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South Lane School District

Children Come First

SLSD Learning Academy Session 1: Feb. 14th and Feb. 21st

SLSD Learning Academy Session 1: Feb. 14th and Feb. 21st

Please read through the information below and sign up for your top choices using the Google form. 

One of the three guiding principles of a Professional Learning Community is a focus on learning. In a school system, that does not just apply to the students, but to the adults as well. This year we are encouraging you to sign up for a session with your Professional Learning Team. We will again be providing sessions focused on our district goals:

Three horizontal boxes with blue arrows, each containing text about building culture, academic achievement, and career readiness.

By keeping our focus narrow, we aim to do the deep learning, reflecting, and changing that is required to create equitable outcomes for ALL our students. The following courses are intended to help us meet those goals and to be challenging, engaging and productive. 

Professional Learning Sessions

Session 1
February 14th
2:30-4:00 PM

Session 2
February 21st
2:30-4:00 PM

Submit Course Selections

Enrollment

Choice in courses creates the best buy-in to new information and training. That said, there will be limits on sizes for each course and there are some courses designed for early career teachers. We will follow these guidelines for enrollment:

  • Staff will put in their top selections through a google form and are encouraged to pick sessions with their Professional Learning Team
  • Probationary staff may be assigned to specific courses by their administrators and get priority for the courses most beneficial to early career teachers
  • If there is not enough room in a particular course, then a wait list will be created and those staff

Learning Academy Courses

Building Thinking Classrooms (PLC)
Building Thinking Classrooms is a K-12 strategy to increase the student cognitive load and get them thinking. Research shows that for a one-hour lesson using traditional methods, up to 85% of students spend 100% of the time NOT thinking. The other 15% of students spend only 8-12 minutes thinking. This presentation will be an opportunity to explore how to implement the strategy in your classroom.

Sarah Jones 
Sarah Jones is a teacher and instructional coach at CGHS. I love learning and implementing new strategies in my classroom.

Google Form - Submit your top selections

Engagement Strategies (PLC)
We will present a variety of engagement strategies useful for secondary classrooms of all content areas. We will focus on DOK level of learning experiences and on strategies that meet the level of all learners in a classroom.

Sarah Leonard and Geriann Walker
Geriann Walker and Sarah Leonard are both teachers and instructional coaches at CGHS. Between them they have more than 40 years of instructional experiences, and they are eager to share practical strategies that can be easily implemented into a variety of lessons.

Google Form - Submit your top selections  

LETRS Study Group (PLC)
LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) is a professional learning course for instructors of reading, spelling, and related language skills. During the SLSD Learning Academy we will spend our time working through the LETRS course together. We will be able to connect with other participants and reflect on our application of the concepts. LETRS provides ALL educators, regardless of your current teaching assignment, with in-depth knowledge and tools that can be used with any reading program. If you have registered for LETRS, this is the class for you!

Allison Lillard and Amy Swearengin
Amy Swearengin and Allison Lillard are currently literacy coaches at Harrison Elementary, they have both worked at SLSD for over 20 years. Their experiences include pre-k through middle school as both reading specialists and classroom teachers. They love working with staff and students and have a desire to share their love of literacy.

Google Form - Submit your top selections

Peace Learning Circles (SEL)
Building communities in the classroom using Peace Learning Circles, giving students voices to be heard and seen, developing the classrooms relational capacity to effectively become a strong community, and the power of student led learning.

Emily Molloy
Emily Molloy has taught at both the primary and secondary levels. She is AVID trained, Peace Learning Circles trained, and has participated and been trained in Restorative Practices and Restorative Circles. This is her second year at Dorena.

Google Form - Submit your top selections

 

Planning for Writing Enhancements (PLC)
Amy and Laura will introduce the book The Writing Revolution (TWR) and highlight some ways to use the strategies taught within to advance student writing skills in the content based classroom. TWR is as much a method of teaching content as it is a method of teaching writing. There's no separate writing block and no separate writing curriculum. Instead, teachers of all subjects adapt the TWR strategies and activities to their current curriculum and weave them into the content instruction.

Laura Gerick and Amy Beck
Amy Beck has worked in SLSD for 20+ years and is currently a Literacy Coach and Reading Specialist at Bohemia Elementary. Laura Gerick taught elementary school for 13 years and is now the Assistant Principal at Bohemia Elementary. Amy and Laura share a love of learning and an enthusiasm for birds.

Google Form - Submit your top selections

Standards Alignment (PLC)
This course is about engaging in a dialogue about skill-focused content standards, the process for forming standards, and deriving learning objectives from those standards to more easily align day-to-day planning. This course is open to anyone in the process of developing their own standards as part of a team or interested in how to take building-level standards and make them workable within classroom instruction.

Danny Henson
Danny Henson is a Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Al Kennedy High School where he has worked for the past nine years. He has also overseen the secondary Summer School program for the past two years. He and his partner have an eight-year-old, a one-year-old, and are very tired.

Google Form - Submit your top selections

Student Experience Interviews (SEL)
Using student experience interview data to help inform our instructional practices (street data).

Devin Pixton
Devin Pixton is the principal at Dorena School and helps leads our SEL Specialist work across the district. She has been in the South Lane since 2020. Previously she was a School Psychologist and a KITS Coordinator.

Google Form - Submit your top selections

Teaming and Partnering with Specialists (PLC)
Audrey will present how Dorena uses data to create Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions.

Audrey Stepp
Audrey Stepp has worked as the Special Education Teacher at Dorena School for 2 years. Prior to her start in Southlane, she worked as a Special Education teacher at Agnes Stewart Middle School for 17 years.

Google Form - Submit your top selections

The Art of Including All Learners (PLC)
This presentation is primarily based on my experience of what has been successful for students with disabilities in general education classrooms. None of us has time to complete every job expectation we are given, yet we all want to support our students and see them learn and progress. My goal today is to help new teachers and general education teachers understand which pieces are most crucial for students with IEPs so that we can keep our health and sanity while also creating a learning community that welcomes and includes all learners.

Emily Quindry
My career began when working in adult group homes after completing my BS in Psychology with Honors in ‘92; I moved over to public schools as a Special Education EA/sub k-12, then in a Learning Center program for Eugene 4J; I left to work for Head Start as a Home visitor and Famiy Advocate for a total of 6 years; worked in Tucson, AZ as Inclusion Consultant, mostly training adults for 2 years; In 2007, I completed my Master’s Degree and credentials at UO and worked as a Comprehensive Learning Center teacher for 14 years. I have been with South Lane School District for two years and am also the current SLEA (union) President!

Google Form - Submit your top selections

Trauma Informed Schools (SEL)
In this session you will learn about Trauma Informed Care practices, including how to take care of yourself. When you deal with students who have experienced trauma, you need to know how to keep yourself strong and well. This session will help you learn about trauma and techniques for helping students who are exhibiting the affects of trauma so you feel more equipped to keep all students safe and well in your classroom and school.

Ali Canino (SLMH) 
Ali Canino (she/her) is a licensed professional counselor and Executive Director of South Lane Mental Health (SLMH). She began her career with SLMH in 2015 as a child and family therapist and had the privilege of serving as school-based therapist for Harrison and Latham Elementary as well Head Start Mental Health Consultant for 5 years. In 2017, Ali worked alongside two other school-based therapists to create this Trauma Informed Care program specifically with teachers and school staff in mind.

Google Form - Submit your top selections

Long Term Goals

The intent of this model is to continue to focus on equitable work on our two district goals. Individual schools will use some of their School Directed Staff Development days to continue work along these themes.