Fall 2009 Online Professional Development Courses

From CALPRO:
The California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project (CALPRO) offers free professional development courses you can take any time, any place, through the Internet. To get started, all you need is an e-mail account, Internet access, and an average of three hours per week scheduled according to your convenience.

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CALPRO’s Winter 2009 Online Professional Development

Check out CALPRO’s 2009 Online Professional Development Courses. 
For these courses, all you need to get started is an e-mail address, an Internet connection, and a few hours a week for study, scheduled at your own convenience.  Besides getting to exchange ideas with colleagues in the course, participants may also register for Continuing Education Units (CEUs).  Enrollment [...]

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Tech & Professional Growth Team Mtg

Here is our agenda for today’s meeting from 2:30-4:00pm (BESST Center, room 114).  We plan to do the following:

review our Technolution Plan 2008-10
discuss and begin planning our Tech/Professional Growth trainings for 2008-09

Update 11/19/08 at 4:45 pm:
Here are the meeting minutes in full. 
Here’s a snapshot:

We made changes to Goal 5 Monitoring and Evaluation of our 2008-10 Tech Plan.
We adopted the [...]

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NMUSD Adult School in the 21st Century

This post is an updated version of Adult Education in the 21st Century, posted on October 18, 2007.
Without 21st century skills, students are being prepared to succeed in yesterday’s world – not tomorrow’s.  Education must keep pace with societal changes and workplace demands, and adult education is no exception.
At Newport-Mesa Adult School, our mission is to [...]

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Persistence Kit and Caboodle: Highlights & Hash Outs

Eighteen Newport-Mesa Adult School ESL teachers participated in our recent professional development trainings The Whole Persistence Kit and Caboodle.  Here are some teacher comments about the days.
Thank you for encouraging us to learn more about new technology.  Today, the Tech Tip was excellent.  It will be useful for my class, and I’m planning to apply it [...]

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The Whole Persistence Kit and Caboodle

Professional Development Opportunities:
 
N-MUSD Adult School Evening ESL/Citizenship Teachers:
All-Star Learner Persistence Kit Workshop!
Thursday, October 30, 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM
BESST Center, Room 114
We’ll pay for your time & provide dinner!
RSVP mrankin@nmusd.us
Fun! Food! Prizes! Research!
N-MUSD Adult School Day ESL/Computer Teachers:
1-hr Intensive PLC PLUS
All-Star Learner Persistence Kit Workshop!
Monday, November 3, 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM
BESST Center, Room 116
We’ll [...]

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Individual Development Plan (IDP)

We are a vibrant community of learners and leaders! 
 Our ongoing professional development is a priority because it has a positive impact on student learning.  We use our individual development plans (IDPs) as tools to reflect on our practices, develop our skills, achieve our goals, and further our school mission.
At our planning meeting in September, our Site Council [...]

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Writing Lesson Plans

Have you checked out The Lesson Plan Builder?  Here’s what OTAN says about its web-based lesson builder:

The Lesson Plan Builder makes it easier for you to develop quality lesson plans that address adult education content standards in the context of CASAS and SCANS competencies.
The Lesson Plan Builder….

provides a customer friendly template to develop lessons for [...]

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2008 Teacher PD Survey Results

Hot, hot, hot off the press!
The results of our NMUSD district-wide teacher professional development survey are in!  Here you go!
 
Image from Free Digital Photos
Note:  After viewing any document, click on BACK to return to the blog post.
 
2008 Teacher PD Survey – School & District Wide Comparison
 
2008 Teacher PD Survey – Summary Results
 

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Update on PD Plan & Budget for 2008-09

We are a community of continuous learners and leaders!

Our Professional Growth Team met on May 14 to begin planning our professional development for the 2008-09 school year.  For more info on the meeting, click here.
 
Meeting Update

PG Team unanimously approved the 2008-2009 Proposed PD Budget.
We discussed  TIMAC , nominated 3 teachers, and had an e-vote.
We elected Mandi to be [...]

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Our Site-based PD Proposal for 2008-09

Our NMUSD Adult School professional growth team meets today to 1) evaluate our progress towards our 2007-2008 professional development goals, 2) discuss our first draft of our 2008-2009 professional development plan, and 3) review a proposed budget to support our 2008-2009 PD plan.
High-priority action item: discuss new TIMAC component of 2008-09 PD plan – TIMAC application due date is [...]

