Professional Development
2022-2023
Professional Development to Support Culturally Responsive Curriculum
Restorative Practices
Responsive Classroom
The Responsive Classroom approach to teaching is comprised of a set of well-designed practices intended to create safe, joyful, and engaging classrooms and school communities. The emphasis is on helping students develop their academic, social, and emotional skills in a learning environment that is developmentally responsive to their strengths and needs. Our elementary teachers are immersed in Responsive Classroom professional development this year and are using: Guiding Principles and Teaching Practices
For more information, please visit the Responsive Classroom Website
Safe Schools
The Safe Schools Program for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning (LGBTQ) Students is a joint initiative between the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth. Founded in 1993 in response to concerns about LGBTQ youth suicides and other risk factors, the program now offers a range of services designed to help schools implement state laws impacting LGBTQ students, including the state's anti-bullying law, gender identity law, and student anti-discrimination law.
Enchanted Circle Theater
Enchanted Circle professional development will support teachers in integrating the performing and visual arts with academic and social curricula to improve student achievement and social emotional health. This work fosters creative and critical thinking and bridges arts, education, and social services and strengthens our commitment to equity, inclusion and socially-just practices.
Our Inclusion Initiative
link mtss website
Dr. Liza Talusan
Through group work using Liza A. Talusan's book The Identity Conscious Educator: Building Habits and Skills for a More Inclusive School, we are:
Discovering how identity affects both personal and professional lives.
Reviewing a framework for building habits and skills of identity-conscious teaching and learning.
Building knowledge of five different identity categories and experiences—race, social class, sexual orientation, gender, and disability—and then act for positive change.
Reviewing practical, research-based strategies, and activities for having difficult conversations and creating more inclusive communities.
Reflecting with peers.
New Teacher Orientation, 2022-23
