Professional Development
Syracuse City School District - December 2020
The PL Team is committed to coordinating efforts to provide daily opportunities for training and support for our SCSD Staff that would help them to maintain continuity in communication and learning for our SCSD Students & Families during the Covid19 Pandemic. The following is a summary report of that work for the past calendar month.
Choice PD Sessions
The following professional learning offerings were available to staff in December:
- Weekly Demo Lessons by Content/Grade Level (212)
- AVID Strategies (6)
- Social Emotional Learning Integration (6)
- ENL 101 & 102 (3)
- Zearn Math (1)
- Virtual Engagement with Pet Worlds (1)
- Breakout Rooms (6)
- Advanced Placement Video Series (2)
- Self-Paced PL Playlist (4)
- LMS Nearpod Turnkey Training (2)
- The Person You Mean to Be Turnkey Training (1)
- PL-LC 101: Learner Champion (4)
- Teams Basics (1)
- SCSD PL Coach Office Hours
Rate the Experience: 1 (Poor) to 5 (Excellent) Stars - 4.63
- The overview for upcoming weeks is helpful. I appreciate the help with troubleshooting virtual learning issues. Excited for new ideas for student engagement being added to the Padlet.
- Was super helpful for setting up my lessons to meet district expectations.
- Learned a lot from my peers and got great ideas and strategies for teaching virtually and in person, particularly with collaboration.
- Content was presented in an organized way. There was also explanations about the activities that was provided to teachers.
- We shared lots of great ideas, and had a refreshing reminder to not just shove content down their throats, but also make sure we are teaching critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Teachers shared how they are assessing students. Learned new methods for assessing virtually.
- Thank you for redirecting some of these personal questions to office hours! As always, great content and the demo teachers rock!
- Excellent presentations and I appreciate people staying on for office hours to share different things that are working for them.
- I loved that we had teachers sharing their practices with other teachers. This activity was something that speaks to many of the games that our students play on their tablets or phones outside of the school day. It's awesome that the presenter could tap into what her students would respond to!
- It was helpful to hear how other teachers are doing with the new unit and how I can best meet the needs of my students.
- Well thought out PD, choice time, collaboration time.
Love how we got to choose a breakout room with different presenters and different topics.
This was a nice change up for Wednesday PD! I think some weeks it might be necessary to dive into content in depth, especially when it comes time for the next unit. But being able to choose from all the options was more beneficial and supportive than I anticipated.
- Dear god so many links. It took me the entire session to find the email that had the links buried in 100 reply all emails.
- Please stop teaching us the lessons and just give us what we need to plan.
- It was really helpful to have time to collaborate with peers and then hear from other peers. I think that it felt a little rushed at the end to share out, and it was hard to process everything that people were sharing. It might be helpful to structure the share outs a little more and give more time for groups to ask and answer questions.
- It was a lot of the same material we've already done in SEL PD. I thought it would be a little different. The presenters were great, the information was redundant.
- PD needs to be separated for teachers in grades that are departmentalized.
- Has it been considered to only offer these PD sessions once or twice a month as opposed to every week? This would allow building teams to collaborate on the resources available and meet with building coaches to differentiate to meet the needs of the students in their building. At this point, everyone should know how to find resources on the Padlet. Building teachers have precious little time to collaborate with their teammates and building coaches.
- The recorded video was fast paced. I think for me it would have helped me if it was presented a little slower. So, I will watch it again.
- Specific session today was not the best use of time, in my opinion. The facilitator just broke us into our school's teams to discuss. It turned into a chat that was not helpful to our team's needs.
It's the same every week but I'm guessing necessary. I appreciate all the work that happens behind the scenes.
Weekly Demonstration Lesson Sessions
Teacher Highlights
Fred Oltz, WCNY Lessons
Porter Elementary School Physical Education Teacher & SyraFuse Cohort 5 Fellow
What is your role?
"By demonstrating different activities and games through the WCNY lessons that I have filmed, it has provided our students a chance to remain active while learning from home. The nice part about the WCNY lessons is that both remote and hybrid students have access to the lessons and can complete them at their own convenience (on demand)."
What are the best parts of the job?
