I hope you all enjoyed the extended Thanksgiving break last week. I thought I would take the opportunity to let our families know what our teachers were doing with the training time the break afforded.
Monday and Tuesday, our teachers received two full days of technology training from Rowland Baker and Jason Borgen of 20/20 Leadership. Rowland and Jason work for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and the California Department of Education training teachers and administrators in instructional technology strategies. They also consult with schools throughout the nation and even internationally. Rowland has a unique link to Baymonte as both he and his wife Dorma, Superintendent of Pajaro Schools, started their teaching careers at Baymonte. Teachers were shown a variety of web-based programs and applications for classroom instruction and student presentation. We were instructed in best practice applications of instructional technology and shown how top schools are successfully using technology to improve student achievement.
On Wednesday morning our teachers were divided into grade level cohorts to receive additional training in Step-up-to- Writing strategies from Jaime Perez. We are quite pleased with the growth in our students’ written expression since our incorporation of Step-up-to-Writing almost six years ago.
I believe our time was quite well spent and look forward to seeing exciting new activities in our classrooms in the coming weeks. If you have feedback regarding this year’s Thanksgiving vacation schedule, I’d look forward to hearing from you.
Steve Patterson