Philadelphia Special Education Teacher's Collective​
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The Philadelphia Special Eduction Teachers' Collective is a (mostly) online networking and support group for School District of Philadelphia Special Educators. In this group we share resources, work samples, information, and occasionally a good virtual group hug. We focus both on instruction and on the enormous paperwork burden we shoulder. Any PFT member whose primary role is to service students with disabilities is welcome.
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:For more information, email
Krys Belc
krystyn.belc@gmail.com
Early Childhood Educators of Philadelphia
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Our short-term goals are to connect Philadelphia early childhood educators through meetings and discussions for the purposes of supporting each other through community sharing resources (lessons, books, etc.). Our long term goal would be to lead iTAGs, teacher-led professional development and having an ECE presence at teacher conventions, and supporting upper-grade teachers in public schools. Of course, our goals are based on the needs and hopes of the educators who make up the network.
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:For more information, email
Al (Alyssa) San Valentin
alyssa.sv@gmail.com
North Philly Arts Teacher Association ​
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Our long term goal is to build a professional network of Arts teachers in North Philadelphia for the sharing of ideas and resources. This group will provide much needed content-specific professional development for arts teachers outside the professional development provided by their individual schools. This group will also focus on the retention of quality arts teachers and the longevity of arts programs in our local schools. The group will support new and developing teachers with the purpose of encouraging them to stay in our local schools as they continue to grow professionally. In the short term, the group will provide teachers with opportunities to gain recognition for their effective practices through resource sharing. The teachers in this group will collaborate to put on an arts festival in the spring featuring the many talented students in our schools.
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:For more information, email
Erina Pearlstein
epearlstein@olney.aspirapa.org
Teacher Research Group
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Teacher Research Group (TRG) is a collaborative inquiry group, made up of current PennGSE/TFA teachers and alumni, that meets monthly over dinner to support teachers in the study of their own practice through teacher action research
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:For more information, email
Andy Danilchick
danila@gse.upenn.edu
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The Temple Teacher Network is an organization dedicated to promoting teachers' engagement in their practice and in the profession.
Members of the Temple Teacher Network can connect with colleagues, share best practices and mentor Temple's teacher education students.
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:For more information, email
Juliet Curci
juliet.curci@temple.edu
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Since its founding in 1987, Need in Deed’s mission has been to use the classroom to prepare young people for civic responsibility and service to others, enabling them to become capable, contributing members of society. Working in public, charter, independent and faith-based schools, we train and support teachers as they adopt a teaching and learning strategy known as service-learning.
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Through a yearlong project, students gain an understanding of the practical applications of schoolwork – reading, math, social studies and science – as they use these skills to make positive, productive responses to challenging issues of concern to them in their schools and communities.
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:For more information, email
Pam Prell
pam@needindeed.org
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Philadelphia Area Teacher Network
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The Philadelphia-Area Teacher Networkaims to support, encourage and inspire new teachers working in the Philadelphia Area. Since 2008, the Network has connected teachers around the city and provided school-based mentoring, regular support gatherings, workshops, and a Summer Institute. The network works in conjunction with our website to provide on-line and real-world resources for new and veteran teachers. In partnership with Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, and the Leonore Annenberg Teaching Fellows the network provides the following free professional learning opportunities.
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:For more information, email
Kate Kinney Grossman
kinneym@gse.upenn.edu
West Philadelphia Early Childhood Consortium
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ECC West Philly is a network of preschools and other early childhood programs working cooperatively to meet our shared needs.
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The Early Childhood Consortium of West Philadelphia was founded in the fall of 2015 with the goal of fostering cooperation among early childhood programs in West Philadelphia. In addition to building community and encouraging communication among West Philly early childhood professionals, we are working on shared efforts around publicity, professional development, and other shared resources.