"I would have to say the best part with being on WCNY was back in the spring when I had received a message on Twitter from a family in Canada that said they saw my episode and wanted to reach out. It has been a fun challenge to bring in school lessons to life on the silver screen."
What are the challenges?
"The biggest challenge would have to actually put myself out there. It is not a fear of failure, but more so a fear of not doing enough. By creating and putting not only material but myself out there, it has been an uncomfortable yet rewarding experience. An additional challenge would have to be finding ways to create equipment at home. Traditionally, the materials needed for the lesson are commercially produced and are used while in. I have had to incorporate different materials to bring these lessons to life. Socks, towels, laundry baskets, paper are just a few of the items that have been used to bring Physical Education into the house."
Why is this work rewarding?
"I had a parent say at the beginning of the school year “thank you for all of the activity ideas from the spring, it helped us stay active throughout the summer.” That statement was probably the best thing that I could of heard. I have wondered what more can I do? What that parent said gave me the reassurance that I needed to keep the creativity going and finding/creating new lessons and activities for 2020 and beyond."
Related Links:
Midheta Mujak, ELA 9 & 10, Nottingham High School
"Hello, I am Midheta Mujak, an ENL and ELA teacher at Nottingham High School. I provide the district with demonstration videos for English 9 and English 10. The best part of being a demonstration teacher is the ability to bring together all the teachers from different schools. I am able to create a community of caring and collaboration. Teachers are able to support each other by sharing resources and working together to problem solve. It is challenging to meet the need of a big group of teachers who have diverse populations and needs in their classroom, but having a wonderful community to support me makes it all worth it.
Check out this video where I help students understand the importance of making a schedule!"
Weekly Choice Sessions
Breakdown by the Core 4 Elements of Personalized Learning
SCSD Personalized Learning Office Hours
SyraFuse Fellowship Highlights
Fuse Syracuse (SyraFuse) strives to implement and scale personalized and blended learning across the Syracuse City School District by creating and training teacher leaders as change agents. The Fuse Syracuse initiative recruits a group of educators called Fuse Fellows for a 1-year fellowship. Fellows will be trained on personalized learning models and best practices, blended learning tools and strategies, coached on classroom implementation, and supported to establish their own “Lighthouse Classroom” to serve as a model of personalized and blended instruction in their building and district.
Fuse Fellows are passionate, curious innovators in their schools who model a growth mindset, and are open to trying new things and taking their practice to the next level. They are natural change agents for their schools, and welcome the opportunity to advance the field through their own leadership and instructional innovation. We are now working with cohort 5 of the fellowship!
Thien An Huynh-Boyle, Van Duyn Elementary School
"Today's lesson was INCREDIBLE! I feel like a proud mom" was the excited reflection from all-virtual-teacher Thien An Huynh-Boyle on a cold Monday in December. She was beaming from ear to ear as she shared her joy for the student-led virtual small groups she incorporated into her plans on this day. Each group was leading their own discussion and completing an assignment - independently!
This is just one of the many creative, growth-minded accomplishments of Ms. Huynh-Boyle this school year. She was one of the lead facilitators and a teacher of the virtual summer school program this past summer, she created a student facing Teams tutorial for elementary classrooms early in the school year, and just recently, she led a Wednesday PD session to share a virtual engagement program - pet worlds - she designed from scratch that has led to 100% engagement in virtual learning in her classroom. And that's not all! To wrap up the month, she planned and facilitated a Virtual Family Fun Night for the Van Duyn Community using a Seesaw Activity & Teams Meetings.
Thien An is a passionate, creative, and hard-working teacher-leader. There is nothing that she cannot do when she sets her mind to it, especially when it comes to teaching and supporting her students and their families. Though she misses seeing her students in person each and every day, she has embraced her role as a virtual teacher, and she is knocking it out of the park. We are beaming with pride to call Thien An a SyraFuse Fellow!
Related Resources:
Becca Pena, Clary Middle School
Music Teacher & SyraFuse Cohort 5 Fellow
I love being able to try new strategies and techniques I see being modeled by the coaches and my peers in our meetings and virtual classroom visits; not only that, but it is incredibly meaningful to immediately have the chance to receive feedback, reflect and modify those strategies and techniques in a way that makes sense in my own classroom. I have been able to engage my students through SEL activities, build community through games and discussions, and seek their input on the processes and learning experiences that are the most meaningful to them.
