PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TAKES ON A NEW TWIST AT BRENTWOOD
Many families may wonder , “ what happens on the professional learning days where our students suddenly stay home for teacher professional development ?” Well , this year at Brentwood , we ’ ve really switched up what our teacher learning looks like !
Every school district has many professional development priorities it must manage throughout the course of a school year . This includes statewide mandates , district priorities , building level logistics , curriculum and instructional practices and classroom needs . This year at Brentwood , we ’ ve shifted our focus to allow for online asynchronous learning of some of the mandatory items , so that during in-person professional learning days we can focus on providing opportunities for teachers to engage with learning groups on topics that are important to their practice . Social studies teacher , Jennifer O ’ Shea mentions , “ The teachers are extremely excited about the new Professional Development model for this year . The asynchronous option allows us to work at our own pace and not take away from the club meetings and athletic events that so many of us are involved in for our students .”
Here at Brentwood , we truly believe for our school to be a culture of learning for our students , it must be a culture of learning for our teachers ; this is what we ’ re aiming to do this year with our professional learning goal around cultivating a community of learners . In our recent sessions , teacher learning groups have been working on everything from implementing new curriculum resources , investigating new science standards , to creating works of art with resident teaching artists to infuse new ideas into our courses .
BRENTWOOD EDUCATORS GROW WITH PROJECT ZERO PITTSBURGH
rentwood Borough
SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
This fall , Brentwood High School has continued to grow our practices with Project Zero Pittsburgh . On October 9th , several teachers from the High School , as well as Principal , Dr . Olexa and Curriculum , Instruction , and Professional Development Coordinator , Stephanie DeLuca , attended the Project Zero ( PZ ) Pittsburgh Regional Conference , bringing together like-minded educators from the region at the Children ’ s Museum . The keynote speakers included Daniel Wilson and Tina Blythe , both from Harvard Graduate School
of Education around creating learning opportunities in classrooms and other spaces .
Each educator attended sessions around implementing PZ practices into their classrooms , gaining new ideas which will benefit our Brentwood students as we work towards developing habits of deeper learning . Dr . Olexa and Mrs . DeLuca also presented a session highlighting how we have started infusing these practices at the school level , creating a culture of learning for teachers . This group will continue to explore PZ practices and ideas throughout the year , working together to implement them in classrooms with students along the way .
BRENTWOOD-BALDWIN-WHITEHALL ❘ WINTER 2023 77