District teams up with Cardinal Stritch Universityand other partners to offer Saturday learning sessions for teachers

More than 400 MPS teachers will spend a Saturday in the classroom at Cardinal Stritch University, 6801 N. Yates Road, Milwaukee.  The special professional development opportunity, “Celebration of the Profession”, happens Saturday, June 2, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.   Opening addresses will be provided MPS Superintendent Dr. Gregory Thornton and Dr. Freda Russell, Cardinal Stritch Dean of the College of Education and Leadership.

The teachers who are expected to attend are MPS instructors at all grades levels in the district, from kindergarten to grade 12.  The professional development sessions, led largely by experts from local colleges of education and outside partners, support MPS’ Comprehensive Literacy Plan as well as the Common Core State Standards.  Workshops include Practical Strategies for Emerging Readers and Literacy Instruction in the Bilingual Classroom.

“We continue to provide our staff with high quality professional development—from large-scale, district-led “conference” days, afternoon and weekend workshops and school-based sessions to more intensive, on-going grade and department-level teaming, collaborative planning time, professional development cohorts and job-embedded, instructional coaching,” said MPS Chief Academic Officer Dr. Heidi Ramírez. “Finding the right balance given the number of district teachers, the diversity of their needs and our available resources is an on-going challenge, but we continue to work to provide more customized and engaging learning opportunities for our staff. We’re excited about this opportunity to both celebrate our staff and have so many university and publisher partners supporting the effort.”

The “Celebration of the Profession” sessions are to be held in Cardinal Stritch’s Duns Scotus Hall.