Our annual retreat was held on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at the Buffalo State College Student Union.
Agenda
Breakfast
PDS Business Meeting
Barbeque Style Lunch
Keynote Presentation: Push Theatre
Wrap-Up
Summary of events:
| Time | Event |
| 8:00-8:30 | Breakfast Gathering and Networking in Assembly Hall |
| 8:30-8:45 | Welcome & Introductions: Leslie Day, PDS Director, Ron Rochon, School of Education Dean, and Nancy Chicola, Interim Chair, EER |
| 8:45-9:15 | PDS Business: by-laws, yearly goals, meeting schedule, evaluation |
| 9:15-9:25 |
Presentation by Lindsey Seitz, student rep, on teacher candidate knowledge of PDS |
| 9:25-9:30 |
Presentation by Shari Jakubowski, student rep, on PDS website activity |
| 9:30-9:45 | Break |
|
9:45-11:25 |
Break out presentations (25 min. each) |
| 11:30-11:45 | Celebratory Remarks from President Howard, Buffalo State College |
| 11:45-12:45 | Barbeque Lunch served |
| 1:00-2:15 | Keynote: Push Theater |
| 2:15- 2:30 |
Wrap up and closing remarks/Evaluation |
Break-out Session Presentations:
- "Foundational Skills for Reading Success: Educating Teachers of Reading Disabled and At-Risk Students" Buffalo State College, Department of Education and Reading; Shannon Gormley, Ph.D.
Teachers are now being required to deliver "scientifically based reading instruction" to their students; however, many feel they need an additional knowledge base in order to successfully deliver such instruction. One area that research has shown teachers struggle with is knowledge of the structure of the English Language and the 44+ speech sounds of English. A recent professional development workshop to local teachers focused on teaching them about phonemic awareness sequence, structure and classroom use. The workshop demonstrated how effective, informative, fun, and enjoyable learning can be...even for teachers!
- "Simple Science, Big Ideas: An action Research Project looking at Fifth Grade Student Learning about Static Electricity and Magnetism" Buffalo State College, Department of Education and Reading; David Henry, Associate Professor and Buffalo State College, Department of Education and Reading; Sara Fernays, graduate student.
A unit on electromagnetism was modified to include inquiry activities about static electricity and magnetism. We will demonstrate some of the activities that use simple, off-the-shelf supplies. We will report on what happened in the classroom, and discuss the learning gains by the students.
Click here for the presentation
Thank you for helping make our annual retreat a success!!
