Professional Development Through Montevallo Regional Inservice Center

The University of Montevallo Regional Inservice Center has announced its professional development workshop series for this summer.

Click here to access the brochure

You will find some excellent, free workshops. All registration is done through STI-PD.

1. Log in to STI-PD
2. Enter "umins09" in the space for PD Title Number on the right-hand side of the PD Title page. Click on the "Search Now" button.
3. Scroll down to find the PD Title that you want to enroll in.
4. Click on the highlighted word "List" on the right-hand side of the box.
5. Find the session that you would like to register for.
6. Click the "Enroll Now" button.

For more detailed instructions for STI-PD, please visit www.montevallo.edu/ic and click on “STI-PD Instructions.”

In your profile in STI-PD, it will be important that you have an e-mail which you regularly check during the summer. We all have the capability to check our school e-mail from home. On this blog, there is a link that will take you to the e-mail program. From there, you simply enter your username and password. If you do not know you user name or password, another teacher or your principal should be able to help you with that.

Please also note that the University of Monetvallo Regional Inservice Center is not located in Montevallo. It's on Highway 31 in Pelham. Directions are included at the bottom of the brochure.

Bibb County Summer Technology Conference

Bibb County Schools will be hosting a technology conference on July 13-14. Information on the conference is found by clicking here. Registration is free to those in the University of Montevallo Inservice Region (which would be us) up through the first week in July. Registration will be handled through PDWeb.

If you have a session you would like to present, you may complete this form.

Thanks to Dr. Alesa Judd, Assistant Superintendent of Bibb County Schools, for making this opportunity available.

Energy Action Workshop

The Alabama Dept. of Economic & Community Affairs Energy Division and National Energy Foundation is offering a half-day workshop for those interested in starting an "Energy Action Patrol" student conservation group at their school.

The workshop will be held Wednesday, April 15 at the Jefferson County School Central Office from 11:30 to 3:30 P.M. Lunch is provided.

This workshop is open to teachers in grades 5-8. Dr. Horton is interested in sending one teacher from either 5th or 6th grade and one teacher from either 7th or 8th grade.

The sponsoring organization will pay $50 towards the substitute, you will receive 4 hours of professional development credit, and you will be provided with a full complement of materials.

Additional information is provided is located here.

If you are interested in attending, you may contact Dr. Buck directly.

January 5 Schedule

The schedule for our January 5 professional development day was posted earlier this month. If you missed it or need to view it again, click here.

Schedule for January 5 Professional Development

Here is the schedule for our January 5th professional development day as it relates to the elementary schools. The schedule for elementary school teachers is as follows:

8:15-11:15

Grades Pre-K through 2

R. L. Young Auditorium

Mary Foshee from the Children's Dance Foundation will return. The topic will be movement activities which general education teachers can do with students. With a Pre-K through 2 audience, Mary will focus on activities particularly appropriate for that grade level. Wear comfortable clothes. This will definitely be an audience participation activity! (You will not need to sign up on PDWeb. I will take care of signing you up and printing the roster.)

Grades 3 through 6

C. L. Salter Lunchroom

Pat Yates will be our guest. The inservice will focus on Reader's Theatre. (You will not need to sign up on PDWeb. I will take care of signing you up and printing the roster.)

Certified personnel other than classroom teachers (principals, reading coaches, librarians, counselors, special education teachers) will select one inservice or the other. You will sign up on PDWeb to do that. Search for PDTitle 194-56. Sign up for the appropriate session. Click here to go to PDWeb and take care of that right now.

11:15-12:30 Lunch on your own

12:30-3:00
Grade-Level Inservice--Pre-K through 6 teachers will go to the same school as August 5th and October 6th (You will not need to sign up on PDWeb. I will take care of signing you up and printing the roster.):

Pre-K & Kindergarten- Raymond L. Young

1st Grade- Graham

2nd Grade- C. L. Salter

3rd & 4th Grade- Houston

5th & 6th Grade- Hal Henderson

Principals and Reading Coaches--Take responsibility for facilitating the inservice at your school. (You will not need to sign up on PDWeb. I will take care of signing you up and printing the roster.)

