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Principals report on AVID, Blue Ribbon and Chancellor's Leadership Academy trainings and classroom tools
Summary
Several Monroe County principals described conference training and tools they plan to bring to classrooms, including AVID strategies, an AI lesson‑planning tool and professional learning platforms to share teacher practice.
Three Monroe County principals described recent professional development activities and tools they said they are bringing back to district classrooms.
Brian Desilets, a principal at HOB, told the School Board he attended the AVID National Conference and presented with AVID teacher Holly Tacker on using artificial intelligence and WICR strategies (writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization and reading) to support English language learners. Desilets said a platform called Magic School AI can generate a 45‑minute lesson plan aligned to a provided standard “within a click of a mouse” and can produce communications in multiple languages.
Tara Whitehead described attending the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Conference, where she said she gathered tools to make professional learning more accessible to teachers — for example, a “PL On the Go” approach that lets teachers list strengths they can share and skills they want to learn. She said the approach produced a spreadsheet of teacher offerings she posted in weekly updates to make peer learning visible.
Trevor Tyler and assistant principal Jacob Polama reported on participation in the Chancellor’s Leadership Academy, an academic-year program that included multiple site visits and sessions on mission and vision, coaching, leadership styles, recruitment and walkthrough tools. Tyler said the strongest takeaway was building common language around instructional “look‑fors” and developing rubrics to drive classroom practice and teacher buy‑in.
Amber Acevedo, who introduced the item, thanked the board for supporting administrators’ professional learning. Board members praised the presentations and asked several procedural questions about how attendees were chosen for conferences; administrators said selections were based on role fit, budgeted spots and prior participation.
The principals asked the board to continue supporting professional development opportunities and said they would share conference takeaways with staff and the leadership team.
