SHOW-ME CURRICULUM ADMINISTRATORS ASSN

In total, SMCAA conducted 20 days of district specific training in 15 school districts conducting curriculum workshops with the objective of helping public school teachers and administrators understand the elements of effective curriculum and develop curriculum in subject specific areas aligned to the State Standards. In addition, much district work was targeted on instructional strategies, APR review, science understanding and providing quality feedback to teachers. Some of these days included in district training for Champion Teaching. All together these visits were attended by over 1000 educational staff members

In July 2024, SMCAA conducted Quality Curriculum Retreat in person. This event was attended by 13 participants. During this statewide event, we looked at how education today is different from past years. Focus topics included information on durable skills and market value assets, developing success ready curricula, and protocols for evaluating and aligning instructional activities. Updates were also provided related to SMCAAs Foundational Social Studies curriculum, legislation impacting districts, and Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) initiatives.We were able to host our Annual Fall Conference in October 2024. The theme for our conference was Supporting the Science of Reading Beyond the ELA Classroom. Our keynote speaker was Dr. Katie McKnight, a dedicated teacher and award-winning author with over 30 years of classroom experience. Our breakout sessions included topics ranging from The Power of Words: Vocabulary Development, Preparing Your Educators for Literacy at the College Level; and Supporting Literacy through AI and Beyond. Missouri Commissioner of Education, Dr. Karla Eslinger, provided a lunch keynote, and Susan German, DESE Coordinator of Curriculum provided timely and relevant updates as well. A total of 53 participants attended this event. Evaluations were good and we used recommendations for planning our 2025 Fall Conference. Our 2025 Winter Symposium theme was Bringing Our Curriculum to Life and was held in February 2025. It was not as well attended as in previous years due to conflicts with other state meetings and with having to reschedule due to inclement weather on the initial dates. We had a total of 32 attendees in person. This event included hosted presenters from DESE, focusing on Using Fine Arts to Bring Core Curriculum to Life, Updates on Resources Available to Bring Civics and Patriotism to Life, Shifting Classroom Practices that Lead to Mathematical Proficiency, Using Primary/First Hand Sources of Missourians to Bring ELA Non-Fiction to Life, and Addressing the Literacy Needs of Secondary Teachers and Students. Alex Demczak provided an engaging keynote on Bringing Leadership to Life. The Annual Curriculum Bootcamp in June 2024 was replaced with SMCAAs first Assessment Summit. The Summit focused on the six assessment tenets and how they could be utilized to create a truly guaranteed and viable written, taught, and assessed curriculum. A pre-Summit was held, giving attendees the opportunity to learn from assessment vendors that were approved by DESE as part of their literacy initiative. This event was planned by using direct feedback related to DESE initiatives and assessment. Thirty three individuals attended this new event. After the Summit the decision was made to move back to a curriculum focus for the 2025 June event. The 2024 Instructional Leadership training in June focused on Meeting the Needs of Our New and Non-Traditional Teachers. Participants were divided based on their role and training was provided for each group separately. This event had 32 participants attending the two-day event, with 13 attending the leadership strand and 19 participating in the teacher strand. Sessions in both strands were designed to help provide techniques and strategies to help new teachers be successful in their trade.