TEAM
The school year is in full swing. TEAM (the new BEST) began in August. We have 18 teachers this year going through the TEAM process k-12. It will be a learning experience for all of us, mentees, mentors and our District Team Committee (which consists of 6 teachers and 2 administrators). Every day we receive emails from the state with new information. Please do whatever you can to support our new teachers.
ESOL
Many of you have commented on how diverse our population has become. It has truly been enriched with students from many cultures. How wonderful this is for all of our students. This year we have about 140 ELL students receiving support in learning English. We are trying hard to meet the needs of this population. On October 12, 2010 at 6PM we will have our first Open House Information Night for our English Language Learners and their parents. The adult Ed program has becoming actively involved by providing classes for parents in learning English not only at night but during the school day at BHS.
LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM
The wiki is all set with the draft of our LA curriculum uploaded. It can also be found under Teaching and Learning on our website. In the next few weeks your district facilitator will provide you with a login and password so you may access the wiki and add new information to our draft. We need your input. Remember this is an interactive curriculum that we will all use to help us provide for the learning needs of all of our students. It will be exciting to be able to collaborate on this endeavor.
MATH CURRICULUM
The math curriculum committee met in September. They are working on editing and revising the draft of our math curriculum. Our goal is to present this to the District Curriculum Council by the end of November and then onto the Teaching and Learning Committee of the BOE. This document will also be a draft and we want teacher input which includes supplementary resources that will ensure student understanding and successful learning.
COMMON CORE STANDARDS
In the spring of 2009, governors and state commissioners of education met to develop a common cores of state standards (CCSS) for K-12 in English Language Arts and mathematics. The state of Connecticut has adopted these standards on July 7, 2010. “These standards are internationally benchmarked; prepare all students to succeed in a global economy; support the State BOE’s 5 year plan; and support Connecticut’s Secondary School Reform. All our curricula committees will be addressing these standards as we move forward. The state has worked to correlate matches to our GLE’s. Some of these matches are exact, some partial and in some instances there is not match. I will give you some information monthly to help you better understand how we will compare our current curriculum to the CCSS. You can access these standards at http://www.corestandards.org
Friday, October 1, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
DRAFT OF LANGUAGE ARTS CURRICULUM COMPLETED
Hope all of you are enjoying the dog days of summer. The draft of our Language Arts Curriculum is on our web site. Much thanks to the curriculum committee who worked very hard to put this together. Please note that this is a DRAFT. We are looking to you for input to make this useful to anyone teaching LA in BPS. A wiki page has been developed so that during the school year you can go onto this wiki, click on your grade level, and add information for the LA Vertical Team to review. There is nothing new in the curriculum. You have been doing the work. Curriculum Committee representatives will review the structure with you in the fall. Our goal is to review all suggested revisions, make changes to this draft, and share with the BOE at the end of the 2010-2011 school year. Even when this is voted on, we will keep this an interactive document. Our goal is to make this useful to any teacher teaching language arts.
VERTICAL TEAMS
During the 2010-2011 school year, we will have vertical teams for Language Arts, Math, Social Studies and Science. Membership will consist of representatives from K-12 in the district. Our goal is to review, revise and discuss curriculum issues in the content areas and promote articulation across the district. If you would like to be a member of one of these teams please let me know. Your participation is welcomed.
MATH AND SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULA
The first draft of the Math Curriculum has been completed K-9. Thank you to all the members of this committee. We will be working on the math high school curriculum and refining the K-9 curriculum in the fall so we can present to the District Curriculum Council and the Teaching and Learning Committee of the BOE. This curriculum will also be in draft form for the school year so we can get your input. ( It will be on our web site and on a wiki.)
A draft of Social Studies K-4 has been completed. An overview of what needs to be covered has been emailed to all K-4 teachers. Additional resources will be available to all K-4 teachers in September. Middle and high school teachers are working on their drafts. Units of study for 5-8 have been decided upon. We will meet in the fall to review the format and complete the drafts.
Hopefully we can get this to all teachers teaching social studies by November 2010.
Thanks again to all the teachers who have worked so hard to get our curricula completed.
VERTICAL TEAMS
During the 2010-2011 school year, we will have vertical teams for Language Arts, Math, Social Studies and Science. Membership will consist of representatives from K-12 in the district. Our goal is to review, revise and discuss curriculum issues in the content areas and promote articulation across the district. If you would like to be a member of one of these teams please let me know. Your participation is welcomed.
