September 20, 2000

Douglas Huntley, Superintendent
Massena Central School District
84 Nightengale Avenue
Massena, NY 13662

Dear Mr. Huntley,

The St. Lawrence Valley Teachers' Learning Center is enthusiastic about the opportunity to continue with the "Learner Centered Classroom/Standards Focused Initiative" under the "Targeted Instructional Staff Development" grant.

Linda Dunning, as Director of the St. Lawrence Valley Teachers' Learning Center, was closely involved in the initiative to apply for flus grant in September 1998. Linda provided much of the impetus to focus on teaching strategies and, as Teacher Center Director, attended all planning sessions and facilitated at both the regular and summer training sessions.

In the subsequent year Gerry Peters, as Co-Director of the St. Lawrence Valley Teachers'
Learning Center, was a central planner for all grant related activities and facilitated at all
sessions.

This year, as Director of the St. Lawrence Valley Teachers' Learning Center, I look forward to becoming  the  liaison  between  the  Teachers'  Center  and  the  "Learner  Centered Classroom/Standards Focused Initiative".  I will be involved in the planning and training sessions as our former Directors have been. The St. Lawrence Valley Teachers Center also offers our support to the St. Lawrence County teams from Massena Central School, Lisbon Central School, and Brasher Falls Central School, as well as our facility for any training and planning sessions.

The St. Lawrence Valley Teachers' Center is committed to the use and integration of technology in the classroom. We will be equipping our facility with computers, with high-speed Internet access, which will be available for use for training purposes. The Initiative clearly outlines the importance of using technology, including the Internet, to train teachers. The Teachers' Center would provide use of equipment and facilities to teachers who are involved in the Initiative.

The "Learner Centered Classroom/Standards Focused Initiative" builds on existing relationships
between the schools we serve in many ways. At the Teacher Center we are continually seeking
teachers from the field to provide professional development to their peers. The Initiative clearly articulates a model by which staff developers who are active in teaching, receive training that enables them to first learn and then teach their peers about learner centered classrooms, and how to change classroom practice to reflect standards based curriculum and the new assessments. In the future the Teachers' Center would hope to have access to these trained staff developers to
reach teachers in other districts that we serve.

As a participant in the Initiative, The Teachers' Learning Center will research and locate schools with exemplary practices.  Once a database of schools and specific areas of expertise is established, we would offer to set up visitations for teachers. The Teachers' Learning Center would also identify teachers who could model specific teaching strategies in the classroom, or teachers who could observe strategies being used and offer feedback.  This will help to strengthen and expand the existing relationships between our schools as well as identify exemplary practices that may already be in place.

Once again, the St Lawrence Valley Teachers' Learning Center offers our support to the "Learner Centered Classroom/Standards Focused Initiative" under the "Targeted Instructional Staff Development" grant. We look forward to continuing this successful collaboration.