Jeffrey J. Marsden, Superintendent
459 Main St., Unit 3,
Medfield, MA 02052
For Immediate Release
Friday, April 5, 2019
Media Contact: Benjamin Paulin
Phone: 781-428-3299
Email: ben@jgpr.net
More Than 500 Educators Attend “Design Your Learning” Professional Development Day Hosted by Medfield Public Schools
MEDFIELD — Superintendent Jeffrey Marsden is pleased to announce that the Medfield Public Schools’ seventh annual Design Your Learning professional development day was a success and saw more than 500 educators from across New England take part.
Medfield’s Design Your Learning Day (DLD) was held at Medfield High School on April 4 and featured over 100 professional development programs, activities and education sessions that teachers could take part in throughout the day. There were also multiple speakers who gave presentations about a variety of education and experiential subjects.
Teachers from across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire traveled to Medfield to take part in the event.
“Our teachers and teachers from districts all over the state and region look forward to this event every year,” Superintendent Marsden said. “Being able bring so many educators together to collaborate and learn from one another truly is a special experience and yesterday’s event went off without a hitch. I would like to give a special thanks to all of our staff members who worked so hard to put everything together.”
In 2012, Medfield’s DLD began as a small professional development day for Medfield teachers focused on technology. Since then, the program has grown and evolved to include teachers from across Massachusetts and other states and covers a variety of topics and activities focused on good teaching practices, social and emotional well-being for students and teachers and the latest in education technology trends.
Some of the sessions offered yesterday included a yoga class, a cooking class, a data analytics course, a program on examining grading practices, sessions on coding, a student-led course on esports, a student-led session on LBGTQ inclusivity and programs about augmented and virtual reality.
“DLD gives teachers the freedom to choose which topics they would like to learn about and offers insight into what other school districts are teaching and how they approach education and learning,” said Neal Sonnenberg, Technology Integration Specialist for Medfield Public Schools, who helped organize the event. “The teachers get an opportunity to learn from one another while giving each other new ideas and methods to use in their own classrooms.”
The day started in the auditorium with five teachers giving short speeches called “Passion Pitches” to those in attendance. The attendees then broke off into four different sessions that they chose to participate in throughout the day. At the end of the day, a short video presentation done by student volunteers was shown giving the highlights of the event and a final Passion Pitch was given to wrap things up.
There were about 25 student volunteers who, on their day off from school, helped out during the event.
Attendees used #DLDMedfield to tweet about their experiences on Twitter.
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