CSD Celebrating the 15th Annual Character Education Conference

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Each summer Cooperating School Districts’ CHARACTERplus® program holds the Character Education Conference. On July 9 and 10, 2010, the 15th annual conference takes place in St. Louis, Missouri at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront Hotel.

CHARACTERplus® works to advance the cause of character education and sustain its impact on the lives of educators and students by:

• designing, promoting and facilitating processes and best practices;
• serving educators and enhancing their commitment to character education;
• actively recruiting and developing community support; and
• continually evaluating the impact of our programs and services.

CHARACTERplus® has grown dramatically in the past sixteen years. We now serve over 186 school districts, more than 30,000 teachers, and 425,000 students in over 877 schools.

According to CHARACTERplus® Director Liz Gibbons, “it is our hope that this conference and the excellent presenters will inspire and motivate you to be the change agent for your schools and communities.  The difference effective character education can make in school culture, and in the community, is astounding.”

At the two-day conference, there are four keynote speakers: Marvin Berkowitz, Professor of Character Education, on “The Prime of Character Education”; Todd Whitaker, Professor of Educational Leadership, on “What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter Most”; Barbara Lewis, Consultant & Former Teacher, on “Youth of Integrity Changing The Future”;  and Clifton Taulbert, President & Founder, on “Their Promising Future: our Goal.”

Other topics include: Going Green With Character Education, Film Clips for Character Education, The Culture of Character, What Does a Hero Look Like?, and NoMOre Bullying.

For more information on the 15th annual Character Education Conference, please visit the CHARACTERplus® website.

21st Century Technology Enhanced Learning Environment

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director   

Cooperating School Districts’ Virtual Learning Center provides instructional technology professional development to K-12 teachers in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Several of the trainings take place in the Technology Enhanced Learning Environment, or TELE.

This spring, the TELE received a major overhaul: two new interactive whiteboards (one SMART Board, one Promethean Activboard) with attached projectors, a new high definition Polycom 9000, a flat screen TV, and a new audio system.

The TELE classes offered by the VLC assist teachers in integrating technology such as interactive whiteboards and videoconference equipment, plus Web 2.0 applications like blogs and wikis, into the classroom. By utilizing technology in their schools, educators are able to meet 21^st Century skills.

21^st Century skills set includes:

• Information and communication skills (information and media literacy skills; communication skills)
• Thinking and problem-solving (critical thinking and systems thinking; problem identification, formulation and solution; creativity and intellectual curiosity)
• Interpersonal and self-direction skills (interpersonal and collaborative skills; self-direction; accountability and adaptability; social responsibility)
• Global awareness
• Financial, economic and business literacy, and developing entrepreneurial skills to enhance workplace productivity and career options
• Civic literacy

We all know the importance of teachers utilizing technology to engage their students in their learning in the 21^st Century. Students enjoy collaboration and easily work with technology and Web 2.0 applications for problem solving and communicating. These skills will translate as they enter the workforce in the years to come. CSD strives to keep our students engaged in their schoolwork by providing teachers’ professional development to incorporate 21^st Century skills with technology use in their classes.

Missouri House Bill 2 and Regional Professional Development Centers

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Missouri House Bill 2 “appropriates money for the expenses, grants, refunds, and distributions of the State Board of Education and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.” If this bill were voted into law, funding would be eliminated for teacher professional development. The purging of funds for professional development would likely mean the closure of Regional Professional Development Centers in the state. HB2 has passed the House and is now in the Senate for consideration.

Created by Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as part of the Educational Reform Act of 1993, the St. Louis Regional Professional Development Center is one of nine regional centers strategically placed across Missouri. More than 250,000 teachers each year receive professional development through Missouri’s RPDCs.

The St. Louis RPDC operates under contract with Cooperating School Districts, and combines CSD staff development opportunities with DESE resources.

The Regional Professional Development Centers act as a vehicle for school improvement. What does the RPDC provide educators?

•       premier growth and development opportunities
•       community resources
•       specialized academies
•       consulting and evaluation services
•       information about models and applications of current research

In St. Louis, the pooled resources between DESE and CSD make it possible for the RPDC to offer cost-effective, high quality professional development with both national and local experts. The Regional Professional Development Centers are key to offering proven, research based programs to teachers and administrators in Missouri, which will result in improving education for our students.

