This spring, Goleta Union School District (GUSD) educators showed their passion for professional development. Educator Grants are supporting classroom teachers, principals, Special Education staff, and District translators in our most diverse applicant pool to date.
Brigitte Haley, principal at La Patera School, attended a conference on restorative practices to learn more about alternatives to traditional punishments like suspension and how to integrate these practices into GUSD’s existing system of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). She says, “students learn best when they feel as though they belong to their school community, feel valued, and are more engaged when they are feeling successful academically, behaviorally, and socially.”
Two classroom teachers from Kellogg School, Linsey Oglanian and Sora Young, will complete the online, self-paced, GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) certification course. In addition to learning new instructional strategies to implement in their own classrooms, they will share their learning with their grade level teammates and across their school site. They will also use a variety of assessments to see their students’ growth and will work together “to discuss, analyze, reflect and modify our teaching.”
Alejandra Serrano wants to “more accurately identify students’ cognitive processing strengths and challenges, leading to interventions and support services…fostering a more inclusive and effective learning environment for all students.” As a school psychologist, she works with students receiving both general and special education services, other special education service providers, general education teachers, and mentors and supervises UCSB school psychology interns. The certification she receives will not only allow her to better serve her students, but train and mentor other GUSD educators, too.
GUSD’s translator and intrepetor Sylvia Sifuentes will attend a conference specifically designed for those California educators in her position. The conference topic, “Bridging Communities through Language Access, Education, and Artificial Intelligence (AI),” is especially relevant in today’s world. She says, “This professional development will help me develop the skills necessary to provide meaningful language access to our families, our students, and the community I serve here at Goleta Union School District.” After the conference, Sylvia will bring her learning to other educators by providing training sessions and one-on-one mentoring to bilingual staff and District Community Liaisons.
A team of educators from El Camino Elementary School will attend and present at CABE’s Dual Language Education Institute this summer. Stephanie Hernández-Jarvis, Alejandra Navarro, and Vanessa Salas specifically sought out this opportunity because “There is also a lack of access to professional development opportunities for Dual Language Immersion educators, and we want to bridge these gaps and eradicate systemic barriers that may hinder our professional growth as educators in comparison to our peers.”
Enhancing the educational experience for all students attending GUSD schools is made possible through the enriching professional development of educators.