Technology
Scholastic Reading Counts
The Reading Counts system has been loaded with teacher and student information, now I am in the process of asking for some volunteers from the staff to work through some of the implementation steps. We should be online shortly.
Mr. Driskell, Ms. LaFrenz and myselfattended a presentation February 9th for MAP, Promethian products (whiteboards and student response items) and CompasLearning. I’ll let them fill you in on what they observed.1 to 1 computer initiative. I will be presenting for you at the meeting about this. Mike and I have talked extensively about the possibility, how we might fund it, and what we are trying to accomplish with a 1 to 1 program.
Curriculum
Year 1 folks have met for the first of several meetings this spring to discuss vertical alignment. We review vertical alignment to make sure that our curriculum spirals rather than pancakes. In a spiraling model we come back to concepts previously addressed, but at a higher level of rigor for the student. If our curriculum pancakes, we revisit topics again and again, without any extension, leaving gaps between grade levels and content areas. The literacy group is working on this process, while the TAG, Vocal/Instrumental Music, and Guidance folks are working on writing standards and benchmarks. As I mentioned last month, I have differentiated the groups and now we meet on consecutive Mondays each month. By the end of the year we will have defined Grade Level Expectations for Literacy, and standards and benchmarks for TAG, Vocal/Instrumental Music, and Guidance
Year 2 folks are working on gathering materials for review, so when we evaluate materials later this spring we will have samples to view.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Board Report 1/21/09
Technology
Scholastic Reading Counts
After our last meeting I spent some time installing and trying to run the program on one of our current servers. I found out it wasn’t up to specs, so we have purchased a “new to us” server at a reasonable price and I am in the process of getting this online. I see this server primarily as the “Reading Counts” server as well as filling other roles in our domain. It will take the place of one of our current servers that is 8 years old.
Building Improvements
During the Christmas Break I added 3 more wireless access points to our complex, enabling the Band and Vocal rooms, as well as the commons area. These APs are not tied in to our management software, but are more of an experiment, to see if wired, how much use that end of the building would receive.
Curriculum
Year 1 folks have not met yet, but our first meetings are coming up the first two weeks of February. In the meantime I have met with all grade level teams to discuss 3 questions; “What do students do well when they come to you?”, “What are some of their weaknesses?”, and “How is Grammar part of your daily instruction?”. I also tasked each group to come to their meeting in February with an ideal example of a student for their grade level at the beginning of the year – and at the end of the year. We will use all this information to tighten up our vertical alignment of curriculum.
Year 2 folks are working on gathering materials for review, so when we evaluate materials later this spring we will have samples to view.
Scholastic Reading Counts
After our last meeting I spent some time installing and trying to run the program on one of our current servers. I found out it wasn’t up to specs, so we have purchased a “new to us” server at a reasonable price and I am in the process of getting this online. I see this server primarily as the “Reading Counts” server as well as filling other roles in our domain. It will take the place of one of our current servers that is 8 years old.
Building Improvements
During the Christmas Break I added 3 more wireless access points to our complex, enabling the Band and Vocal rooms, as well as the commons area. These APs are not tied in to our management software, but are more of an experiment, to see if wired, how much use that end of the building would receive.
Curriculum
Year 1 folks have not met yet, but our first meetings are coming up the first two weeks of February. In the meantime I have met with all grade level teams to discuss 3 questions; “What do students do well when they come to you?”, “What are some of their weaknesses?”, and “How is Grammar part of your daily instruction?”. I also tasked each group to come to their meeting in February with an ideal example of a student for their grade level at the beginning of the year – and at the end of the year. We will use all this information to tighten up our vertical alignment of curriculum.
Year 2 folks are working on gathering materials for review, so when we evaluate materials later this spring we will have samples to view.
Monday, December 15, 2008
12-15-08 Report to Board
Technology
Scholastic Reading Counts
PIE committed during the 07-08 year to purchase a reading quiz program for the district. Due to administrator turnover and other various issues installation and implementation was pushed back to this year. New information about the program came out this fall, the system was on a per quiz purchase price and they switched to a per pupil cost, which changed the scope of the project and allowed us to be more comprehensive in our coverage of the library, but also cost us more to implement. PIE came through with additional funds and now the program has been installed. There are still some setup steps to take place, as well as identifying some teachers who would like to use the system, but we have made good progress over the past few weeks.
Thanks to the members of PIE for their commitment to this project. It has gone beyond the financial commitment to time spent in the library working with Ms. Burrows on the labeling of books and identification of Lexile levels in our library system.
An overview of the system can be found at: http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/readingcounts/management.htm
A quick synopsis:
1. Students select an appropriate book from our library by connecting them with their interests and Lexile Level
2. After testing students take a computer generated quiz. Congratulatory screen at the end for a passing grade. If a student does not pass they can retake the quiz after reviewing the book – with a new set of questions.
3. Teachers can track the reading reports to help inform and differentiate instruction. They also provide feedback for struggling students needing help.
Look for more information to come.
Curriculum
Year 1 folks are now coming to a point where we will be splitting into two groups. We have one group of folks who are working on developing and articulating their standards, benchmarks, and descriptors for the first time in written form here in Earlham. This process is more time consuming and a bit specialized because of the content (Vocal/Instrumental music, Guidance, TAG…) so I will be working with this group a bit differently. The second group of folks are those teachers involved in the Language Arts/Reading review.
Year 1 folks are now coming to a point where we will be splitting into two groups. We have one group of folks who are working on developing and articulating their standards, benchmarks, and descriptors for the first time in written form here in Earlham. This process is more time consuming and a bit specialized because of the content (Vocal/Instrumental music, Guidance, TAG…) so I will be working with this group a bit differently. The second group of folks are those teachers involved in the Language Arts/Reading review.
This group of teachers already have standards and benchmarks that are defined through MISIC common core, but we need to look at them and determine grade level expectations (what the benchmarks “look” like when done) a very different process from development. We also are working on vertical alignment, alignment of the curriculum from grade to grade. At this point I have met with all the different grade levels to discuss 3 questions:
1. When students come to you what do they do well?
2. When student s come to you what skills need work?
3. How is Grammar part of your daily instruction?
As I ask the questions I am looking for themes from the discussion and some interesting things have surfaced that will be part of our discussions after the Christmas Break.
Year 2 folks have done some initial work with the curriculum manager software, but not much progress at this point. I’m not too worried as we have several months left. They have also started pulling in materials for review.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Welcome to the Blog
The purpose for this blog will be to communicate some of the different things going on in regards to the Curriculum and Assessment department of the Earlham Community Schools.
Assessment
Use of MAP for Primary grades has begun. Ms. Aquino volunteered her classroom to be our first group to do the screening assessments and so far we have taken the reading assessment and are scheduled to take the Math portion on Friday. So far the information we have been able to gather has helped her and we are looking forward to gathering more.
Professional Development
The year has gotten off to a good start with this. Feedback to this point has been for the most part positive. You can’t please everyone all the time, but providing a quality experience in staff development for our teachers is the best opportunity for them to be better as instructors in their classrooms.
Assessment
Use of MAP for Primary grades has begun. Ms. Aquino volunteered her classroom to be our first group to do the screening assessments and so far we have taken the reading assessment and are scheduled to take the Math portion on Friday. So far the information we have been able to gather has helped her and we are looking forward to gathering more.
Professional Development
The year has gotten off to a good start with this. Feedback to this point has been for the most part positive. You can’t please everyone all the time, but providing a quality experience in staff development for our teachers is the best opportunity for them to be better as instructors in their classrooms.
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