Welcome BACKI hope you had an excellent first week. My goal is to transfer from the e-mails of weekly updates to weekly posts on this website. I will continue to share recent professional development opportunities that have been shared within the week, along with resources from Twitter, and upcoming district meetings/events. Since one of our focus areas will be on self-care and mindfulness, I will be sharing resources in this area as well through the weekly blog. If you come across any articles or resources that you think should be shared with others, please send them to me and I can add them to the weekly updates. Furthermore, I will send a link out in an e-mail to this blog, but I recommend that you subscribe by using a link on the right so if I add any additional resources to the blog you will automatically receive a notification. Have a great week! Professional DevelopmentPD Day Thank you again for a great first week and a productive opening PD Day. Here is a link to the opening PD presentation. PD Survey If you have not yet had a chance to complete the Opening Day PD Survey please do so as soon as possible so the PD Committee is able to review your feedback and plan for this year's PD sessions. PD Survey PD Committee We are seeking new members for the district PD Committee, in particular, we are interested in representatives from all buildings and across multiple disciplines/grade levels. We would also like some paraprofessional and ABA Tech representation on the committee. The PD Committee meets monthly after school from 3:45-5:00. Please email co-chairs Maureen Cohen and Brendon Rosenau if you are interested or would like more information. Book Study If you would like to join our monthly online book study for the district book Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators., please e-mail Maureen Cohen to be added to the Google Classroom at any time. Participants will receive PDPs for their participation in the online book study. This is open to all teachers and staff. Primary Source Courses We are a member district with Primary Source, which provides high quality professional development in social studies, humanities, and civics. They have just released their course catalog for 2019-2020 courses and registration is open for fall courses. Please review the catalog and e-mail Maureen if you are interested in taking one of the courses or workshops this fall. We have five openings for the fall. Primary Source Catalog PBL 101 Workshop Over the last two summers, many of our teachers have attended PBL 101 training in project-based learning, led by national trainers from the Buck Institute of Education. As a member district with LSDO we have at least two spots to attend a fall PBL 101 training on October 1-3 (8:30-3:30) in Bellingham. Please email Maureen if you are interested in attending the PBL 101 Workshop. ResourcesShared on Twitter Self-care Practice"The practice of setting intention--realizing your sense of purpose--can provide powerful support for personal transformation: becoming the teacher you wish to be. This simple exercise can help you to be more present and aware throughout the day. Take a moment to reflect on why you became a teacher. Think about the values that motivated you. Our values provide us with motivation, vision, and direction for our intentional behavior. We can reflect upon our actions to determine whether or not they are in alignment with our intention Throughout the day, we can take a moment to check in to see if we are on track.... I invite you to start with a very simple practice. Consider your intention for the remainder of this day. Send a few moments contemplating this question. For example, you may decide, 'My intention is to spend the rest of this day being calm and centered." Once you have settled on your intention, focus your attention on it for a short period of time. This is how we 'set' our intention. I recommend that you practice setting your intention every morning and check it during the day. It only takes a minute to reflect on the day, consider what you want to happen today, and decide how you want to behave. For example, I might think, 'My intention is to enjoy my class today' or 'Today I intend to find something positive to enjoy.'" (Jennings, P.A., Mindfulness for Teachers, pp. 22-23) Food for Thought
"The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written." --Melody Beattie
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