I hope that the start of a new school year has each of us energized to carry the torch for middle level education.  Each of us is truly blessed to have the opportunity to touch the lives of our young adolescent population.  At no other time in our history have our youth needed you more than they do today.  The Pennsylvania Middle School Association is committed to and will continue to support you in your efforts to become expert middle level practitioners.

 

Over the past several months the Pennsylvania Middle School Association has been working on several major initiatives.  In September, the PMSA Executive Board traveled to Columbus Ohio to meet with the National Middle School Association leadership team.  We discussed partnering with NMSA to use technology to provide synchronous and asynchronous professional development opportunities for our membership.  As financial restraints make it more difficult to leave the district for professional development, it is PMSA’s vision to bring professional development to you via technology.

 

PMSA is also restructuring the annual state conference.  The state conference will now be known as the Professional Development Institute.  The PDI will offer content specific strands and PA specific “hot topics” to our attendees in order to meet the new Act 48 requirements.

 

PMSA continues to be the vehicle for recognizing outstanding middle level schools in the state.  The Don Eichhorn Schools to Watch evaluation process is an in depth look at the educational practices which take place in your school.  I highly recommend your school go through the application process.  It is a process which allows for internal self reflection as well as validation from an outside source.  PMSA also can provide training in the Middle Level Essentials Toolkit which delivers training on the 14 essential points for best middle level educational practices.

 

Several of our Executive Board members are involved in the middle level certification discussions taking place across the state.  It is critical that our voice and our position on middle level certification and middle level teacher preparation be heard at the state level.

 

January will see the evolution of PMSA from 4 to 5 regions.  The East Region will divide and a new Southeast Region will be created.  Eventually the Pennsylvania Middle School Association will be comprised of 7 regions across the state to allow our membership and member schools equal geographic accessibility to our organization.

 

These are exciting times for the Pennsylvania Middle School Association and our membership.  The initiatives and direction of the organization will allow is to stay at the forefront of middle level education.  As I stated at the beginning of this message, the Pennsylvania Middle School Association is committed to and will continue to support you in your efforts to become expert middle level practitioners.