About Us
Our Team
Savaria Calloway-Downs
Executive Director
Chereeze Hall
Director
Kim Russi
Secretary 1
Essence Appleberry
Professional Learning Specialist TOA
Corinne Calabretta-Crandell
Professional Learning Specialist TOA
Our Purpose
Be responsive to schools/programs flexibility in their school improvement decision making
Provide tools and resources for the planning and work of improving teaching and learning
Design systems for becoming a professional learning community
Offer job embedded professional learning strategies
Encourage collaborative dialogue to align curriculum, assessment, and instruction to increase student achievement
Support shared responsibility for student success
The Office of Professional Learning is dedicated to the continuous development of educators so that they may gain the skills and knowledge necessary to provide high quality educational experiences for all students of the Rochester City School District. We strive to develop meaningful learning opportunities through collaborative learning experiences and embedded professional growth opportunities, so that educators can engage students in rigorous instructional activities to produce increased student understanding and achievement.
Our Goals
Move toward school based planning and delivery of professional learning within the context of the professional day. Provide training on how to facilitate, plan and execute high quality professional learning opportunities based on high performance expectations.
Work with schools to identify the varying data sets that can be used to plan, construct and monitor a professional learning plan at the school, team, and individual levels.
Work with schools to increase the amount of time teachers have to collaborate in professional learning communities.
As schools develop their plans, provide assistance in determining professional learning processes that will best build their capacity to meet academic goals.
Establish Inquiry Based Learning as our most common instructional method in professional development to engage our professional teams throughout the learning process as active participants to increase retention and understanding.
Establish a set of standards for professional development along with monitoring tools, and check points, linking professional development to student achievement.
Our Approach: An Overview
The Office of Professional Learning coordinates training and professional learning opportunities designed to enhance the knowledge, skills, and competencies of employees of the Rochester City School District.
Embedded Professional Learning:
Job-embedded professional development (JEPL) refers to educator learning that is grounded in day-to-day teaching practice and is designed to enhance teachers’ content-specific instructional practices with the intent of improving student learning (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Hirsh, 2009). It is primarily school or classroom based and is integrated into the workday, consisting of teachers assessing and finding solutions for authentic and immediate problems of practice as part of a cycle of continuous improvement (Hawley & Valli, 1999; National Staff Development Council, 2010). It is a shared, ongoing process that is locally rooted and makes a direct connection between learning and application in daily practice, thereby requiring active teacher involvement in cooperative, inquiry-based work (Hawley & Valli, 1999).
These are just a few examples of Job Embedded Professional Learning opportunities we believe in.
Classroom Visitations/Guided Observation Protocol:
Provides an opportunity for teachers to share effective practices and reflect on the use of high yield strategies in order to improve student learning in classrooms. A guided observation of teaching is a genuine way for teachers to support each other.
Lesson Planning Protocol:
Provides lesson planning guidelines to support differentiated instruction. “Knowledgeable, successful teachers commit to making a difference in students’ lives through planning” ("Differentiated Instructional Management" By Carolyn Chapman and Rita King).
Looking at Lesson Plans Tuning Protocol:
Provides structure for effective feedback and support, participants improve instruction and student learning, teachers gain a more comprehensive understanding of what makes a lesson meaningful through the process of reflecting on their work while receiving collegial feedback. This process creates a culture focused on and supportive of continuous learning, for both students and teachers.
Looking at Student Work Protocol:
Provides the process in which teachers, specialists, and administrators examine and analyze student work with the goal of improving student learning. The use of this protocol assists in creating a safe, caring environment where teachers can collaborate and cooperatively determine strategies for best addressing students’ needs.
Learning Walk Protocol:
Engagement in a Learning Walk extends the learning about a program or a specific area of focus. Feedback from the process provides an avenue for collaborative professional learning. This non evaluative tool assists administrators, teachers and other staff members while taking a pulse on student learning. Feedback from the process provides an avenue for collaborative professional learning.
Our Location
The Center for Professional Learning and our administrative offices are located at 30 Hart St. Rochester, NY 14605. We are located on the 3rd floor in “The Family Learning Center” building. This is our primary learning space designated for professional learning and meetings.
Click to Get Directions
See this Parking Map for a visual of the lots available to our building.