In looking at the grant for implementation, here are my findings based on the transformation model.
Transformation through Project-Based Learning (High Schools That Work) and Team Collaboration
• Increase student engagement through Reading, Mathematics, and Student Pathways—Five-Year Plan/Post-Secondary (Graduation Rate);
• Incorporate project-based learning opportunities;
• Improve the school culture and the learning experience through continuous improvement;
• Integrative Technology approach to learning;
• Increase Diversity;
• Student Preparation and Responsibility through Teachers as Advisors Program;
--Increase Student Success Rate (Extended Learning Time/Greenwave Academic Performance (GAP);
o Instruction provided for all levels of learners—remediation through acceleration;
o Remediation will commence through computer-assessed instruction—Read 180, Compass Learning, Gizmos, and Fast ForWord;
o Acceleration is done through teacher-led enrichment, Advanced Placement (AP) tutorials, SAT/ACT Prep;
--Teachers As Advisors (TAA) Program once a week;
o Summer BRIDGE Program—3-week intensive training for students;
o Credit Recovery through GaDOE;
o Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) Prep through GAP;
o Mathematics I, II, and III intense instruction;
o Keytrain/CTAE Program through High Schools That Work (HSTW);
o ExpreSS through GaDOE; and
--Collaborative Teacher Teams/In-Depth, Sustained, Professional Learning
BUILDING CAPACITY:
o Differentiated Instruction
o Project-Based Learning (PBL) Experiences
o Teachers As Advisors—goal-setting, career pathways, and increase opportunities for learning
o Understanding Poverty—ongoing
o Standards-Based Classroom—ongoing
o Active Literacy—ongoing
o Data Analysis
o All Teachers are Reading Teachers
o CLASS Keys—informal this year, formal implementation in years 2 and 3
Looking Towards the Lighthouse,
Kim
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Guidelines for Receiving Title I Stipends
A stipend is compensation paid to an employee of Muscogee County School District (MCSD) for his/her participation in a professional learning activity under the specific conditions delineated below.
• The professional learning activity must have a written proposal that is approved by the Professional Learning Director or his/her designee and the Director of Title I prior to the first day of the activity.
• The activity must have an assigned course number from MCSDs Professional Learning Department or the Georgia Department of Education.
• The activity must occur during the fiscal year of the funding.
• The activity must result in at least one professional learning unit (PLU) based on 10 clock hours per PLU.
• Participation must be documented through the participant’s signature or initials on a sign-in sheet.
• The participant in the professional learning activity must be a teacher or other certified employee. Pre-kindergarten teachers may not receive Title I stipends.
• The professional learning activity must occur during the time the participant is off contract.
• The participant must sign a Title I Stipend Contract for the professional learning activity.
• The amount of the stipend for the professional learning activity must be pre-approved by the Title I Director.
• The stipend may not exceed $150 per day of the professional learning activity. The amount could be less and is contingent upon the availability of Title I funds. For these purposes only, a day is defined as a minimum of five or more hours.
• The stipend will be included in the participant’s regular pay check following the completion of the activity. If the contract is signed and processed after the payroll submission date for that month, it will be included in the following month’s pay check.
• The professional learning activity must have a written proposal that is approved by the Professional Learning Director or his/her designee and the Director of Title I prior to the first day of the activity.
• The activity must have an assigned course number from MCSDs Professional Learning Department or the Georgia Department of Education.
• The activity must occur during the fiscal year of the funding.
• The activity must result in at least one professional learning unit (PLU) based on 10 clock hours per PLU.
• Participation must be documented through the participant’s signature or initials on a sign-in sheet.
• The participant in the professional learning activity must be a teacher or other certified employee. Pre-kindergarten teachers may not receive Title I stipends.
• The professional learning activity must occur during the time the participant is off contract.
• The participant must sign a Title I Stipend Contract for the professional learning activity.
• The amount of the stipend for the professional learning activity must be pre-approved by the Title I Director.
• The stipend may not exceed $150 per day of the professional learning activity. The amount could be less and is contingent upon the availability of Title I funds. For these purposes only, a day is defined as a minimum of five or more hours.
