District+Pro-D+Oppurtunities

Hi Staff, Sue Elliot asked Greg and I to spread the word on this workshop. Please let me know if you are interested. Greg, Dean and I attended this year's sessions and agreed they were very helpful. Last year the sessions were billed as being most useful to teachers new to a subject area or new to teaching in general. However, there were many experienced teachers there and as far as I know all found it very useful so I recommend it to all staff members. -Scott
 * UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN**

As many of you know we have had a group of teachers and administrators participating in a 5 part series this year on **Understanding by Design** (UbD). The final session for this group of close to 20 elementary and secondary educators was this past Monday night. The comments we have received from those who participated have been very positive. In short, UbD is a framework for designing curriculum units, performance assessments, and instruction that lead students to deep understanding of the content being taught. Participants found the sessions to be very practical and applicable for what they were doing in their classes. Several participants found that the work covered in the sessions provided a structure for planning their work in Service Learning, Ethical Fitness, Critical Thinking and Action Research. This year's sessions have been facilitated by Sue Elliot and Susan Clayton (a consultant from Authentic Education). Our current plan for next year is to carry on with this first cohort and also establish a second cohort. This new cohort of teachers and administrators would **meet 5 Mondays** between September and April from **4 - 7 pm** [dinner included]. Before we make commitments to our consultant and finalize these plans we would like to gauge interest.
 * Fax this to me at 604-981-1271 with name attached **
 * Email to selliott@sd45.bc.ca  **
 * Phone: 604-981-1234 Box 4530 **