PTO fulfilling requests from teachers for professional development 2016-2017
In May 2016, the PTO asked the teaching staff to complete an end-of-the-year survey. A main question was how PTO could support them next year. Multiple teachers requested: 1. PTO bring educational professionals to Arcadia's campus to share cutting-edge teaching techniques/ practices; and 2. Opportunities for teachers to observe other teachers actively teaching in their classrooms.
PTO-SPONSORED SPEAKER/ TRAINER FOR PROJECT-BASED-LEARNING... leading to more engagement in our classrooms!
PTO was able to fulfill a request made by multiple teachers at the end of last year... bring a leading educator of Project-Based Learning" (PBL), Tony Vincent, to Arcadia!
Tony conducted an outstanding small-group morning workshop with eleven teachers and an afternoon all-teacher presentation. The morning session featured eye-opening examples of what PBL can offer our students, whereas the afternoon was peppered with smaller examples of quick engagement opportunities. Some teachers have already tested new ideas and techniques! The afternoon was less focused on full curricular changes and more on small, everyday enhancement, which increases engagement without completely changing how the classroom is run.
We are looking forward to the morning group hosting trainings within their departments and assisting all teachers with implementing some PBL methods. These eleven teachers are Arcadia's small group "experts"!! One teacher shared she was so inspired, she immediately developed a project that will provide real-world relevance! ...instead of having her students write an essay individually, groups of students in each class will identify a problem on campus that can be fixed, and then create a solution. Their end goal will be to “convince” an panel of adults to support their endeavor to fix the problem. Students will be designing, planning, and carrying out an extended project that produces a publicly-exhibited output, a presentation.
PTO was able to fulfill a request made by multiple teachers at the end of last year... bring a leading educator of Project-Based Learning" (PBL), Tony Vincent, to Arcadia!
Tony conducted an outstanding small-group morning workshop with eleven teachers and an afternoon all-teacher presentation. The morning session featured eye-opening examples of what PBL can offer our students, whereas the afternoon was peppered with smaller examples of quick engagement opportunities. Some teachers have already tested new ideas and techniques! The afternoon was less focused on full curricular changes and more on small, everyday enhancement, which increases engagement without completely changing how the classroom is run.
We are looking forward to the morning group hosting trainings within their departments and assisting all teachers with implementing some PBL methods. These eleven teachers are Arcadia's small group "experts"!! One teacher shared she was so inspired, she immediately developed a project that will provide real-world relevance! ...instead of having her students write an essay individually, groups of students in each class will identify a problem on campus that can be fixed, and then create a solution. Their end goal will be to “convince” an panel of adults to support their endeavor to fix the problem. Students will be designing, planning, and carrying out an extended project that produces a publicly-exhibited output, a presentation.
PTO-SPONSORED TEACHER OBSERVATIONS- January 2017
Christine Thiele
First, I would like to thank both our PTO and our administration for making this opportunity available to us... To read very informative feedback about her observations in Mr. Guy, Mrs. Paloma, and Mr. King's classes, click here. 
Donald Chilton
Thanks to the PTO, I was able to observe three teachers: Anna Patterson (Math), Carol Tichio (Science), and Jennifer Dukelow (Math). I am a first year math teacher. To read more, click here. 
Cyrus Cramer
My name is Cyrus Cramer. I teach English here at Arcadia, and I was fortunate enough to be among the teachers who were enabled by the PTO's generosity to observe some of my colleagues at work. (more) Claudina Garcia Villalobos- (photo not available)
I just wanted to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to observe what other teachers are doing in the classroom. As a 2nd year teacher, this was a great experience for me. I observed Thomas Gabrielle (Spanish) and Lisa Berkson (Japanese). (more) Jason Walsh (photo not available)
I so appreciated the opportunity to visit my colleagues the other week and see how they managed their room, paced their lessons and engaged with their students. While I had previously taught middle school in SUSD for 15 years, this is my first year teaching high school so I found in quite valuable to see my fellow English teachers in action in their own classrooms. There is nothing quite like observing other teachers and taking back into your room lessons and insights into how to improve your skills. Again, thank you for the honor and the time to visit other classrooms. Greatly appreciated. |
Greg Neely
Observed: Anna Patterson, Jen Dukelow, Sarah Boustilla Anna’s classroom is well organized with interesting math related posters which would put students in a “math” mind set. She worked through a number of homework problems with the class and the student engagement was high. I talked to her about how she handles homework... (more) 
Caitlin Munn
I wanted to let you know that this was an AMAZING experience! As you know this is my second full year teaching at Arcadia and although I know all of the teachers I have never truly seen them in their element and now I can see why everyone raves about our teachers. (more) 
Carol Tichio
Thank you so much for allowing some of us teachers to take half a day to observe some other classes. I was fortunate enough to go spend some time with CMAS, Mrs. Berk in Biology, and Mrs. Dukelow in Geometry. (more) 
Zosha Falteisek
Observation date: 1/16/17 I just wanted to send my feedback on the observations I had the chance to complete on Friday. I observed during the afternoon periods, and I decided to keep my observations within the World Language department this time. I had the chance to visit Judith Zubia, Anne Marie DeFrain, Claudina Garcia, and Tom Gabriele. I loved watching how they conducted class and interacted with their students. (more) RICK DWYER is Arcadia's School Psychologist. During fall 2016, the PTO funded a professional development opportunity for Mr. Dwyer (to attend the AZ Association of School Psychologists' Conference). To "pay it forward", Mr. Dwyer offered to put together a presentation for teachers: sharing much-needed practical interventions and teacher-student communication/relations when dealing with 1. Loss of a student/ Death of family or friend and 2. High risk student behaviors/ Suicidal students. Click here to see an overview of what he shared.
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Google 20% project 2015-2016
The idea behind the 20% project is to give students 20% of their class time to work on a project of their choosing. The project needs to solve a problem or help someone in some way. The goal is that students will choose something that they are so passionate about that the results will be exceptional.
After being inspired at a Google conference, a few of us teachers decided to take this idea into the classroom and challenge our students to create a project that they would learn from and be proud of in the end. This same concept is used by Google and brought us Google Mail. Our projects ranged in ideas and results but the common theme was that students learned a great deal about their topic and themselves. They turned out wonderfully and we decided to share some of them with the community. The students have voted on their favorites for everyone to enjoy.
After being inspired at a Google conference, a few of us teachers decided to take this idea into the classroom and challenge our students to create a project that they would learn from and be proud of in the end. This same concept is used by Google and brought us Google Mail. Our projects ranged in ideas and results but the common theme was that students learned a great deal about their topic and themselves. They turned out wonderfully and we decided to share some of them with the community. The students have voted on their favorites for everyone to enjoy.
gratitude grams from teachers
| ms_mayorga_thank_you_ya_class.pdf |