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Below you will find multiple sources of evidence indicative of my professionalism at the highest level including professional growth and reflection, collaboration and engagement with the school community, communication with families, management of non-instructional responsibilities, and professional conduct.
MSQI School Coordinator
MSQI School Coordinator
I serve as the coordinator or liaison between PS/MS 42 & The Middle School Quality Initiative (MSQI), which is the New York City Department of Education’s focused effort to expand the number of middle schools that prepare students for college and career success. It is the product of the New York City Council Middle School Task Force ongoing collaboration with the DOE.
MSQI serves as the city’s implementation plan for putting the Carnegie Reading Next report recommendations into action. Over 130 middle grades schools across the city are now benefiting from MSQI’s comprehensive literacy framework.
I attend leadership meetings several times a year and over the summer. Since joining PS/MS 42, I have brought over and rolled out several literacy initiatives such as Word Generation & the Degrees of Reading Power assessment for grades 6 - 8.
What is Word Generation? An MSQI program that emphasizes 21st century learning goals, such as using academic language, developing an argument, reasoning analytically, reading to find evidence, reviewing data, discussing various perspectives, engaging in debate, and expressing well-reasoned positions in writing.
Word Generation in action
Word Generation in action
These images highlight some of the ways in which our middle school and our classroom celebrates academic vocabulary and argument writing in our classroom using Word Generation!
APTT Teacher Leader & 6th Grade Team Pioneer
APTT Teacher Leader & 6th Grade Team Pioneer
Academic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT) is a family engagement model, designed by Dr. Maria Paredes of WestEd, that strengthens teacher-family relationships by focusing on student academic growth and achievement.
My 6th grade team of teachers were tasked with piloting the APTT program for the middle school this year. Through many days of planning and collaboration among our teacher team, we have had an amazingly successful first year of APTT.
APTT Lit Sparks Directions.pdfAPTT Meeting #1 - November 2018
APTT Meeting #1 - November 2018
Despite a snowstorm the night of our first APTT meeting, we had 27 families attend this first meeting. We explained to parents what APTT was all about, presented student data and explained its implications.
We presented parents and students with a game that honed in on building student's academic vocabulary skills - Academic Jenga (see below). We then modeled for parents how to play, let them play together, and then with their children so they were all ready to bring it home and be part of their child's learning process.
AcademicVocabularyGameJengaMiddleSchool.pdfAPTT Meeting #2 - March 2019
APTT Meeting #2 - March 2019
After many weeks of outreach to parents, which included involving our students, parent coordinator, and the full force of our 6th grade team teachers, we successfully had a total of 44 of 66 families attend our second meeting!
We presented parents and students with the new DRP data and explained to them our new academic focus: READING COMPREHENSION & ACADEMIC DISCOURSE. The new game we created honed in on building student's ability to comprehend and discuss the "World of Literacy" all around them - we called this game "Lit Sparks" (see document to the left). We then modeled for parents how to play, let them play together, and then with their children so they were all ready to bring it home and be part of their child's learning process.
MSQI Newsletter "The Word" APTT Shout Out!
MSQI Newsletter "The Word" APTT Shout Out!
RULER Teacher Leader
RULER Teacher Leader
In short, The RULER Approach is a school-wide approach designed for use in kindergarten through eighth grade to promote emotional literacy, which includes Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions (the “RULER” skills).
Years ago when I was a student teacher, I received training The RULER Approach to Social and Emotional Learning by my cooperating. I fell in love with the program and the overall concept of integrating social and emotional intelligence with feeling words - specifically, the notion that ALL feelings are normal & learning how to identify and regulating those emotions.
Given my knowledge & experience, Ms. Finn asked me to spearhead the initiative for our school. First thing we did was paint the Mood Meters all around the school - one on each floor using the recommended feeling words. Secondly, once their was a strong buzz among teachers and students, I, along with two other teachers, lead two Professional Development workshops for teachers so help inform and inspire teachers to make the RULER Approach their own in their classrooms for their specific students.
Part of the school-wide roll out included providing students with colored rubber bracelets in each classroom - red, blue, green. & yellow. These bracelets were used to help students "check in" on the Mood Meter & then help teachers identify and strategically approach students based on how they are feeling that day. The results & feedback from this program has been exciting and promising!
In short, The RULER Approach is a school-wide approach designed for use in kindergarten through eighth grade to promote emotional literacy, which includes Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions (the “RULER” skills).
Bonanno.pptx
RULER Professional Development
RULER Professional Development
Agenda & Sign-in Sheet
Agenda & Sign-in Sheet
Painted Mood Meters @ PS/MS 42 &
Painted Mood Meters @ PS/MS 42 &
Chart from our Professional Development Workshop
Chart from our Professional Development Workshop
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