ARIN IU 28 has worked with the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce and Indiana Area Senior High School to develop a Senior Soft Skills Challenge for high school seniors. ARIN IU 28 has secured funding to help offset the cost of transportation. The event window is March 13-31 and will be available to any district in Armstrong or Indiana Counties. If your district wants to participate, please click here to select a date as soon as possible.

Please click the button below for more information or contact Stacie Isenberg sisenberg@iu28.org | 724.463.5300 x1216.

• Structured Literacy training is here!
• Note: If you use this training, you have 90-180 days to complete.

• IU28 will work with your district on SL trainings specific to your needs and Comprehensive Plans. PDE's training will be 10 Hours (not mandatory to use this training, nor is it mandatory to have a set number of hours). Update: the newest language is that implementation of SL is 23.24, not completion.
• Upcoming Comp Plans should include language on SL, but if they were already submitted, it is advised to not go in and update.

• The new Structured Literacy (SL) Framework Guidelines

• New: Mentors can earn up to 15 hours/year (45/cycle) in Act 48 credits.

Roster verification is a process used to provide PVAAS teacher-specific reporting based on accurate data. This process is for teachers and administrators to document and verify that each student is linked accurately to one or more teachers – for the correct state assessment(s) and the appropriate proportion of instructional responsibility.

Three separate webinars will be offered in winter and spring 2023 for focused learning and support of the different parts of roster verification. Registration links can be found on the PDE PVAAS roster verification page.

Looking at Recovery Data in PVAAS

There is a free e-resource available to LEAs and schools that explains how to explore the impact of unfinished teaching and learning as well as recovery trends within the PVAAS web application. This e-resource goes through key reports, step-by-step instructions to view them, and guiding questions to consider when looking at the data.

Comprehensive Plans (*Extension includes all State Required Reports*)

• Phase 1 - Due March 31, 2023 **EXTENDED to Oct. 31, 2023**
• Phase 2 - Due March 31, 2024

• Phase 3 - Due March 31, 2025

Special Education Plans:

• Phase 1 - Due May 1, 2025
• Phase 2 - Due May 1, 2023
• Phase 3 - Due May 1, 2024

K-12 Guidance Plan (339)

• Phase 1 – March 31, 2024

• Phase 2 – March 31, 2025

• Phase 3 – March 31, 2023

The newest edition of “The CP Tip Jar” newsletter has been released. Click here to access the most current Comprehensive Planning/FRCPP information.

Act 158 Office Hours

January 31: English Learners and Pathways Options

https://zoom.us/j/6374689091

Articles on the impact Chat GPT may have on education

Stanford Graduate School of Education

TL/DR (Too long/didn't read):

• Perspective: an amazing medicine with dangerous side effects.
• Educators can use this tool to change their approach to writing assignments and skills.
• College admissions: Writing samples are becoming more prevalent. ETS (Educational Testing Services) is already working on algorithms to detect AI usage.
• Chat GPT will have bias in culture and cognition (AI has a designer)
• Students can use AI for feedback, corrective support and cultural awareness and belonging.
• Question: how generative AI is changing the world for humans, rather than in place of humans.

Syllabus/Assignment Suggestions

TL/DR:

• Use this new tool as a way to manage your expectations (time, effort, resources) for students. Focus on the actual outcomes you want students to achieve in your course.
• Take time to address ethics and gray areas as AI develops.
• Use it! Get creative! Mind maps, debates, rewrites, etc.
• It is a technology, not a person. Avoid "Chat GPT says...."

The Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative at Penn State will lead Making Holocaust and Genocide Education Relevant Through Inquiry and Classroom Application, a professional learning program for teachers made possible through a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The program will convene 30 teachers from across the United States to study the Holocaust, make connections to other genocides and human rights topics, and plan for inquiry-based classroom instruction of the Holocaust or another difficult topic.

Teachers who apply and are selected to participate in this prestigious Institute will gather on the Penn State campus in State College, PA for a residency spanning June 25 – 30, 2023. Working elbow-to-elbow with scholars of the Holocaust, social studies education, and teacher education, they will investigate compelling questions such as:

• How did the concepts of genocide and human rights develop out of the Holocaust?
• What makes the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights uniquely difficult to teach?
• What constitutes responsible classroom inquiry into difficult topics?
  
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The residency will culminate in a field trip to Philadelphia, PA, where teachers will take guided tours of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza, critically evaluate inquiry-based instructional materials for Holocaust education, and begin to outline an instructional unit for 2023-24.

Teachers will continue to collaborate and receive sustained pedagogical support through virtual sessions spanning Fall 2023. Virtual session topics will include trauma-informed practices for classroom application, responsible use of media in Holocaust education, inquiry-based instructional design, and more.

Applications are being accepted online through March 3, 2023. Notifications of acceptances will be sent April 3.

For more information and to apply, visit https://bellisario.psu.edu/neh-institute.

There are plenty of mentors ready to support novice special education leaders/psychologists as mentees.

BSE is working with universities to expedite coursework for paraprofessionals interested in becoming educators. This is in policy review and should be rolling out shortly!

Please visit the Career Readiness Smore or contact Stacie Isenberg, sisenberg@iu28.org, 724.463.5300 x1216