3-5 on 3/25

The 3-5 team had a lively discussion on 3/25 about the nature and intent of RTI and what it should look like next year. All agreed there were some definite benefits but some tweaking is needed when it comes to scheduling and equitable distribution of Title resources. 3rd and 4th have some kids who are not receiving the much needed "daily double dose" of reading and 5th has Tracy Swope fitting one group of intensive kids into her tight schedule.

It is possible to be a part of RTI and still teach reading to your "homeroom" kids while also best meeting their individual abilities. RTI is not a verb, it is not something we "do", but an approach to help students receive the interventions they need when they need them. We should be looking at how students respond to the interventions we provide and use those responses to drive our teaching. 3-5 expressed some concern that RTI is not more consistent K-5  and that during the spring teachers from each grade level should get together to look at the future of this idea. Many would like to see math included next year and 5th is very happy using RTI for math this year.It was noted that as we are not consistent, we are unable to use the RTI process and its accumulation of data to identify kids for services. RTI is intended to circumvent the traditional "wait to fail/discrepancy" approach to qualifying students for special education.

As a team we also discussed just how incredibly talented our K-5 teachers are at teaching reading. The students of Bigfork Elementary are incredibly fortunate. This was celebrated while at the same time we look to the future to see how we can continue to provide top notch reading instruction consistently for all students.

We briefly discussed the blog but for the most part we had run out of steam. It was bantered about that there wasn't enough time in the day (always true), but it was also discussed how it is meant to be a time saving option. 

9th HPT

This year's Freshman HPT group has dicussed the following topics:
4 day school week
Freshman supply list
Interventions to be made with 9th grade students
A mandatory typing and computer class for incoming Freshmen
Robin Burns worked with the Math Department in vertical meeings looking to install a 3 year math graduation requirement. We also support the ALC with Mrs. Burns in math. Last week out HTP put on a St. Patrick's Day luncheon for the High School staff.
Currently we are working on trying to find funding for our Freshmen Trip down the Hiawatha trail for the beginning of the year.

10th HPT

After an exciting and particularly productive meeting yesterday the 10th grade team has many ideas and a whole philosophy we'd like to adopt for next year.

As we move to a B school we decided that now was a perfect time to do some serious marketing for our little village school. The ideas started pouring, but basically all of them involved a way to get all of the good things about our small school out into the public. We thought about making a list of all of our pros and cons, much like a teen aged boy might do when trying to figure out which girl to ask to prom. We are the girl, and we need more boys asking us to prom. We don't just want to keep the kids we have, we want those kids who feel their current school isn't right for them. If kids are leaving Bigfork because it is too small, it stands to reason that there are kids at Flathead that want to leave because it is too big, because they don't like their coach, or because they feel like they haven't had the ability to shine. Let's get them!

We also loked into several ideas that would give the students and the faculty a more conected feeling to the school. Such as a teacher section of the bulletin that could include actions that happened at the board meetings, field trips, projects, etc. We thought of a contest for students to come up with a new school logo and 'motto.' We thought of an idea that was done before called empty bowl, a community fund raiser where every kid in the school makes a bowl and we sell them with soup (Mrs. Taylor may punch me for bringing this up).

This led to our philosophical idea:
We believe it should be our goal to create opportunities to not only do great things, (BE PROACTIVE) but to show them off as well. Our empty bowl could be an open house that shows off pictures of the vehicles that the auto-shop has donated, art work and photography, photos or tree planting, Bio Club activities, sewing projects, food drive photos, reading at nursing home, litter pickup, Interact as elves, etc. It's amazing how long the list becomes. We should do something for the community every quarter.

It should be our goal to be printed in the newspaper not just for our sports but for our community based deeds as well.

It should be our goal to create opportunities for our kids to shine . . . and that will be the best possible marketing campaign of all.

What we are looking for: A list, literally, of what we have to offer students. Let's ask our kids what they like about our school as opposed to what they want to change, and let's build a list right here that we can share with community members and ourselves to help us feel good about where we work.

