Superintendent's Conference Day Held in Glen Cove

Submitted by Glen Cove City School District

Teaching professionals from the Glen Cove City School District received professional development when they attended Superintendent’s Conference Day on Nov. 4.

As part of the day’s events, teachers attended workshops focusing on a variety of topics, including differentiated instruction and the development of parallel ELA and math questions to mirror state assessments.

Carol Varsalona, an independent ELA consultant and former director of language arts and testing in West Babylon School District, trained ELA teachers from grades 6-8 and social studies teachers from grade 8, in a workshop entitled, “Close Reading Across the Disciplines.”

“My goal is to get the teachers more comfortable with the practices and protocol that are inherent in the Common Core so they can ratchet up instruction for students,” Varsalona said.

She added that ongoing professional development and collaboration between colleagues was vital to student success.

“Without support and collaboration teachers will feel isolated from the message of the State Education Department to power up instruction, ” Varsalona said. “Today’s focus is on scaffolding instruction for all learners. I want them to bring passion to their instruction, to teach in the moment.”

Meanwhile, elementary teachers Jennifer Russo, Meryl Gordon, Cyndi Van Ommeren and Mark Glaviano unpacked “Go Math” for their colleagues after attending a Nassau BOCES workshop on the math program.

“We focused on breaking into small groups and teaching to the level that each student needs,” Russo said. “We also discussed how to utilize all the components of the program to help provide successful instruction.”

Other training provided to teachers focused on writing as well as word study and science. The district also offered workshops on “Nonviolent Crisis Intervention” and “How to Deal with Difficult People,” which was facilitated by Brad Withers of Skill Path.

Photo: Elementary teachers were given strategies on how to provide differentiate instruction to students.