Betty Summers
Sweet Home Teacher Center
1901 Sweet Home Road, Amherst, NY 14228
Teacher Center Updates:
The Teacher Center Room relocate this school year. Our Center is now located inside the High School, room 213.
It is a nice space to have committee meetings and to participate in smaller professional development classes.
The black and white poster maker, Ellison Die cut-outs are still available.
Please contact paul for details
LAMINATING...
High School and Middle School Teachers:
If you need materials for your classroom laminated, please email pszymendera@sweethomeschools.org to make an appointment.
Poverty Simulations at Sweet Home
10/1/18
Our final installment of Poverty Simulations will take place on November 6, 2018. Sweet Home's K-2 teachers will join the Far West Teacher Center Network as others' have in the High School small gym.
The Poverty Simulation is meant to begin conversations within our buildings about the realities of living in poverty and the effects it has on school aged students.
The Teacher Center will continue its focus this school year by offering additional in-=service opportunities that focus on the research of Eric Jensen in his book, "Engaging students with poverty in mind" and classroom practices of Budge and Parrett in their book, "Disrupting Poverty."
On-Line Professional Development
with the Teacher Center!
This is an exciting new direction for Sweet Home's professional development that may change the landscape of how our professional learning community advances in the years to come!
Please consider taking one or more of the following ONLINE COURSES this month: Notability in the Classroom, Infographics, or Digital Learning Logs.
Special thanks go out to our district's PDP committee and Tech Coaches for their hard work, dedication and feedback to this endeavor.
Tech Coaches: Dr. Sarah English, Brent Peterson and Paul Szymendera
PDP Committee: Marybeth Bruce (HS), Melissa Campbell (MM), Melinda DiBernardo (GD), Mary McVee (Marty Pizur (Admin), Bob Polino (Admin), Sue Stephens (HH), Paul Szymendera (SHEA), Kim Potkalitsky (WR), Michelle Theil (Parent), Jeremy Traverse (MS), Scott Wolf (Admin)
Elementary Teachers Get
iPads!
posted January 2017
As our fifth grade students continue their adoption of iPads, elementary classroom teachers are also getting iPads to begin their conversion as well.
There are two main paths that iPads will lead our classrooms to as teachers begin creating digital classrooms. First, and maybe most obvious, students will begin to interact with content and receive feedback quicker and more efficiently than ever before. Second, the iPad, along with all the cool apps and web-based tools will become the best "teacher assistant" one can have!
I hope that teachers will find "Tech Tuesday" training from the Teacher Center valuable and 'just in time' for you and your classroom.
The Teacher Center and Tech Coaches would suggest your entry point with technology to be around you becoming comfortable with the tools. For example, begin using Notability - you will quickly substitute your doc camera and 'PowerPoint-style' presentations with your iPad. What makes the iPad a powerful presentation tool is that you can walk around with it! If you haven't already, check with the tech department about installing AirServer on your laptop computer. Connecting your iPad with AirServer allows you to wirelessly "mirror" your iPad to your classroom projector. This is a complete game-changer for classroom instruction.
Register for the ON-LINE Notability in the Classroom inservice class and get "hooked!"
Have you Tried Quizizz in the Classroom yet??
What's all the fuss about Notability??
Take a TC Class!
NYS Teacher Centers
Beginnning in 1984, New York State Teacher Centers represent the largest professional learning community in New York State.
The official name of Teacher Centers is New York State Teacher Resource and Computer Training Centers.
There are more than 130 Centers in seven regional networks throughout New York State.
Teacher Centers work with more than 685 public school districts and more than 1,000 non-public and charter schools.
The Teacher Center network executes a variety of statewide projects, such as Thinkfinity NY and Beyond, Regents Review Live and Leadership Academy.
New York State Teacher Centers deliver professional development to support quality teaching for more than 300,000 educators in their communities.
Sweet Home's History
Founded in 1989, our Center has been providing professional development to our staff while complimenting district initiatives.
Recently, we have worked in concert with the district to provide time to teachers to attend programs such as:
- Thoughtful Education
- Literacy Training
- Common Core Math Implementation
Far West Regional Network
VISIT our REGIONAL Webpage for more information!
Al Shanker
AFT President
1974-1997
History of NYS Teacher Centers...
In the 1970’s, Al Shanker visited England to learn more about the concept and operations of teacher centers. This idea was successfully promoted by the AFT and the NEA, and subsequently the Federal Government developed a competitive grant program for school districts, colleges and universities to develop teacher centers. The federal regulations developed during that time established control of the planning and management of the programs with practicing classroom teachers.
In 1982, the Federal government eliminated funding to teacher centers and for several years there were no State or Federal grants available to districts. Some districts provided some funds to teacher centers to keep them operating, albeit on a significantly reduced basis. In 1984, NYSUT’s lobbying efforts were successful in getting a state law passed for the establishment and funding of Teacher Resource and Computer Training Centers (Section 316 of Education Law).