Oswego Elementary Teacher Gains Certified Facilitator Status

OSWEGO, NY – Veteran Oswego City School District elementary teacher Chris Castiglia was selected to become an Expeditionary Learning Certified Facilitator.

Expeditionary Learning has been commissioned by New York State to write the curriculum for Grades 3-8 English Language Arts.

Chris Castiglia
Chris Castiglia

Expeditionary Learning is a non-profit network of practitioners, with 165 schools in 30 states, 4,000 teachers and 40,000 students.

The group has been working with schools and teachers for 20 years to create rigorous classrooms in which develop strong literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking skills (www.engagny.org).

Laura Ryder, Oswego City School District Director of Literacy is excited Castiglia was chosen saying, “More than 50 teachers across New York State applied and in Oswego County there was an administrator and Curriculum Development Specialist chosen, but Chris was the only teacher accepted.”

Continuing she said, “The training she will receive from Expeditionary Learning as a Certified Facilitator will allow her to help train teachers from around the region in the New York State English Language Arts Modules. Recently a group of teachers, administrators and parents in the Oswego City School District agreed to pilot the Expeditionary Learning modules in Grades 3-6 and adapt the modules in Grades 7/8 for the school year 2013-2014.”

Castiglia will provide the professional development for  Oswego teachers who are not able to attend the three-day summer training by Expeditionary Learning.

She will also facilitate ongoing professional development next year to support teachers as they implement these modules in their classroom.

The Kingsford Park Elementary School fourth grade teacher said, “I recently spent three days training and working closely with 47 other educators from around the country. Included in this group were Expeditionary Learning school leaders, school designers and module writers. It was a truly amazing professional experience and I am thrilled to have been chosen to participate. I look forward to working with educators from around New York State during trainings this summer.”

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