PESA Highlights for February Dear PESA Constituents, It was wonderful to meet many new Region I educators at the Math and ELA Common Core Standards workshops conducted January 23 and January 24th. We were pleased with the representation from throughout our vast Region. Did you know PESA has trainers available to travel on-site to your schools and provide the introduction/awareness to the Math and ELA Common Core Standards workshops to your staffs? Please feel free to contact me and discuss a date and time best suited to your district’s needs. Our trainers are eager to bring Common Core Standards awareness to eastern Montana educators and we hope to hear from you soon. (406-853-1908 or pesa@midrivers.com) PESA will be kicking off our first on-line book discussion, via Moodle, the weekend of February 3rd. We have 20 eastern Montana educators registered to participate in an on-line discussion of a book entitled Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences. We are very excited to venture into the world of on-line book discussion and communication. We hope to offer this service again next year. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending the Indian Education for all Best Practices Conference February 27th and 28th in Billings at the Crowne Plaza. This event is always well-attended and is offered closer to home for those of us in eastern Montana. A myriad of different presenters will be offering sectionals of value and interest to Montana educators. Please visit the OPI website for more details and to register. See you there! Best wishes as you “read your way through February” during I LOVE to READ month! Kim Stanton, Director PESA Region I 707 South Stacy Avenue Miles City, MT 59301 cell: 406-853-1908 fax: 406-234-4236 website: www.mt-pesa.org 2012: Common Core and More Dear PESA Colleagues, Welcome to a new year filled with much potential and great opportunities for education in Montana! PESA is offering several exciting January events to start the year off right. If you haven’t already registered, please feel free to contact me via email (pesa@midrivers.com) or by phone (853-1908). We are pleased to offer these trainings on behalf of OPI and serve the needs of our vast eastern Montana constituency with timely and pertinent workshop presentations. Best wishes for much academic success in 2012! Please mark your calendars and save the dates for the following PESA roll-out trainings:
Nov/December Director’s Note Dear Educators, A hearty welcome to November’s bounty~~ It’s hard to believe Halloween has passed us by and it’s time for Parent-Teacher Conferences already! PESA is waiting expectantly for funding to begin providing timely, high-quality professional development to our Region I schools. One project we are excited to unveil is an on-line IEFA Book Discussion. The PESA IEFA Book Discussion will be open to 25 educators. We will be discussing a book entitled Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences. I’ll be emailing the Region I schools with further details about this project once the funds are received. If you are seeking a MT organization that provides professional growth and purposeful advocacy, please check out the Montana Association for the Supervision of Curriculum and Development at www.mtascd.org. The MASCD’s motto is Learn~Teach~Lead and we offer an annual Summer Institute in Helena called the MT Educators’ Institute or the MEI. This past summer the MEI featured influential speakers such as Robert Marzano and Jim Warford. MASCD membership is open to public and non-public educators including teachers, administrators, counselors, and curriculum directors. Please check out the MASCD website for further information. As the holiday season approaches, I am thankful for the strong support the Region I schools have given PESA roll-out trainings through your teachers’ attendance and participation. We are fortunate to have an Office of Public Instruction which encourages ongoing, free, high-quality professional development throughout the state of Montana. Best wishes to you and yours during the Thanksgiving vacation and the Christmas break. Kim OCTOBER Treats from PESA Dear PESA Educators, PESA isn't bringing any tricks this month, only treats to our Region I educators! Did you know PESA is ready to assist any school in Region I who has been identified for Improvement or Corrective Action? We are eager to contact professional development providers who can visit your school on-site and cater a training to best meet your school's needs. PESA is pleased to provide this Event Coordination Service to the Region I Schools. Please contact me if you have any questions or are interested in this Service. PESA hosted a Big6 Information and Technology Skills workshop on Saturday, Sept. 24th. The attendees at this training received a wonderful stash of complimentary Big6 materials to use in their districts. PESA may offer this training later during the second semester if we have enough interest. Feel free to suggest a date and time for a future Big6 workshop if you are interested. PESA