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While visiting schools that hosted sessions, some staff shared that the opportunity to attend a PL session in the AM followed by the PM opportunity to collaborate was very productive and focused.

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A number of staff commented about returning from break with an Institute was better than starting with students immediately.

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Hosting large group sessions in the boardroom or LRCs was the best way to go and most comfortable for staff attending those sessions.

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It was suggested that sending a reminder message to staff a few days for the institute may help with easy access to the schedule and information.

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It was suggested that individual reminders go out to staff with the sessions they signed up for (choice) or are required to attend.

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Shorter duration/chunking the sessions so we weren't expected to sit there for 2.5 hours

Good information from the sessions that aligned to what I am working on in my own teaching/team/building goals

Flexibility and choices so I could make the most of the time

I REALLY enjoyed the World Language Presentation yesterday at D25 District Office.  It was great to have the opportunity to meet with World Language teachers across nearby districts.  The presenter gave us info and ideas we can use right away in our classes.

I'm hoping for the same future opportunities!

I enjoyed working with STEM teachers from 59 and other districts. We have a common document where we share lessons and strategies for our curriculum. It was very enlightening to see how other districts handled our curriculum/classes.

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A little confusing about locations of sessions but people were out and about to help (Luedloff)

Would have gotten even more out of it if all my choice sessions were focused on Jr. High (some topics had to stay broad to encompass multiple grade levels)

I found choices I benefited from, but not much opportunity to attend some sessions as they were full immediately before I could sign up.

Choice sessions offered to counseling team members were either Restorative Practices (great training, but many of us have already received this training) or Youth Mental Health Aid.  Youth Mental Health Aid is designed for non-mental health professionals, and so presented no new information for staff who are already trained mental health professionals.  The requirement to attend choice sessions that are irrelevant is frustrating, especially when I worked over break and will continue to take work home with me in the coming weeks.  The restriction from using institute day time to complete required work during contracted hours doesn't sit well with me, though I do understand the attempt to be fair to staff and not allow some to complete work and others to attend sessions.  Some districts have paperwork days for special education staff to complete reports and paperwork; ours does not and this would be really useful.

Having positive intentions, perhaps district leaders thought they were providing a CEU opportunity for those of us with professional licenses (LSW, LCSW, LCP, LCPC).  If this is the case, the certificate for this 6 hours of continuing education provided by this organization does not appear to be a recognized CEU provider by the Illinois Department of Professional and Financial Regulation that regulates our license renewal requirements.  CEUs as recognized by IDPFR are not the same thing as CPDUs as recognized by ISBE.

Also, there was permission given to complete work in teams if approved by building admin.  This would have been a great option to work on BIP development, team data review prior to evaluation meetings, or other SST problem solving, but this wasn't a real option without availability of LBSs who were attending required sessions.

Use more facilities to alleviate the parking situation.

Sessions should be differentiated.

Settings should reflect adult learners. For example, having LRC directors meet in an elementary LRC and sit in chairs made for students for an entire day is not ideal.

Math teachers did not find the afternoon session to be very beneficial.

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Karen Starr planned and delivered the session at Holmes Junior High School.  She talked about IEPs.  I felt that this topic was very useful to us as teaching assistants in the various schools.  Karen's style is quite good as she engages the learners by providing an informative and supportive environment. She fields questions appropriately, and invites us to delve into the topic at hand by openly asking probing questions. Her positive demeanor and energy level make the experience a pleasant one.

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People appreciated the choices. They felt like their time was well-used because they could decide what was important to them. The sessions were well organized and the material presented was as expected.

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My feedback is that there are not a lot of professional dev. opportunities directly related to speech pathology and the fact that NSSEO had a whole day of things for people to choose from for special educators was great! The workshop I went to was wonderful! They had paid for a well known speech pathologist in our field to present.

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In the past, and even yesterday, some of our ELC staff was not allowed to go to the full day workshops or two half day because other district pd was scheduled.  I believe these could have been scheduled on one of our ELC. institute days, allowing all our sped. staff to access quality outside PD.

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NSSEO had some great sessions.  The ones I attended were great and there were others I wished I could have attended.

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It was so great to be able to attend the NSSEO institute day and have national speakers.  Last year we had screenings, and this year I had to cancel my afternoon session for a training that probably could have been held another day (it was in house).  It would be nice if we are going to continue to access the NSSEO institute day that admin (building/sped) do not touch this day (e.g. make screenings this day).

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I loved having PD yesterday. It was fantastic to have access to national speakers with the latest research or ideas to support student growth.

