More updates and strategies provided at school district's Staff Development Day

More updates and strategies provided at school district's Staff Development Day

A continuation of teaching methods from previous presentations and a new supervisor sharing strategies provided the theme when the Delayed Opening Staff Development Day was performed through the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District on Tuesday, March 21.

The fifth of six Staff Development Days in the school district was held at various buildings on this first morning of spring.

Among the features during the morning of March 21 were the sessions on Neurodiversity in Speech Therapy that were held at the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District’s Wade Administration Building.

Dr. JoAnne Cascia of Kean University made a return appearance at Wade to pick up from her previous stop on February 21 at the Staff Development Day.

“Today (March 21) was a continuation of what we held and that was to focus on our young learners and their play skills and to adapt to therapy and parent resources,”  explained Dr. Cascia, who is an Associate Professor and the Co-Coordinator, Speech Language Pathology Master’s Program and Co-Coordinator, Neuro Allies Program at Kean University.

 While she discussed her goals and reviewed the speech therapy in Wade’s Conference Room A, below in another conference area, two school district supervisors delivered their presentations on the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) Best Practices.

“We talked about the different ways to treat students and this time it is geared towards our Pre-K through Primary grades,” said Latesha Jenkins, who is the school district’s Supervisor of Special Services for Pre-K through 6. “We discussed how to address different needs in the classroom.

 Danielle Honstetter, who is the school district’s Supervisor of Special Services for Pre-K through 4,delivered the presentation.

The enVision Math Program, which  will be implemented this coming September, was presented during the Staff Development day on January 23.

Schools in the district continued with discussions regarding this program, including a presentation produced at the Eisenhower Intermediate School on March 21.

There, Carol Sohnen, the Elementary Teaching Specialist (ETS) at Eisenhower, and Tiffany DeSesso, the school district’s Intermediate Math Coach, reviewed this new program.

“Our mission is to allow teachers to access the main components of a lesson,” Ms. Sohnen said.

Matt McCarthy, the school district’s new Supervisor of Fine and Performing Arts, experienced his first Staff Development Day when he met with his staff.

He kicked the day off when he met the department’s staff at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, followed by his gathering of his crew at the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School and then capped off the morning with his session with the staffers from the Intermediate schools at Eisenhower.

“The Arts Education department engaged in productive discussions related to the values and objectives of our K-12 arts education program,” Mr. McCarthy revealed about his sessions at the three schools. “It was extremely uplifting to hear about the goals these passionate individuals set for students.” 

Mr. McCarthy began his new position this month when he replaced Dr. Laura Bassett, who was appointed the Principal at Eisenhower.

The sixth and final Staff Development Day is scheduled for May 30.