September

 Building A Classroom Community- 

Virtually or F2F

Teaching Tolerance offers Resources for Back to School 2020 to help discuss racism, police violence, and self-care.

In Remote Learning for Our Youngest Students, Jen Schwanke details ways primary teachers are reaching out to students across barriers in age, language, ability and engagement. 

In How Do We Create a Community of Learners in a Virtual or Hybrid Model?  Clare Landrigan writes about creating familiar and predictable systems and structures for online communities. 

How to Build Relationships Virtually, by The Albert Team gives the why, challenges, and how to build relationships in virtual teaching and learning spaces. 

Registration is Live for Fall & Winter Virtual Professional Learning! 

Register HERE

E-mail with questions

Literacy Support in Our Community

YpsiWrites offers tutoring and programming for youth writers across Washtenaw County. We encourage teachers who are looking for extra support for their student writers to check out these programs.

-      YpsiWrites Virtual:  Offers both synchronous and asynchronous writing consults with trained YpsiWrites volunteers.

-        Using Writing to Make Your Voice Heard - Writing matters! Join this virtual workshop (via Zoom) to learn how to make our voices heard--and make a difference in our communities, lives, and world--through writing. (Saturday, Oct. 17, 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.) Register here

 

Washtenaw County Writing Center forSecondary Students

TheWCWC is designed to be a youth-led, youth-driven space that provides peer-to-peer online literacy and writing support for all students in Washtenaw County, engages students in using writing for advocacy and activism, and amplifies student writing in all forms. We’re in the beginning stages of this work and seek input from teachers and especially students.  If you’re interested in learning more or if you have a student to nominate for the Advisory Board, let us know through this form.

 

 

September Back-to-School Edition!

Back-to-School Resources

Educators know the first weeks of the school year are a crucial time to get to know our students as individuals with unique personalities, as learners in our classrooms, and as members of families and communities.  Building relationships with students and their families should be our first goal.  If you are looking for some new ideas and resources, check out:

• Teaching Tolerance-New Opportunities for Back to School shares best practices for policies and family communications;

• Pernille Ripp's Getting to Know Our Students surveys;

• NCTE's Actions for a Culturally Sustaining Classroom Environment;

• Ernest Morrell's 7 Strengths of Super Readers Series & Parent Pledge;

• MDE's Essentials for Families- What Families Can do to Support Reading and Writing

What do you do to get to know students and families?  Share in the comments! 

Professional Learning Opportunities

SOEL and IDLL-

The Study of Early Literacy (PreK-5) and the Inquiry into Disciplinary Literacy and Learning (6-12) are our networks to support best practices in literacy instruction.  If you are interested in learning more about either, please email me at mbrooksyip@washtenawisd.org  

KRA Data Day-  If you are administering the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment this fall and are interested in exploring how you can use the data to inform your instruction, join us on October 18th 8:30-3:30 at WISD.  FREE to all.    

Register HERE

Social Studies Standards, Framework and Disciplinary Literacy! 

Join us for a series of dates to help deepen our understanding of these three documents. 
 October 21, October 29, and November 7   8:30-3:30 at Saline Liberty School.   Free to Washtenaw County educators.  $25 for those outside of the county.

Register HERE for this three day series! 

July & August

Light Summer Reads

As we end July, and I see school supplies show up in stores, I start thinking of the first days of school! I appreciate some light reads with new ideas that are offered in Choice Literacy:

• For Instructional Coaches on Building Coach-Teacher Relationships

• Building Routines in the Early Elementary Classroom

• Voice and Choice in the Middle School Classroom

• You may also want to check Literacy Updates from MDE

Upcoming Professional Learning

Teaching the Holocaust, Empowering Students

July 31 8:30-3:30 at WISD

Register HERE

Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy-

 One Day Overviews

 August 1st for grades K-3 at WISD 8:30-3:30

August 2nd for grades 4-5 at WISD 8:30-3:30

At the end of each session, registrants will be invited to join the SOEL network for the 2019-2020 school year. 

**Also, don't forget about the online modules for the PreK and K-3 Essentials

September

Start Your School Year with Authentic Relationship and Community Building 

Teaching Tolerance provides 20 Face to Face Advisories

In these activities, students greet each other respectfully and then share interesting, meaningful activities that draw them together while practicing speaking and listening skills.

 They become more open to diverse people and cultures, ready to take a stand for equity. Such connections and understandings help create the optimal social emotional conditions for learning. They foster awareness of social biases and reveal possibilities for transforming them. 

       The activities are grouped by the domains of Teaching Tolerance’s Anti-bias Framework: Identity, Diversity, Justice and Action, with five advisories in each domain. 

See the entire guide HERE.

Powerful Literacy

Dr. Ernest Morrell, Professor of English at Notre Dame, and frequent guest speaker for SOEL and Responsive Mathematics, talks here about Powerful Literacy.  In listening to his definition we can see what is often lost among our mandates, programs, and test scores when it comes to thinking about what it means to be a literate individual. 

Upcoming Professional Learning Opportunities

Echoes and Reflections: Holocaust Professional Learning

Supporting educators and their students with the courage to question the past and the knowledge to impact the future.  

Join us October 9 & 10 at WISD from 9:00-3:00

• Meet the public act requirement for teaching the Holocaust and other genocides.
• Discover and utilize classroom-ready digital lesson plans, visual history testimonies, and additional primary source materials.
• Align the curriculum to your school improvement plan strategies and district needs.
• Make connections with what you are already do in your classrooms.
• Enhance personal knowledge about the Holocaust and other genocides.

REGISTER HERE

August

Back to School! 

Literacy Activities to Build a Healthy Classroom Culture

ReadWriteThink, a collaboration of the International Literacy Association (ILA), and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), is a trusted source for teacher created and teacher approved literacy based activities for the K-12 classroom. ReadWriteThink has a plethora of resources for back-to-school, including community building, booklists, autobiographies, literacy centers, and team building activities.  Check it out! 

Fall Professional Development Offerings

Life's Better...When You Blend

October 5, 2016    $25

Register HERE  and see more information
*This session, for grades 6-12 teachers of all content areas, will evaluate how blended learning can be used to personalize learning for students. 

EdCamp:  Total Contact Literacy  October 15 at Eastern Michigan University  FREE More information to come!  This is relevant for K-12 teachers. Writing Collaborative Three Day Workshop October 13, 14 and November 3  $125   Register HERE and see full description *This is most useful for grades 4-12 teachers of all subject areas.  It is centered on writing in the content areas. Echoes and Reflections & Wiesel's Night November 2, 2016  $25 Register HERE and see full description *This is most useful for middle and high school ELA  and social studies teachers.       Writing Collaborative:  SAT Essay Edition November 17    $25 Register HERE and see more information *High school ELA and Social Studies teachers  will understand SAT writing in order to support students. ********************************  STAY TUNED for Winter Professional Learning offerings! Reading Apprenticeship 3-Day Training (interest survey)  Research Writing with Dr. Troy Hicks