“Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.”-Jenny Han

REGISTRATION CLOSES 7/18/24. For our Professional Development School Network August 2024 will be magical, as we offer “Summer Breezes” – three days of professional development for teachers and educators. Choose one, two or attend all three days. Each day will have 3 to 4 workshops to choose from.The days are timed perfectly for summer schedules – they start late enough so you can breeze your way to TCNJ and end in time for a lazy river home – in time for sunsets, afternoon exercise, dinner..hmm maybe happy hour. We hope you can join us!

 

August 13 – 15, 2024
9am to 2pm
Lunch 11:30am
Certificate of Completion Included
Daily TCNJ swag door prizes
Cost: $25.00 per day
Registration and pre payment required
Checks, Purchase Orders and Credit Cards(with a service fee) accepted
Register at: https://bit.ly/TCNJ-PDSN-SummerBreeze
Please note this program is currently soley for PDSN members

 

Schedule and workshop descriptions:

Tuesday August 13

Creating Classroom Communities that Value Disabled School Citizens, Led by: Steve Singer, Ph.D.
Citizenship is the act of participating in the society in which you live, both by following social and legal rules and by contributing toward the maintenance and revision of that society. U.S. citizens learn these processes during their school years, but disabled students’ knowledge, experiences, and contributions largely exist in the margins of the school system. This has negative implications for those students’ development and the society for which they prepare. In this workshop. participants will work through a three-step process  to initiate the transformation of their classrooms into spaces where knowledge creation and citizenship are more equitable for all students. With effort and in time, these efforts may lead to large societal shifts.
Steve Singer, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Deaf Education at The College of New Jersey, where he has worked since 2016. After completing a master’s degree at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, he was a middle school teacher and then earned a doctorate from Syracuse University in Cultural Foundations of Education and Disability Studies. His scholarship that spans deaf and disability studies is published in numerous national and international journals as well as book chapters. Being deaf and disabled himself informs his work that largely focuses on identity development and lived experience.

Classroom Culture shifting From Safe to Braver Spaces, Led by: Jennifer Braverman
Shifting from safe to braver spaces in the classroom is crucial for fostering an environment where students feel empowered to engage deeply with challenging ideas, express themselves authentically, and take intellectual risks. Safe spaces often prioritize comfort, which can sometimes lead to avoiding uncomfortable topics or discussions. Braver spaces, on the other hand, encourage authenticity by creating an environment where students feel comfortable expressing themselves even when their opinions might differ or challenge conventional norms.  BraverSpaces promote critical thinking, fosters inclusivity, builds resilience in students and encourages growth for the students, educators and classroom.  This professional development will help educators break their own bias and binaries and make that shift.
Jennifer Braverman teaches visual arts to seventh-to-12th graders at Maple Shade High School in New Jersey. She has taught AP Studio Art, Drawing, Painting, Digital Mixed Media, Photography, Sculpture, Ceramics, Art Studio and Art Therapy. A Welcoming Schools nationally certified facilitator for the Human Rights Campaign and a former Burlington County Teacher of the Year, Braverman is also an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey teaching in the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department since 2013. She combines education, visual arts, and advocacy to engage her audience in contemporary issues. She authored children’s coloring books and her art has appeared in solo and group shows across the country. Graduating summa cum laude from The College of New Jersey, Jennifer Braverman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education with a Concentration in Women in Learning and Leadership. She earned her Master of Arts in Art Education from Boston University

Identifying & Navigating P -12 administrator & teacher burnout – For Administrators, Led by Dr. Adaurennaya “Ada” C. Onyewuenyi
This workshop will help administrators:
Understand K-12 admin and educator burnout (how to identify it, the causes/triggers, and how it appears)
Discuss individual and communal strategies for navigating (and eventually decreasing) burnout
Shift toward an understanding of community care and work-life harmony
Discuss ways to support their K-12 teacher colleagues mental health and wellness
Dr. Adaurennaya “Ada” C. Onyewuenyi a 2nd generation Nigerian of the Igbo tribe, is an advanced assistant professor of Psychology and affiliate faculty of African American Studies at The College of New Jersey. She received her Ph.D. and M.Ed. in Educational Psychology from the University of Washington’s College of Education and holds a B.S. in Human Development with minors in education, psychology, and sociology from the University of California, Davis.

Science of Reading Workshop, Led by Dr. Lauren Foxworth
This workshop would serve as an introduction to the Science of Reading for educators across contents (not just ELA teachers). After defining the science of reading as a concept, we will establish the importance of understanding and teaching phonemic awareness and decoding, in addition to fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction. We will explore research-supported, explicit (structured) phonemic awareness and decoding instructional techniques. If time allows, we will discuss research-supported fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies. Dr. Lauren Foxworth is a full-time professor at The College of New Jersey and serves as Co-director of the Literacy Advancement Project at TCNJ. Dr. Foxworth earned her Ph.D. in special education from The Pennsylvania State University, where she conducted intervention research to strengthen writing quality and support self-regulation skills of students with high-incidence disabilities and struggling writers. Her work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including TEACHING Exceptional Children, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Intervention School & Clinic, Behavioral Disorders, International Journal of Research in Learning Disabilities, Reading & Writing Quarterly and Exceptionality. Dr. Foxworth is a certified special education teacher (k-12), with experience teaching students with disabilities across contents in inclusive and self-contained classroom settings in the NJ public school system.

