March 13 --Concluded.

 Link to Part  1 PDF.

New session on April 17 

with Jocelyn Esparza and Jacque Chapman

4:30-5:30 on Zoom

A teacher’s role in the retention and recruitment process is essential in helping a school grow. Join Big Shoulders Fund Schools Marketing Team for a two-session course on how YOU are your school’s biggest marketing asset. We will walk through different best practices and highlight the ways in which your work is vital to enrollment.

This course will show you how to create a multi-novel reading unit step-by-step. Session one will focus on how to group students based on the iReady results (or any reading assessment that levels learners). You'll learn how to select books (2-4 novels) based on your groups and how to select skills and strategies to teach for your books or unit.  Session two will focus on creating day-to-day lesson plans and learning centers that are personalized for each group. 

• Have access to your iReady or reading assessment login information for this course. 

Please be sure to sign up for Part 1 and Part 2 of this session when registering.

Turn your classroom into a STEM lab by giving students opportunities to explore, notice, wonder, and PLAY! Learn why play is such an effective tool for teaching little innovators and leave with easy activities to get started in your classroom this spring!

Are you looking for a way to energize your instruction? Build listening, reading, writing and fluency skills? If so, this course is for you! Join in as we explore how to take an inquiry-based stance across the curriculum and with students of all ages. You'll learn how to take your unit and transform so that students question and research to guide their own learning. You'll also build a mini-inquiry unit using a mix of digital and traditional resources to engage students. 

Please be sure to sign up for Part 1 and Part 2 of this session when registering.

March 23 and April 3 with Nicole Mundt and Kristin Ziemke

4:30-5:30 on Zoom 

Looking for a way to capture student thinking across the curriculum? Book Creator is the tool for you! This FREE, online publication tool is easy to use, builds student voice, and engages learners to create and share. Whether you're publishing for writing workshop, summarizing a period of history or documenting a science experiment, this tool works! Accessible for PreK and layered with options to add complexity, Book Creator meets the needs of students PK-12.

Please be sure to sign up for Part 1 and Part 2 of this session.

You will need your computer and school email address for this session.

Ever marvel at a sunset? Been blown away by the stars in the night sky? Awe is the feeling we get in the presence of something that challenges our understanding of the world. By promoting awe we pursue an unexplored resource to hook students into an area of interest, care about the topic and explore it at a deep level. This course will help educators understand what is needed to inspire awe in the classroom, discover how awe impacts learning and offer practical lessons that can be used right away with students. 

The Joy of Reading is a guide for teachers, librarians, administrators, and families to create the conditions for joyful reading. Donalyn Miller and Teri Lesesne draw from their decades of work with students, teachers, and librarians, providing practices that nurture joy while identifying factors that destroy joy, all with a clear understanding of the realities of today’s classrooms and schools. In this course we will read and discuss the text together and make plans for creating classrooms and schools filled with reading JOY.

Please be sure to sign up for Part 1 and Part 2 of this session when registering.

Register by March 24th so we can send the book to you. 

How can we make schools more relevant, engaging, and capable of supporting the development of skills and dispositions that will help students themselves design a life worth living? Packed with strategies and implementation ideas, this book study will guide teachers, administrators and stakeholders to innovate and improve learning for all. Join in as we study together and gain new ideas for engaging students!

Please be sure to sign up for Part 1 and Part 2 of this session when registering.

Register by March 24th so we can send the book to you. 

Are you a Catholic School educator looking for transformational change to impact student success? This session will showcase the importance of leveraging professional learning communities within schools to improve student outcomes and success, and instructional practices. Participants will learn what a PLC team looks like, sounds like, and feels like within the Catholic School context, and gain immediate takeaways to get started with PLCs this school year.