Other proactive ideas that we can implement that, 1 gives kids an opportunity to show off their talents, 2 gets us good press instead of bad, 3 plays on a new era at Bigfork High School (not the littlest little A school, but a mighty and proud B school.)

10th HPT thanks you for your time and for all you do for kids.

Tech Team

Today at our meeting we met with Mr. Jensen and discussed technology at our school. Mr. Jensen and our team came up with 2 objectives to integrate and move forward with technology at our school. These two objectives align with the tech plan that we have written and are integrating.

1. Build a system that supports mobile learning labs and facilitate the bandwidth necessary for web 2.0 tools.

2. Seek training for the understanding of and practical use of a mobile lab which adds online components to the traditional classroom.

Our definition of "Online" - the use of web sites, tutorials, discussion boards and other web 2.0 tools.

Thank You

I want to thank all of the forum reps for dutifully accepting invites to the blog as authors. Also this post is to generate an e-mail to reps to see if my setting changes worked. Let me know please.

6-8 HPT

6.8 team discussion

Our first conversation revolved around future potential and use for the district blog. Possibilities involved the potential for ‘direct’ interaction with the community, the accurate transfer of information, and a sounding board for school improvement ideas. Concerns involved having time for staff training to ensure that everyone realized the uses and possibilities for the blog, and what to do to ensure that all staff was checking it regularly.

We then shared how the CRISS strategies that Tracy Swope has been providing us with were working; think, pair, share was highly successful in several classes and showed increased retention in students.

Our year-long goals were re-evaluated;
-Indian Education for All will be covered with the visit of Chip Jasmine next week, as well as upcoming units in Social Studies. 6th grade completed a unit of Montana tribes in January.
-RTI has been implemented and progress monitoring has been thorough. Students have been assessed regularly, and Tracy has been testing as young as 4th graders to be prepared for next years 5th grade interventions.
-Suggested additional goals for next year: add a study skills intervention, and focus on attendance and tardies.

To close, we talked logistics about the upcoming 8th grade trip, as well as graduation plans.

Intervention Team HPT

At today's "I" Team meeting, the discussion centered around our focus for the remainder of this year. With the advent of Administrative Advisory and Attendance Review Committees, the group agreed that we should fall back to our previous direction and focus on identifying students who for whatever reason are struggling in school.

In the past, the "I" team has supported the counselor, administrators and teachers in suggesting and implementing strategies to assist students in need, whether academically or personally. Sometimes the need for confidentiality supersedes direct involvement with the team members, and appropriate steps are taken to insure privacy of students and families. Through referrals, meetings and communication with staff, the I team successfully guided some students through rough waters, so to speak.

Once again we'll be looking at seniors and some juniors, time permitting, who are in danger of credit loss prior to graduation. Team members will most likely be visiting other high school teams for suggestions or referrals from teachers. We hope to work in conjunction with the student assistance program and help direct students to group involvement.

As a final note, the team wondered what happened to the discussion regarding whether or not teachers chose to meet one day per month for HPT as opposed to early releases. Are we out of the loop or what?

10th Grade HPT

Okay. Let's see how well this dissemination of information works.

The 10th grade team along with several other teachers in the high school have noted the terrible price a 1:00 PM lunch is having on the nutrition and morale of the student body. This is not a new issue, but because of our ties with the elementary and middle school there seemed very little we could do about it.

10th HPt has two ideas that should be seriously looked into.

a. a 10-15 minute break after third period where students can: go to the store and purchase a muffin, use the vending machines, refill their water bottles (apparently our kids are suffering from a major case of dehydration), socialize with their friends (i.e. cut down on tardies) and refuel before the long haul to lunch.

This plan would require the middle school's approval and would also add about 6-10 minutes to the school day . . ahhhh! (totally worth it around fifth period when the kids are zombies because they haven't eaten since six o'clock the night before).

b. Due to the new much larger and luxurious cafeteria we could possibly move lunch up a whole period so that kids would get to eat after 4th period (11:53 pm).

