Community School Institute

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Community School Institute

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Community School Institute

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Thank you for joining United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and our Community School partners for a professional development day to learn more about best practices and share ideas for the 2019-2020 school year.

To view video and presentations from the day click here.

Featured speakers:

Cheri Sterman
Director of Education, Crayola

“Bringing colorful wings to the invisible things that live in the hearts and minds of children” defines Cheri’s career. As the Crayola Director of Education, Cheri helps educators understand creativity and build creative capacity. She translates research and best practices into professional learning experiences. Cheri developed the series of creatED courses on Creative Leadership, Multiliteracies, Family Engagement and STEAM and wrote each of the course’s creatED Reflection Journals. She provides coaching to school leaders and wrote the Principal Guide to Student Success: the Creative Path that helps schools embed innovative teaching practices.

Cheri is currently Vice-Chair of the Partnership for 21^st Century Learning. She has served on the Executive Boards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Child Development Council. Prior to joining Crayola Cheri taught child development at the University of Cincinnati and Sinclair College in Ohio. She has served as a consultant to the National Governors Association, White House Commission on Children and Youth, Children’s Defense Fund, and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities Turn-Around Schools Initiative. Cheri leads art-integration seminars every year for the National Art Education Association, National Association of Elementary School Principals, the US Department of Education, and other national education summits where she inspires colorful learning!

Pam Smith
Special Assistant, Pennsylvania Department of Education

Pam Smith serves as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE). As part of her work, she supports cross-sector collaborations, full-service community school

efforts, stakeholder engagement, organizational development and special projects. Pam has a unique background as both a clinical social worker providing mental health services in school and community settings and has also served as part of educational leadership teams at the both the local and state level. Pam is known for her pursuit of innovative solutions that encourage folks to think about doing business differently even when it seems challenging to engage multiple systems and stakeholders. She has served as a national consultant on issues related to school based mental health services, school safety, crisis management, poverty, and systemic partnerships. Pam has completed Masters Degrees in Strategic Leadership and Social Work.

Breakout sessions:

Human Literacy; Navigating Social Emotional Learning through a Coaching Lens
Room: 621
Cheri Sterman - Director of Education, Crayola
The workshop will be interactive, providing lots of opportunity for connecting with each other and for exploring social emotional learning through the Community School context.

Leading From Any Seat
Room: 623
Katie Desiderio - Associate Professor of Management; Executive Director of Graduate Business Programs, Moravian College
Sean Rossi - Student Experience Mentor, Moravian College
In this workshop, participants will complete a personal values exercise, discern espoused and enacted values, with emphasis on doing what you say you will do (action matters!), and build their brand as leaders. This workshop is designed to help build self-efficacy and leadership identity for participants.

Attendance – Proven Practices
Room: 625
Gina Nichols – Assistant Director, Attendance Awareness and Rural Education
Cesar Cordova – Community School Coordinator, Marvine Elementary School
This workshop will focus on identifying and examining practices and strategies that have proven to be successful in the world of attendance. Attendees will gather information and discuss best practices surrounding different tiers of support and specific strategies that can be taken back to their school and implemented to meet the needs of their students.

Engaging in Difficult Conversations
Room: 625
Olivia Strawn - Network Director of School and Neighborhood Based Initiatives, St. Luke’s University Health Network
Phil Parise - Community School Network Director, Communities In Schools of the Lehigh Valley
This workshop will focus on strategies to use when engaging in difficult conversations with partners and colleagues, information and context surrounding cognitive biases, and strategies that can be used and implemented when working with individuals towards shared outcomes.

Using Data to Inform Decision-Making
Room: 405
Vivian Robledo-Shorey – Director of Student Services and Minority Affairs, Bethlehem Area School District
Ashley Sciora – Assistant Director, Center for Community Engagement, Lehigh University
This workshop will focus on connecting the dots between examining raw school-wide and student level data and using it to create new initiatives, partner with community resources, and align priorities. Utilizing tools to help organize data and using multiple data points to address complex problems will be some of the issues discussed in this workshop.

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