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:For more information, email
Jarrod Green
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Philadelphia Earth Science Teachers Association
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We are the Pennsylvania affiliate of the National Earth Science Teachers Association (NESTA), whose mission is to facilitate and advance excellence in K-12 Earth and Space science education across the state of Pennsylvania. All of our materials, from curricular resources to advocacy and career materials, are free. We offer a monthly eNewsletter with news and announcements in the discipline as well as a quarterly issue focused on resources for teachers of elementary grades.
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:For more information, email
Theresa Lewis-King
tlking4@comcast.net
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National Writing Project - Penn GSE
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Unique in breadth and scale, the NWP is a network of sites anchored at colleges and universities and serving teachers across disciplines and at all levels, early childhood through university. We provide professional development, develop resources, generate research, and act on knowledge to improve the teaching of writing and learning in schools and communities.
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The National Writing Project believes that access to high-quality educational experiences is a basic right of all learners and a cornerstone of equity. We work in partnership with institutions, organizations, and communities to develop and sustain leadership for educational improvement. Throughout our work, we value and seek diversity—our own as well as that of our students and their communities—and recognize that practice is strengthened when we incorporate multiple ways of knowing that are informed by culture and experience.
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:For more information, email
Judy Buchanan
jbuchanan@nwp.org
Association of Teachers of Mathematics of Philadelphia and Vicinity (ATMOPAV)
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ATMOPAV aims to stimulate professional growth among teachers of mathematics, provide opportunities for teachers to meet their challenges and share their ideas, improve mathematics teaching through effective local conferences, and keep teachers informed of current trends and practices in mathematics education.
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:For more information, email
Sarah Poncz
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We are the counselors, nurses, teachers, para-professionals, NTA's, secretaries, psychologists, librarians, and support staff who work with our students every day.
This group formed out of conversations that PFT members were having in many different settings -- in their own buildings, through district events, via grassroots teacher networks like Teacher Action Group and Teachers Lead Philly, and most importantly, through our collective work as members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers!
As a result of these conversations, a diverse group of working educators came together to start this group. They represent the many different professions, school and neighborhood settings, levels of experience, and personal identities that exist within the PFT. The caucus celebrates this diversity, and seeks to expand on it whenever possible -- we see it as a source of strength for our work. The caucus is open to all who seek to support and energize our union as well as work alongside the students, families, and communities of Philadelphia.
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:For more information, email
Peggy Savage
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Lantern Theater Company believes strongly that arts education is a vital component of creating vibrant, well-rounded citizens. Given the current challenges facing the educational system in Philadelphia and its surrounding areas, it is our civic duty to do what we can to support arts in the classroom and, more importantly, to support the current generation of students who are most affected by these challenges.
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:For more information, email
Craig Getting
cgetting@lanterntheater.org
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Each month, the Math & Science Coalition hosts a free dinner meeting exclusively for math and science teachers in Philly. We also offer mini-grants to innovate your classroom teaching. If you have an idea for a project to engage your class with math and science, but don't have the funds, watch for our next request for applications! Your students can participate in free field trips to see science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in action in Philly. Now in its third year, this program motivates students to learn more about STEM careers.
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:For more information, email
Nancy Peter
npeter@philaedfund.org
Philadelphia Art Teachers Alliance
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Philadelphia Art Teachers Alliance is a network for teachers in the Philadelphia area who are interested in building a community to support, connect, and collaborate with each other. We gather to share ideas, art, lessons, and classroom management techniques all in the spirit of growth and fellowship.
As any of us are aware, some of our city and public schools can prove to be challenging in many ways, and this group is here to support one another. We aim to help our art teachers and our students thrive in some of the most underfunded, overcrowded, and overlooked classrooms.
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:For more information, email
Leslie Marie Grace
Philadelphia Area Math Teachers Cricle
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The Philadelphia Area Math Teachers Circle is a group of professional mathematicians, math teachers, and math education researchers, who first met in the summer of 2011 to support math teachers and math education in our area. Each month during the school year, we are privileged to be joined by dozens of committed K-12 teachers of mathematics and other key stakeholders for our workshops. We have built a warm, welcoming community that serves as a great networking and resource-sharing opportunity for teachers in our area. Teachers, professional mathematicians, and math education scholars in the greater Philadelphia area are welcome to join or support us!
