January 2 is a division-wide professional learning day. The following is a sampling of the many offerings on that day. Over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting more. To view and sign up for courses, please log into the PLMS website.
This week’s highlighted courses:
Fine Arts Spring Workshops: Instructional Strategies to Engage Diverse Learners
How can we build our classrooms and design our lessons to engage and respect all of our students? How can we integrate authentic literacy goals into our content? How do we focus on process to nurture higher order thinking? These workshops, presented by ACPS teachers and central office staff, will focus on engaging and nurturing all of our students in the fine arts. #14775
Ensuring Mathematics Success for All: Constructing Performance-Based Assessments and Canvas Work Session (Grades K-2) Restricted to K-2 Math Leaders Cohort Members and Math Coaches
How can we develop streamlined materials to support ACPS teachers as they follow the sequence and pacing of the ACPS mathematics curriculum? How can we develop student project-based inquiry materials to support high-need areas in mathematics? How can K-2 mathematics teacher leaders adapt, revise, or construct authentic performance-based assessments that can be used by ACPS teachers to monitor student progress in mathematics? During this work session math leaders cohort members will construct and format materials their K-2 colleagues can use this school year to implement the written curriculum. It will provide time for mathematics teacher leaders to learn and design engaging and authentic performance assessments aligned with the ACPS mathematics curriculum units. By the end of the session, participants will have created at least two products to be included in Canvas. #15281
Scientific Literacy Strategies for Formative Assessment in Secondary Science Classrooms
Why use formative assessment? Uncovering student misconceptions is an essential step to promoting scientific literacy in the secondary science classroom. Teachers will learn specific formative assessment strategies to help inform their instruction and collect meaningful data about student achievement without giving additional multiple-choice assessments. This session is required for all secondary science teachers who do not have a required session to attend at their home school. Please bring a charged laptop or Chromebook to this session. #15248
Incorporating Problem-Based Learning and Engineering Tasks into the Elementary Science Classroom
How can elementary teachers help students retain scientific content knowledge while developing higher-order thinking skills? During this session, K-5 science teachers will look at how problem-based learning and engineering tasks customize and personalize a student’s interaction with the science content. Participants will learn strategies for creating problem-based learning and engineering tasks that align with their grade-level standards. Participants will develop and share activities that incorporate these strategies into their classrooms. They will also learn differentiation strategies that can be easily incorporated into problem-based science tasks for all learners. #15263
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