After everyone has had a chance to look this over I will be posting a poll to see how everyone feels on the subject. This will gauge interest, communicate to the calendar committee our needs and to see how well we do with this new technology.

We put forth this proposal and would like to hear comments and considerations.

Happy Reading

HPT Blog simplified

Here is a little informational movie on what the HPT blog is supposed to do. The main processes are Posting and Commenting. The idea is to enhance communication between HPT's and between HPT's and the Forum. Forum reps as authors can post on behalf of their HPT with issues from their meetings. They can also post on behalf of the Forum. Administrators are as usual all-powerful. They can post whenever they feel the urge. What is a post? You are reading one. Anyone on the staff then can comment on an individual post. At present communication between the HPT's sometimes loses meaning when it travels to Forum and back to HPT's. The hope is that the postings, which stay available on the blog and can be archived remain on the blog to be observed and commented upon. Other functions can be added later. One nice addition could be a Poll. If we wanted to poll the staff on an issue, it could be done quickly with the results shown immediately. Please play the movie just below for a audio/visual explanation.

6/8 test

Hey blog followers,
I just wanted to do a test post, on behalf of the 6-8 team, to see if the authorship attempts worked out.

*monica

Articles on Blogging & Twitter!

We live in a digital age, it's not coming, it's here. And if you think you can avoid blogging, face booking, etc. think again. Were you one of those who wasn't going to be burdened with a cell phone 10 years ago? That's what you thought!!! This is a time of instant information, and that's what your students are expecting! They want the info instantly!

Check out this article about Blogging and the student in the classroom.
Joyce Valenza writes about 21st Century Writing in her School Library Journal blog:

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1540041554.html



Here's a great article on Twitter too!!
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6573999.html?q=3Dtwitter

RTI

I'm looking for feedback in Math and Reading in  regards to the RTI process that began this fall. Do feel the process is working, signs of improvement and your overall views. Please do not note scheduling as I am aware this has been a problem. This will be addressed for next fall.

Bigfork School District Staff:

All users of this Blog site are subject to Board of Trustee policies. Please also review the requirements of Board Policy 5229, Use of Technology Resources. Board policies can be accessed from the following link:http://suse.bigfork.k12.mt.us/district/Policies.htm

Please maintain appropriate professional standards when posting or commenting to this Blog.

American Administrators hear what is about to disrupt schools.

Here is an excerpt from an eschoolnews post. If you want to read the rest the link is below.

If Harvard Business School's Clayton Christensen is right, half of all instruction will take place online within the next 10 years--and schools had better get into the online-learning market or risk losing their students to other providers.

Christensen was at the American Association of School Administrators conference in San Francisco Feb. 19 to discuss his book Disrupting Class, which looks at why schools have struggled to improve through the lens of "disruptive innovation."

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=57419

Timely Articles

The most recent issue of Eduational Leadership magazine from ASCD was devoted entirely to the discussion of the role of technology in schools. This is very timely in light of the discussion that has been started by the Tech HPT. Listed below are just a few of the titles, there are many more. If intrigued, you can go to the website, read the abstracts or the articles and share your thoughts about them!

One article, Deep Reading, explored the question of whether the immediacy of the digital world might hinder the formation of the neural circuits necessary to develop an expert reading brain. It gives suggestions how we can use technology such as webquests, online tutoring programs and strategic models to promote deep reading online.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/current_issue.aspx

The Joy of Blogging: A weekly blogging class enhances students' communication skills.

Orchestrating the Media Collage: New forms of expression emerge when sound, moving images, and text coalesce.

Mastering Multitasking: Does multitasking overtask the brain? How should teachers respond?

The Best of Both Literacies: Three ways to bolster students' literacy levels in an online environment.

Are Digital Media Changing Language? Our shifting attitudes about language may signal lasting change.

Stepping Beyond Wikipedia: Students need to know that research might begin, but not end, with a Wikipedia search.

Plagiarism in the Internet Age: Beyond the logistics of citation, students must learn how to think about the information they find.

R U Safe? Eighth graders mentor 6th graders in Web safety.