TEACHING & LEARNING

Incorporating the science behind adult learning, our staff and consultants look forward to helping you, your colleagues, and the region continue to build stronger outcomes for students, educators, and communities.

Chances are, our first experience with the education profession started with each of us in the role of a student. Most of us tend to remember teachers who helped us become better people, and classrooms and schools that awakened our interest in our current hobbies and professions. That love for a content area, a discipline, a skillset, may have been awakened anywhere, but for most of us, it was honed in a school. Teaching and learning are at the center of what schools, districts, and communities are designed to create. Our opportunities in this area are structured to help teachers, leaders, and all other educators connect their own practice with evolving ideas and strategies focused on curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Fred Ende DIRECTOR, CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES FEnde@pnwboces.org

Identify, Examine, and Evaluate Curricular Resources

With so many curricular resources available to educators, it can be challenging to determine function and fit. Our professional learning opportunities allow educators to explore potential partnerships with a variety of different organizations in the education space, and targeted partnerships allow teachers and leaders to dive deeply into programs and tools that can be incorporated in as small a space as a single classroom or as large a community as an entire district.

Strengthen Classroom Practices to Allow ALL Teachers to Support ALL Students

Adult learners and young learners have many things in common. One of those characteristics is the desire to strive for answers, and in pursuing answers, unlock new, and more intricate questions. As educators, our practice, our repertoire, our tool kit is intricately tied to our professional identities. By continuing to learn while simultaneously building and growing our skill sets, we become even more effective and dynamic educators and grow closer to meeting the needs of all students. Of course, adult learners are different from young learners. Utilizing our understanding of adult learners, and what works for professional learning, we have designed our workshops and institutes to focus on building instructional practices that both answer questions and identify new ones, all with a purpose toward fostering continuous improvement.

Cultivate Regional Communities of Learners and Leaders

We can always understand the world a little bit better when we look beyond our day-to-day environments. Akin to walking a path looking down versus looking straight ahead, the more expansive our vision, the more perspective we gain. Teaching and learning are never meant to be a solitary practice. With that in mind, our professional learning opportunities focus on helping educators build strong long-term connections through multi-session learning opportunities and a significant network of collegial circle groups where educators can gather in role-alike and/or interest-alike settings to share experiences and learn how work exists outside our individual schools and districts.

Engage in Relevant and Practical Continuous Improvement Tied to School/District Needs

The field of education is enormous. There are so many areas to provide focus and no shortage of opportunities to grow to support student learning. To emphasize impact, our learning sessions are structured to be as relevant as possible, working closely with educators in regional districts to design and craft learning, and seeking out educators who are closest to the work to lead these opportunities. And, since there is never enough time to explore all that we want to, learning is centered around key priorities identified by teachers and curriculum leaders from across the Lower Hudson Valley. In this way, significant value and connection for learning are present from the start.