Tuesday Times, Nov. 5, 2019

An IL-EMPOWER approved learning partner

Dr. Darlene J. Ruscitti

Regional Superintendent

DuPage County Schools

Nov. 5, 2019

T UESDAY TIMES

A bi-weekly source for professional development and news for DuPage County Educators

Professional D evelopment & Learning Opportunities

Communicating with Staff Regarding Performance Assessment, Nov. 12

"My rating has always been excellent and now it's basic. Why are you doing this to me?" When a subordinate's performance rating declines from the previous year, how do you respond to a negative reaction from that staff member? This course takes proven ideas from research and weaves them into practical activities that provide administrators with the tools needed to successfully communicate with others in difficult situations. Click here to register.

Youth Mental Health First Aid Certification, Nov. 18 and Dec. 12

School district personnel are invited to attend this free workshop to learn how to identify those who may need help with a mental illness, effectively communicate with them, and connect them to appropriate professional help. The workshop is made possible through funding secured through the ROE's BJA STOP Grant. Click here to register.

Leveraging Emotional Awareness for Effective School Administrators, Nov. 19

Well-developed emotional intelligence results in stronger leadership, better decision-making, and social-emotional growth. This course will strengthen participants' ability to leverage the emotions that may be affecting their performance as well as the performance of their staff and students. Register here.

Strategies to Successfully Implement Change to Best Practice Initiatives, Nov. 21

In this course, administrators will learn how to develop staff/leader relationships, collect input from staff, and utilize consensus-building strategies to yield positive change. To register, click here.

Improved Crisis Decision Making for Safer School Environments, Dec. 2

Participants will learn best practices strategy to respond to student escalations, fights, armed assailants, fires, outside emergencies, event planning, and other critical events through scenarios and exercises. This experiential learning course is intended to improve the decision making and action steps taken by school staff. Register here.

Word Knowledge: Phonics, Sight Words, Fluency, and Meaning Vocabulary *Grades K-2, Dec. 4

Comprehension is the reading goal, but students need to be able to read the words on the page. Word knowledge is a foundational skill that is critical for emergent and early readers to develop with proficiency to focus on comprehension of text. Participants will learn about the research and specific strategies to support their students' development of decoding skills and sight word vocabulary to become fluent readers. Meaning vocabulary and comprehension will be addressed through teacher read aloud. Register here.

ROE Partners with Dominican University and Brookfield Zoo

The DuPage Regional Office of Education has teamed up with Dominican University and Brookfield Zoo to develop tools to assist educators in sharing information about animals, science, and caring—the things that form the basis of conservation at the zoo and in the wild. Upcoming courses include Aligning Cookbook Labs to NGSS & Inquiry (Nov. 20), Utilizing Technology in the Classroom (Dec. 5), and Learning Through the Arts (Dec. 7). Check out their complete course offerings here .

Looking Ahead...

Illinois Association for Gifted Children's 25th Annual SILVER Conference: Feb. 6-8, 2020

The annual IAGC Conference, which will be held in February at the Chicago Marriott Naperville, will offer a variety of sessions by national and local experts in the field of gifted education. Topics will include evidence-based curriculum and instruction, acceleration, effective leadership, and underserved populations. Early bird rates available through Dec. 1. Register here.

County-Wide Institute Day: Feb. 28, 2020

Mark your calendars for the ROE's first county-wide Institute Day, which will be specifically designed for early childhood teachers, para-pros, and leaders. All sessions will be held at the DuPage Children’s Museum in Naperville, and participants will choose from a variety of topics that include student behavior, special education, active art, diversity and inclusion in children's literature, executive functioning skills, engineering, and science. More details to come.