Physical Education Teachers--Meet at Salter. Coach Darby will facilitate. (You will not need to sign up on PDWeb. I will take care of signing you up and printing the roster.)

Librarians--Stay at your school and meet with the grade level teachers. (Example: R. L. Young librarian will meet with meet at Young with kindergarten teachers.) This will give librarians a picture of what is being discussed and how your program can fit. (You will not need to sign up on PDWeb. I will take care of signing you up and printing the roster.)

Counselors--Stay at one of your schools and meet with the grade level teachers. This will give librarians a picture of what is being discussed and how your program can fit. You will sign up on PDWeb. Search for PDTitle 194-51. Sign up for the appropriate session. Click here to go to PDWeb and take care of that right now.

Special Education Teachers--You will meet with a group of regular education teachers. Collaborative teachers may choose between 2nd grade (Salter), 3rd & 4th grade (Houston), 5th & 6th grade (Graham). Speech and self-contained teachers may choose between any of the grade levels. You will sign up on PDWeb. Search for PDTitle 194-51. Sign up for the appropriate session. Click here to go to PDWeb and take care of that right now.

Daily Home Article

Thanks to The Daily Home for this morning's front-page article. Brandon Fincher stayed for practically the entire program before writing the article. Bob Crisp was on hand to take photographs. You can read the entire article by clicking here.

This in-service was made possible through grants from the Talladega City Schools Foundation, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Professional Development Day Monday (Elementary Schools)

Here is the schedule for our October 6th professional development day as it relates to the elementary schools. All of the activities, locations, and times are the same as the September 5th post. I have added the afternoon information for specialty areas.

The schedule for elementary school teachers is as follows:

8:15-11:00 Inservice at R. L. Young. Mary Foshee from the Children's Dance Foundation in Homewood will be our guest. The topic will be movement activities which general education teachers can do with students. Wear comfortable clothes. This will definitely be an audience participation activity!

11:00-12:30 Lunch on your own

12:30-3:00

• Grade-Level Inservice--K-6 teachers will go to the same school as August 5th.
• Physical Education Teachers--Meet at Salter. Coach Darby will facilitate.
• Librarians--Meet in the Ellis library. The subject will be work on the policies and procedures manual.
• Counselors--Meet in the testing room at Dixon. Cheryl Ford will facilitate. The topic will be updating the system guidance plan.
• Special Education Teachers--I will be sending an e-mail to you individually on a professional development activity for that afternoon using Special Ed. Connect.

Schedule for Professional Development Day (Elementary Schools)

Our next professional development day will be October 6. The schedule for elementary school teachers is as follows:

8:15-11:00 Inservice at R. L. Young. Mary Foshee from the Children's Dance Foundation in Homewood will be our guest. The topic will be movement activities that general education teachers can do with students. Wear comfortable clothes. This will definately be an audience participation activity!

11:00-12:30 Lunch on your own

12:30-3:00 Grade-Level Inservice. K-6 teachers will go to the same school as August 5th.

Additional information for special education teachers, counselors, and physial education teachers will come later.

Professional Development Credit

At this point, I have awarded credit from all of the sign-in sheets from August 4-6 that involved teachers from multiple schools. (Anything happening at just one school for that one faculty is the responsibility of that school.) Several of our new teachers were not showing up at all in PDWeb and still are not. Those names should pull automatically from STIOffice. I will have to see if there is something incorrect in individual school setups or if there is a problem elsewhere.

I have also identified about 10 people that for some reason are listed in PDWeb twice (as if they were two different people). I will be talking with STI in Mobile regarding merging those records and eliminating the duplicates. That is something they have to do rather than our being able to handle it locally.

Credit Awarded on PDWeb

I have awarded credit from this morning’s inservice from the sign-in sheets. To see that you have been awarded credit, log in to PDWeb and click on “My History.” You should see your credit as having been awarded.

