ERTC Director’s Blog

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!
It is with great pleasure that I bring you the latest Center NEWS!

ERTC Website
Hopefully you’ve all had a chance to visit our newly-designed Website. This semester, our Web Master, Sarah Chauncey was named the Teachers’ Center Good Apple Award recipient. Congratulations, Sarah!

New Programs
• Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference will be held in NYC on March 7th & 8th. The Teachers’ Center is supporting 14 teachers to attend! This exciting experience has become one of the nation’s premier professional development events.

Update on TC Programs
• Professional Development Plan Grant, our NEWEST competitive grant, got off to a good start. The Center received nine (9) proposals, of which five (5) were funded.
Congratulations to the following grant winners!

o Miriam S. Lewis of Yeshiva Darchei Noam of Monsey, for “Schools Are Not for Bullies Anymore.” Inservice training workshops for staff to become aware of bullying and to develop a school-wide climate of zero-tolerance for bullying. - $800 for consultant.

o Therese Calvano of Margetts, for “SmartBoards for Smart Teachers to Make Smart Students.” Hands-on SmartBoard training/classroom visitation program for teachers to learn how to enhance ELA, Math, Social Studies and Science lesson plans. - $1500 for training, materials, and substitutes.

o Robin Bernstein of Colton, for “From Help to Hooray: Difficult Behaviors and Successful Interventions.” Training workshop conducted by Dr. Jed Baker to assist school psychologists and special education teachers in developing strategies to effectively respond to behavioral management issues. - $1500 for consultant, substitutes, and training materials.

o Eileen Anderson, Speech Language Teacher at Fleetwood, for “Way with Words: Workshop presented by Lydia Soifer, Ph.D.” - $1500 Consultant to provide K-3 and speech language teachers with workshop to improve their teaching techniques of word knowledge, develop lesson plans, and create a plan of action that will focus on RTI.

o Karen Miller, Special Education teacher at Chestnut Ridge Middle School, for “Project Read: Framing Your Thoughts.” Purchase of training program to provide teachers with the tools they need to instruct students with learning disabilities to express language skills in written format. - $1460.

PLEASE NOTE: While projects that were not funded certainly had good ideas, the Center was unable to award them because they either dealt with student activities and did not meet the purpose of this grant, or were not initiated by the teachers to be affected. The Center will revise the application for next year and will hold an initial “screening” forum for those who would like assistance with their proposal ideas. Watch for information this spring!

• SMARTBoard Training - In addition to the fall round of SmartBoard Building Resource Persons trained, the Teachers’ Center has trained a second teacher to serve as a SmartBoard Resource Person in the school buildings. The following list includes both the original SmartBoard Resource Person for your building, and the new person who will receive training during February and March.

o Fleetwood – Crystal Smalls
o Grandview – Traci Gales & Christina Ferrante
o Hempstead – Brian Mullan & Ericka Quinones
o Margetts – Terry Bakke & Ralph Iannucci
o Summit Park – Amy Bloom & Dovid Berkowitz
o Colton – Andy Chalfin & Marc Greenbaum
o Eldorado – Brian Patterson & Hugh Cooney
o Elmwood – Wendy Zweig & Colleen Carolan
o Hillcrest – Paul Mindich & Cheryl Taylor
o Lime Kiln – Boni Rose & Meryl Taylor
o Chestnut Ridge – Marie Horowitz
o Pomona – Liz Gottesman-Weiner & Linda Common
o Ramapo Freshman Center – Magali Dupuy & Faye Swanson-Dilworth
o Ramapo HS – Donna Avino & Brett Shelby
o Spring Valley HS – Duane Stilwell & Jannethe Pardo
o ER non-publics – Mark Berkowitz

• Reflective Practice Training – the Center has also trained several teachers in the process of Reflective Practice, which is a collaborative process of sharing, refining, problem solving and looking at teacher and student work. For more information about this process and how you can be trained to facilitate and/or participate in a group . . . .please call the Center at 6375. Participants can receive either inservice credit or funding for their experience. A second training with Howard Rodstein will be held on Saturdays – March 1st and 15th.

