Though Dutchess BOCES students had the recent Superintendent Conference day off, plenty of learning was happening on campus. Topics specific to our schools and staff positions were covered throughout the day.
BOCES also supported learning throughout the region, with many component school nurses coming to learn together, and component school teaching assistants learning together virtually from professional development specialists at Dutchess BOCES.
Brisk Teaching
Teachers and teaching assistants learned about Brisk Teaching from professional development specialist Cara Braun. This AI-powered Chrome extension has many features to enhance teacher workflow.
The group installed Brisk and tested its main functions including creating instructional materials, giving feedback to students, analyzing the student writing process, adjusting difficulty and translating content. Braun spoke about best practices and emphasized the 20/80 rule, a flip on the well-known adage, where teachers use AI for 20% of the work and 80% is still their own creation.
Amy Smith, a science teacher at CTI, shared, “I’m excited to make meaningful activities such as labs based on scientific articles. This will help us work smarter and not harder.”
Quality CTE Instruction
Teachers and teaching assistants new to CTI met to learn about the 2018 ACTE Quality CTE Program of Study Framework. The group brainstormed lists of what good instruction looks like, categorized and discussed their lists, and made additions and changes as needed.
They then dissected the 12 elements of the Framework and saw how it aligned with their initial ideas. This group meets monthly with Educational Resources Director Rebecca Green to develop as new teachers.
“I enjoyed working together with my colleagues and learning more about how important our industry partners' knowledge and voice is in shaping our curriculum,” said early childhood education teacher Jesselle Cudjoe.
ACCES-VR
Related services, social workers, and behavior support teachers heard from David Lee from Adult Career and Continuing Education Services-Vocational Rehabilitation (ACCES-VR) about the organization’s services.
ACCES-VR provides an array of Pre-Employment Transition Services for students with disabilities, including job exploration counseling, post-secondary options counseling, work based learning experiences, instruction in self advocacy, workplace readiness training and more.
Social worker Melissa Fuchs has connected many students with ACCES-VR. “These services are lifelong. Qualifying individuals can come back to them as they experience life or career changes,” she shared.
School Nurse Forum
Nurses from across BOCES’ component school districts attended this session by public health nurse Maria Muller and Dutchess County Department of Health Commissioner Livia Santiago-Rosado highlighting everything from vaccine requirements for students to the pilot program, Fit Dutchess, which tackles childhood obesity with the help of school districts and community-based organizations.
Santiago-Rosado noted that kids who have poor diets and lack physical activity risk getting diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
“These causes may not be leading to a lot of mortality and death, but they are leading to a poorer quality of life,” Santiago-Rosado said. “We’re trying to do this in a very holistic way.”
Wappingers Central School District nurse Catherine O'Sullivan liked the idea of Project Fit and would support it, but noted other matters are taking precedent, including vaccination requirements. She found the session helpful as she shared what school nurses are facing on the ground.
“It’s good to have these conferences,” O’Sullivan said.