MATH AND SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULA
The first draft of the Math Curriculum has been completed K-9. Thank you to all the members of this committee. We will be working on the math high school curriculum and refining the K-9 curriculum in the fall so we can present to the District Curriculum Council and the Teaching and Learning Committee of the BOE. This curriculum will also be in draft form for the school year so we can get your input. ( It will be on our web site and on a wiki.)
A draft of Social Studies K-4 has been completed. An overview of what needs to be covered has been emailed to all K-4 teachers. Additional resources will be available to all K-4 teachers in September. Middle and high school teachers are working on their drafts. Units of study for 5-8 have been decided upon. We will meet in the fall to review the format and complete the drafts.
Hopefully we can get this to all teachers teaching social studies by November 2010.
Thanks again to all the teachers who have worked so hard to get our curricula completed.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
WINTER REVIEW
February 19, 2009
Hope everyone is having a restful winter break. This has been a turbulent year with weather and the economy. But of course we are New Englanders and we can “weather” the hard times. We are making so much progress in all our committee work. The RTI (SRBI) committee has completed the first half of our RTI booklet. We have agreed on a clear process and expectations for each Tier and consistent forms. The sub committee of the RTI group is meeting to complete the intervention and progress monitoring sections of this booklet. The social studies curriculum committee met the beginning of February. We have had some outstanding discussions on the changes that we will have to put into place in our teaching of social studies based upon the new social studies framework from the SDE. Each school has a representative on this committee and they will be talking with you about what we are doing and what we will need to put into place. The new frameworks will probably be tweaked a couple of times before it will be voted on by our State BOE. But the basics are in place. Dave Gruendel, Peter Bouley, Sharon Shirley and I presented the frameworks to the Teaching and Learning committee of our BOE. You will notice that it is a spiraling curriculum and everyone will have an important role in the teaching of social studies. On the elementary level we will certainly need to integrate this within our literacy block.
The math and language arts curriculum committees have also met. Each of these committees are working hard to map out what we are presently doing in our classes and correlating this to the new frameworks. The representatives on this committee have asked for input within their buildings so that we can determine the overlaps and the gaps. Then hopefully over the summer or early fall we can work to remedy these areas.
The one big concern in all of our curricula areas is resources. Will we have the resources to ensure that our students will have what they need to meet the grade level expectations that the state has established? In all our discussions with the three curricula areas, we have shared that there are many resources on the internet as well as books, and textbooks. So we will be creative and search what we feel will stretch our students to optimum learning experiences.
BEST has definitely changed and the final changes have not been agreed upon as of this date. But next year our year 2 teachers will have a hiatus. There may be pilot modules that they can participate in but this is not definite. I will send out to all of you emails on BEST that will keep you up to date on changes or revisions in this program. I do know that the districts will have more responsibility and that all mentors will need new training in the future. I will update you regularly to any changes.
CMT AND CAPT are here! There have been some changes. We now have the standard CMT and CAPT; the standards with accommodations; the CMT MAS AND CAPT MAS which means the modified version of the CMT and CAPT. These tests are an answer to the old off level tests we used for students who needed to be tested on a different grade level. These tests are determined at a PPT. Then of course we have the MIST (on line tests for students with disabilities) and the checklist tests. If you need more information the PowerPoint is on line at the State Dept of Education’s website.
Some great books to consider: WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION;BRIGHT BEGINNINGS FOR BOYS - ENGAGING YOUNG BOYS IN ACTIVE LITERACY;DISRUPTING CLASS- HOW DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION WILL CHANGE THE WAY THE WORLD LEARNS.
Hope everyone is having a restful winter break. This has been a turbulent year with weather and the economy. But of course we are New Englanders and we can “weather” the hard times. We are making so much progress in all our committee work. The RTI (SRBI) committee has completed the first half of our RTI booklet. We have agreed on a clear process and expectations for each Tier and consistent forms. The sub committee of the RTI group is meeting to complete the intervention and progress monitoring sections of this booklet. The social studies curriculum committee met the beginning of February. We have had some outstanding discussions on the changes that we will have to put into place in our teaching of social studies based upon the new social studies framework from the SDE. Each school has a representative on this committee and they will be talking with you about what we are doing and what we will need to put into place. The new frameworks will probably be tweaked a couple of times before it will be voted on by our State BOE. But the basics are in place. Dave Gruendel, Peter Bouley, Sharon Shirley and I presented the frameworks to the Teaching and Learning committee of our BOE. You will notice that it is a spiraling curriculum and everyone will have an important role in the teaching of social studies. On the elementary level we will certainly need to integrate this within our literacy block.
