This week teachers and principals from across our school sites engaged in professional development sessions aimed at learning about new and existing curricula, supporting students socially and emotionally, and assessing students accurately.

Teachers and staff from Love, Earhart, and Ruby Bridges Elementary Schools,for instance, spent a day this week working with Dr. Sharroky Hollie, Executive Director of the Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning, and author of Strategies for Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning (2015) and Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching and Learning: Classroom Practices for Student Success (2011).Hollie’s work focuses on helping teachers learn to validate and affirm their students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds and then build connections in the classroom that help students feel engaged, ready to learn, and able to succeed.

“Today we’re focusing on our mind sets and our skill sets as we talk about issues around bias and behaviors that we may not

understand as being cultural,” Dr. Hollie told us.“These can lead us to being unintentionally negative or consequential.”Dr. Hollie also showed teachers very practical ways of learning to relate, talk to, and teach students differently by “seeing cultural behaviors as assets, not liabilities.”

Teachers in AUSD have been studying Dr. Hollie’s work since 2019. He and his team will be working directly with Ruby Bridges teachers this year, including by visiting their classrooms and giving them feedback on how to be more culturally responsive to their students. Earhart teachers will also be studying Dr. Hollie's work.

Other elementary teachers received professional development on creating positive and inclusive classrooms, supporting literacy, and

teaching math and science. A number attended a session on Inquiry Journeys, the new elementary social studies curriculum that  teaches students to approach history from a research perspective, use critical thinking to examine issues from multiple perspectives, and collaborate with others on real world, hands-on projects.

Secondary teachers participated in training on assessing students accurately but also were able to attend sessions on teaching various levels of math, teaching English Learners, and supporting executive function in students receiving special education services. AUSD’s professional development sessions are opportunities for learning new skills, understanding new curricula and policies, and developing new approaches for teaching and supporting their students.

In early August,  AUSD principals and assistant principals also gathered to build connections, hear updates on instructional goals for this year, discuss AUSD’s focus on equity and responding to hate speech, and review CAASPP results from last year. They also participated in a six-hour emergency drill with the Alameda Police and Fire Departments, and received a welcome from Superintendent Scuderi about the importance of developing sustainable, balanced, and resonant forms of leadership that, in turn, help all staff on the team grow into their best professional selves.