If your name did not print our on the sign-in sheet, there is no way I can award credit for you. If your name was not on the sign-in sheet, it means you are not in PDWeb. PDWeb pulls from STIOffice. Certain fields must be correct in STIOffice in order for your data to copy into PDWeb.

An e-mail went to all school secretaries outlining what had to be present in STIOffice. A place to start would be to consult the principal or secretary at your school to see if the instructions in that e-mail had been followed. The process of pulling employees from STIOffice over into PDWeb happens automatically over the weekend, so if changes are made this week, they will show up on Monday morning.

Once you are in PDWeb, you can be awarded credit. I will need to have a memo from your principal stating that you attended the training and that at the time of the training you were not in PDWeb.

Welcome, Dr. Dennis King

The keynote speaker for our August 4 inservice program will be Dr. Dennis King. Dr. King is Assistant Superintendent of School Improvement for Blue Valley School District in Overland Park, Kansas. You may view Dennis King's biography by clicking here.

The topic of Dr. King's keynote will be Professional Learning Communities. In an Education World article by Linda Starr, the author defines the "PLC" this way: Professional learning communities are teams of educators systematically working together to improve teaching practice and student learning. Research suggests that such learning communities are characterized by:

• supportive and shared leadership
• shared values and vision
• collective responsibility for pupils learning
• the promotion of personal reflection and team collaboration
• supportive physical and personal conditions

We look forward to having Dennis King with us on August 4th.

PD in Your PJs

As the online delivery of technology training expands, weekly live web shows are being used to demonstrate to teachers how to apply the latest tools. That is the first sentence from an article about this "cutting edge" approach. You can read it here.

We have much the same opportunity available to us right now through our Talladega City Cyberschool. If one of your summer projects is to improve your skills with technology, this site takes you step-by-step through a variety of programs of your choice. You can do it anytime and from anywhere. Professional development, even from home, even in your pajamas. That's what we call PD in your PJs!

In addition, if you are wanting to learn Excel and are willing to invest a little time, e-mail me, and I will let you know about a site that is the best I have seen at teaching Excel in a way that is relevant to our needs in terms of analyzing data.

Schedule for April 25

Here is the schedule for April 25:

Morning
7:30-7:55 Everyone except elementary principals, reading coaches, librarians, and kindergarten teachers—Sign-in at Talladega High School. The program will be a state-required, three-hour in-service on nutrition. (Not my idea, not Joni’s idea, so just remember the old adage about not shooting the messenger.) The speaker will begin promptly at 8:00, so everyone must be signed in ahead of time.

7:30-7:55 Elementary Principals, Reading Coaches, and Kindergarten Teachers—Sign-in at R.L. Young. The program consist of training on StoryTown. We have been able to secure three consultants for the day to deliver training targeted for your particular position. The training will begin promptly at 8:00. Principals and Reading Coaches will be in the auditorium. Kindergarten teachers will bei the library.

11:00-12:30 Lunch on your own

Afternoon
12:30-3:30 Grades 1-6 Teachers, Elementary Principals, Reading Coaches, Elementary Counselors, and Elementary Special Education Teachers—Training on StoryTown. The training will be at R.L. Young. First grade will be in the auditorium. Grades 2 and 3 will be in the library. Grade 4-6 will be in the lunchroom. Principals, reading coaches, counselors, and special education may split up among the three groups.

12:30-3:30 Kindergarten Teachers —Nutrition training. The program from the morning will be videotaped, and you will be able to view it. The training will be in the library at Salter.

12:30-3:30 Elementary PE Teachers—There will be a special session for you. The training will be held in Coach Darby's room at Salter. Sheila Jett, a physical education teacher from Montevallo Middle School, will conduct the professional development. Ms. Jett has 11 years experience at the elementary level and 12 at the middle school level. She comes to us highly recommended.

12:30-3:00 Secondary Teachers—The afternoon session will be at your school. Your principal will provide details.

We will schedule a time for principals, reading coaches, and librarians to view the nutrition video at a later date.

PDWeb—I have registered everyone for the morning sessions. I have also registered everyone except Ellis and THS for the afternoon sessions. All that you will have to do is sign the sign-in sheet and take the online survey afterwards. If for some reason you do not find your name on the appropriate roster, you may simply sign at the bottom.

