May-June 2017
Posted by Julie DeRoche on 6/14/2017
What a fast, amazing, and wonderful year this has been! Thank you to all who have helped me transition in and learn more about the MERSD system! We have many plans for this summer and even more next year. The following information will help define our goals and plans as we ease into 2017-2018:
Summer PD with Del and Jenna!
Wed 6/21 AM 9:00 - 11:30
Web Presence. All staff should have a web presence - there are a variety of platforms. First Class and Teacher web are ending service. We will focus on moving you over to Blackboard or Google Sites.
Wed 6/21 PM 12:30 – 3:00
Work time for you new web presence! This is dedicated time to apply what you learned and create your new site.
Thurs 6/22 AM 9:00 - 11:30
Moving from H-drive to Google Drive: This session will give you strategies on moving files from the H: Drive to Google Drive. Do you organize and then pack, or pack and then organize when you move? Either way, you will have time to make the move.
Thurs 6/22 PM 12:30-3:00
Time to make the move to Google Drive. This is a working session to get your files, organize them, and move them
District Professional Development Calendar for 2017-2018
The new professional development program and packet will be online after June 20th! Here you will find a calendar and the district professional development program encompassing all the dates and times of the 2017-2018 district professional development, extended Wednesdays, mentor meetings, collaboration hours, and much more!
Parent Information Series for 2017-2018
Mark Your Calendars! Dr. Elizabeth Englander and her staff will come to MERSD on October 19th to work with our middle and high school students and will offer an evening parent presentation on bullying, cyberbulling, and education regarding teen use of social media, education, and prevention. This presentation will be very informative and supportive for parents of digital users of all ages! To learn more information about Dr. Englander’s research, publications, and parent information visit her website or read below! http://www.englanderelizabeth.com/about-me
Dr. Elizabeth Kandel Englander
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
My name is Dr. Elizabeth Kandel Englander, and I am a professor of Psychology and the founder and Director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University, a Center which delivers programs, resources, and research for the state of Massachusetts and nationwide. I am a nationally recognized researcher and expert in the area of bullying and cyberbullying, childhood causes of aggression and abuse, and children’s use of technology. I was named Most Valuable Educator of 2013 by the Boston Red Sox because of my work in technological aggression and how it interacts with peer abusiveness in general.
I went to college at the University of California, Berkeley, where I graduated with Phi Beta Kappa and High Honors in Psychology. After finishing my bachelor's degree, I earned my PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Southern California as an All‑University Predoctoral Merit Fellow, where I conducted research on the causes of aggression. I trained as a Post-Doctoral Fellow with a National Institute of Mental Health Merit Research Service Award at the University of New Hampshire at the Family Research Laboratory, and then began my career as a professor in public higher education in Massachusetts.
In 1993 I started teaching as an Assistant Professor at Bridgewater State University. I am a full Professor there today, in the Department of Psychology.
Developing Training, Research and Fieldwork at the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center
In 2004, I was awarded the first Presidential Fellowship at Bridgewater State University to found a Center to work on understanding and reducing bullying and cyberbullying. This was the beginning of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, or "MARC," an academic Center in public higher education, committed to a public health model for bullying and cyberbullying prevention for the state of Massachusetts. We offer programs and services for other states as well. Today, we have approximately forty faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, and support staff working at MARC. And we still deliver high-quality bullying and cyberbullying prevention services to K-12 schools and other stakeholders - usually, at no cost to those within Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center conducts research and provides many types of programs and services to schools. I am, at heart, a researcher, and I believe in basing the training materials I author on the research I conduct. You can read some of my research papers and other publications.
In addition to papers that are published primarily in academic journals, I've also authored a great many other materials that you may find useful. There are materials written for parents, teachers, and/or administrators about understanding and responding to bullying and cyberbullying. There are bullying and cyberbullying Curricula (for grades K-5, 6-12 and 9-12). (All are research-based and free.)
I've trained tens of thousands of teachers, counselors, and administrators, thousands of students, and have been teaching graduate and undergraduate students for about 20 years. I present at local and national conferences every year across the United States. I am the author of two books: Understanding Violence (three editions), published by Erlbaum, and Bullying and Cyberbullying, recently released by Harvard Education Press. Browse all my publications.
MY EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
I was a Nominee for the 2015 National Crime Victims’ Service Award and am the Chair of the Cyberbullying Workgroup for the Institute of Child Development and Digital Media, collaborating with the National Academy of Sciences' Sackler Colloquium. Each year I trains and supervise graduate and undergraduate students and collaborate with multiple agencies around the State of Massachusetts and across the nation. MARC provides programs to hundreds of schools each year, and I personally train teachers, help educate parents, and speak publicly at dozens of schools, universities, and conferences nationwide and internationally.
