“We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.

”
- Ben Sweetland

Banana Kelly HS - JUNE 5, 2008

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE PD
June 5th is a DOE PD Day. On this day we are asking that teachers choose 1 of 3 differentiated PD options.

OPTION 1: CANOE TRIP

To celebrate the end of the school year Carly and TMS have arranged an opportunity for 20 teachers to canoe
on the Bronx River from 9am–12pm. After lunch the remainder of your day is work time at BK. Trip details are
coming via e-mail from Carly.

OPTION 2: WORK AT BK
Work on organizational tasks, your wiki, powerschool, and or grades at BK 9am -3:30pm.

OPTION 3: PLAN A PERSONAL EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING TRIP (P-ELT)

Use this day to do a cultural activity related to the coursework you would like to develop for next year.
You can visit somewhere in the metro area you might want to take students next year (a hospital, soup kitchen,
recording studio, FDR’s estate, a college campus), you can make an appointment with a professional you might
want to collaborate with (a professor, medical professional, artist, etc.) or attend a cultural event / visit a
museum and meet with their education department. In addition to these self guided events various institutions
throughout the city offer DOEPD day programming that may be of interest to you.

We encourage teachers to take advantage of 1 or 3 to get out of the building for an out-of-school learning
experience. This is a great time for collaboration with grade teams and/or departments around Banana Kelly
Learning Events or curriculum enhancements for next year.

With OPTION #3 the deliverables are simple:

1. Notify Ryan, Joshua or Steph via e-mail with a brief (3 sentence description) of their planned P-ELT and
rational for going. This can be as simple as “Amanda and I are going to the Met and Museum of Natural
History to explore the collections, meet with the education department and brainstorm possible
connectors for the 08-09 school year.”
2. Bring back proof of attendance (a dated ticket stub, a signed letter, etc.).
3. Log your personal OOSPD (Out-Of-School PD) on the wiki and fill out one of the evaluation forms or
write a short reflection about your day. All this is explained in detail on the OOSPD wiki page.

We hope everyone has a “most excellent” day.

Joshua, Steph and Ryan