Programs & Services

In this exciting and interactive seminar, Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs will look at how to develop new versions of school matching the needs of 21st century learners to support modern curriculum and assessment design. The transition will require bold moves, practical steps, and rebooted missions. Dr. Jacobs will provoke our consideration of the four most basic program structures: schedules, student grouping patterns, faculty organization, and learning spaces (both physical and virtual) and challenge us to rethink them, reinvent them and reunite them into a more dynamic learning environment. Key in her presentation is the integration of new literacies - digital, media, and global - into upgraded curriculum maps. The session will be decidedly interactive with a wealth of examples and resources to assist your team in its efforts.

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The Registration Price includes a copy of Dr. Jacob's book, "Bold Moves for Schools: How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments." Registration also includes a light breakfast and lunch. Participants will earn 5 1/2 Act 48 hours.

Please join Dr. Katherine Dahlsgaard, Clinical Director of the Anxiety Behaviors Clinic, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, as she presents on supporting our early childhood learners who are dealing with some form of anxiety. Dr. Dahlsgaard will initially focus on the normative development of healthy anxiety in young children and then will facilitate a discussion on how problematic anxiety develops. She will outine evidence-based intervention strategies for the most common anxiety disorders in young children such as separation anxiety, selective mutism, and specific phobias. Dr. Dahlsgaard will also provide approaches to supporting and partnering with parents of anxious young children, followed by recommendations for self-care strategies for school personnel who work with these children.

Join us for an informational update on College Board programs and services! The workshop will include an overview of the SAT Suite of Assessments, updates to Advanced Placement, and the variety of opportunities available to students. We will review resources available to students, including the online score portal, scholarship and recognition programs, and official SAT practice with Khan Academy. There will also be a special focus on the new College Board Opportunity Scholarships and the College Board Career Finder Tool.

This workshop will offer an overview of the SAT Suite of Assessments that includes a discussion about test item types, the score scales, and how the assessments are linked to classroom instruction. Considerable time will be spent discussing and demonstrating the entire online score report system and the various data reports that are available, including the new growth reports. We will review how the available data can be used to support student success both at the individual student level as well as the school and/or district level.

Each participant must bring a fully charged tablet or laptop computer and must be able to access to the K12 Reporting Portal for their school/district data portal. (If additional support is needed to access the K12 Reporting Portal, please reach out to Kathleen Weiss at kweiss@collegeboard.org prior to the session.)

Banish math anxiety and give students of all ages a clear roadmap to success! Mathematical Mindsets provides practical strategies and activities to help teachers show all children, even those who are convinced that they are bad at math, that they can enjoy and succeed in math. This workshop will explore the work of Jo Boaler-Stanford researcher, professor of math education, and expert on math learning - who has studied why students don't like math and often fail in math classes. Boaler translates Carol Dweck's concept of 'mindset' into math teaching and parenting strategies, showing how students can go from self-doubt to strong self-confidence, which is so important to math learning. Boaler reveals the steps that must be taken by schools and parents to improve math education for all. We will explore how Mathematical Mindsets....
• Explain how the brain processes mathematics learning
• Reveal how to turn mistakes and struggles into valuable learning experiences
• Provide examples of rich mathematical activities to replace rote learning
• Explain ways to give students a positive math mindset

Have you heard?! The Bucks IU is the proud recipient of a PAsmart Advancing Grant from Governor Tom Wolf to launch a Mobile Fab Lab for the 2019-2020 school year.

The Mobile Fab Lab seeks to meet a very real need that exists both across Pennsylvania and in Bucks County. In 2018, there were over 300,000 STEM related jobs in Pennsylvania, and nearly 17,000 of those jobs were unfilled. In Bucks County, Advanced Manufacturing jobs are frequently cited as the most in-demand. The Bucks IU's Mobile Fabrication Lab will therefore help prepare students for the local STEAM workforce needs.

This Educator Summit will introduce educators to the Mobile Fab Lab. Educators will learn about the lab, engage in the lab's curriculum, and learn how to prepare for a Mobile Fab Lab Residency.

