Introduction

**Introduction** Welcome to our professional development day. Today is day one of several professional development days we will use to create a thematic, integrated, project based learning unit that will be used later in the year. Our first three sessions will explore philosophies of education, review several accepted educational practices that we feel are integral to our profession, and technology integration. Later in the day, we will develop the framework for this thematic, integrated, project based learning unit. Over the next few months your teaching teams will meet to continue the development of your projects.

Today is intended to be an review of information. You will work with a range of people throughout the day, however, the thematic project will be completed as a teaching team or grade level if more than one team exists in a grade level. Those staff members more familiar with some of the practices and theories of education are encouraged to share your knowledge and experience with those less familiar. Your thematic project will be presented in a wiki format so that it may be edited over time. Revisions are automatically saved and can be accessed any time. There will be at least one staff member that has an advanced level of technological experience and has attended a training prior to today.

**Objectives** The purpose of this professional development seminar is to provide our staff with an overview of philosophies of education, a process of designing lessons, methods of instruction to meet the needs of all learners, strategies for integrating technology, and an opportunity to work with your colleagues to construct the framework for an integrated, project based learning unit.

**Expected Outcomes for Today**
 * Wiki page that includes teacher created presentations about each philosophy of education
 * Wiki page that includes each team’s suggested mission statement for the school/district
 * Draft thematic mini unit that covers all content areas. The unit will include a community service component (local, statewide, national, or international). The unit will also integrate technology as a research, collaboration, and presentation tool. A general overview of the lesson with essential questions, enduring understandings, explanation of how differentiation may occur, and how multiple intelligences are being addressed should be included. The unit should last at least one week and may extend over the course of an entire marking period. Future professional development days will require you work with subject alike teachers in your grade level, other members of your teaching team, and unified arts teachers to develop individual lessons that will be necessary to complete the thematic, integrated, project based learning unit.

To provide a little inspiration, view the videos below. Continue to the Background page to learn more about what has been done in advance to provide you with your experience today.  media type="custom" key="27101158"

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