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Schools

Grayslake D46 Blue Ribbon Conference A Success

Two-day program provides teachers with "best practices."

Using technology in the classroom, achieving positive behaviors and developing strategies to improve the reading, math and science were just a few of the topics presented last week during a professional development conference in Grayslake. Hosted by Community Consolidated School District 46 and the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence, the event was well-received by attendees from within the district and elsewhere.

“I was researching a good place to get my new teacher program done and came across this conference and decided to attend and it is paid for by my school,” said Jessica Mena of Peabody Elementary in Chicago.

The progress of each school within the district over the last few years was highlighted on displays. The event also included break-out sessions, vendor mini-tradeshow and keynote speakers. Dr. David Walsh opened the Friday session with a presentation on “Bringing Brain Science to the Art of Teaching.”

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A contingency of teachers from Meadowview School in the south suburb of Country Club Hills attended to learn from the experts according to the school’s principal. “These are transferable skills. When you want to know what effective teachers and principals do, you go to the champions. This has been cost-effective and we definitely got more bang for the buck than I could have imagined,” said principal Adrienne Merritt.

Closing keynote speaker, Ann Marie Taylor, is South Carolina’s 2008 Teacher of the Year.  A special education teacher, Taylor recommended that teachers not worry too much about perfect lesson plans, but rather ask themselves “What can I do to be great?”

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D46 special education teacher Traci Gerner attended Taylor’s breakout session and closing remarks.  “I found her presentations very useful. I feel like I accomplished a lot by being here,” Gerner said.

Bart Teal, founder of the non-profit Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence, based in South Carolina, was hired by the Grayslake school district to provide an assessment of each school four years ago.  Through that process three schools, Prairieview, Meadowview and Woodview have been recognized as “Lighthouse” schools of high achievement by the outside consultant. 

“Our mission is to help schools. We give out awards because we have to in order to drive the schools to achieve their goals,” said Teal.

While attendees and adminstrators praised the benefits of the recent two-day “best practices” conference hosted by D46 and Teal, it should be noted that the awards given and the organization itself are not part of the government’s prestigious Blue Ribbon School program. 

That honor is bestowed using “very specific criteria to recognize schools on achievement, including those without the socioeconomic means to achieve,” according to the Department of Education. Teal had been the North Carolina State Liaison for the program.

“We are looking for excellence and based on Blue Ribbon feedback we now have an assessment tool we can use. This has nothing to do with awards and everything to do with improving our district,” said district Superintendent Ellen Correll.

D46 has been criticized for sending teachers to Blue Ribbon's National conference at Disney World in Orlando and other warm climate locations. "We will not be sending anyone to Orlando this year," said Correll.

Neighboring school District 50 did not attend the conference in Grayslake. “Many of our staff go to workshops at the Regional office. The notion of professional development is significant enough that our federal funds have mandatory set asides that must be spent," said Anne Swanson, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and accountability at Gurnee's District 50.

The program was attended by about 100 educational staff from surrounding districts, and even a few out-of-state, who paid about $100 each. The balance of approximately 500 people who attended on Friday only, which was designated as a Teacher Institute Day, were D46 staff and teachers. Teachers who taught sessions were given a stipend and all teachers who attended from D46 were given CPDU credits, school officials said.

For additional information go to:

Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence www.blueribbonschools.com

Department of Education/Blue Ribbon School program                      www.2.ed.gov/programs/nclbbrs/index.html.

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