will be offering a Gifted and Talented Training~Especially for Administrators this year. We are pleased to focus on the Region I Administrators and their specific needs in regards to the Gifted and Talented population. More information will be forthcoming. If you have a date, location, and time frame to recommend we appreciate any suggestions and invite your feedback. Best wishes for a "spooktacular" fall season. Hope to see you soon, Kim SEPTEMBER, 2011 - Back-to-School Greetings From Your PESA Director! Dear PESA Region I Educators, I trust your summer vacation has left you rejuvenated and eager to tackle another promising school year. Sue and I are refreshed and ready to assist Region I with their professional development needs. During the 2011-2012 school year PESA will be offering OPI-sponsored workshops regarding Indian Education for All, Gifted and Talented Education, and the Common Core Standards. We enjoyed meeting the Region I educators at the workshops last year and the opportunity for school staff members to associate high-quality professional development with PESA. PESA will also be assisting several Region I schools with a Title I Desk Monitoring data collection project. More information will be forthcoming for those Title I Schools in need of facilitation with the Title I Desk Monitoring. Plans are in the works to offer an on-line book study class for interested educators. An Indian Education for All recommended book will be the focus of the on-line discussions. This is a new venture for PESA and we are anticipating a strong response to this endeavor. We’ll keep you posted with all of the details. Mark your calendars for a Big6 Information & Technology Skills Training on Saturday, Sept. 24 from 9-3 at Miles Community College in Room 106. This training is a great opportunity for librarians, technologists, and classroom teachers to assist kids in achieving at higher levels. The workshop will share skills essential for the information age. The skills may be applied in all subject areas and with students of all ages. The first 19 districts registered will receive $200 in free Big6 materials! A light breakfast and lunch will be provided. Please contact PESA for more information or to register. We hope to see you in Miles during September! Sue and I wish you a productive year filled with strong student achievement and rewarding academic successes for teachers and kids alike. We know schools in eastern MT are making a difference in many young lives—each and every day. We appreciate your commitment and dedication! Best wishes, Kim Stanton, Director Are May's Flowers Finally Ours? Dear PESA Educators, Has spring finally sprung in eastern Montana? We are definitely ready for some sunshine and blue skies! Despite the dreary, never-ending snow and wintry weather things at PESA have been cookin’! During the past 9 months PESA has delivered over 19 high-quality professional development trainings, on behalf of OPI, regarding the following topics:
In addition, PESA has worked to coordinate the implementation of the new SLATE grant and the PCTI (Peer Coaching Technology Integration) grant projects. I want to thank all of the participating new SLATE and PCTI schools, administrators, teachers and coaches. The time commitment from these folks was demanding and their input and participation was exemplary! Sue and I are looking forward to working with you next fall and are continually inspired by the dedication and commitment to education we see from PESA teachers and administrators. I wish all of you a relaxing and refreshing summer vacation filled with opportunities to recharge and enjoy life! Best Regards, Kim Stanton, Director April Notes from the Director Welcome to another month full of educational possibilities for eastern Montana kids. It’s hard to believe we are truly in the home stretch with the end of the year in sight! If you haven’t registered for the Tuesday, April 12th Library Information Literacy and Technology Standards training in Sidney from 1-4 please contact me. The last opportunity to attend this training will be Tuesday, May 10th in Glasgow at the East Side Elementary School from 1-4. Libby and Sue are outstanding presenters and have a wealth of knowledge to share with librarians and school technologists. The Peer Coaching Technology Integration grant has been extended into the 2011-2012 school year. PESA will continue to support the PCTI Coaches and the goals of the new SLATE and PCTI grants. We are excited and pleased that some funding has been allocated to continue this project. Best wishes for renewed energy and focus during April. I know the students may develop some expected “spring fever!” “Learning is finding out what we already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, and teachers.” Richard Bach Cordially, Kim Words from your PESA Director: March 2011 Top of the mornin’ to the educators of PESA Region I! Now that we’re in the depths of the MontCAS CRTs it is becoming apparent we’re actually nearing the final quarter of the school year! I appreciate all of the dedication