• The stipend will be included in the participant’s regular pay check following the completion of the activity. If the contract is signed and processed after the payroll submission date for that month, it will be included in the following month’s pay check.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
GAPSS Analysis Review
Purpose and Review of the Georgia Assessment of Performance on School Standards (GAPSS):
Teacher
Student
Operational Descriptors for the School Standard
a) Learning focus – The school mission, vision, goals and beliefs are obvious in the school and it is evident that the focus of the school is learning for students and adults.
b) Awareness of academic culture – Adults and students in the school practice the core beliefs and values of the school, the mission, and the vision.
c) Expectations – The expectations held for students and staff are high, but attainable. There is an expectation for assuming responsibility for one’s own learning and there are high expectations for staff professionalism.
d) Academic growth - Students demonstrate continuous progress in learning, extending, and refining their mastery of GPS and acquire and integrate growing levels of conceptual understanding and a capacity to use what they have learned with levels of independence.
e) Social growth - Students demonstrate a growing capacity for meaningful and mature social interactions with peers and adults representing diverse populations, including self-monitoring, self-control, empathy, and perspective.
f) Emotional growth - Students demonstrate growing levels of maturity as they progress through their education, including a maturing capacity for understanding their own motivation, evaluating and observing their emotional reactions, expressing and regulating emotions appropriately within varying contexts.
g) Relational growth - Students display a capacity for interacting positively and maturely with peers and adults, forming relationships as they mature that are increasingly productive, supportive, and positively nurturing and mutually enhancing.
h) Professional growth - Adults in the school as a learning community take advantage of opportunities offered by the school, district, community, and state to enhance their academic knowledge, insights into accountability initiatives, their mental, emotional, and physical health to promote positive relationships with all stakeholders.
i) Climate - Buildings reflect a feeling tone or atmosphere, created and sustained through the interaction of norms, values, relationships, structures, and interaction patterns among members of the learning community.
j) Culture - Buildings are communities of learning. Like all communities, they have norms, standards, practices, and rituals that guide and inform the interaction patterns of the members of that community, including students and adults. Culture includes the climate of the building. Additionally, buildings can reflect multiple sub-cultures, which may have unique or distinct norms, practices, and values separate from mainstream organizational culture.
- To drive educational reform;
- To assess school’s progress based on the following descriptors: not addressed, emergent, operational, and fully operational;
- To measure the degree of implementation of the Georgia School Keys;
- To measure the school’s performance on a regular day; and
- To assist in targeting and addressing areas for improvement in a school.
Based on the 11 Factors that influence What Works in Schools (Marzano, 2003):
School
- Guaranteed and viable curriculum
- Challenging and effective feedback
- Parent and community involvement
- Safe and orderly environment
- Collegiality and professionalism
Teacher
- Instructional Strategies
- Classroom Management
- Classroom curriculum design
Student
- Home atmosphere
- Learned intelligence and background knowledge
- Motivation
Operational Descriptors for the School Standard
a) Learning focus – The school mission, vision, goals and beliefs are obvious in the school and it is evident that the focus of the school is learning for students and adults.
b) Awareness of academic culture – Adults and students in the school practice the core beliefs and values of the school, the mission, and the vision.
c) Expectations – The expectations held for students and staff are high, but attainable. There is an expectation for assuming responsibility for one’s own learning and there are high expectations for staff professionalism.
d) Academic growth - Students demonstrate continuous progress in learning, extending, and refining their mastery of GPS and acquire and integrate growing levels of conceptual understanding and a capacity to use what they have learned with levels of independence.
e) Social growth - Students demonstrate a growing capacity for meaningful and mature social interactions with peers and adults representing diverse populations, including self-monitoring, self-control, empathy, and perspective.
f) Emotional growth - Students demonstrate growing levels of maturity as they progress through their education, including a maturing capacity for understanding their own motivation, evaluating and observing their emotional reactions, expressing and regulating emotions appropriately within varying contexts.
g) Relational growth - Students display a capacity for interacting positively and maturely with peers and adults, forming relationships as they mature that are increasingly productive, supportive, and positively nurturing and mutually enhancing.
h) Professional growth - Adults in the school as a learning community take advantage of opportunities offered by the school, district, community, and state to enhance their academic knowledge, insights into accountability initiatives, their mental, emotional, and physical health to promote positive relationships with all stakeholders.
i) Climate - Buildings reflect a feeling tone or atmosphere, created and sustained through the interaction of norms, values, relationships, structures, and interaction patterns among members of the learning community.
j) Culture - Buildings are communities of learning. Like all communities, they have norms, standards, practices, and rituals that guide and inform the interaction patterns of the members of that community, including students and adults. Culture includes the climate of the building. Additionally, buildings can reflect multiple sub-cultures, which may have unique or distinct norms, practices, and values separate from mainstream organizational culture.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Try A Little Kindness...