• National Board Certification Candidate Support – Twelve (12) teachers are participating in the Winter/Spring course, “The Path to National Board Certification,” which is being held at the Teachers’ Center for candidates beginning the process and those interested in learning more about it. Facilitated by National Board Certified teachers, Therese Calvano and Jeanne Lively.

• New Teacher Mentor Program
Advance notice . . . the New Teacher Mentor Program will be looking for mentors for the 2008-09 school year shortly. Please watch for program information, applications, and mentor training. It’s not too early to begin planning for next year!

• Courses
While the “Classroom Webpage, Thinkfinity & More!” course with Erin Higgins was originally scheduled for Wednesdays, based on popular demand by 11 teachers it was rescheduled for weekends. Do you have a group of teachers interested in a course/program? Let us know.

Watch for the Center’s survey of interest for summer courses . . . coming soon!

Keep warm and think spring!

It is with great pleasure and pride that I bring you this exciting NEWS!

ERTC Website
First of all, if you haven’t already noticed . . . our Website has been redesigned to be more user-friendly and attractive. Our Web Master, Sarah Chauncey who is the Library Media Specialist at Grandview School, has done an excellent job.

NEW to the Website this fall are:
• the Center’s Professional Resource Library database – allows you to conduct a search and request items from the Center’s library, online. Find it under Resources.
• the Reflective Practice video – this 20-minute video is a segment of an actual Reflective Practice Group session with our own teachers! It also provides information about this process. Check it out under Professional Development.
• Calendar – need to check the date of a workshop being held? Go to What’s Up where you will find our newly activated and up-to-date calendar of ERTC events.
• the Director’s Blog – will be published at least quarterly and will keep you abreast of “happenings” at the Center. It also can be found in What’s Up.

New Programs
• Professional Development Plan Grant, our NEWEST, new program, is a competitive grant of up to $1,500 to support professional development at the building level, either during or after school. Money may be used for projects such as . . . SmartBoard or other technology training; literacy workshops; a consultant; or a professional development need in your building. Application, rubric and program information can be found on our website.

• SMARTBoard Training - In response to the large number of teachers interested in learning how to integrate the SmartBoard with their curriculum, the Teachers’ Center has trained one teacher per building to serve as SmartBoard Resource Person. While they are still in the midst of becoming adept in the use of the SmartBoard, I thought I would let you know who the SmartBoard Resource Person is in your building. Here is the listing:

o Fleetwood – Crystal Smalls
o Grandview – Traci Gales
o Hempstead – Brian Mullan
o Margetts – Terry Bakke
o Summit Park – Amy bloom
o Colton – Andy Chalfin
o Eldorado – Brian Patterson
o Elmwood – Wendy Zweig
o Hillcrest – Paul Mindich
o Lime Kiln – Boni Rose
o Chestnut Ridge – Marie Horowitz
o Pomona – Liz Gottesman-Weiner
o Ramapo Freshman Center – Magali Dupuy
o Ramapo HS – Donna Avino
o Spring Valley HS – Duane Stilwell
o ER non-publics – Mark Berkowitz

Watch for our NEXT round of training! Applications and information will be sent out shortly.

• Reflective Practice Training – the Center has also trained several teachers in the process of Reflective Practice, which is a collaborative process of sharing, refining, problem solving and looking at teacher and student work. For more information about this process and how you can be trained to facilitate and/or participate in a group . . . .please call the Center at 6375. Participants can receive either inservice credit or funding for their experience.

• National Board Certification Candidate Support – during the Winter/Spring 2008 semester, the Teachers’ Center will offer an inservice course for those interested in learning more about the “Path to National Board Certification.” Facilitated by National Board Certified teachers, Therese Calvano and Jeanne Lively, participants in the course will be lead through a reflective journey that models the National Board process. Watch for announcement of dates.

New Teacher Mentor Program
For your information . . . the New Teacher Mentor Program is now in its tenth year. This year we have welcomed and provided mentors for approximately 45 new teachers. Once again the Center held a new teacher orientation at the Holiday Inn in Suffern, including a luncheon at which the new teachers met their mentor.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

11/07