Weekly Teacher Download for November 2

ALL TEACHERS

Teacher Service Days: The next Teacher Service Day (no students) is tomorrow, Nov. 3. There will be no virtual or in-person classes for students tomorrow, which is Election Day. Nov. 3 is now a student holiday and virtual staff professional development day. The student holiday and staff professional development day scheduled on Wednesday, February 24 has been changed to Nov. 3. All students and staff should report to school as normal on Feb. 24.

The professional development catalog is posted on the HISD eLearning website. For any questions on courses, email the department course contact or PSD@HoustonISD.org.

Campus administrators and teachers may choose from the following three options for staff professional development:

• District pre-approved staff development
• Campus or other staff development approved by their area superintendent
• Comp day for teachers or campus administrators who have accumulated the required number of staff development hours as approved by their manager. Refer to HoustonISD.org/eLearning for an optional form that teachers can use to submit staff development hours for COMP requests.

Calming Room: Teachers, your quiet place is usually your home. Teachers design their classrooms, or homes away from home, with welcoming signs and posters of universities. Please consider transforming a space into a Calming Room for your campus. This area could include limited use of technology, dim lighting, lowered voices, telephone chats, meditative music, motivational posters, pictures of nature landscapes, art, and printed copies of inspirational phrases. Please remember to inquire with your campus administrator about establishing your campus Calming Room. Please click here and here to view articles with more information and check out SEL for more resources.

New Teachers: Each month, we will spotlight one of the Instructional Practice (IPR) criteria within TADS. This month’s IPR focus criterion is I-8 Students Actively Participating in Lesson Activities. Join us for a live webinar session where we will dive into effective practice strategies that will support your ability to ensure that:

• Students demonstrate engagement during direct instruction
• Students participate in and complete instructional tasks
• Students volunteer responses to questions
• Students follow teacher directions and ask appropriate questions
• Students display active effort in learning activities during independent work
• Students display active effort in learning activities during group work

Two sessions will be offered via Microsoft Teams on Thursday, Nov. 12 and Wednesday, Nov. 18 from 5 to 6 p.m. To register, please click here.

SECONDARY TEACHERS

CTE Professional Development Opportunities: Please view our upcoming virtual training sessions for CTE instructors and administrators on Nov. 3. Please register through OneSource Learning to receive credit. These sessions will be recorded for teachers who cannot attend. Please reference the CTE audience on the PD calendar. The Microsoft Teams links to join the sessions will be included in the confirmation email after registering and most are also embedded in the calendar. If you have any session questions, please contact Dr. Stacey Whitmore by email at SWHITMO1@HoustonISD.org.

• Business, Marketing, and Finance Programs of Study
• eDynamic Learning General Session
• AES: Health & Business Center 21
• Literacy in the CTE Classroom
• Using Performance GRASPS in CTE Classrooms
• Phase II: ASE Certifying Automotive Shops
• The HON-Code: Principles of CTE Website Evaluation
• Creating Background Knowledge
• CAD Learning
• eDynamic Introduction to Online Courseware and Continuous Learning