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
~Bonnie Jean Wasmund
Hello, Everyone:
You have completed another week of transforming the minds of our youth—BRAVO to you! Kindness is an idiom rarely talked about, yet is foundational to our success. It can heal, transform, resurrect, empower, and comfort. Fueled by its kin, compassion and generosity, kindness swells into the mightiest of powers—a true force with which to be reckoned. Look nowhere but within, and it is clear that even the smallest act of kindness can leave an everlasting impression on the soul.
Kindness is perhaps the most underrated and misunderstood of all human virtues. Even though touted by many throughout history after history of rising and falling civilizations, it remains undervalued. Kindness is the cornerstone of major world belief systems, the underpinnings of some of the greatest global visionaries, and it provides the answer to the future of our world—our students! Yet, kindness remains dismissed.
Even though its power is pervasive, it is perhaps the simplest to the virtues to put into practice. Sometimes it is hard to believe that something so small can have such a profound power, but it does. Extending kindness to our colleagues and our students has within it the power to change a life or even the destiny of those around you. The ripple effect of kindness is everlasting. You have heard, “Don’t take my kindness for weakness”; however, kindness requires a strength that permeates a life condition that remains untouchable. Contrary to weakness, kindness is the gift of those who have been seasoned to accept this status of ultimate wisdom.
In essence, there can be no corporate teamwork without the gift of kindness. Thank you for giving this gift to each other and to our students; thank you for teaching with passion every day!
Taken from Skomal, L. (2006). Kindness: Words of Wisdom to Guide, Influence, Inspire, and Share
Looking Towards the Lighthouse,
Kim (Smile)
~Bonnie Jean Wasmund
Hello, Everyone:
You have completed another week of transforming the minds of our youth—BRAVO to you! Kindness is an idiom rarely talked about, yet is foundational to our success. It can heal, transform, resurrect, empower, and comfort. Fueled by its kin, compassion and generosity, kindness swells into the mightiest of powers—a true force with which to be reckoned. Look nowhere but within, and it is clear that even the smallest act of kindness can leave an everlasting impression on the soul.
Kindness is perhaps the most underrated and misunderstood of all human virtues. Even though touted by many throughout history after history of rising and falling civilizations, it remains undervalued. Kindness is the cornerstone of major world belief systems, the underpinnings of some of the greatest global visionaries, and it provides the answer to the future of our world—our students! Yet, kindness remains dismissed.
Even though its power is pervasive, it is perhaps the simplest to the virtues to put into practice. Sometimes it is hard to believe that something so small can have such a profound power, but it does. Extending kindness to our colleagues and our students has within it the power to change a life or even the destiny of those around you. The ripple effect of kindness is everlasting. You have heard, “Don’t take my kindness for weakness”; however, kindness requires a strength that permeates a life condition that remains untouchable. Contrary to weakness, kindness is the gift of those who have been seasoned to accept this status of ultimate wisdom.
In essence, there can be no corporate teamwork without the gift of kindness. Thank you for giving this gift to each other and to our students; thank you for teaching with passion every day!
Taken from Skomal, L. (2006). Kindness: Words of Wisdom to Guide, Influence, Inspire, and Share
Looking Towards the Lighthouse,
Kim (Smile)
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Larry Bell's 12 Power Words for Critical Assessment
Educator and motivational speaker Larry Bell presents that there are 12 words that will assist our students in performing better on assessments if they know and can define the words. Here are the 12 "Power Words" that Larry Bell identified:
Trace
Support
Analyze
Explain
Infer
Summarize
Evaluate
Compare
Contrast
Predict
Formulate
Describe
This is a perfect way to start off the "Word Wall" in the classroom! Here are some flash cards that can be used as well, along with the words in Spanish! How is that for working smarter?
