at one KIPP school:
http://policyweb.sri.com/cep/publications/SRI_ReportBayAreaKIPPScho...

I also found this scientific article, which begins by detailing some of the culture building that goes on at another KIPP school: http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/4/...

If you're unfamiliar with the program, here's an older video (it's two parts) about how KIPP schools work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAKBnR-QSls&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ1lMVr-IDU&feature=related

Good luck!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Lawler on February 24, 2010 at 8:06am

Check out Cultural Proficiency and Culturally Proficient Instructionby Robins, Lindsey, Lindsey and Terrell. We have gotten some good material out of these resources that we used with staff district wide during Cultural Competency professional development sessions.