At a recent two-day teacher training workshop at Maimonides School, Gateways: Access to Jewish Education swung open its new GATES.

 

 

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GATES — Gateways Access to Training for Educational Success – is the new name for Gateways’ professional development program.  But it’s not just the name that’s changed. GATES deepens and expands Gateways’ former professional development model to help even more schools and educators meet the educational needs of all their students.

 

 

In sessions on such topics as Developmental Milestones, Memory, Social Cognition and Attention, Gateways experts both broadened and deepened the understanding of educators from six area day schools about the range of different learning styles they will encounter with their students.  Now, as school begins, participants will take Gateways’ expertise on how to teach to a range of learning styles and challenges into their classrooms. All of which will benefit everyone — teachers, students and families.

 

In fact, local educators – and increasingly those beyond the Boston area – can look forward to finding in GATES (developed in partnership with New York’s successful Hidden Sparks program) a powerful tool to help them deliver appropriate Jewish learning models to each and every child.

 

Gateways will accomplish this through an expanded menu of state-of-the-art and integrated professional development programs, including classroom observation, consultation, and coaching; facilitated team meetings for collaborative teamwork and additional cross-school workshops and collaboration around student learning.

 

Modeling that kind of real-life strategy was exactly what workshop organizers were hoping for. “Here at Gateways, we’ve seen first-hand how vital professional development is for student learning as well as school success and teacher morale and satisfaction,” says Executive Director Arlene Remz. “By expanding into GATES, we’re maximizing our impact in every ones of those areas. In addition, when teachers develop a shared vocabulary and framework for approaching student learning, they gain a deeper understanding of learning styles that helps them in their work with all children, not just those who have identified special needs.”

 

Besides the schools in attendance – Maimonides, South Area Solomon Schechter, Bais Yaakov, Jewish Community Day School, Torah Academy and Cohen Hillel Academy – Gateways is also presenting on-site workshops this fall for the staff at Shaloh House, Metrowest Jewish Day School and Cohen Hillel Academy.

 

In addition, the GATES model will be used to expand Gateways’ work into congregational and community religious schools and preschools, with workshops and materials adapted to the needs of the staffs in those settings.

 

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To learn more about GATES, contact Gateways Professional Development Coordinator Julie Gordon at julieg@jgateways.org or (617) 630-9010, ext. 120.

 

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