Batavia Teachers Offered In-House Education Option
Sign of the Times: Teachers Moving to In-House Education Options
How the Batavia Public School District is Supporting Their Teachers’ Education Needs
Batavia Public School District (BPS101) stands by its motto, “Always Learning. Always Growing.”, for its students and staff. So, when teachers want to continue their education but costs and time get in their way, we get creative. Enter the birth of Batavia Public School University (BPSU).
Collaborating with the Batavia Education Association (BEA), BPS101 Administrators worked to develop a plan to give teachers authentic learning opportunities that directly connect to the classroom and the District’s strategic plan.
How is BPSU going to change BPS101? Growing the practice of our teachers to better serve our students will help increase learning in the classroom, creating sparks within our teachers that ignite the students.
Steve Pearce, Chief Human Resources Officer at BPS101, says, “The influence of teachers on teachers is exciting. Teachers challenge each other. Learning is happening organically in the BPSU classroom…from their peers. Our students win when our teachers have a growth mindset. It makes a difference for our students.”
When asked about their experience so far with BPSU, Cohort #1 students reflected on the program:
Sebastian Oros, High School Social Worker, wrote “ I was a bit nervous at first because I am not a classroom teacher. But then I caught myself saying to my wife the other day, “I am really looking forward to our next class.” The overall positive culture of each session has allowed us as participants to stay fully engaged, soaking in our purpose together, and to think differently together with a non-judgemental stance.”
Lisa Hatfield, Elementary Band Teacher added, “I have been wanting to continue my education for a few years now but wasn’t sure if I could afford a second Master’s degree. I knew I had to find something online or local to be able to juggle all of the courses I am involved with. BPSU literally checked every single one of those boxes, and I am so happy and fortunate to be a part of Cohort #1! BPSU has not only provided me with a fun and efficient way of continuing my education but has invigorated my teaching in a way that outside degree programs may not have. I love getting to know and work with other Batavia educators I wouldn’t otherwise have met, and can already see the influences of those interactions, along with the program leaders’ expertise and study on growth mindset, positively affecting my teaching and reflectiveness thereof. GO BPSU!”
On BPSU classroom activities, Bianna Heisler, Elementary Teacher, said, “In our last class, we reflected on a chapter we had all read and how it applied to the classroom. The topic of the chapter was the growth mindset and I worked with another elementary teacher and a high school teacher on this exercise. It was so interesting to see how the mindset shift changes from elementary to high school and as a team, we started to identify what students need for support by working together. The task was to listen to each other but each of us immediately went to brainstorming the next steps of how to support students through the grade levels and how to keep a growth mindset while facing different challenges. It has been very powerful working with multiple grade levels and learning and listening to each other.
Session work for BPSU happens on Wednesday evenings and merge District educators from all levels into one classroom. Most of the assignments are things to apply and tryout in their classrooms. For example, one session focused on acknowledging effort. So the teachers went to class the following week and documented the effects of the application of the acknowledging effort concept, and documented the results of the impacts on their students.
BPS101 is very excited about the opportunity that is being given to our District teachers to learn and grow through BPSU. This is the start of strategic initiatives to grow our teachers. What makes differences for kids is a high-quality teacher.
Great credit is to be given to the teachers in the program for stepping up and stepping into this new program. They exemplify our core mission of learning and growing.
