EL Training - Staff Development

8:30 - noon Dr. Teston provided the focus of today’s staff development: EL Design Principles Literacy Challenge…how to use the best elements of each for OUR STUDENT COMMUNITY Expeditions/Project Based Learning/SOLs should be integrated Results Now…Keep it Simple (KISS) Lori's Morning Example….Morning Meeting Greeting…. Name/position/amazing summer story Activity: Speed Greeting (compare to Speed Dating J) Need a dingbell or gong or cowbell. When its time to stop, I’ll wave my hands madly. Task, when you find your first partner, need to know names, their position, and share one amazing thing or fun story from summer. Two teams pair, partner shares other’s name/position/amazing/scar story Original team finds another team/shares either story/share a goal for this year Debriefing….fun, get to know each other, center of attention, not intimidating, sense of team, used familiar information so everyone was to be successful, make connections, stepping outside of your comfort zone, learning occurred in a social context. Must do morning meeting every morning for first 9 weeks. How will literacy program “look like” and what does it look like in your grade level teams this year. Summer teachers need to share within grade levels their experiences regardless of their success. SOLs and Projects must be integrated and embedded. If you are looking at them as two separate things, you aren’t looking at it wrong. The concern was when the “community day” was held in relationship to the SOL testing. (poor timing). Goal is to making our lives easier by integrating. Read “results Now” message is: KISS (Kiss It Simple Stupid). Use of a circle, playing cards Summer school staff acknowledged, morning meeting evolved from their suggestion, summer school staff asked to sit at individual tables to assist with conversations evolving from the summer school reports. EL Research Based Institution Reading with Meaning Strategies that Work Mosaic of Thought Power of Activity Small Group Using an expert Honored a variety of learning styles Synthesize Readers Workshop Hook….teacher…..models mini lesson 5 – 7 minutes P from Par (Preparation), Before (Anticipatory set…thank you, Mr. Huck!) NNPS….Time will vary depending on strategy, objective, content, students’ need. Done as whole group, using direct instruction. Practice….student (guided) A from Par (Assistance), During Sharing R from Par (Reflection), After Lori modeled the HOOK what the teacher would be doing/thinking/saying while reading an article about morning meetings. Guided practice using metacognition and text coding occurred. Articles used were; Morning Meeting: A Powerful Way to Begin the Day and Start the Day With Community Each person was to share a metacognition point How will the framework of responsive classroom morning meeting help support the building of culture and character with your students? Lori did a share out of how text coding was used. Criteria for a High Quality Morning Meeting After reading the recommendations, discussion ensued. Summarizing can occur either at beginning or end of day (teacher discretion). Setting the tone, culture of the classroom should occur daily. Time and structure may vary. However, each component of the structure has a definite purpose. Team planning for conducting Morning Meetings using all components took place. Staff who use MM consistently were asked to serve as ‘experts’. Break out session…each team was to find an area in the building and conduct/ a morning meeting. Group reconvened in library and shared. Strategies used in above activity Modeling Small Group Critiquing Synthesize Collaboration Keeper Activity What one idea can you walk away with and use? Closing….reading from Morning Meeting book Special Ed meeting – 8/30/06 IEP meetings need to be initiated within the first 3 months of school. Some of the discussion was focused on what General Ed meetings that attend IEP meetings. Discussed grade level team meetings put in place this year to help with strategies to help children before being referred to child study. Another discussion was that several children were referred for retention and evaluation from Briarfield at the end of last year that will need to be addressed next month. Eligibility meetings questions need to go to Marian Harper. Assessment, child studies, and questions need to go to Social Worker and Psychologist. Form was requested from teachers for pre-trianual meeting to keep referrals in order. Trianual schedule should be reviewed by SW and Psy so they can put in notes. IEP peer reviews are recommended (for typos and age-appropriateness, categories, dates) before sitting with parent because any changes need another formal meeting and then an addendum. Goals should be sent home before IEP meeting and a parent should sign it or be asked for their comments. IEPs should be created 10 days before IEP meetings. Resource and LD/ED teachers – 8-30-06 Class card – clarify your class list and which homerooms they’re in (generated by Cece) initiate conversation with regular ed and ask if they reviewed their records. Did you receive anyone with a Level 1 or 2? Also make ranking orders for Title I. The buzz word this year is “to integrate and collaborate” which means co-teaching models. What is co-teaching? Guest speaker – Intermingled in everything. Homo and heterogeneous grouping. Spent time with guidance in small groups. One teacher taught more writing, and the other was teaching math. One was on the outside encouraging, keeping the students on task. Trouble was finding the time to plan because most of the time was spent on talking about specific children. Must have similar behavior management styles and teaching philosophies. From Day 1, told parents that second teacher was a support teacher. Both teachers took ownership of all children. Disagreements should be away from kids but be supportive when children are around. Collaborated with report cards and would have liked to have only split up this task. Parent conferences were done together. Not saying jump into it this year, but try it on one or two classes. Moving away from special ed as a special entity. Push children to be in general ed so they can be more proficient in SOL Paperwork requirements – what are they? Get a mental picture of what you need. Do not pretend if you are unclear. Speech therapist has cheat sheet. Materials – do you have everything you need? VGLA results – excellent job with reading. Accumulation of artifacts.

