Teachers and Administrators Prepare for New School Year
The first day of school is scheduled for next Tuesday September 6.
Teachers and administrators are preparing for the arrival of their new students as the school year begins September 6.
“We’re excited for the start of the school year. We’re excited about having the students back,” said Ray Sanchez, deputy superintendent for the Ossining School District.
Last week, new teachers participated in an orientation that acquainted them with Ossining, provided strategies to use in the classroom and outlined the district’s education goals. Earlier this week, some teachers also learned how to integrate additional technology into the curriculum. They learned of new programs like Glogster—a social network that allows users to create interactive posters. The Lower Hudson Regional Information Center provided Ossining with a grant to fund sessions to support teachers’ use of technology.
“Primarily, our over-arching goal is to look at 21st century thinking and problem-solving opportunities,” Sanchez said. “Technology gives us that opportunity to do that.”
As for new teaching techniques, there isn’t much that will change except for ways to meet new New York State’s Common Core standards. However, the district is experimenting with strategies they’ve found successful like project-based learning.
In addition to using more interactive ways to teach, several new programs are being implemented this year. For example, at Anne M. Dorner Middle School, IBM employees will be coming in to teach students about robotics. Sanchez hopes this will open up students to competitions with other schools in the region. At Ossining High School, students will be able to take courses online in partnership with Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES.
“It’s a nice opportunity to share services,” Sanchez said. “We started some of that work through our summer school this past school year.”
Another new addition to the district is the Long-Range Plan. The Ossining’s Board of Education and district administrators are beginning the first phase of a plan that extends to the 2016-2017 school year. The intention is to make the education system stronger. Some of its components include the option of bilingual learning at an early age and expanding the half-day pre-kindergarten program into a full one.
To further goals to become more sustainable, the district hopes all external communications—newsletters and letters to parents—will be paperless and primarily electronic by January 2012. Beyond the challenge to reduce paper usage, administrators are also dealing with larger problems like a limited budget and the demand to update old facilities.
“We’ve been studying hard and looking at options to see how the financials might impact our district,” Sanchez said. “The needs of our buildings have not gone away.”
Nevertheless, they’re moving forward and already have events planned for next week. For high school freshmen, a program will be presented to them about the first student killed at Columbine High School in 1999. Next Friday, each school will plant a tree and install a bench in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of September 11.
“We’ll have some challenges, but we’re optimistic we’ll meet them,” Sanchez said. “More specifically, we’re excited about having the students back.”
