Trainings for ExpandED Schools Partner Sites
ExpandED Schools provides engaging, effective professional development for schools and community organizations on the following topics:
- Program Quality Development
- Staff Fundamentals
- Social-Emotional Learning
- STEM
- Literacy
These trainings are intended for after-school program staff members — from front-line workers to supervisors of multiple ExpandED Schools programs serving elementary, middle and high schools. These workshops are offered at no charge to staff serving in our ExpandED Schools Partner Sites as a benefit of your involvement.
If your program is not currently an ExpandED Schools Partner Site, you can still access our trainings for your staff for a nominal per-person fee or through one of our professional development packages. Register below.
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Fall 2018 Training
Staffing Solutions Series
Is your organization looking for new and innovative ways to improve staff engagement and retention? Working with a cohort of community partner leaders and administrators, this multipart series will provide participants the opportunity to collaborate with a cohort of their peers from other after school and expanded learning providers to review best practices and utilize practical tools and strategies related to recruiting and hiring quality and qualified staff. Over the course of several sessions, we will explore the primary causes of staff disengagement, brainstorm strategies to improve your culture and systems and examine what strategies are most successful for re-energizing and motivating a team. Learning how to effectively communicate and having difficult conversations is integral in improving staffing relationships and morale in order to create and support career pathways for employee growth. Attendees will explore strategies for purposeful recruitment and implementing hiring practices that will maximize the sustainability of your team to ensure long-term success!
- Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018 9:30am-12:30pm
- Tuesday, November 13th, 2018 9:30am-12:30pm
- Tuesday, December 18th, 2018 9:30am-12:30pm
- Additional sessions in the Spring!
Facilitator: Marissa Badgley
Behavior Management-Foundations for Students and Staff
Participants will explore the root causes of difficult behavior and will learn ways to proactively, safely, and effectively address difficult behavior using positive, student-centered approaches. This workshop empowers participants to consider their own roles in student misbehavior and provides concrete strategies for adults to manage their own behavior while also cultivating positive relationships with students. Participants will leave feeling re-energized to support even the most challenging students.
- Tuesday, October 30th, 2018 9:30am-12:30pm
Facilitator: Marissa Badgley
Youth Services 101
In this half-day training, participants will learn about the YouthServices.net database management system used to collect enrollment/attendance data for internal/external review and research purposes. Attendees will learn to utilize the system functions, manage and interpret the data to make programmatic decisions, and discover ways to accurately reflect program schedules. This training will ultimately prepare users with the necessary skills to navigate efficiently through the system and manage their program data effectively.
- Friday, November 2nd, 2018 10:00am-12:30pm
Facilitator: Samantha Sherry
Building a Community of Readers and Writers
Is your program designed to support joyful, engaged, and meaningful reading and writing outside of the traditional school day? Register for this foundational workshop and learn how to build a community of readers and writers and develop a culture of literacy in your program. Attendees will learn how to engage students in conversations about their reading identity and how to give engaging book talks. They will also experience multiple writing activities that build community by helping students get to know one another. Participants will leave with a portfolio of tools for designing a program that will support students in building literacy habits, motivations, and skills!
- Wednesday, November 7th, 2018 9:30am-12:30pm
Facilitator: Rachel Roseberry
Family Engagement
Engaging families is a practice critical to the success of the students in your program! In this workshop, participants will learn strategies for meaningfully engaging families at their program site. Featured strategies will include creating a welcoming environment, building relationships with families, communicating with families through a family newsletter, and hosting family learning nights. Participants should expect to participate in a rich learning community and to leave with a variety of resources for increasing family engagement at their site.
Facilitator: Tarilyn Little
Character Building through Social Justice
The expanded day provides the perfect opportunity for supporting young people in developing character traits that will allow them to thrive. This is particularly important when the students we have the pleasure of working with are faced with a number of injustices that are not often discussed during the school day. In this workshop, you will gain the tools to support students’ character building process by providing examples of the many trailblazers and movements that have led to a more just society. Through these examples and activities, students gain actionable steps on their own character building process through a lens of identity and empowerment.
Facilitator: Naa-Shorme Aidoo
Elements of STEM
In this workshop, participants will explore lessons aligned to Next Generation Science Standards. Within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there are three distinct and equally important dimensions to learning science. These dimensions are combined to form each standard—or performance expectation—and each dimension works with the other two to help students build a cohesive understanding of science over time. Attendees will also examine their existing STEM portfolio and how to align them more with the Next Generation Science Standards.
Facilitator: Steve Roberts
Lesson Planning and Delivery
Lesson planning is foundational to good instruction. New staff and veterans alike may struggle with questions around what a quality lesson plan looks like. Join us in this session as we organize content, explore methods of lesson delivery and plan actual lessons together.
Facilitator: Tarilyn Little
Math Games
Inserting math practice into ELT programming is often a struggle. In this training, educators will review the ways that Math Games provide engaging entry points for children to practice strong mathematical thinking. During this training, educators will review the value of math games, best practices for incorporating math games into their instruction and play a variety of games that can be brought into their program. This half-day training is designed to support educators working with students in grades K-8.
