Lead Learners Update 1.14.13

Quality Of Innovators:
Perseverance, a willingness to experiment, take calculated risks, tolerate failure, and the capacity for “design thinking.” in addition to critical think

Creating Innovators, Tony Wagner

Calendar of Events
1.14 Common Core Implementation (Crest and View)
No Admin Meeting Scheduled
Work with Perception Survey Data (Lead by John 4:00 - ?)
1.15 Crest AIW
1.15 GT Academy - Newton
1.21 PL Day (Celebration of Learning from 7:45 - 10:00)

Board Meeting

1.22 New Teacher Workshop (7:45 - 12:00 and PM implementation)

Engaging Stakeholder Conversations (5:00 - 8:00 PM)

1/23 Quarterly Conversations
1/24 Quarterly Conversations

Mid-Year SMART Data and Use of Rubicon (Ying Ying Chen)
We will begin to draw and organize the SMART data to prepare for the SIAC mid-year report.  Please be sure your SMART goal data has been entered and analyzed at your building level to determine staff learning needs.  Click HERE for where you can access your own data.  Here is the Mid year Data Recording Form.  Please enter your building’s data no later than 1/16.

The unit they assess must be the current or the most recent unit they are working on.  Please be sure that teachers are using Rubicon to design and house the units/resources.  If we want to improve implementation fidelity in the system and form a common way of discussing our planned curriculum,  we must have access to these units across the district.  I will find a moment to interview you prior to January 28, the SIAC day, to gather some talking points regarding the progress of SMART goal for your building.

Science Common Core Update (Ying Ying Chen)
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) will be released on Tuesday, January 8
Public review ends on January 29.  To review the draft when it is released, go to www.nextgenscience.org.  To register for the web seminar, click here.  The final NGSS standards are expected to be released in late March.  Also this month and next—NSTA will be hosting additional web seminars exploring the scientific and engineering practices in A Framework for K–12 Science Education.  All web seminars will be held from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time and are free.  You may encourage your teachers to sign up for them.
Register now for these upcoming programs:
•    January 15: Engineering Practices in the Next Generation Science Standards
•    January 29: Using the NGSS Practices in the Elementary Grades
•    February 12: Connections Between Practices in NGSS, Common Core Math, and Common Core ELA

I3 Grant (Ying Ying Chen)
Recently, GWAEA received a competitive grant to support the Full Release Model Mentor program.  This multi-million, multiple year grant will change the mentor/induction practice significantly.  At the press release, many state legislators were on site.  Apparently, this will be a significant endeavor for area 10.  Kim Owen, the person who spearheaded the grant, will continue to lead and manage the program.  John and I have had our initial conversation with Kim, but no action step is set at this point as many details are yet to be sorted out by GWAEA.   Our district has been one of the leading districts in applying NTC (New Teacher Center) best practice.  The I3 grant is developed with the support of NTC.  We will keep you posted if there is any new development.

Email Security Best Practice Reminder (Craig Barnum)
While we had a good run since our string of problems last September, we did have an email account get compromised over holiday break.  Before we caught the problem, this account had sent out hundreds of thousands of spam emails.  This put us on several email blacklists, and made it very hard to email to anyone outside of PrairiePride.org.    If this happens infrequently (once or twice a year), it’s really not that big of deal.  But, I’m concerned that if it happens a lot, like it did at the start of the year, it could irreparably damage Prairie’s online reputation for sending email.  Since most of the exploits used to get access to our accounts are not very sophisticated and very similar, it’s probably a good time review some basic safety guidelines:

1. Everyone needs to follow these these guidelines: we are only as strong as our weakest link.  Virtually all staff, both classified and certified, now have email addresses.  Just one person can be responsible for damaging our ability to send emails to the world.  Everyone needs to pay attention to email security best practices.  It’s now a key job responsibility (albeit a very simple one).
2. When in doubt, do nothing.  It’s safe to say that staff should never follow a link from an email that requests them to give both their email address and password to an online form. It’s really easy for spammers to fake the “from” address and put anybody’s name/address in that space.  So, even if the message comes from me, I would recommend that they never do this.
3. Use common sense.  Look at the address the message is coming from.  Even though the name/address can easily be spoofed, often times just looking at that will tell you if it’s legitimate or not.  For example, why would someone at Creighton University be telling you that your email inbox is full?  That makes no sense.  Most of the attacks I’ve seen this year are coming from other places, not from Prairie accounts.  This is a quick and easy mental filter to apply.  If the note is not from someone at Prairie, just delete it.  No further examination necessary.  Of course, even if it is from a PrairiePride.org address,  staff should not follow the instructions if they require online submission of both email address and password.  

Please take a few moments and review these concepts will all of your staff.  I put out periodic reminders, but it’s most effective if this message comes from multiple sources.  Thanks for your help.


Curriculum Matters (by Bill Poock)
K-6 Admins:  Please refer to emails send on 1.12.13 regarding specific information related to the pick and delivery of mathematics materials as well as teacher surveys.  The teacher surveys for mathematics curriculum/textbook pilot/review will be coordinate by the strategist (or Susan Dubishar at Creek) in each building.

Math Textbook Adoption reminders:

Finalized Schedule for 3 Vendors:

Round #1:  December 7 – January 17 (19 days – 18 instructional)
Round #2:  January 18 – February 14 (19 days – 18 instructional)
Round #3:  February 15 – March 15 (20 days – 19 instructional)

Delivery Schedule:

December 7th:  deliver all materials to each school
January 18th:  all materials picked up/delivered to next school location
February 15th:  all materials picked up/delivered to next school location
March 15th:  all materials picked up/returned to ESC Warehouse

School	Round #1	Round #2	Round #3
Crest (K,1,3)	enVisions	Go Math!	Math in Focus
Heights (K,2,3)	Go Math!	Math in Focus	enVisions
Ridge (1,4)	Math in Focus	enVisions	Go Math!
View (2,4)	Math in Focus	enVisions	Go Math!
Creek (5,6)	Go Math!	enVisions	Math in Focus

Student Services (by Cheryl Kiburz)
1.21  Due to the “Celebration of Learning” scheduled for the morning of January 21, the district special education teachers will not meet as previously planned in the afternoon.  The district special education teachers will meet for a final time on PL day, February 18, from 1:45-3:45 PM.  
1.29  LETRS-Sixth Street GWAEA office from 8:30 to 4:00.
1.30  LETRS-Sixth Street GWAEA office from 8:30 to 4:00.
I-STAR (Iowa’s System to Achieve Results)  A team of GWAEA consultants, psychologists, and district special education teachers continue to pull 3 IEPs per building each trimester to complete record reviews and provide feedback to special education staff.  CCSD has met Prong 1 of this review process and has also met Prong 2.  The DOE shared that some districts have been challenged in meeting Prong 2 specifically due to lack of evidence of progress monitoring data and instructional changes based on that data.  Please continue to support your special education staff in maintaining timely collection of progress monitoring data and making instructional decisions as appropriate based on that data.

DHS follow-up--Recently I was in a building where administration was working with DHS in response to a child abuse report.  As a result, I wanted to remind administrators that the school is able to release student records without parent consent if there is a health and/or safety concern that could be helped or remedied if the records are released.  It is recommended the school requests something in writing from DHS stating that it is a health/safety issue.  If DHS comes to the school and requests to interview a student, if the parent is the suspected abuser, the student may be interviewed without parent consent.  Someone from the school should sit in on the student interview—the student should not do it alone.  The representative from the school could be either the principal or guidance counselor.