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I really liked getting the option to go to NSSEO sponsored sessions. The training felt more relevant for me than district provided trainings typically are.

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NSSEO organized, it was about AAC.  The speaker was very good and there were definitely a few good "take aways" from the session.

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I liked how we got to choose the sessions we wanted to join.  The presenters were very knowledgeable!  I would love to do another NSSEO inservice!

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We appreciate the time to meet with other Art teachers within our district and beyond.

Some teachers were unsure about how their afternoon was to be utilized because they received conflicting messages from their principals about the time they were allotted for lunch and their "choice" of activities for the afternoon.

Having time to articulate with our middle school or elementary school peers is always appreciated.

Having an agenda for the articulation would be beneficial. Otherwise the time is spent comparing notes about the similarities and differences between programs from one district to another. Although this is interesting, it is maybe not the best use of our limited time together.

The Art Therapist was interesting, knowledgeable and well prepared. We all learned a great deal about the role of an Art Therapist and the ETC. However, we art not Art therapists nor do we have access to Art Therapists in our buildings. It would have been better if the presentation was geared more towards the ways in which we could adapt and use art therapy skills in our own classrooms.

Opportunities for Visual Arts Future PD:

Having an Art educator come and discuss Art education best practices, TAB ( Teaching for Artistic behaviors), using performance based SLO's in the Art room are some ideas for future PD.

Having a liaison from a local Art museum come and discuss programming, resources for educators or field trip opportunities.

It was suggested that in the future it would be helpful for Encore teachers to learn more about the PLC model and how we as Art educators fit into the building PLC.

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From TDP Team:

I attended the BTC session and the Math talk session and it was great to be so interactive and to get to experience each of the strategies first hand. For the Math Talk, we got to try teaching one of the strategies as part of our JIGSAW. That was helpful to gain confidence using the strategy with my own class, but I wish we had a little more time to present to our groups.

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They loved having the opportunity to meet with other teachers who teach instrumental music

However, they would have liked time to articulate with teachers in other districts.

It was nice to have a professional development in their subject area.

Future suggestion: district job alike in the morning/ out of district PD in the afternoon?

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Nice having choices for the morning.

Training was scheduled during school hours.

Many options and choices were given.

Hours 8:00-3:00 were great.

small groups

great start after a longer break

My meeting was specific to my content area.

Loved the time for planning to get ready for the second half of the school year.

It was wonderful having choices and being able to attend workshops sponsored by our Special Ed Cooperative.

Choosing NSSEO learning opportunities

Opportunities to attend sessions from NSSEO

Sessions were at an appropriate length

Job alikes with other D59 are always very helpful.

Having choice, science session very engaging

Appreciate an opportunity to choose a PD that pertains to my professional responsibilities.

"Youth Mental Health" was great! The presenters were knowledgeable and well-prepared.

Good selection of PDs

Choice of sessions Sessions were well-planned

ESP Feedback

Finally had on paper what my duties and roles are as an ESP

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Teachers who work in specific programs have trainings in the AM and PM. They do not receive plan time in the PM.

DL teams had workshops all day without the opportunity to work on their own

Maybe there could be more input from the teams into what their own PD could be on.

There was only 30 minutes between my two sessions (one selected, one required) and a significant distance to travel, which resulted in me being late for my second session and having no time for lunch (sorry, very specific to me, but I doubt I was the only one who had this issue).

having more options asking teachers what they would like to do for institute day if sessions do not meet their needs (maybe outside workshop, speaker)

the choices are very repetitive with not many options to pick from to learn something new

Less time focusing on IEP plans, more examples of what works in the classroom helping kids...strategies...

I do not think the AM session I attended was the most strategic use of time (D214 and Sending District's Professional Learning Partnership: Beyond "Access: Teaching Music through an Equity Lens"). I do not think K-8 music teachers need to have a session especially because this one had so many other districts involved. I did not have any contracted time to work in my classroom on this day which is very needed especially when as music teachers we all have many events that we are in charge of planning.

Not enough new information presented.

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Having a day to transition from break is greatly appreciated.

Staff liked the structure of the day.

Staff appreciated having the opportunity to choose from various PD opportunities.

Having time to choose to collaborate with others and work on curriculum is always appreciated.

Staff appreciated the recognition from the district that our needs are different and we are professionals that can use our time effectively

Opportunities for PD with NSSEO were appreciated! Keep coordinating such opportunities.

The presenters clearly came prepared and had great information to pass along.