and commitment to excellence the PESA teachers have given to preparing eastern MT students for the CRTs. We can always count on Montana educators to put kids first and provide them with the tools required for academic success. Best of luck as you complete the MontCAS process. PESA has rolled-out the first Library Information Literacy and Technology Standards (LILT) training in Miles City this week. It was a smashing success due to the strong presenters (Libby Solberg, PESA Technologist and Sue Stanton, PESA Assistant to the Director) and timely material. We were pleased with the number of library and technology educators who were attendance. The next LILT training is being offered Tuesday, April 12 in Sidney at the Middle School and the third training is scheduled for Tuesday, May 10 in Glasgow at the East Side Elementary. I’ll be contacting you all soon to register educators for these trainings. Here’s hoping the remainder of March will be ushered in like a lamb! And in the Spirit of St. Patrick’s Day... ”Wherever you go and whatever you do, may the luck of the Irish be there with you.” Yours in Education, Kim February: A Message from the Heart Dear PESA Educators, Congratulations on the completion of the first semester! It’s quite hard to believe we have only four months of school left and yet still so much to accomplish. During the past semester PESA has been pleased to offer free, high-quality professional development, sponsored by OPI, regarding the topics of: Transforming School Counseling, Gifted and Talented Education and Media Literacy: Empowering Critical Thinkers. The PESA trainers have enjoyed getting to know and working with the Region I teachers at the workshops we’ve proudly coordinated. Before the end of the school year PESA will be unveiling one last training entitled “Library Information Literacy and Technology Standards.” The trainings will be held on March 8 in Miles City, April 12 in Sidney and May 10 in Glasgow. Please mark your calendars for these upcoming roll-outs and watch for complete details in my email correspondence. I’d like to thank my Assistant, Sue Stanton, for her contributions and commitment to the PESA professional development roll-outs. She dedicates countless hours behind the scenes managing the myriad of details required to run a Regional Service Area. Hats off to you, Sue! Yours in Education, Kim What's Noteworthy for January 2011? Dear PESA Educators, A warm welcome to the New Year 2011! Sue and I are pleased to announce the Media Literacy: Empowering Critical Thinkers Roll-Outs on Wednesday, January 26th. The Media Literacy Training will be held in 3 locations:
The Media Literacy: Empowering Critical Thinkers is a powerful, fast-paced training where educators will:
All K-12 teachers are cordially invited to join the trainings, which are especially geared for counselors, health enhancement and communication arts teachers. Please contact me or Sue if you have any questions and to register. Director's Notes for December, 2010 Season’s Greetings from PESA! As the year winds down Sue and I are grateful for your support and involvement with PESA events this past year. We look forward to bringing Media Literacy Trainings to Miles City, Sidney, and Glasgow during the early months of 2011. Sue and several PESA Board Members were able to attend a national convention regarding Educational Service Areas in Georgia recently. They received valuable information which will guide PESA in providing Region I schools with continued high-quality professional development. It has been our great pleasure meeting many of you during PESA trainings or at administrators’ meetings. Please don’t hesitate to contact Sue or me for any professional development needs you may have. Merry Christmas and may your New Year be filled with peace and good health, Kim Director's Notes for November, 2010 Welcome to November! Hopefully the gorgeous autumn weather will hold for a few more weeks. If you haven't already registered for the free Gifted and Talented trainings on November 10th (in Miles City, Sidney, Glasgow) from 1-4 pm, please do so! This training is especially beneficial for schools who don't have a Gifted and Talented program in place or who have a program that needs some rejuvenation! Attendance at this training may be beneficial for documentation on your fall Effectiveness Reports. PESA has ten $275 scholarship opportunities, first come/first serve, for PESA teachers to teach an OPI IEFA lesson plan and complete an evaluation form. Please email me if you're interested or would like more details. PESA also will be sending ten teachers to Helena in February to attend the IEFA Best Practices Conferences. These teachers will be reimbursed for their subs., per diem, lodging, and mileage. If you have a teacher who would like to attend, please contact me. Best wishes for positive and productive parent-teacher conferences this month! And Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Kim |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Director's NotesDirector's Notes for October 2010
1-4 of 4 |
