Teaching & Learning Updates
Curriculum, Lesson Planning & Professional Learning News
New Curriculum and Lesson Planning Platforms
Everyone in BISD now has the opportunity to get set up and learn how to use the new curriculum and lesson planning platforms through a self-paced, digital training. In August 2017, everyone will have dedicated time on a district professional learning day to go through this same training with experts in the room to help. Additionally, there are opportunities this summer to come by the lab and get face-to-face support.
Whether you go through the training at home in your pajamas, come by a lab for additional support this summer, or wait until August, you will have the opportunity to learn at your own pace and become confident in the new platforms before school starts!
Get Started Here
Summer Sessions for Face-to-Face Support
So, will we still have eduphoria next year?
- Forethought: we will no longer use Forethought, but teachers have access through August 2017 if they still need to save any of their plans.
- Workshop and Appraise: pending Board approval, we will be moving to a new system to manage professional learning and teacher growth/evaluation. All data will be transferred from these two applications, so you do not need to worry about saving any documents. Stay tuned for more information when you return in August.
- Aware: we will continue to use Aware for the 17-18 school year.
T-TESS Implementation: TEA wants to hear from you
TEA is requesting your feedback through the T-TESS Teacher and Appraiser Survey process as part of our on-going effort to understand teacher and appraiser experiences with T-TESS and support T-TESS implementation across the state.
Data from the survey process will be used to inform planning for resources and training for the 2017 – 2018 school year. Feedback from practitioners is especially critical to understanding how best to support T-TESS implementation over time so we would greatly appreciate your robust participation in the survey process this spring. All input, positive and negative, is extremely valuable so we thank you in advance for taking time during this busy time of the year to share your perceptions about the T-TESS process.
Each survey takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and will be available from Friday, May 19, 2017 through Friday, June 2, 2017. The survey data will be compiled by the Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC) so the data is confidential to the extent permissible by law and no personally identifiable data will be shared with TEA.