During the months of March & April, over 100 teachers and assistant principals gathered for 12 days of intense professional development in curricular design. Improving instructional practices is essential in developing SLCs. The professional development known as Understanding by Design (UbD) was facilitated by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Understanding by Design is a model for addressing two of the greatest challenges for educators-crafting standards based curriculum and ensuring academic success for the full spectrum of learners. While we are still in the early stages of UbD work and are also beginning to focus more on differentiating instruction, we are also proud to share some of the results from our 2008 SLC PD, and encourage schools to continue to share their efforts towards improving academic rigor:
“The SLC movement has benefited me because the teachers and classes are more focused on my major and academic class teachers can use examples that relate specifically to my major. This makes learning and the understanding of different topics much easier and fun.”Robin Cunji, StudentSchool of Entrepreneurial StudiesQueens Vocational and Technical High School