The math and language arts curriculum committees have also met. Each of these committees are working hard to map out what we are presently doing in our classes and correlating this to the new frameworks. The representatives on this committee have asked for input within their buildings so that we can determine the overlaps and the gaps. Then hopefully over the summer or early fall we can work to remedy these areas.
The one big concern in all of our curricula areas is resources. Will we have the resources to ensure that our students will have what they need to meet the grade level expectations that the state has established? In all our discussions with the three curricula areas, we have shared that there are many resources on the internet as well as books, and textbooks. So we will be creative and search what we feel will stretch our students to optimum learning experiences.
BEST has definitely changed and the final changes have not been agreed upon as of this date. But next year our year 2 teachers will have a hiatus. There may be pilot modules that they can participate in but this is not definite. I will send out to all of you emails on BEST that will keep you up to date on changes or revisions in this program. I do know that the districts will have more responsibility and that all mentors will need new training in the future. I will update you regularly to any changes.
CMT AND CAPT are here! There have been some changes. We now have the standard CMT and CAPT; the standards with accommodations; the CMT MAS AND CAPT MAS which means the modified version of the CMT and CAPT. These tests are an answer to the old off level tests we used for students who needed to be tested on a different grade level. These tests are determined at a PPT. Then of course we have the MIST (on line tests for students with disabilities) and the checklist tests. If you need more information the PowerPoint is on line at the State Dept of Education’s website.
Some great books to consider: WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION;BRIGHT BEGINNINGS FOR BOYS - ENGAGING YOUNG BOYS IN ACTIVE LITERACY;DISRUPTING CLASS- HOW DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION WILL CHANGE THE WAY THE WORLD LEARNS.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Keeping you Posted......
Believe it or not I started writing this blog last month…. We are really moving along….this past month and a half we have been so very busy. Larry Brown from the CT Science and Math Academy met with the elementary team leaders in science. We reviewed the grade level expectations for grades 3 and 4 and the resources available to meet this expectations. We really delineated how to use the Foss water kit for grades 3 and 4. Larry is coming back on December 8th to help us fine tune our formative assessments. In January, we will have our first vertical team meeting in the area of science. The science department chairs and science team leaders are on the team and they will be looking for a classroom teacher to join them.
Professional development prek-12 has focused on the needs of teachers and how to support them in meeting the learning needs of the students. Across the district we have become more focused on how we can better improve our practice. The PD plan is in draft form and is waiting for the link to teacher evaluation. The State Department of Education is forming a teacher evaluation committee that will focus on a structure and the elements needed for teacher evaluation. Dr. Tony Rigazio- Digilio and I will be on this state committee. The goal will be to have a document to the districts by June 2009. Our goal will be to use this document to build our own teacher evaluation plan that we can link to professional development. In fact we want the teacher evaluation process to be a professional development opportunity for all involved.
Curriculum development is in process for Language Arts, Math and Social Studies. All three committees have met, brainstormed, broken up into three teams (elementary, middle and high school). Our first task is to have committee members work with their colleagues to map out what we are already doing to meet the state standards. Thank you goes to all the chairpeople and members ...this is a daunting task.
The RTI or SRBI (scientific research based intervention) committee is working hard to develop our own manual for the process. Ten teachers representing regular ed, and special ed from grades K-5 are on this committee. We have divided into three working groups. One group will focus on the basic process, group two is working on interventions and progress monitoring and group three is working on standardizing the forms we can use across the district. Our goal is to make the process simple, clear and supportive of the needs of our students.
Two District wide math nights have been held for K-4 parents to help them learn more about our Investigations math program. Dr. Diamantis, professor of mathematics from SCSU and Adrienne David, Andrea Snedegar and Mary Kallmeyer facilitated these very successful evenings. Our next district wide math night will be held on January 27, 2009.
Our administrators are reading the Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner. If you really want a great understanding of what 21st century skills are and why we need to develop these skills for our students read this book.
Other great books are : Made to Stick by Heath; Powerful Learning – What we know about teaching for understanding by L. Darling Hammond; Brain Rules by Medina.
I just want to share that we have so many very talented educators in Branford....Congratulations goes to Brook D'Alessio for earning National Board Certification and Beth Taylor who was a semifinalist for the State Teacher of the Year. If you know of anyone else we can honor ...please share.
