Professional Development
&
Community Engagement
Pure Edge: Success Through Focus
Pure Edge: Professional Development March 2020
Location:
Hunterdon Central Regional High School
Flemington, NJ 08822
Pure Edge is a wellness organization that focuses on providing “strategies for educators and learners to support social, emotional, and academic development through mindful movement and rest”. Through profession development and open educational resources (OER), Pure Edge guides learners and educators through the “5 Principles of Health and Wellness”; body, breath, mind, attention and engagement. They teach various physical habits and mediations that help relieve stress, promote focus and build a positive mood. I participated in a training session during a staff in-service day. There were various exercises in which we collaborated with other staff, meditated, and learned physical poses to release stress from the body and mind. The experience itself was very relaxing yet fun. Although the training focused on wellness of educators, we also learned various ways to promote mindfulness in the classroom. The same techniques we learned could also be used as a daily exercise with students. Many of these exercises can be done at a desk, which makes incorporating the exercises into a daily routine more efficient.
**I am also a member of the “Pure Edge Community”; where I can access professional development courses, free lesson and resources.**
Calm Classroom
Calm Classroom: Professional Development August 2019
Location:
Alexandria Middle School
Pittstown, NJ United States
Description/Experience:
​For the beginning of the school year, the staff at Alexandria Middle School underwent training for Calm Classroom. Calm Classroom is a research-based organization, that teaches faculty and staff about integrating mindfulness into the classroom. Their mission is to “[cultivate] peaceful, engaged classrooms and school communities by empowering students and educators with mindfulness skills that support mental and emotional wellbeing”. After learning about the purpose of Calm Classroom, we were trained in various Calm Classroom techniques. Some of which were as simple as sitting in a chair and listening to a chime ring, while others were as active as rubbing your hands together as fast as you can. Teachers were given a book and chime, to help instruct the techniques used for practicing mindfulness. The school made a conscious effort to create a Calm Classroom schedule, where the whole school participated in a technique once during the morning and once in the afternoon every day. Personally, I really enjoyed this session. I plan on implementing Calm Classroom techniques within my own classes, as I find mindfulness and mental health to be important aspects of a child’s development.
Kagan
Kagan: Cooperative Learning – Structures of Engagement and Achievement August 2019
Location:
Lester D. Wilson Elementary School
Pittstown, NJ United States
Description/Experience:
Kagan is an organization that provides professional development, training and coaching for educators. Kagan “develops and shares revolutionary instructional strategies proven to boost engagement and achievement”. They have a variety of workshops and training sessions to help improve instruction in the classroom as well as student achievement. The workshop I participated in focused on structures of engagement; specifically, collaborative learning. In this workshop, we learned about various grouping strategies to help create an optimal learning environment. We discussed techniques of engagement that boosted students’ self confidence and understanding of the content being taught. We learned about various pairing activities, such as “RallyRobin” and “Time-Pair-Share” and practiced how/when to use them. I enjoyed this workshop, as it provided new ways for students to share their thoughts while also helping them to understand the content of a lesson.
Art Educators of New Jersey - Convention
Art Educators of New Jersey: Conference – Made in New Jersey October 2018
Location:
Ocean Place Resort and Spa
One Ocean Blvd.
Long Branch, NJ United States
Description/Experience:
This year's AENJ Conference focused on the arts community within New Jersey - hence this year's theme, "Made in New Jersey". The event hosted various art vendors (such as Crayola, Dick Blick, Prang, etc.) and held various sessions/ These sessions were led by pre-service teachers and experienced teachers who shared their lessons and provided guidance on educational topics. Personally, I attended a session that discussed various ceramics lessons and activities for teachers who either do not have a kiln and/or were looking to expand their ceramics lessons beyond being centralized around basic ceramic skills (pinch-pots, coil pots, etc.).
