Teachers Prepare for Upcoming School Year

More than 900 staff members across Dysart Unified School District participated in a four-day Curriculum Workshop focused on identifying student essential standards and developing instructional strategies to ensure students meet these standards.

Teachers attended the workshop from May 27 through May 30 at Cimarron Springs Middle School, Dysart Middle School, Dysart High School, Shadow Ridge High School, Sonoran Heights Middle School, and Sunset Hills Elementary.

The Dysart Curriculum Workshop is designed to be a time where teachers, district content specialists, and instructional leaders can work collaboratively to examine data, break down state standards into the required skills of each standard, implement instructional strategies, and create checks for understanding.  This helps create a strong foundation for continued Professional Learning Community (PLC) work throughout the year and allows teachers to be better prepared for the following school year to enhance the conditions for student success.

"We're learning about how we can take our summative assessments and make sure that they're aligned to our standards, so we know that our students are learning what we're expecting them to learn,” said Breann Wirth, Dysart High School math teacher.  “So, we're working collaboratively to go through those tests and making sure that we’re hitting the standards - especially our essential standards - so then we know our kids are seeing those essential standards multiple times.”

As an “A” rated district, Dysart is committed to ensuring every student has the best opportunity to be successful in the classroom.  Part of this effort includes embedding the PLC framework into everything.  It is a growth-minded process of continual evaluation of what’s being taught, how it’s being taught, how it’s assessed, and how to improve.  All of this is done with a clear focus on student learning and success.

“A teacher’s work is truly never done,” said Dr. John Croteau, Superintendent for Dysart Schools.  “These public servants work hard year-round to ensure they are prepared each year to welcome students into their classrooms and provide them with the very best education possible.”