Urban Expedition 2013 - What's Next?

Extending the learning for teachers after the UE13 has been our intention from our very first planning meeting in the summer of 2012. In order to capitalize on the learning from this summer, and not lose momentum for this work, we have initiated the Urban Expedition Parent Leader Workshop Series. The two primary objectives of the series are:

1. to help teachers increase their ability to make meaningful connections between the curriculum and our students’ experiences/community resources, and

2. to provide an opportunity for parents/guardians to collaborate with teachers as resources and valuable partners in their child’s education.

We will meet one Thursday throughout the school year, from 5:00 to 7:30 in the school cafeteria. These workshops have been scheduled for the following dates: October 24, November 21, December 5, January 16, February 27,March 27, April 24, and May 29. Workshops will begin with a light supper and babysitting will be made available.

During the fall sessions (October to December) teachers and parents/guardians will enjoy a light supper together at 5:00 before splitting up into two groups. Teachers will participate in a professional learning circle where the discussion will focus on short readings. The topics for these sessions are as follows:

• Communicating high expectation through our verbal interactions with students (Oct.)

• Communicating high expectations through the curriculum (Nov),and

• Communicating high expectations thought the building of apositive classroom culture (Dec)

During these sessions, parents/guardians will be learning strategies for workshop facilitation, and will be supported to develop the content for the teacher workshops to be facilitated in the spring. From January to May, parents/guardians will co-facilitate interactive workshops for teacher designed to meet the objectives listed above.

If you are interested in collaborating with parent leaders and colleagues to on the knowledge of families in meeting the academic, and social/emotional needs of our students, please email Shelly Boyd to RSVP, and be sure to let her know whether you will require childcare.