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March 26th Tech Training – post your share-out here!

Our next all-staff tech training is Wednesday, March 26, 2008. 
To view/download our informational flyer (including training’s topics, presenters, and expected learner outcomes) click on the green hyperlink here:
Informational Flyer – March 26 Tech Training
To view/download our March 26 Tech Training Evaluation, click on the green hyperlink here:
Tech Training Evaluation 03-26-08
Our application requirement for this training is to use your newly [...]

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Designing Site-based, Job-embedded Staff Development

NMUSD Adult School is a learning community committed to ongoing site-based professional development. We learn as we do, and we share our learning on this blog with you.  Read on for our answers to the following questions:

Who plans our site-based PD trainings?
What tools do we use to plan our trainings?
What steps do we follow as we design our trainings?
Who leads [...]

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Free Online GED Practice

Check out Steck-Vaughn’s GEDpractice.com.  It provides the following features:

Tests from various content areas - well organized

“Check my answer”  - immediate feedback and explanation of correct answer  

“Summary” -  tracks % of questions correct…helpful for students and teachers

Free

Click on GEDpractice.com to go directly to Steck-Vaughn’s GED practice website.  Or keep reading here to see how the site is organized.

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Family Literacy: A Helpful Resource

This weekend I was looking for some online Family Literacy resources.  I found this great Family Literacy site, which I wish to share with you.
Family Literacy Resource Notebook
Chock-full of practical, helpful information, such as:

CHAPTER 4: How Do We Get Started?

CHAPTER 6: Funding Family Literacy Programs
Section I: Funding Sources
Section II: Tips for Writing Successful Grants
Section III: Family Literacy [...]

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“Du-Four” Questions and Our Four Answers

As we reflect on the agenda for our March 5th staff development training, we ask ourselves a crucial question, “Is this training the kind of professional development that builds teacher capacity and sustains improvement?”   
To find our answer, we continue asking…specifically “du four” questions from Rick DuFour:

Does the professional development increase the staff’s collective capacity to achieve the [...]

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A Good-to-Great Professional Growth Plan

We are making midyear improvements to our 2007-2008 Professional Growth Plan and PG Action Plan.  Read on to see how we plan to use our survey results to revise our professional growth plan.   We commit to lifelong learning, both as individuals and as a program; and we strive daily to move forward ~from good to great…to greater yet.  Read [...]

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Professional Growth Plan: Survey Results

Today is the first day of second semester — an appropriate time to reflect on how we are doing with our 2007-2008 professional growth plan. Last week, we conducted an online survey through SurveyMonkey (free software!).  We surveyed our teachers and administrators for feedback on our PG goals.  In this article, you will view the results of our survey. [...]

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Video Tutorials for the Virtual Learning Community

This weekend I met with the Professional Development Center managers at a CALPRO meeting up in the Bay Area.  We discussed the need to expand professional growth opportunities for our virtual learning community in adult education.  We acknowledge how difficult it is for adult educators to regularly attend workshops due to busy and divergent schedules.  One way to address [...]

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Free Online Surveys for Ongoing Program Improvement

Are you looking for ways to get teacher and student feedback for ongoing program improvement?  Here’s one great idea…and it won’t cost you a dime!  Read on to discover how NMUSD Adult School uses the free basic account of SurveyMonkey to create online surveys that evaluate our programs and correlate school improvement, professional development and student progress of the [...]

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Reflecting on our IDP Progress on the Blog

As adult educators, we know the importance of lifelong learning and continuous improvement.  Read on to learn how we use technology to help reflect on and revise our daily teaching practices, our 2007-2008 Individual Development Plan goals and our 2007-2008 Professional Growth Plan.  Read on. Soar on!

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Designing by Doing – A Dynamic Professional Growth Plan

At NMUSD Adult School, our professional growth team looks through a 4-D lens when we examine our professional growth plan:  Design.  Do.  Discuss.  Develop anew.  Learn how we use “virtual meetings” to constantly develop our plan.  Read on.  Lead on.

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A Professional Growth Plan for a PLC

How can a professional growth plan help grow a professional learning community? Read on to see how NMUSD Adult School fashions a professional growth plan to empower our professional learning community.   Read on. Lead on!

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