Here is a short list of examples of workshops and programs offered by the outstanding staff of St. Louis RPDC:

•       St. Louis Teacher Academy
•       Quality Health and Physical Education Workshops
•       STEM – Starting Everyday Mathematics
•       Cognitive Coaching
•       Aspiring Principals
•       Music Educator Forums
•       Best Practice Institute
•       Team Building
•       Instructional Coaching
•       Research-Based Strategies
•       DOK – Depth of Knowledge

If Missouri’s Regional Professional Development Centers were to be closed due to lack of funding by the state, it would severely limit our ability to train and retrain teachers to affect much needed improvement in skills necessary to educate children for the 21st century. Educators need to both teach and learn, and the St. Louis RPDC, and those across the state, facilitates important continuing education.

CSD is currently working with our state Senators in order to get money to fund our RPDCs. To learn how to contact your state Representative and Senator to share your opinion on the importance of our RDPCs, please visit Cooperating School Districts’ Legislative Updates and Advocacy website.

Professional Development for K-12 District Staff

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

As you know, Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis (CSD) offers several job-alike groups and professional development academies for our member districts. Two groups I would like to feature in this post are the Support Staff Academy (SSA) and the Executive Professional Academy (EPA).

SSA, in its 17th year, is a program designed to provide professional development to noncertified educational support professionals (administrative assistants, secretaries/office personnel, maintenance/custodial staff, food service employees, security officers, teachers aides and library aides) in St. Louis area districts. Annually and throughout the school year, several programs are held on topics like time management, legal issues, and computer applications. At the end of the year, the SSA Mini-Conference takes place. In 2009, the Mini-Conference is all day on Wednesday, June 10 at Maryville University. Speakers include keynote Judith Collins, PhD (on Heroic Leadership: 4 Principals for Transforming your Life), the Virtual Learning Center’s Martha Bogart and Nancy George, and author Jim Mullins (Champs and Chumps: Antiphonal Proverbs for Leaders), plus more. Click here for more information on the SSA.

EPA, on the other hand, is in its first year. This newly established job-alike group is for district level executive assistants. Their mission statement is: The Executive Professional Academy (EPA) will take a prominent role advocating a dynamic high-quality training and networking program for Executive Administrative Assistants to the Superintendent and to the Board of Education. The vision of the select group is to promote and support life-long learning, leadership and team networking to executive level assistants that will positively impact school districts and contribute to the academic achievement of all students. EPA meets monthly; content flips every-other-month between administrative meetings and professional development programming.

For more information on both SSA and EPA, contact Conference & Special Events Coordinator Dorothy White.

Midwest Education Technology Conference this January

By Dr. John Urkevich, Executive Director

Technology is a valuable and relevant tool in the classroom that helps engage students to question, think and achieve at a higher understanding. What technology tools do you use to reach and teach your students and make learning relevant? The annual Midwest Education Technology Conference is bringing together a diverse group of speakers to share their knowledge, experience, strategies and expertise using established and emerging technologies in the classroom. As educators we must prepare our students for new jobs that have not yet been created by giving them the skills to question, gather, evaluate and finally produce new solutions or products.

METC is a program of Cooperating School Districts and 2009 marks the 26th year of the conference. Later this month, from January 26-28, an estimated 1,500 educators from across the country will gather at the St. Charles Convention Center to learn and share the latest in technology in K-12 education. METC 2009 invites teachers, media specialists, administrators, technical support and other education-minded people who have effective instructional technology programs and management strategies to share their methods, plans and successes. METC 2009 offers over 200 breakout sessions in eleven strands, to meet the needs of its varied audience and to incorporate its theme, Technology Tools of Engagement: R U There? Strands include:

•    1:1 Initiatives (one laptop/handheld/desktop per student)
•    Curriculum & Instruction based on Assessment and Data
•    Differentiated Instruction
•    Digital Media
•    Instructional Technology Integration
•    Library Technology Integration
•    Mobile Technology (Palm, MP3 Player, Cell Phone)
•    Technology Integration 101
•    Technology Leadership
•    Technical & Networking
•    Web 2.0 (Read/Write Web)

To read more on the Midwest Education Technology Conference, you can visit the conference website at http://www2.csd.org/metc2009.htm or follow updates on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/metc2009. METC registration is still open, and CSD encourages you to consider attending!

AUGUST 2009 Note: METC 2010 information can be found by clicking HERE.