I write for both academic audiences and for the public. I was the Special Editor for the Cyberbullying issues of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry-CONNECT and the Journal of Social Sciences, and I've authored more than a hundred articles in academic journals and books. I am the author of Understanding Violence, a standard academic text in the field of child development and violent criminal behavior, and of Bullying and Cyberbullying: A Guide for Educators, published by Harvard Education Press. I have also written a variety of research-based curricula and educational handouts for communities and professionals. Reflecting my interest in educating laypeople, I have answered questions in a column for the New York Times (online edition), and I write the column Bullying Bulletin Board, which is syndicated by Gatehouse Media in hundreds of newspapers nationwide.
Social-Emotional Education at MERSD & YALE: Center for Emotional Intelligence
Teaching the Whole Child….What does it Mean?
In January 2014, The Center of Great Teachers and Leaders at the American Institute for Research, published a research-to-practice brief entitled, “Teaching the Whole Child: Instructional Practices That Support Social-Emotional Learning in Three Teacher Evaluation Frameworks” and defines social-emotional learning as “the process of developing students’ social-emotional competencies-that is knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that individuals need to make successful choices (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning [CASEL, 2003). SEL promotes activities that develop children’s ability to recognize and manage emotions, build relationships, solve interpersonal problems, and make effective and ethical decisions (Payton et.al., 2000). In addition, SEL touches upon developing safe and supportive learning environments and developing professional teaching strategies for this work to support these instructional goals.
Why Is This Important?
Across all ages, schools, and socio-demographics, research shows that “students who participated in social-emotional programs (compared with students not in social-emotional programs) demonstrated the following (Yoder et. al, 2014, p.5):
- Increased academic achievement
- Increased social-emotional skills
- Improved attitudes toward self and others
- Improved social behaviors
- Decreased conduct problems and emotional distress
Providing another definition of this work as it relates to students and preparation for peer interactions and school work challenges, Osher states, “students do not enter school knowing how to interact with teachers and peers around content, how to understand the ways that emotions influence their classroom interactions (e.g., feeling challenged by boredom or failure), or how to regulate stressful academic situations (Osher et al., 2008).
At MERSD, we are committed to Teaching the Whole Child and as a community we endeavor to do so in ways that best fit our educational and social-emotional goals for children.
In order to meet this goal, this summer, twenty two teachers, principals, and directors will train at Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence to study an approach called RULER, created by Dr. Marc Brackett and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. These trained teachers will help develop and implement the RULER program in grades K-12 throughout the 2017-2018 school year. To learn more about the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, click here.
Alignment to Massachusetts Standards 2017-2018 in English and Mathematics
The 2017-2018 school year will also bring alignment to the new ELA and mathematics standards recently adopted by the state. Our professional development time will be spent learning about the new standards and the research that supports the best instructional practices to support reading, writing, and mathematics at all grade levels. Our work will focus on three things: understanding the best research-based instructional practices, understanding the expectations of the MA frameworks, and creating rigorous curriculum to engage all learners.
2017-2018 Mentoring and Induction Program
MERSD has redesigned the mentoring and induction program for next year and we are proud to announce the mentoring program schedule for the 2017-2018 school year. We look forward to updating you on all of our progress throughout the school year! Staff will participate in the following activities:
2017-2018 Mentoring and Induction Schedule
All Meetings will take place in the Manchester Essex High School Library
Meetings run from 3:00PM -4:00PM
Please prepare to attend all sessions
July 13, 2017: New Mentor Training: Do you want to become a mentor? This training is for any district professional-status teacher interested in becoming a new teacher mentor.
August 23, 2015: New Staff Breakfast-Manchester-Essex High School and Mentoring Program Introduction
September 14, 2017: 3:00-4:00 PM
Meet Your Mentor and Program Introduction through Google Classroom
- September 14 – June 14: Daily contact between mentor and protégé
- August – June: Ongoing informal and formal meetings between mentor and protégé
Oct. 12, 2017—Unpacking the Teachers Rubric
- Meeting of all district mentors and protégés
November 16, 2017— Professional Culture
- Meeting of all district mentors and protégés
January 11, 2018—Student Engagement
- Meeting of all district mentors and protégés
March 15, 2018—Formative Assessment
- Meeting of all district mentors and protégés
May 17, 2018— Family and Community Engagement
- Meeting of all district mentors and protégés
2017-2018 Manchester-Essex Instructional Rounds Schedule
Sessions will alternate as AM and PM sessions to facilitate all schools and grade levels:
- Oct 19, 2017
- Dec 14, 2017
- January 25, 2018
- April 12, 2018
2017-2018 Mentoring Professional Learning Committee Book Club
Book Club Title:
The First 100 Days of School by Harry Wong
Online: November 2017 to February 2018
- Alternating monthly meetings and online postings in Google Classroom
Other Activities:
- Completion of contact log by mentor for each beginning teacher (Required)
- Completion of surveys and feedback to Mentoring Committee
- Completion of state paperwork at conclusion of mentoring and induction program
We are shaping up for a very busy 2017-2018 school year!
Much more to come!