Professional development prek-12 has focused on the needs of teachers and how to support them in meeting the learning needs of the students. Across the district we have become more focused on how we can better improve our practice. The PD plan is in draft form and is waiting for the link to teacher evaluation. The State Department of Education is forming a teacher evaluation committee that will focus on a structure and the elements needed for teacher evaluation. Dr. Tony Rigazio- Digilio and I will be on this state committee. The goal will be to have a document to the districts by June 2009. Our goal will be to use this document to build our own teacher evaluation plan that we can link to professional development. In fact we want the teacher evaluation process to be a professional development opportunity for all involved.
Curriculum development is in process for Language Arts, Math and Social Studies. All three committees have met, brainstormed, broken up into three teams (elementary, middle and high school). Our first task is to have committee members work with their colleagues to map out what we are already doing to meet the state standards. Thank you goes to all the chairpeople and members ...this is a daunting task.
The RTI or SRBI (scientific research based intervention) committee is working hard to develop our own manual for the process. Ten teachers representing regular ed, and special ed from grades K-5 are on this committee. We have divided into three working groups. One group will focus on the basic process, group two is working on interventions and progress monitoring and group three is working on standardizing the forms we can use across the district. Our goal is to make the process simple, clear and supportive of the needs of our students.
Two District wide math nights have been held for K-4 parents to help them learn more about our Investigations math program. Dr. Diamantis, professor of mathematics from SCSU and Adrienne David, Andrea Snedegar and Mary Kallmeyer facilitated these very successful evenings. Our next district wide math night will be held on January 27, 2009.
Our administrators are reading the Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner. If you really want a great understanding of what 21st century skills are and why we need to develop these skills for our students read this book.
Other great books are : Made to Stick by Heath; Powerful Learning – What we know about teaching for understanding by L. Darling Hammond; Brain Rules by Medina.
I just want to share that we have so many very talented educators in Branford....Congratulations goes to Brook D'Alessio for earning National Board Certification and Beth Taylor who was a semifinalist for the State Teacher of the Year. If you know of anyone else we can honor ...please share.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Updates on Curriculum and Implementation
Education is truly evolutionary. Data, accountability, data driven decision-making, standards, formative assessments, benchmark assessments, RTI, SRBI, secondary school reform, 21st Century Skills, rigor…….so much more to learn and to assimilate into our daily practice. Learning collaboratively is really the only way we will be able to digest, sort and put into practice all that we want to do for our students.
Curriculum Update
The State Department of Education has rolled out the model math curriculum for PreK-5 and 6-8. This documents what’s different? The 2007 PK-5 Model Math curriculum for CT was organized around three themes which combined grade level expectations from the standards: number, data and relations. The 2008 Prek-5 Model for Mathematics Curriculum is organized by the standards for better alignment to the 2008 6-8 Model for Mathematics. The Model features correlated GLE’s, sequenced GLE’s, Goals 2000 connections and the curriculum format. It also has a glossary, references, and live links to cross referenced GLE’s. Soon this document will be online at the state website. We will be using this document as our basis for Branford’s prek-8 curriculum in Math.
Social Studies:
Well, the State Frameworks – draft of course will be out in November. This draft will be presented at the Social Studies Conference. The curriculum frameworks are organized around three interrelated standards: content knowledge, History/social studies literacy skills and application. Within each standard stands will identify important understandings and GLE’s.
Science:
The new updated science frameworks are now on line at the SDE website. They show the correlation to the CMT’s and GLE's.
Language Arts frameworks are also up on the state website. Again, you can see the GLE's and correlation to the CMT’s.
We will be using the state frameworks as a basis for the development of our curriculum. I am in the process of going to all the schools and sharing with all staff our draft of the curriculum writing process. (See wiki page). In addition you will see that the SDE has also provided us with a guide in our curriculum development process. WANTED: teachers to serve on our Math, Language Arts and Social Studies curriculum committees. We are limiting each committee to 12 people representing prek-12. They will serve as liaisons to the schools as we go through the curriculum writing process. We will be building on what we are already teaching. We cannot do it without your input and support so consider being part of the curriculum writing committee.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION ADOPTS SECONDARY SCHOOL REFORM PROPOSALS: At its October 2, 2008 meeting the Connecticut State Board of Education adopted secondary school reform proposals presented by Commissioner Mark McQuillan and members of the Boards Ad Hoc Committee. This proposal will effect prek-12 education and so we need to become aware of its expectations. I will include a copy of this draft on my wiki page.