Wednesday August 14

Inclusive & Diverse History; Grades 6-12l Led by Katie Burke
Join us for an engaging professional development session tailored to empower social studies educators in grades 6-12 to embrace and teach inclusive and diverse history effectively. In today’s interconnected world, fostering an understanding of diverse perspectives and experiences is paramount. This session will equip teachers with the knowledge, strategies, and resources necessary to create inclusive learning environments where all students feel seen, heard, and valued. Through collaborative discussions, hands-on activities, and real-world examples, educators will leave this session with practical tools and actionable insights to enrich their history instruction and cultivate empathy, understanding, and respect among their students.

Language Acquisition and Brain Development in Young Learners, Led by Ivan Andreu Rascon
In this workshop I will cover the neurological aspects of language acquisition and how they apply to teaching in a bilingual setting. During workshop I will present brain-based teaching approaches that facilitate language development and discuss the differences between sequential and simultaneous bilingualism in children. Additionally, we will discuss recent research in brain-based teaching approaches that facilitate language development.
Ivan is a Spanish adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey and a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University, specializing in Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition. He also holds a Master’s degree in Second Language Education from the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares and another in Hispanic Studies from Auburn University. He has served as the Assistant Director for language instruction for the Spanish courses at Rutgers University. He has taught a variety of introductory-level language courses as well as higher-level content courses, such as Introduction to Language Study, Spanish for Social Workers, and Spanish Literature from the Golden Age. His research interests include second language acquisition, bilingualism, laboratory phonology, speech perception and production, and visual perception.

Teaching Climate Change in Math K–8 New Jersey Classrooms, Led by James Beyers
Description Coming Soon! is a Professor of Mathematics Education | Chair, Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education Mathematics Education, Ph.D., University of Delaware, 2008 – Curriculum and Instruction, MEd, University of Delaware, 2003 – Pure Mathematics, B.S., Towson University, 2001

Thursday August 15

Exploring and Implementing the New Jersey Climate Change Education Standards, Led by Dr. Lauren Madden
This session will provide an overview of the New Jersey climate change education standards. We will:

• explore where these ideas fit in with other standards across subject areas;
• share developmentally appropriate strategies for introducing climate change content across grade levels; and provide tools to navigate instructional resources.
• Attendees will leave this session feeling confident in their own understanding of how to find and use these important standards.

Dr. Lauren Madden is a Professor of Elementary Science Education at The College of New Jersey. She holds a BA in Earth Sciences-Oceanography, MS in Marine Science and PhD in Science Education. Dr. Madden’s work advocates for scientific literacy and the health of our planet through teaching and learning. Her research has been supported by grants from the New Jersey SeaGrant Consortium, National Science Foundation, and US Environmental Protection Agency. She has written a textbook on Elementary Science Teaching Methods along with more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She was named the 2021 Outstanding Science Teacher Educator of the Year by the Association for Science Teacher Education and served as the inaugural iCAN STEM Role Model Award by the New Jersey STEM Pathways Network. In recent years, her work has focused directly on K-5 climate change education, and she was the lead author on the New Jersey School Boards’ Association & Sustainable Jersey For Schools’ Report on K-12 Climate Change Education Needs in New Jersey. Her expertise in climate change education in New Jersey has been featured prominently in many media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, NPR, and the Star Ledger.

Beyond Disney: How Fairy Tales Can Foster Creativity, Narrative Understanding, & Resilience K-12 Led by Jo Carney
The fairy tale genre is remarkably adaptable with tales and countless retellings that appeal to a variety  of ages. In this seminar we will discuss fairy tales intended for different groups of readers (K-12 and after), but for all readers, fairy tales offer an opportunity for further creative
expression, a keener appreciation for narrative structures, and the development of resourcefulness and resilience. Professor Carney teaches fairy tales and folklore, Shakespeare, early modern literature, and contemporary literature. Her recent books are Fairy Tale Queens: Representation of Early Modern Queenship and Women Talk Back to Shakespeare: Contemporary Adaptations and Appropriations.

NJ Information Literacy Standards, Led by Ewa Dziedzic-Elliott
As the new NJ Information Literacy NJ Student Learning Standard is being developed, we need to make sure we are ready to implement it. Using the information provided by the Department of Education as well as presenters expertise in the area of Information Literacy the participants will be able to better understand the definition of Information Literacy, its various types and how to effectively teach them K-12.
Ewa Dziedzic-Elliott serves as the subject librarian for all departments in the School of Education. She has 10 years of experience as a K-12 librarian, including work in both elementary and high school settings. She holds an MLIS from Rutgers University and an MA in Polish Language and Literature with a minor in Speech Therapy from Jan Kochanowski University, Poland, EU. She also holds NJ supervisor and principal certifications. Her research interests include research skills of high school and first year college students; diversity and equity in collection management; and barriers to information, especially in the immigrant, multicultural, and bilingual communities. She has published in the Journal of Academic Librarianship and Library Connections. She is an executive board member for New Jersey Association of School Librarians (NJASL) and currently serves as NJASL Past President.