Upcoming Events
In-Person Professional Development
Friendzy Workshop
August 9, 2024 - 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Saginaw, Michigan
Join Friendzy for a day on all things Social Emotional Learning! Kick the school year off by learning best practices for making connections with your students, understanding social and emotional development, and working with parents to have a successful year!
Topics will include:
The Power of Your Story- Creating a Classroom Culture Where Every Child is seen, heard, valued, and loved.
Examining the Power of Efficacy
Considering the Ethics of Care
The 5 Core Competencies of Social and Emotional Development
Self-Awareness
Self-Management
Responsible Decision Making
Social Awareness
Relationship Skills
Parents as Partners: Bridging the Gap between School and Home
Communication
Best Practices
Practical Tools to Engage Parents as Partners
Planning and Leading “AI+STEAM” for School Principals and System Leaders
August 27, 2024 - 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Lansing, Michigan
STEAM does not begin with box(es) of stuff, should not rely on a single person in the building, nor should it be a special in the school schedule. In this workshop, participants will discover intentional and meaningful strategies to begin developing and implementing a successful STEAM program in their schools and systems. Imagine a school where most classrooms demonstrate clear evidence of active learning, where students are engaged in interdisciplinary activities and lessons. Participants will also review elements of the STEAM 360 Assessment Tool to identify opportunities in their own school(s) to advance innovative and modern teaching practices. The purpose of this workshop is to empower leaders with the insights and knowledge to leverage STEAM as a foundational element of the school’s strategic plan for retention, growth and overall community engagement.
Virtual Professional Development
Van Andel Institute General Inquiry Virtual Series
Foundations of Inquiry
August 13, 2024 - 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
In this session, learn how to support your students with an inquiry model that integrates a process of inquiry, a rich learning environment, and habits of mind. Discover four changes you can make right away to increase student engagement with inquiry-based instruction across all content areas. Evaluate the role of a growth mindset in transforming instruction and leave with practical strategies to begin transforming your classroom.
Lesson Transformation in Science: Stop Creating Lesson Plans, Start Creating Learning Experiences! - Virtual
August 13, 2024 - 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Lesson plans are boring; learning experiences are memorable. In this session, take a traditional science lesson and learn a process to transform any lesson into an inquiry-based experience. Share strategies for managing a rich learning environment and continually strengthening habits of mind. Come willing to transform everyday lesson plans into memorable, inquiry-based learning experiences. Leave with strategies and tools to make it happen.
Make it Stick: Helping Students Construct Knowledge for Deeper Understanding - Virtual
August 15, 2024 - 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn. It’s an old proverb and it’s true: if we’re not involving students in the construction of their own knowledge, they’re not going to learn deeply, meaningfully, and lastingly. In this session, discover the importance of guiding students to construct their understanding of important concepts, and learn specific strategies that can deepen student learning in any classroom.
Lesson Transformation in ELA: Stop Creating Lesson Plans, Start Creating Learning Experiences! - Virtual
August 15, 2024 - 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Lesson plans are boring; learning experiences are memorable. In this session, take a traditional ELA lesson and learn a process to transform any lesson into an inquiry-based experience. Share strategies for managing a rich learning environment and continually strengthening habits of mind. Come willing to transform everyday lesson plans into memorable, inquiry-based learning experiences. Leave with strategies and tools to make it happen.
MESC Virtual Professional Development Week
We are excited to offer a series of enriching sessions designed to equip you with valuable insights and strategies for the upcoming school year. Participants are encouraged to register for as many opportunities as their schedules permit, ensuring you get the most out of this learning experience. However, please be mindful of your commitments and make every effort to attend the sessions you sign up for, as your presence is crucial to the success of our collaborative learning environment. Let's make this week a productive and inspiring start to the new school year! Each session is marked by the topic it will cover. The topics include:
Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
STEM
Technology
Science of Reading (SOR)
*Registration for sessions can be found here. Just select the session(s) you would like to attend.