Computational thinking is an increasingly essential skill for today's learners. As a critical building block for engaging in computer science content, it can be applied to nearly any job and any sector. The ability to solve problems, critically analyze information, communicate and think creatively and beyond the current method of doing things, are invaluable skills in our fiercely competitive and ever changing digitally-powered world. And, these skills can be taught with or without a screen!

Throughout this day, participants will:
• Develop an understanding of what computational thinking is
• Explore the components of computational thinking
• Engage in hands-on activities with Makey-Makey to experience computational thinking in action
• Collaboratively plan to incorporate computational thinking strategies to classroom practice

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Registration cost includes a light breakfast, lunch, and an individual Makey Makey invention kit. Participants will need to bring a laptop to this workshop (please note that activities will be more challenging on an iPad).

This workshop is being sponsored by the Bucks IU and will be facilitated by the Kagan Professional Development Staff. See description below:

"We have a choice: We can teach using traditional methods or we can teach the way the brain best learns. Teaching with traditional methods is like swimming against the current: Teaching is more exhausting, students learn less, and like class, content, and the teacher less. When we teach the ways the brains best learn, teaching is more effortless and students learn and enjoy class more. You will view actual brain scans demonstrating how to boost engagement and retention with simple structures as part of any lesson. You will learn the six principles of brain-friendly teaching in a way you will never forget! Come turn on your brain in this active brains-on, interactive workshop. Learn to boost motivation and achievement as you create your brain-friendly classroom!"

All teachers who have English learners in their classrooms need to develop the knowledge and skill to help them both learn the content and continue to gain proficiency in English. The way to achieve this goal is to consciously plan for not only content learning, but also language learning. Mainstream classroom teachers may have many questions about what this looks like in real classrooms, including: 1) How can I teach language if I'm not a trained ESL teacher? 2) Does focusing on language take away from students' content learning, and isn't the content learning more important? 3) If the English learners in my class have different levels of English proficiency, how can I meet the language needs of all of them? The goal of this session is to look realistically at how mainstream classroom teachers can assist English learners in their language development. Participants will have the opportunity to share real issues and concerns, learn a realistic approach to the inclusion of language objectives in mainstream classes, and produce a sample lesson plan incorporating language objectives alongside content objectives.

This workshop is "a deeper dive into the kind of feedback which fosters English language development."

Differentiating lesson plans for English learners (ELs) is the necessary starting point in meeting their needs. However, differentiated lessons are only half of the skill set needed to help ELs progress in language development. The other half of the equation is teachers' real-time response to ELs as they use language. How do teachers respond to errors or gaps in language use? Why do students sometimes seem to not remember or apply what they have been told? Is it the kind of feedback that teachers provide really what helps ELs grow in language skill? After a short refresher on differentiating instruction for ELs, this session introduces research on the effectiveness of various types of feedback, showing what helpful feedback looks like in both oral and written language use, at diverse language levels. Participants will engage with EL language samples, envisioning what effective feedback looks like, through small group discussion. Participants will leave the seminar having created protocols for providing oral and written feedback within their own teaching context.

This workshop will be conducted by a Kagan Professional Development Specialist. It will focus on the updated and expanded edition of the famous Kagan Cooperative Learning Textbook. Participants will find new step-by-step structures, hundreds of helpful management tips, many more teacher-friendly activities and forms, and up-to-date research on proven methods. Participants will learn how schools have used Kagan Cooperative Learning to boost academics, close the achievement gap, improve student relations, and create a more kind and caring school community. After decades of training and working with hundreds of thousands of teachers, Kagan has refined and perfected the most widely used and respected form of cooperative learning ever. The Kagans make it easy for you to dramatically increase engagement and achievement in your class!

Each participant will receive the latest edition of the Kagan Cooperative Learning Textbook, Cooperative Learning Course Workbook, Action Plan 1: Kagan Cooperative Learning and Mix-Pair-Share Software.