The Multilingual Program required newcomer junior high teachers to attend sessions in the AM and PM and did not leave time for planning or preparations in our classroom that many other teachers were able to take advantage of.

The AM session with the Multilingual Program did not provide substantial learning objectives. We talked about translating in the newcomer classrooms and, as a consensus of the newcomer teachers across the district, this was not a beneficial use of our time. We also did not have an opportunity to collaborate on important topics for newcomer students in an effort to align our practices across the district.

The afternoon session did allow for articulation with ELA teachers, however the focus with newcomer students is not directly aligned with the newcomer ELA course as a different curriculum is used.

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"It was a low pressure day back to work after the holiday to connect with colleagues and collaborate to plan for the rest of the year ahead. It was great to attend meetings of my choice."

"Thank you, Elizabeth, for the MS transition meeting! Very helpful!"

"I liked that there were different options and I could pick what I think was the most appropriate/beneficial for my class."

"Very Helpful"

"I enjoyed the morning choice sessions. Going to only two helped go in depth and have more time. I did not appreciate the fact that staff in the afternoon were not trusted to get their work done on their own so we needed to collaborate with others. I think it staff should be able to chose to work on their own, collaborate with others, or both!"

"The ESP session was very helpful. We received binders with very useful information that has never been done before. This session was led by Karen Starr. Her time and dedication towards training ESPs is appreciated. Since newly hired ESPs no longer have assigned mentors, it is important that this information is given."

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If a Building PLT follows Institute Day - consider providing some guidance to principals about how to use that time and not use for that time for new learning - but perhaps to jigsaw or give some time to sign and plan for what they just learned about with the grade level teams.

I did hear some staff were concerned because due to their unique positions a majority of their day was scheduled with PD, job-a-likes, or other meetings.  They would have liked a little more time to get into their rooms and prepare their lesson materials for the kids coming in the next day.

The only other bird's eye suggestion I have is to build in a softer start in the morning with continental breakfast from 8:00-8:30 at the schools where staff are gathering. There are several reasons this would be beneficial.  This would allow a little buffer time for staff to park and find their rooms in unfamiliar buildings, especially in inclement weather.  Second, after being off for 2 weeks, this would give staff a chance to reconnect with others and talk about their breaks, which is not only a great way to build community and relationships, but it also clears their mind to get ready for new learning in the sessions.  Lastly, when an employer provides breakfast and time to reconnect, this adds to the culture of feeling appreciated and welcomed back for the new year. Similar to attending a conference, staff could grab a bagel and coffee, chat for a few minutes to get settled in, and then head to their sessions.

Schools that host sessions should have a print out of the session names and room locations at the entrances. Many teachers did not know what session they were going to or the location. Many interrupted our session for help since it was in a common space.

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SPED staff appreciated having options through NSSEO. Lot's of useable information.

Sunrise Lake was not a good location.

Presenters at NSSEO workshops were great and provided useable information.

The communication from Ed. Services and the general staff emails about institute day were confusing since they came out separately.

LBSs were told they had a required meeting after they'd already registered for NSSEO workshops.

It was not clear from the initial Ed services email that collaboration time was an option and then LBS's were sent to a meeting so they wouldn't be available for collaboration time anyway.

Appreciated having a day back before kids returned.

Some staff liked having a mix of collaboration time and workshop time.

Some would like a whole day of collab/work time.

Could staff who have state licenses (SLP's, LCSWs, etc) have opportunities for CEU's since CPDU's don't count to their licenses?

LBSs found it helpful to talk to the jr high LBSs for 5th/6th grade transitions.

Classroom teachers had mixed feelings on info presented in workshops.

Information presented as being new had actually been taught by math coaches several years ago

Experiments were not part of our curriculum nor is their time to do them

Google info was too basic

Vocab and writing were helpful

For staff who could choose their own adventure, they thought there were a lot of options.

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I loved that sped team wasn't tied up in two required or all-day sessions while everyone else gets a choice session. Love, love, love this, actually.

The pm sped session was very helpful with the slides and discussions. The hour and half after the slide deck discussion was not super useful due to the amount of elementary sped teachers and incoming students vs one or two junior high sped teachers. It would be helpful to have a heads up with this type of session (how much "free time" we have to talk with feeder schools) so the junior high can plan a more structured approach to utilizing the time with the elementary.

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-"The choice sessions were beneficial and appreciated the new way of choosing them. The timing felt short, it would be nice to only have one and go deeper."

-"The Google session was so helpful! Would love more of this!"

-"The collaboration time is helpful. Can anything be set up to allow from grade level collaboration across buildings?"