Monday, August 12, 2024
SOR: The Importance of Reading Intervention - 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Join this session to learn about how multi-tiered systems of support provide intervention in response to student achievement, and ways that you can support positive gains in reading performance for struggling readers.
SEL: Necessity of Routines - 1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Classroom disruptions can be the most stressful and time-consuming part of a teacher’s day. This session will teach you how to proactively build relationships and develop and maintain classroom routines to minimize disruptions. Learn steps to co-regulate yourself and students in moments of stress. When students feel they belong and know what to expect in their classroom, they are less likely to engage in disruptive behavior.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
SEL: Mastering Self-Management - 10:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Think back to your last perfect school day. If this is an impossible memory to find, you aren’t alone! From traffic in the morning to student conflict, our days are filled with stressors. When these stressors get the best of us, it can be difficult to manage a classroom filled with students lovingly.
Join Friendzy leaders as we discuss the power of co-regulation in the classroom and in life! This session will introduce simple self-management tools for both you, your staff, and your students.
STEAM: Why STEAM: The Instructional and Schoolwide Benefits of a STEAM Program - 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
This interactive webinar equips school leaders to champion the implementation of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) program. Participants will delve into the rationale behind STEAM, exploring its growing importance in preparing students with the essential 21st-century skills they'll need to thrive. Through engaging activities and discussions, leaders will gain an understanding of how STEAM can ignite student engagement and motivation by integrating creative and hands-on activities across diverse subjects. They'll discover how STEAM empowers students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills as they tackle real-world challenges that combine science, technology, engineering, art, and math. The learning experience also explores how STEAM fosters collaboration and communication skills through teamwork projects and encourages creativity and innovation by merging elements of art and design with STEM fields.
Ultimately, leaders will walk away with more insight on how to advocate for a STEAM program within their schools, ensuring students are well-equipped for future success.
SEL: Partnering with Parents - 12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Bridging the Gap between School and Home- We are hardwired for connection and friendship! Friendships provide fun, joy, laughter, and community! That said, relationships can be messy and hard at times. Seeing your children struggle to navigate their friendships can be challenging as parents. These experiences can cause tension and can challenge the parent-teacher relationship. Ultimately, parents and educators strive towards a common goal—to see their students flourish. How can parents and teachers work together to help students navigate friendships through the lens of their faith? We will acknowledge best practices to build a positive partnership between parents and teachers that relies on open, honest, consistent, and asset-based communication. Attendees will also receive tools to use with their students to foster positive peer-to-peer relationships.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
TECHNOLOGY: Empower Teachers by Rethinking Student Assessment with Generative AI - 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Imagine the impact on student-centered learning if teachers had the knowledge and tools to create their own real-time personalized assessments. This webinar empowers educators to harness the transformative potential of Generative AI (GenAI) in K-12 assessments.
The discussion will flip the script on GenAI, shifting the focus from fearing it as a cheating tool to using it as a powerful learning and assessment aid. Through interactive activities and discussions, participants will discover how GenAI can boost student creativity by sparking brainstorming sessions, generating creative text formats like poems or code snippets, and helping design prototypes at the beginning of projects. Participants will also explore how GenAI can deepen research and analysis by assisting students in gathering information, summarizing complex topics, and even crafting research questions. The webinar also delves into responsible AI use, teaching participants how to effectively cite AI sources and validate information through triangulation with credible resources.
Thursday, August 15, 2024
SEL: Classroom Management During Times of Disruption - 1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Do chronic classroom disruptions frustrate you? You’re not alone! Studies show that teachers experiencing an average amount of classroom disruptions will lose 10-20 whole school days of instructional time over a year (Kraft, M. A., & Monti-Nussbaum, M.,2020). Yikes! In this session, we will share relationally centered strategies for before, during, and after classroom disruptions and tool participants up with strategies to help prevent disruptions and address them when they arise.
SOR: Integrating the Science of Reading into Instruction 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Join us to learn more about the Science of Reading and its implications for literacy instruction. Find out more about the five pillars of reading and examine specific examples of instruction for each concept, and how these concepts work together to improve reading comprehension.