Teaching middle school music completely virtually this year has been a significant challenge, requiring a complete shift in many areas of my teaching. However, through the creative use of tools like Nearpod, pushing myself to take chances on new ways of presenting content, and working hard to promote student voice and choice in our virtual classroom, I am seeing my students grow in ways I might never have expected. One of my personal goals as an educator is to provide a space for my students to become creative risktakers. SyraFuse has become that space for me, and as a result, I can see my students growing towards that goal every day. I am grateful to be a part of such an amazing Fellowship!" We are proud to have Becca in the Fuse Fellowship!
Laurie Collins, Henninger High School
"We are doing something fun today!" announces the teacher as her students settle into the Teams Meeting for writing class this past month. Her excitement for teaching her students is palpable, even in a virtual environment. Laurie Collins is an English Teacher at Henninger High School, and on this day, her students were learning to show rather than tell in their writing. She teaches SUPA Writing and English 11. From the beginning of the pandemic, Laurie has demonstrated an amazing growth mindset and eagerness to learn the tools of her "new" trade. Since March, she has participated in almost every professional development session offered to her to help her shift to teaching and learning online. Every day, she does what it takes to meet the needs of her students. From flexible tools like Canvas, Teams, EDpuzzle, and Office 365 to personalized practices such as being culturally responsive, using formative assessment to drive instruction, and offering choice and voice to students, Laurie is a dedicated, reflective, hard-working, and self-driven teacher-leader. We are proud to call her a Cohort 5 SyraFuse Fellow!
Student & Family Support provided by SCSD School Librarians
Prekindergarten – Grade 12 Library Media Specialists in the SCSD provide helpdesk support to students and families in the SCSD. They are available between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM Monday – Friday each week. Families are able to sign up for virtual help directly on the Syracuse City Schools Website.
Elementary Support Calendar & Stats
Elementary LMS Highlight
Megan Healy, HW Smith PK-8 School
I am good at reading aloud, picking out great books for the collection, creating fun learning projects, and teaching students tech tools. I Barnes-and-Noble up the library, giving it some polish with art and book displays. I have to say that I did not enter the field because of any interest in technology, so I was surprised when it became one of my favorite aspects of the job.
During hybrid learning, my role has been almost exclusively tech support. While I really enjoy – and miss – the great fun of a story and a good class discussion, it is also rewarding to help my students through the sticky spots they encounter with their computers and learning platforms. I like that I have been able to talk way more with parents than I’ve ever have before. Some days my phone rings off the hook, and it is satisfying to be able to talk them through their difficulties, and hear the stress drain out of their voice. I allow them to feel heard and reassured, and most of all, encourage them in the fact that they’ve got this, they can do this, they are capable, and I will do absolutely everything I can to help them in the process."
Secondary Support Calendar & Stats
Secondary LMS Highlight
Bettina Bender, PharmD, EMBA, MLIS Candidate, Brighton Academy
"The role of a Library Media Specialist in this day and age of COVID-19 and social distancing, has changed a bit, to say the least. The greater part of my day consists of technology demands, ranging anywhere from troubleshooting computers or hotspots, to distributing and replacing laptops, so that both students and teachers can effectively manage this novel way of hybrid learning. It allows me to feel a sense of accomplishment, knowing that I can help to rectify a technology issue for our SCSD Community either in my school, Brighton Academy; through the Virtual Tech Support service; or through the Family and Student Tech Support line, which in turn, helps to ultimately strengthen the relationship between the SCSD and the families that we serve.
Even though the tech issues seem to be on going, my day is not solely filled with solving the problems of the world. I do, in fact, have an opportunity to engage and connect with my students, daily, through CREW or as a co-teacher. Additionally, I am able to support students’ reading exploration through my Library Distant Learning Page on Canvas; whereby students are able to access both SORA and Audible; and learn new words with games provided by Merriam Webster Dictionary Online; as well as provide students with a safe space to express themselves through interpreting and appreciating poetry.
Even though the role of a Library Media Specialist is consistently evolving, I feel this opportunity has broadened my perspective as to how I can make a very positive difference in the lives of SCSD students and their learning."