A+ ListServ - October 26, 2007
I want to alert you that a draft of the 2007 Building Bridges Conference Program is now available online for your review and use for development of a personal strand of professional development. You can find this information by following this web link: http://missouricareereducation.org/pd/Session_Descriptions.pdf.
This information will be dynamic, continuing to evolve as we get closer to the conference, but you should be able to use this draft to begin the planning process.
The workshop abstracts for sessions by Dr. Bottoms and Toni Eubank are not yet available, but will be added in the near future.
This draft also indicates six sessions as being “A+ Schools Program” sessions, but I anticipate this designation will also change a bit in later additions of the conference program. Actually, there are some of the sessions which may be only applicable to schools implementing A+ Schools, just as the workshops led by Allison Timberlake of SREB addressing the High Schools That Work Assessment and the middle gSeptember 9, 2008g HSTW, Technology Centers That Work (TCTW), or Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW).
However, the vast majority of the conference should have global applicability regardless if one’s primary programmatic responsibility is Tech Prep, A+ Schools, HSTW, TCTW, MMGW, or overall school improvement and increased academic achievement.
The 2007 Building Bridges Conference has been structured to provide professional development which supports five goals:
- Goal No. 1-Developing successful career connections for teaching and learning.
- Goal No. 2-Using rigor, relevance and relationships to increase student achievement with more challenging learning
- Goal No. 3-Involving teachers and counselors in preparing students for academic and career success.
- Goal No. 4-Building partnerships with multiple entities to support student achievement.
- Goal No. 5-Enhancing student transitions and success.
When the conference program is finalized, with the possible exception of a few workshops focused on a specific issue pertaining to a particular program, you should find a listed alignment for each session with at least one of the above goals. This should allow for the development of a personal professional development strand throughout the conference regardless of the participant’s programmatic focus.
This year’s Building Bridges features two unique conference-long strands to provide training in the development of specialized transition courses:
- A class for entering the 9th grade without the skills necessary to take rigorous communication arts content; and
- A class for those seniors who have been identified as probable candidates for remedial mathematics at the post-secondary level.
The determination of need for these offerings based on visits made to Missouri high schools over the past half decade, and review of data. Simply stated, a need exists in a number of our schools for transitional class offerings that this type of training should assist schools to develop.
We have had enough people register for this training in order to ensure that it will be part of this year’s conference, but room exists for additional teams of teachers. If your school has not registered a team, I urge you to consider doing so. The conference-long activity, plus the two separate two day call back sessions are being offered for a single price of conference registration. This is a fraction of the cost a school would spend on this activity under normal circumstances.
Jocelyn Strand, Director
A+ Schools/Charter Schools
MO Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
PO Box 480
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0480
573.751.1014
jocelyn.strand@dese.mo.gov
“The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities. Inquiries related to Department programs may be directed to the Jefferson State Office Building, Title IX Coordinator, 5th Floor, 205 Jefferson Street, Jefferson City, Missouri 65102-0480; telephone number 573-751-4212.”