Professional Development
Hillcrest teachers continue to further their own Environmental Literacy through PD opportunities that enhance their abilities to incorporate environmental and outdoor education into their current curriculum as well as train them to bring that curriculum out of the classroom and into the outdoors In order to make sure Environmental Ed remains a focus at HES, despite county-wide curriculum changes, administrative changes and a large turnover in teaching staff, Hillcrest's Innovation Team focused efforts to obtain grants that provided PD opportunities to all teachers as a packaged deal. Not only does this insure that 100% of our teachers are receiving environmental PD, but it also insures that the entire school is on the same page working towards Hillcrest's Environmental Literacy and initiatives.
FULL FACULTY/STAFF PD
Faculty/Staff Meeting on Sept. 11, 2017 - Mary Beth Capka, Innovation Team and 2nd grade teacher, discussed upcoming greening initiatives. She also discussed the upcoming Green School re-certification and how teachers can help assemble the application. The Green School process is a regular topic for the Inovation Team when meeting as they are the primary team coordinating these efforts.
Healthy Eating for Busy Lives, February 6, 2017
Attended by 64 of our faculty and staff. Melissa Woods (Registered Dietitian) - Part of our 21st Century Enrichment Grant, this professional development was specifically designed for Hillcrest Faculty and Staff. Responding to requests from teachers, Melissa Woods designed this training to increase teachers' ability to connect the specifics of our school garden with curriculum and the school's healthy eating initiatives.
Attended by 64 of our faculty and staff. Melissa Woods (Registered Dietitian) - Part of our 21st Century Enrichment Grant, this professional development was specifically designed for Hillcrest Faculty and Staff. Responding to requests from teachers, Melissa Woods designed this training to increase teachers' ability to connect the specifics of our school garden with curriculum and the school's healthy eating initiatives.
Energy and the Environment, March 5,2017
Attended by 47 of our faculty and staff, this workshop was led by Mrs. Capka and Gabe Bustos, leader of OUR Schools. Hillcrest has a partnership with OUR Schools as part of the 21st Century Enrichment Grant that they we have had for the past two years. OUR Schools is focused on providing school's with STEM activities that focus on Environmental Literacy. This year, teachers will be leading activities in the classroom of March 26th to focus on energy sustainability and recycling . Focusing on energy conservation and sustainability, this PD included what those lessons will look like and teachers were able to participate in the actual experiments and project that all K-5 students will be doing on STEAM Day.
Sign-in Sheets
Mary Beth Capka- 2nd Grade:
- Edible Gardening Protocol, February 23, 2016 at Oregon Ridge: Mrs. Capka attended this whole day workshop on the BCPS Edible Gardening Protocol. This PD was given by Dawn Dawson and Eric Cromwell in conjunction with the UMD extension. Mrs. Capka also attended the Green School Summit at Marshy Point on August 19,2016.
Click button below to view PD power point.
- Green School Summit, Marshy Point, August 19, 2016 - Mrs. Capka attended this annual event is hosted by BCPS Office of Science. The event is a opportunity for BCPS teachers involved in the Green School process to network, share ideas and brainstorm. It is particularly useful for teachers to share new ideas of how to bring environmental learning into their current curriculum.
Peggy Koenig - 4th and 5th grade science.
- Mrs. Koenig has attended multiple professional development workshops, conferences and has presented also. She presented at the Maryland Dept. of Education Gifted and Talented Conference in Fall, 2017, The Make. It Work conference in November 2016, The Common Ground Conference in Ocean City In May of 2017 and will be presenting 2018. The focus of her presentations is the school's Maker Lab and how it has provided the students an incentive for upcycling while designing innovated ways to fix real life problems or enhance their classroom learning. Her presentations highlight how our Maker Lab allows teacher to integrate STEAM learning in our envirionmental instruction. For example our 2nd graders are building pollenators to compliment their Bee an Engineer Unit , 3rd graders build filters for the Chesapeake, and 5th graders design a new Conowingo Dam that cuts down on sedimentation. Ms. Koenig is also a leads the Innovation Team and offers PD to teachers in the building during faculty meetings. She was also trained in the new 4th and 5th grade science curriculum through BCPS.
- BioBlitz - February 26, 2018 - Mrs. Koenig attended the Bioblitz training, hosted by the Baltimore County Office of Outdoor Science. Teachers learned how to expand on the BioBlitz biodiversity study to model energy flow with invasive species in an ecosystem. She also attended a training in February 2016, The Benjamin Banneker Experience, in which students learn about Banneker's work as a surveyor and use what they learn about the Sun and stars to create and test a Sun Dial. Both of these trainings are documented below in her BCPS PD Summary.
Leslie Neal - 3rd grade-
- Extreme Weather - March 6, 2017 - Teachers learned the basics of weather including how to predict severe weather events. They also discussed how to bring this weather unit into real world context by challenging students to design a structure that can hold up to hurricane force winds and/or heavy snow. This PD is documented in the School Staff Professional Development Summary posted at the end of this page.
Mary Bridget Quinn - 1st grade -
- Creeper and Creatures Features - October 18, 2016 - Mrs. Quinn attended this PD hosted by BCPS's Office of Science. This training was centered around learning about the different adaptations plants and animals have to protect themselves. This PD is documented in the School Staff Professional Development Summary posted at the end of this page.
Anne Skipper - 3rd grade-
- Mayfly Mayhem - March 27, 2017 - This curriculum training gives teachers a thorough understanding of the life cycle of the Mayfly, the stream habitat necessary to support it and it's role in the stream ecosystem. They also learn about the environmental issues putting them at risk. Teachers take this knowledge to the students who are then tasked with designing a structure to reduce stream sediment. This PD is documented in the link that follows.