Lead Learners Update 11.12.12

Thanksgiving is not just about pilgrims and turkeys but also a special culture and a mindset for life.  We would like to take a moment to thank each of you for being a giving person in your words, actions and spirit.  Most of all, what a privilege to work in such a giving environment when the entire purpose of our daily life is devoted to growing minds and hearts of youngs and adults! We are truly blessed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Upcoming Events
11/12 Administrative Learning (K-6: 10:00 - 1:30; 7-12: 12:00 - 3:30)
11/13 PHS AIW site visit day/Plan with Dana K @ 11:00 (Mark, Laura, Ying and Bill)
11/14-11/20 K-6 conference
11/19 Elementary/Secondary Administrative meeting
11/20 Music Council
11/21 No School

Dropout Prevention/Allowable Growth State Report (Ying Ying Chen)
As you remember, this is a very involved report and we have a very short timeline (Due in Mid December).  The state made some revisions on the questions again so we will have to sort them out first.  We will begin to work with you /your designee very soon.  The most important data for you to gather is to identify the students served by your dropout prevention programs from last year (for results) and to propose number of students who will be served this year:

7-12

• Success center/Learning Center
• Strategy classes (reading and math)
• Credit recovery programs
• Kirkwood High School Completion Program
• Alternative school
• Supported math classes (like algebra half)
• 540 program
• Second Chance Reading/21st Reading

K-6

• Strategist service
• At Risk Tutoring

 

Study Group (By Ying Ying Chen)
The teachers on the Oversight Team had a very positive experience in the study group on Data Team.  If you wish to capitalize on their learning, you may invite them to lead a small piece of learning for your cadre/leadership teams.  Their sharing was deep, constructive and highly collaborative.  Teachers who felt that their teams were “stuck” actually gained ideas from the book and/or other teachers on the team.

New Teacher Workshop Feedback and Follow Up (Ying Ying Chen)
Once again, thank you for your commitment in inducting new teachers to best practice.  Your investment in year 1 and 2 will pay off for many years to come.  Here are the feedback results from workshop #2.  

From our follow up visits, we found a higher level of implementation this year.  Several new teachers approached us and shared their positive experience in implementing Think Aloud.  One teacher said, “In my X years of teaching and learning, I finally realized why it was not working with my students before.  Sarah’s video made a huge difference for me!”.  Another teacher said, “When I did my Think Aloud, so many of my kids wanted to help me, but I resisted to interact with them.  It was hard to do, but the result of their learning was wonderful.”

Please continue to reinforce that the Think Aloud strategy should be implemented on a weekly basis and that they should continue to write strong learning targets and use varied responses to check for understanding.

Quarterly Conversations (Ying Ying Chen)
We truly appreciate the privilege to have quarterly conversations with our leaders.  Your voices help us understand your focus, reflection and challenges.   It reinforces my belief that our district is full of talents and commitment and that we are a very cohesive team, more than we realize. Thank you for taking time to reflect what you do as a leader and to model life-long learning.  

We also learned a lot of great strategies from our team.  For example, many are trying to turn general team collaboration into high functioning teams.  Ideas highlighted:

• Team self-assessment on cycles

• Using a PLC rubric for team to reflect
• Building leadership capacities among team leaders by hosting leader PLC/Study groups
• Have teacher teams model high performing team behaviors for each other
• Have teams examine results from CFA
• Have teams formatively assess progress using TPP
• Have teams set short-term SMART goals with a focus on student learning

Common Core Resources (Ying Ying Chen)
As we continue to implement common core and build Formative Assessments, there are plenty of resources on the field. Here are two items worth reviewing:

• Inside Mathematics (There is a section developed for principals with videos, discussion guides, etc.)
• SMARTER Balanced Assessment (A quick review power points)

I have shared SMARTER with you before, but the link/ppt above indicates a few key functions that might trigger some thoughts about how you lead teachers in building CFA:

• SMARTER will be an electronic interactive assessment (Implication: Think about the endless ways a “task item” could be presented.  It will be highly performance-based.)
• SMARTER will be given as a summative assessment by the state, but it suggests schools to have benchmark and formative assessments (Implication: We will need to build both benchmark and formative assessments to inform teaching and to monitor system progress.)
• SMARTER will assess skill, concept and performance in various formats  (Implication: Traditional items such as multiple choice, short answers, etc. may be included, but writing, reasoning and problem solving will be heavily emphasized.)

Curriculum Matters (Bill Poock)
Math Task Force Curriculum Adoption Meeting:  I will meet with the K-6 Math Task Force team members on Tuesday, November 13th to begin our process for textbook adoption.  We will ground our work in three important shifts in the core curriculum mathematics standards:

• focus
• coherence
• rigor

We will study the three shifts in greater detail and use a new evaluation instrument to determine how well mathematics curricula options are aligned with the common core standards.  In addition, we’ll specifically look at focus, coherence, and rigor in order to make the determination for which publishers we’ll invite for an on-site presentation of the materials.  Please communicate with your K-6 Math Task Force team members about this process.  I am excited to work with them this week to begin this process.  Our ultimate goal is to recommend a new mathematics curriculum to be implemented in the fall of 2013.