Why is SLowDrip PD
for
Educators Unique?
SDPD is thoughtfully developed by two veteran teachers who passionately believe in:
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The empowerment of educators
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The power of collegiality
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The promise of hope found in each student
What Makes SLowDrip PD
so perfect?
SDPD is designed using a universal approach that enables each lesson to be personally relevant regardless of:
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Instructional title
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Content area
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Years of experience
Unlike traditional models, SDPD promotes :
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FORWARD THINKING
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Social & Emotional Health
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Professional collegiality
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Positive School Climate
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Involvement & support from family & community
Bio: Lynn Kellogg.
Bio: Mary Ellen Shevalier.
Lynn Kellogg savored thirty years as a public school primary teacher. She valued her students by striving to make them feel at home and respected in their mutually-established classroom. Her favorite lessons always focused on creating space for children, colleagues and parents to discover their best self. Discovering possibilities for personal growth, taught through self-awareness, exploration, and practice in daily experiences, remains a priority to Lynn.
Inspired by her father’s teaching experiences, she decided at a very young age that she, too, wanted to help children see, hear, and actualize their own potential. Her roots as an educator began at age eight by learning sign language to communicate with a hearing-impaired peer during her Summer Recreation Program. She then peer-tutored throughout middle and high school, going on to earn dual bachelor degrees in Elementary and Early Childhood Education from SUNY Geneseo. Serving in the Migrant Tutorial Program while earning her masters degree as a Reading Specialist from SUNY Oswego, provided more experience before entering own classroom practice at South Jefferson CSD.
Throughout her career, Lynn has consistently sought knowledge and effectiveness through engagement in professional development, collegial collaboration, parental interaction and serving with numerous leadership and planning groups. Character education with students and staff has always been her priority and passion. For ten of her thirty years, Lynn shared her therapy dog, Kula, in the classroom and school environment. She views that experience as one of her best practices for reaching students and supporting a positive, empowering school climate. Before retirement, she developed and led her school’s students and staff to focus on the core themes of mutual respect, responsibility, and safety of not only the self, but also others and their surroundings. In retirement, Lynn wants to continue serving both children and the adults who support them, through engaging thought and conversation.
Lynn is an avid outdoorswoman, 46er, and the personal pilot of a Cessna 172 airplane. She also enjoys family, birdwatching, and gardening at her rustic Adirondack camp.
Shevalier received her Bachelor's degree from Syracuse University where the “Synaesthetic Education program launched her advocacy for the arts as a profound educational tool to guide students to self-realization. Her masters degree from SUNY Oswego further influenced her belief in art as an educational tool that allows for personal experience to be processed. It also empowers students to document both contemporary and historical perceptions as visual journalists of their time.
In the first decade of her teaching career, Shevalier’s attentiveness to sensory influences, metacognition and social-emotional importance in education led her to forge educational opportunities for students in arenas outside the art classroom. She co-created three original theater productions as well as a NYS curriculum for dance. Her sixty member Co-Ed dance company was new to her school’s small rural community that became a moving example and reminder to embrace diversity and gender equality. Shevalier spread her love and respect for the importance of Arts Education through her work as regional director of Scholastics competitions and NYS Fair superintendent of the Arts. In the middle years of her career she was an adjunct at Jefferson Community College and also earned her CAS in educational administration which led to her establishment of a summer arts academy in her local town.
To bookend her 30 year classroom Project-Based-Learning practice, Mary Ellen designed and created a new course of study on media literacy; “I Am A Citizen of the world” resulting in her co-authored book World Class,The Re-education Of America (©2010). These experiences embodied all that Shevalier has grown to value as most important in fulfilling her privilege and responsibility as an educator:
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To lead students to respect and honor themselves.
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To promote embracing diversity and the power of collaboration.
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To inspire students by modeling professional collegiality.
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To seek working together in order to share talents & skills as a means to creatively and naturally benefit one another, communities and beyond.
Shevalier retired from the classroom with numerous distinctions for her education advocacy including recognition from Disney Salutes The American Teacher, presenter at twenty speaking engagements including The International Society for Technology in Education, San Diego and NYSATA keynote.
Semi-Retirement affords Shevalier the time to enjoy life with her husband at their home on Lake Ontario. Through her consultation services and her latest book, “ Espirit, The Hope For World Peace”, (©2016) she continues to promote education as the most important institution in our country and … “the single most powerful tool to heal our society and our world.”
Long time friends Lynn Kellogg and Mary Ellen Shevalier call the SLowDrip Professional Development endeavor; “Timely, relevant, and meaningful work!”