ELL:
We have over 100 ELL students in our district this year. We have contracted with the State of CT to provide a comprehensive job embedded professional development program for our ELL support staff in Branford to develop and implement the best model for our ELL students. This year is the first year we are putting our “new” ELL delivery model in place. Rosario Frumento is our district ELL coordinator and Monica Briggs oversees the ELL program. Each school has a certified ELL support staff member to work with our ELL students.
The ELL support staff will be providing their services IN the classroom – this is a “push in” collaborative model. Teachers will be teaming with regular education teachers in the classrooms. These teachers can work with all or any students while in the classrooms. This model will not only benefit our ELL population but all of our students. This will present some challenges as we move forward. It is important for us to remember that this transformation is a work in progress. Our ELL support team will be meeting monthly. We will be sharing our progress with this new model: what is working and what is not and how we can improve. It is important for you to support your ELL support staff as we transition to this model. This “best practice” of sheltered instruction “is a means for making grade-level content, such as science, social studies and math more accessible for English language learners while also promoting English development. Sheltered instruction is said to be the most influential instructional innovation… because it addresses the needs of the students.” Our ELL staff will be reading SHELTERED CONTENT INSTRUCTION by Jana Echevarria and Anne Graves. This will help us promote a consistent delivery model and understanding of the model throughout the district. You are always welcome to attend any of our ELL workshops.
There is so much to write about that we are working on in our school system. Every teacher is working hard to meet the learning needs of our students. Yes we are in the 21st century and we have to prepare our students for a different world. A group of administrators have started a book club and we will be reading THE GLOBAL ACHIEVEMENT GAP by Tony Wagner. In this book we hear about the 21st century skills that are necessary in the work place. CEO’s from across the country have been interviewed and shared their perceptions about what students need to know and be able to do. There is an excerpt of this book in this month ED LEADERSHIP. Your input and ideas are valued so please share.
Curriculum Update
The State Department of Education has rolled out the model math curriculum for PreK-5 and 6-8. This documents what’s different? The 2007 PK-5 Model Math curriculum for CT was organized around three themes which combined grade level expectations from the standards: number, data and relations. The 2008 Prek-5 Model for Mathematics Curriculum is organized by the standards for better alignment to the 2008 6-8 Model for Mathematics. The Model features correlated GLE’s, sequenced GLE’s, Goals 2000 connections and the curriculum format. It also has a glossary, references, and live links to cross referenced GLE’s. Soon this document will be online at the state website. We will be using this document as our basis for Branford’s prek-8 curriculum in Math.
Social Studies:
Well, the State Frameworks – draft of course will be out in November. This draft will be presented at the Social Studies Conference. The curriculum frameworks are organized around three interrelated standards: content knowledge, History/social studies literacy skills and application. Within each standard stands will identify important understandings and GLE’s.
Science:
The new updated science frameworks are now on line at the SDE website. They show the correlation to the CMT’s and GLE's.
Language Arts frameworks are also up on the state website. Again, you can see the GLE's and correlation to the CMT’s.
We will be using the state frameworks as a basis for the development of our curriculum. I am in the process of going to all the schools and sharing with all staff our draft of the curriculum writing process. (See wiki page). In addition you will see that the SDE has also provided us with a guide in our curriculum development process. WANTED: teachers to serve on our Math, Language Arts and Social Studies curriculum committees. We are limiting each committee to 12 people representing prek-12. They will serve as liaisons to the schools as we go through the curriculum writing process. We will be building on what we are already teaching. We cannot do it without your input and support so consider being part of the curriculum writing committee.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION ADOPTS SECONDARY SCHOOL REFORM PROPOSALS: At its October 2, 2008 meeting the Connecticut State Board of Education adopted secondary school reform proposals presented by Commissioner Mark McQuillan and members of the Boards Ad Hoc Committee. This proposal will effect prek-12 education and so we need to become aware of its expectations. I will include a copy of this draft on my wiki page.
ELL:
We have over 100 ELL students in our district this year. We have contracted with the State of CT to provide a comprehensive job embedded professional development program for our ELL support staff in Branford to develop and implement the best model for our ELL students. This year is the first year we are putting our “new” ELL delivery model in place. Rosario Frumento is our district ELL coordinator and Monica Briggs oversees the ELL program. Each school has a certified ELL support staff member to work with our ELL students.