Professional Development-April 25

Preliminary information for our April 25th Professional Development Day is as follows:

Morning
7:30-7:55 Everyone except elementary principals, reading coaches, and kindergarten teachers—Sign-in at Talladega High School. The program will be a state-required, three-hour in-service on nutrition. (Not my idea, not Joni’s idea, so just remember the old adage about not shooting the messenger.) The speaker will begin promptly at 8:00, so everyone must be signed in ahead of time.

7:30-7:55 Elementary Principals, Reading Coaches, and Kindergarten Teachers—Sign-in at R.L. Young. The program consist of training on StoryTown. We have been able to secure two consultants for the day (and we are actually working on the possibility of a third) to deliver training targeted for your particular position. The training will begin promptly at 8:00. More details as to what rooms at Young will be used later.

11:00-12:30 Lunch on your own

Afternoon
12:30-3:30 Grades 1-6, Elementary Counselors, and Elementary Special Education Teachers—Training on StoryTown. The training will be at R.L. Young.
12:30-3:30 Kindergarten Teachers —Nutrition training. The program from the morning will be videotaped, and you will be able to view it. Location to be announced.
12:30-3:30 Elementary Principals and Reading Coaches—Attend StoryTown training at R.L. Young
12:30-3:30 Elementary PE Teachers—There will be a special session for you. Location to be determined.
12:30-3:00 Secondary Teachers—The afternoon session will be at your school. Your principal will provide details.

We will schedule a time for principals and reading coaches to view the nutrition video at a later date.

PDWeb—I will register everyone for the morning sessions. I will also register everyone except Ellis and THS for the afternoon sessions. All that you will have to do is sign the sign-in sheet and take the online survey afterwards.

Schedule for April 25 Professional Development

The schedule for our April 25th Professional Development Day is as follows:
8:00-8:30 Sign-in at Talladega High School

8:30 Program begins. The program consists of training on nutrition. Three hours of training is mandated by the State Department.

11:30 Lunch

1:00-3:00 Professional development on Storytown for all elementary teachers. Training will be held in the auditorium at R.L. Young.

Ellis and THS teachers--Your principal will give you instructions on afternoon activities.
Elementary principals and reading coaches--You will receive an e-mail outlining instruction for that morning.

eLearning

The Alabama State Department of Education is offering a number of eLearning opportunities. Details of the professional development and how to sign up are here.

If You Did Not Sign Up for January 2 Workshops...

Teachers,
If for whatever reason you did not sign up for a morning and an afternoon workshop on PDWeb, these instructions tell you what to do at this point.

Several of the workshops are full:

1. Both sessions of Janet Taylor's "Google Gadgets" are full.
2. Both sessions of Pattie Thomas' "PowerPoint... a Teacher's Best Tool" are full.
3. The afternoon session of "Practical Classroom Solutions" presented by Thad Miller and Bradley Ward is full.

Several sessions can take additional people:

1. The morning session of "Practical Classroom Solutions"
2. Either session of "Let's Play Jeopardy" presented by Karen Clark
3. There is unlimited seated for both "Get Organized! Managing Digital Data With Ease" and "Your Own Blog in 10 Minutes or Less." Both are designed by larger audiences.

For a description of each workshop and location, click here.

If you have not signed up, select from the workshops which are open show up. Sign at the bottom of the sign-in. By the following day, you will have been entered into PDWeb for those workshops.

Signing up for January 2 Professional Development

Elementary and Jr. High Teachers,

If you have not done so already, please sign up for your two workshops for January 2. For a description of what is offered, click here. Then, go to PDWeb to sign up.

At this point, only one workshop is filled to capacity--Pattie Thomas' morning session on PowerPoint is full, and the other one is almost full.

We are providing each of you with a flash drive that you can use to save projects you create during the day and to backup the data you have on your computer.

For those who are skilled in technology, most can point to several defining moments, points of light where something "clicked." We hope that January 2 will present a defining moment for you.