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:For more information, email
Joshua Taton
jtaton@upenn.edu
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PhilaSoup's mission is to bring together diverse sectors of the Philadelphia education community, and support initiatives that will enhance the learning experiences of our students. PhilaSoup hosts micro-grant dinners to help fund the projects and ideas of innovative teachers, and create a community of mutual support amongst educators across sectors. PhilaSoup believes teachers are our greatest educational entrepreneurs.
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:For more information, email
Meagan Ingerson
mingerson@gmail.com
Teach for America - Philadelphia Chapter
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Over the next ten years, Teach for America Greater Philadelphia is focused on four pillars to better support our corps members, develop our alums, and, most importantly, support and work with the students and communities of Greater Philadelphia. These four pillars – Daily Positive Impact, Partnership, Diversity, and Leadership – will be what guide our work, how we focus our time, resources, and energy and will be the means through which to be involved.
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:For more information, email
Matt Thomas
mthomas@psualum.com
Teacher Institute of Philadelphia
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The Teachers Institute of Philadelphia (TIP) is a unique academic professional development project based on a collaborative partnership and supportive relationship between the University of Pennsylvania and the School District of Philadelphia. The Teachers Institute is built upon a successful model of practiced by Yale University and the New Haven (CT) Public Schools. TIP's goal is to improve the quality of classroom teaching in public schools in West and Southwest Philadelphia, through a sustained academic professional development effort.
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:For more information, email:
Maddie Breslin
teachersinstitute@sas.upenn.edu
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At Teachers Lead Philly, we believe that teachers can and should lead educational change in Philadelphia and beyond.
As practicing teachers, we know a lot about students’ successes and struggles, about how policy translates into practice, and about what changes will help students learn. Yet too often, we are left out of the decisions that impact our students and our schools everyday.
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Teachers Lead Philly engages teachers in leading educational change from the classroom to the state house. We believe that teachers' experience and expertise are the keys to creating lasting educational change, building a strong teaching profession, and crafting the policies that will best help students learn.
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:For more information, email
Chris Angelini
chris@teachersleadphilly.org
Philadelphia Teachers' Learning Cooperative
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The Philadelphia Teachers' Learning Cooperative (PTLC) TeacherSPACE is a teacher center welcoming teachers and parents in Philadelphia to network, share ideas, and collect resources in a creative environment. We are committed to developing our teaching and inviting others to share resources in order to support Philadelphia students’ creative voices, academic engagement, and emerging leadership.
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TAG Philadelphia works to strengthen the influence of educators within schools and over policy decisions.
While partnering with parent, student, and community groups, TAG is committed to fostering positive school transformation, environments where students and teachers can thrive, and community ownership and influence within education.
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The Philadelphia Writing Project (PhilWP) is a teacher network of over 700 teacher consultants who work in a variety of ways with teachers and other educators to explore literacy, writing, teaching, and learning in their classrooms and schools regardless of grade or discipline. PhilWP sponsors a broad array of programs that focus on the teaching of writing and using writing as a critical tool for learning. These programs include summer institutes, summer practicum schools, seminars, workshops, programs for teachers of English language learners, continuing education courses, study groups, teacher research communities and social action forums. Established in 1986 and located at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, PhilWP is a site of the National Writing Project.
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:For more information, email
Diane Waff
dwaff@gse.upenn.edu
TEACHER NETWORKS
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North Philly Arts Teacher's Association
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The North Philly Arts Teachers Association is a teacher network started by Erina Pearlstein when she was teaching music at Olney Charter High School with a $1,000 grant from the Philadelphia Education Fund. The initial reason she wanted to start the network was to provide emotional and professional support to local arts teachers to encourage them to remain in the profession and remain at their schools! The network meets once every 4-6 weeks in one of the partner schools where dinner is provided, and either a short (30 minute) professional development session is offered, or time is allotted to collaborate on a performance event.
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:For more information, email
Erina Pearlstein