City Springs Teachers Win 2015 Engelmann Excellence in Education Awards

City Springs Elementary/Middle School Pre-K teachers Nicole Lefrancois, Mallory Davis and Mindy Cipriano received Engelmann Excellence in Education awards at the 2015 National Direct Instruction Conference.

These three teachers have served their careers at City Springs. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of their most recent group of students were in the high risk category at the beginning of the year. By the end of the year, only 23% remained in that category. In math, 83% of the students were at risk for failure at the beginning of last year. By the end of the year the number had decreased to 32%.

Laura Doherty, President and CEO of the Baltimore Curriculum Project writes, "These three teachers exemplify the skill and intensity in instruction which is critical to helping students at risk of academic failure compete with their middle class peers. They also exemplify the warm, nurturing, positive environment all students deserve."

BCP would like to congratulate Ms. Lefrancois, Ms. Davis and Ms. Cipriano on this recognition of their outstanding accomplishments.

For more information about the National Direct Instruction Conference and the National Institute for Direct Instruction visit: http://nifdi.org/

BCP Holds 19th Annual Summer Training Institute

If you are a teacher, you probably remember what it was like on your very first day of school when you were thrown into the deep end and left to sink or swim.

Fortunately for new BCP teachers, BCP provides life vests (and sometimes life rafts) in the form of BCP's Summer Training Institute and ongoing in-class coaching support.

BCP held its 19th Annual Summer Training Institute for new and returning teachers during the week of  August 10, 2015. Academic Coaches Brenda Kahn and Marvelyn Johnson and Director of Student Support Services Jeff Krick conducted the week long training in classroom management for 36 teachers from City Springs Elementary/Middle School, Govans Elementary School, Hampstead Hill Academy and Wolfe Street Academy.

"[This was the] best PD I have been to since I can remember in my seven years of teaching in BCPS," wrote one teacher on the evaluation form.

"I wish I had this as a first year teacher. I learned so much."

Most educators agree that classroom management is one of the biggest challenges facing new teachers. BCP Schools use CHAMPS, a program of Safe & Civil Schools, that helps teachers to design (or fine tune) a proactive and positive classroom management plan that will overtly teach students how to behave responsibly.

"I want to thank all of the teachers who are new to our schools for working so hard at the summer CHAMPs training," said Mr. Krick.

"We believe that the hard work of organizing their behavioral expectations and preparing lessons to teach the children how to master the classroom routines and procedures will help everyone surpass their academic growth targets this year."

Teacher feedback on the training was overwhelmingly positive:

• "Thank you! One of the best PDs I've attended!"
• "I thought this PD was great!"
• "Everything was great! Very clear and interesting."
• "Very useful information that I will be able to implement."
• "Great sessions, thanks!"
• "Thank you! This was so organized and full of useful info. I enjoyed this PD!
• "CHAMPS expectations rules!"
• "Amazing! Great presenters, super informative!"
• "I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Marvelyn's enthusiasm!"
• "This workshop gave me a much better handle on feeling like I might stay vertical the first week of school."

At the end of the week, teachers shared the "Best Ideas" they learned from the training. The list can be viewed at: http://baltimorecp.org/pd/2015BestIdeas.pdf

BCP's Summer Training Institute is part of BCP's comprehensive Professional Development (PD) program, which includes PD Conferences, in-class coaching, and the Novice Teacher Think Tank.

For more information about PD at BCP, please contact Larry Schugam at 410-675-7000 x17 or bcpinfo@baltimorecp.org.