NPES Staff Orientation-3

mon email dr. t @ sending ppts from last yr & this yr discussed computer w/ dave * had lunch w/custodians afternoon-reading specialist presentations look at leteracy from diff pts of view big push on literacy - out of 1500 seniors w/recevied diploma, only 36 AA males have 3.0+ GPA. why is this? by the time thye leave el schools-the habits develop already Trip to Germany - not yr to take children. Griesfelt has found relationship with montessouri school. reason why want team discussions documented in notebook to publish a book article, or have teacher to teacher exchange in Germany about pedagogy. ask karis to share ppt @ reading strategies ask peggy for teacher first handbook & videos

NPES Staff Orientation-2

AGENDA - School norms-on time who's new at newsome? welcome new members new name changes summer accomplishments invite principal from Briarfield to talk @his children how are we going to look like as a 21st century school? broke up SOL scores into 5 catagories - discussed factors before sharing results - ie. some teachers were dealt a good/poor hand of students. no sped kids included ask David for scores & getting into SOL units a good conversation on how well we are building trust such as "what's happening in your room that's different than in my room?" zara - has testing materials for admin test - 4 wk course - ask her for them how does it look at newsome? new leadership team - only 12 members - elected by peers (8) 4 automatic members (hailey, grimes, wolfson, dr.t) - sch improvement planning - grade level dissemination - el planning & consultation board - meets wed at 8:10-am - no stipends - does not discuss personal issues or personnel issues

NPES Staff Orientation

David - tech support showed slideshow Dr. T - used postcards to drop a line to students

• introductions - culture of bldg. activities
• explained student influx from 2 closed schools
• population now 726 students, K/1 class size = 21, max 24 students class size
• staff handbook pt 1 - protocols pt 2 forms schedule
• dist handbook pocket (prelude)
• PTA - new offices Mr. James Graves-President encouraged to join PTA
• Accrediation (handbook)-schols are rated and Acc is largely dependant on these ratings. 75% = passing rate in English (grades 3-5) to pass proficiency in SOL. 70%-Math, 54%-History 50%-Science/NPES scores were 85% Reading, 78% Math, 85% Science. 4th grade took Math for first time which brought the test down. Also different test vendor.
• 4 magnet schools - we're the only Title 1 magnet school
• Roster - know different resources
• Ross Hayley-Parent resource specialist - resource for students not doing homework home/sch connection. was the ISS inst. at Huntington.
• Difference between reading specialist and coach. coach does not evaluate
• Special needs-2 pronged: 1.? 2.referred to eligibility process-social worker does social background & family interviews
• SAMS teacher - TAG teacher who pulls out TAG students, but also those whom are close computerized phoenimic awareness program
• Breakfst-not for 1st week - students have lunch #s because they're tracked except kinder or anyone new to Newport News
• students report to classrooms first & go to cafeteria after announcement
• past-4yrs getting evaluated evaluation, now-3 yrs, plan of action-do not get raise and may not get contract following year, lead teacher & coaches (different than specialist), documented walk-throughs (past just walked there but need document for central office), new leadership team-school improvement plan (not so new) but revisiting good for 3yrs., block scheduling-team worked w/it, computer instructional asst-mr. gillis new block
• New Focus areas-726 students everyone has duty area
• schoolwide discipline norms-not new-but sch dist is emphasizing this in all speaking same language
• Old language/new language at leadership retreat-qpq "questions behind questions", how can i help you? what can i do to make it better? always involve "i" & always involve an action.
• literacy-harcourt
• spending time communication protocol - cell phones & emails-observations put cell phone on vibrate-& go somewhere so children cannot see you talking, i'm not saying don't use it.
• emails-if the issue is high stress-talk in person rather than email
• safety in community - quality for 2 cafeteria monitors because of high #s.
• what's new in sch. division? Iterim school superintendant dr. kilgore asst. superintendant for inst. services - dr. jeffery smith-executive directions-keep 2 elem. ones - middle school no larger new dr. fahe, science supervisors-elem. need, testing supervisor-need, dr. westin is interim, acting TAG supervisor - patti tac, PTA Board new officers
• NEW Books - Results Now - Schmoker, Good to Great - Collins, Poverty - Payne - our demographics changed, poverty does not mean dischoveled-we have lots who look nice outside but are poor inside, Morning Meeting book-reestablish culture, Code Switching -rachel swartz

Introduce Community Norms - & also to new comm. members

• being on time & prepared
• be positive put difference outside
• be open & willing to support others, ideas
• be courteious, good listeners, & patience
• take the high road - ambitious plans but 1/2 way thru-do we give up & settle or cont. tracking?
• accept diff. options
• respect teaching practice (activity on eagles to help children soar - online, lots of talk, lots of flap, but doesn't go anywhere"
• be proactive
• be curtious we always want to know what's new continue

SOL's score are wonderful this year

Message - what is my personal challenge this year? The only way to deliver the people who are achieving is not to burden them with people.

9/9 - community parade

Coaches mtg - w/dr. t

• do you feel prepared to present?
• expectations - just wet their ears of what's coming up - commercial, and then more later at team mtgs.
• grade level council mtg-1 hr/1 day wk to discuss adm stuff, share strategies-present bulk
• distribute materials-parapros report to ms. wolfson & will dist materials.
• need to know what book w/ what grade
• anything else besides textbooks to be given out?
• tomorrow - pt of presentation - deliver part of role of specialist/coaches
• coaches-not evaluators-observe
• specialists-may be pulled in as part of a walkthough-seek help/feedback
• grade level teams will cover up staff dev plans