Kim (Smile)
Trace
Support
Analyze
Explain
Infer
Summarize
Evaluate
Compare
Contrast
Predict
Formulate
Describe
This is a perfect way to start off the "Word Wall" in the classroom! Here are some flash cards that can be used as well, along with the words in Spanish! How is that for working smarter?
Kim (Smile)
Classroom Analysis of State Standards (CLASS) Keys
If you have not received a CLASS Keys manual, please see Mrs. Webb in the Media Center. The CLASS Keys is an evaluation tool that measures evidence of ongoing teacher performance over the entire length of the school year. The CLASS Keys answer the questions of, how does the teacher plan? How does the teacher teach? and Are the teacher's students learning? These questions are answered using the following indicators: curriculum and planning, standards-based instruction, professionalism, assessment of student learning, and student achievement.
Our standards-based model classroom is Mrs. Pescia's room (room 239). Within her room you will find exemplars, word walls, and examples of student commentary. Please stop by Mrs. Pescia's room to see how to set up your standards-based classroom. If you have any questions, please come by and see me in room 217.
Looking Towards the Lighthouse,
Kim (Smile)
Our standards-based model classroom is Mrs. Pescia's room (room 239). Within her room you will find exemplars, word walls, and examples of student commentary. Please stop by Mrs. Pescia's room to see how to set up your standards-based classroom. If you have any questions, please come by and see me in room 217.
Looking Towards the Lighthouse,
Kim (Smile)
Thinking Maps Roll Out/Implementation!
The whole premise around Thinking Maps is that we learn based on what we see. The Thinking Maps resource is a way for our students to connect a picture to the work that is being done in class. We have been asked to post the 8 Thinking Maps in our classrooms and to introduce them to our students within our activities. If you did not receive the Thinking Maps binder AND you signed up for the summer training at Callaway, come by and see me. The second tier of recipients who did not sign up will be core classes. The third and final tier will be the CTAE, Fine Arts, PE, and JROTC teachers who did not sign up for training.
I also have the Thinking Maps software disk that was given to us during our in-house summer training, which can be used to reproduce materials for your classes. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this implementation.
The following is a review of the 8 maps and what they are used for in learning:
I also have the Thinking Maps software disk that was given to us during our in-house summer training, which can be used to reproduce materials for your classes. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this implementation.
The following is a review of the 8 maps and what they are used for in learning:
Upcoming Activities for Professional Learning
To the Faculty and Staff at William H. Spencer High School:
I am looking forward to working with you during our Professional Learning (PL) discourse. This year will bring with it several new and exciting activities! In preview, one of the texts that we will discuss this year will be Failure is Not An Option. The six principles of effective educational reform, according to Blankstein, are the following: mission, achievement for all, collaborative teaching, using data, active engagement of the community, and sustained leadership. We are well on our way into active improvement on all of the aforementioned principles and much more!
We will also take look at several publications from the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) and the US Department of Education that cover several different topics of interest: attrition rates, the teaching of mathematics in urban schools, high school literacy, grant writing, understanding Title I, school crisis planning, and even student loan forgiveness options for teachers! Check out forms and response instructions will be in the data room and announced at a later time.
Let us prepare ourselves for the work of providing continuous improvement!
Kim :)
I am looking forward to working with you during our Professional Learning (PL) discourse. This year will bring with it several new and exciting activities! In preview, one of the texts that we will discuss this year will be Failure is Not An Option. The six principles of effective educational reform, according to Blankstein, are the following: mission, achievement for all, collaborative teaching, using data, active engagement of the community, and sustained leadership. We are well on our way into active improvement on all of the aforementioned principles and much more!
We will also take look at several publications from the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) and the US Department of Education that cover several different topics of interest: attrition rates, the teaching of mathematics in urban schools, high school literacy, grant writing, understanding Title I, school crisis planning, and even student loan forgiveness options for teachers! Check out forms and response instructions will be in the data room and announced at a later time.
Let us prepare ourselves for the work of providing continuous improvement!
Kim :)
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