The ELL support staff will be providing their services IN the classroom – this is a “push in” collaborative model. Teachers will be teaming with regular education teachers in the classrooms. These teachers can work with all or any students while in the classrooms. This model will not only benefit our ELL population but all of our students. This will present some challenges as we move forward. It is important for us to remember that this transformation is a work in progress. Our ELL support team will be meeting monthly. We will be sharing our progress with this new model: what is working and what is not and how we can improve. It is important for you to support your ELL support staff as we transition to this model. This “best practice” of sheltered instruction “is a means for making grade-level content, such as science, social studies and math more accessible for English language learners while also promoting English development. Sheltered instruction is said to be the most influential instructional innovation… because it addresses the needs of the students.” Our ELL staff will be reading SHELTERED CONTENT INSTRUCTION by Jana Echevarria and Anne Graves. This will help us promote a consistent delivery model and understanding of the model throughout the district. You are always welcome to attend any of our ELL workshops.
There is so much to write about that we are working on in our school system. Every teacher is working hard to meet the learning needs of our students. Yes we are in the 21st century and we have to prepare our students for a different world. A group of administrators have started a book club and we will be reading THE GLOBAL ACHIEVEMENT GAP by Tony Wagner. In this book we hear about the 21st century skills that are necessary in the work place. CEO’s from across the country have been interviewed and shared their perceptions about what students need to know and be able to do. There is an excerpt of this book in this month ED LEADERSHIP. Your input and ideas are valued so please share.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR
Thanks to all of you this year for your support, your willingness to learn,to explore,to question and search for new ways to improve student learning. I appreciate and value all your efforts.
Curriculum work in language arts, math and social studies will not begin until the fall. The word from the State Dept of Education is that the model curricula will be ( hopefully) completed by the end of the summer. There is a possibility that social studies will be completed by July 1st. If that happens I will email all of you with a link on this blog.
If you need a great book to read - look at the list the high school has on line for our students. They have some interesting, great reads on the list. In the education field :Doug Reeves has a new book out entitled Reframing Teacher Leadership A book by W. James Popham- Tranformative Assessment and Elaine Granan's book Smart Answers to Tough Questions.
Please share your summer reading experiences on the blog, I would love to learn what you are learning. Just click on comment and write away.
Have a restful, enjoyable summer.
Curriculum work in language arts, math and social studies will not begin until the fall. The word from the State Dept of Education is that the model curricula will be ( hopefully) completed by the end of the summer. There is a possibility that social studies will be completed by July 1st. If that happens I will email all of you with a link on this blog.
If you need a great book to read - look at the list the high school has on line for our students. They have some interesting, great reads on the list. In the education field :Doug Reeves has a new book out entitled Reframing Teacher Leadership A book by W. James Popham- Tranformative Assessment and Elaine Granan's book Smart Answers to Tough Questions.
Please share your summer reading experiences on the blog, I would love to learn what you are learning. Just click on comment and write away.
Have a restful, enjoyable summer.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Professional Development
How can we deliver effective professional development for all staff members? We are searching for the best answer. The creation of Professional learning communities was a structure that was going to help us in our quest for new learning. Stephanie Hirsch and Joellen Killion in their commentary in Education Week, talk about making us all learning educators. They say that “A 2007 American Institutes for Research study of successful schools that ‘beat the odds’ in student achievement shed more light on the issue. The study showed that teachers in school schools, when compared with those in low-performing schools, were to a greater degree, deliberately engaged in collaboration, were supported by instructional coaches, received regular classroom visits by principals and benefited from peer observations and coaching as well as mentoring. … Effective professional learning is like a time-release capsule; its contents cannot be absorbed in a single day or week, but must be infused into a system over time to get desired results in student achievement.” I bring this up because the leadership team members have been working on a draft of a professional development plan for the school system. We are all realizing that as we begin to put this plan together it is integrated with teacher evaluation and curriculum. As soon as we go through the first draft I will give you a link for your review and comments.
It is almost May of 2008. This year has gone by so quickly and we have accomplished so much this past year. Visiting classrooms and looking at all of the student work clearly demonstrates how hard our teachers have worked. Hopefully, we will be able to begin working on curriculum this summer. All depends on our budget. If all goes well I hope three committees will begin the discussion on math, language arts and social studies curriculum.
It is almost May of 2008. This year has gone by so quickly and we have accomplished so much this past year. Visiting classrooms and looking at all of the student work clearly demonstrates how hard our teachers have worked. Hopefully, we will be able to begin working on curriculum this summer. All depends on our budget. If all goes well I hope three committees will begin the discussion on math, language arts and social studies curriculum.
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