Project Based Learning and Outside Experts in Our Schools

We are excited that so many of our schools are already working with community experts to plan to apply their academic skills to real-world problems. We have students working with the State Fair planning committee, Aurora Hospital, Scuba Divers, and local restaurants to plan to solve problems and expand opportunities within our local community. Keep an eye out for the amazing opportunities your child will experience this year and how they will be able to share what they are learning.  

 

We also had some national experts with us for our teacher preparation week this year who were very impressed with our students who presented at our teacher kick-off and the work our teachers have done to prepare for the school year. These national experts had a lot to say about their experiences in our schools and how we support teaching learning and have returned to our schools this fall to do some deeper work with our educators.

 

George Couros, who is a nationally known author and presenter around creating innovative schools that are inclusive of all students, was blown away by our focus on students first and the energy among our staff as we started our school year. 

 

In addition, we had Brian Delgado and Andrew Lerrario from Blue Dot Education, who work with teachers all over our country, working with staff in several of our schools during the teacher preparation week. Both Brian and Andrew shared that our standards-driven student projects that teachers were planning for the year were incredible!  

 

You can hear directly from Andrew Lerraio and his experience in our schools here and from Brian Delgado here!

 

We had our first professional development day on September 26, 2022. This was a building day, so teachers worked on their Student Learning Objectives, their Professional Practice Goals, and their Rapid Cycle Feedback goals. Central spent the day with Colin Seale to continue their work on a unified message about equity and how to meet the needs of all learners in a way that is possible for staff. Colin Seale, from Think Law and Tangible Equity, worked with our school leaders in May and is continuing to work with our schools this year. 

 

You can hear directly from Colin Seale about his experience with our district in his video here!

 

We will continue to keep you updated as we innovate and work to create the best experiences for our teachers and learners through the incorporation of outside experts!