The Berks County Intermediate Unit (BCIU)’s Office of Professional Learning (OPL) offered professional development services to approximately 975 educators across Berks County on Monday, October 14, 2024, in a variety of locations and platforms. Those opportunities included:
Professional Development for Related Arts and Paraprofessional Educators
BCIU partners across Berks County offered their facilities for sessions tailored to specific curriculum groups for 583 related arts educators and paraprofessionals. Music educators (131) were at the Muhlenberg Jr. High School; art teachers (89) were at Reading Central Middle School; health and physical education teachers (127) were at the Governor Mifflin Athletic Center; internship coordinators (11) were at the Army National Guard-Reading Armory; technology and STEM educators (44) were given tours at East Penn Manufacturing and Unique Snacks; world language educators (14) were at Twin Valley High School; and English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers (37), librarians (48), and teachers of the gifted (36) received instruction at the BCIU Main Office. In addition, 46 educational professionals from various districts attended a day-long training hosted by Training and Consultation (TaC) Consultants, “Building Capacity & Promoting Instruction Through PA Alternate System of Assessment (PASA) Dynamic Learning Maps DLM),” at the BCIU Main Office.
All sessions were designed to provide meaningful information for educators to implement and share with their colleagues within their home districts. The BCIU extends a special thank you to our partners for their help in accommodating instructional space for countywide educators each October. To view this year’s sessions and descriptions, please visit https://tinyurl.com/bciucommonIS.
In-District Professional Development
In addition to the sessions offered to the related arts and paraprofessional educators, the BCIU’s OPL administration and TaC consultants delivered customized professional development in the following districts:
Daniel Boone Area School District held two separate trainings for approximately 40 teachers regarding Classroom Diagnostic Tools (CDTs) data at the Middle School and High School.
Kutztown Area School District held a training for their educators with OPL’s TaC consultants.
Virtual FLEX Courses
Nearly 300 educators successfully completed a variety of FLEX courses, including one-hour, three-hour, and six-hour trainings. FLEX, which stands for “Flexible Learning Environments for eXcellence,” offers professional learning opportunities designed to help educators learn and prepare for their classrooms. FLEX sessions focus on equipping teachers with tools and strategies to be more effective, efficient, and inspiring in virtual or blended learning environments to maximize student learning. For more information about the BCIU’s FLEX courses, see page 3 of Newslink or visit