Forum Minutes 10/13/2010

Forum Meeting

October 13, 2010

Attendance:

K-2:  Celie Perleberg

3-4: Michelle Kaney

5-6: Kathy Manders

7-8:  Mary Ahnert

Intervention (Elementary): Bridget Martel

Tech Team: Sue Zielanski

Team 1:  Charlie Ball

Team 2: Vicki Heupel and Ana Young

Team 3:  Mary Sullivan

Intervention (High School):  Clara Clark

Administration:  Cynthia Clary, Jackie Boshka, Cory Pierce

Good News

Mary Ahnert report that the Middle School will be holding a career fair on October 27^th that will include several community members sharing their careers with the students.

Mary also reported that 7^th and 8^th graders really like their teachers and feel that they are supported by them as well.

Halloween luncheon on the 28^th for the high school staff put on by Team 3.

Charlie Ball reported that they (Student Council) are hoping to put on a scary movie night in the gym and have a costume contest.  At the final football game (this Friday) the split the pot proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Reports on HPT meetings

K-2:  The focus was on Science Standard 3 that deals with plants and animals.  They looked at each grade level, subject area, essential learning, rubrics, and concepts for each lesson.  Each team member will be doing their portion of the standard for their grade level and then report back the results.  Celie made a form that combined all of above that she shared with us. 

3-4: Continued working on geography with a focus of map skills.  The group feels that time is a big issue in working on the assessment with the way that our HPTs are scheduled.   Many teams concurred with this.  They will also continue working on essential  learnings that are in kid friendly language.

5-6: The team worked on Language Arts and parts of speech.  They wanted to know who will be looking at the work that we do, is there a final product “format” and what will that look like.  Essentially, what is the ultimate goal?  What is the definition of proficiency?  Some of the essential learnings are already in place and do we need to change them.

Cynthia responded that this will ultimately be a living, breathing document that will change in time, and there is room for individual creativity.

Jackie said there are areas that do have a common assessment and those that are already in place can then compare data, especially at the grade level.

Proficiency—how do you measure, age level, grading, how do you report it—each group will need to deal with that question.

7-8: The focus was on a common goal-- kids have difficulty in reading with understanding and are working on writing this essential learning.  They concluded that once you have the essential learning and assessment, you need to look at the skills involved and work backwards, from the whole to the part.  Questions, are the assessments for us or the kids?  The assessments  can be useful motivators for kids.  Each member of the group is going to test drive this with their students and bring it back to the group for discussion.

Intervention (Elem.):  Continued working on their model for intervention.  Each member took a task to work on individually so that will be in place and then they can move forward.

Tech team:  Focus was on an art essential learning. There was much discussion with questions that have been brought up by other groups about how this will be used and what exactly the product should look like, as well as the time issue.

Team 1: There were a few questions concerning whether we were actually creating an activity to assess, and what exactly we were expected to create.  There is some difficulty in working within a group of diverse members but ultimately they came up with several great options for assessment from the members. 

Team 2: A Spanish essential learning was chosen.  They brainstormed several different ideas for assessment.  Ana will be trying out a technology idea (a video) in her classroom for assessment.

Team 3: The luncheon was planned! They like the diversity of the group but find it difficult to find a common goal.  They focused on clarification and analysis of their essential  learning.

Intervention (High School):  Reading assessment was the focus, especially with new students that are moving into the district.  Previously used  the Nelson Denning reading test so that teachers were aware of the student’s  reading level. This would be a useful tool for intervention.

**Next early out will be a vertical meeting K-12.  The teams should revisit the essential  learnings for clarification and assessment.  Is this a necessary essential learning or reinforcement? What do they need to know at your grade level when they walk in the door? Other things to consider are introduction, mastery, reinforcement, common vocabulary, and grade level.

Teams are:

Math

Language Arts

Science

Social Studies

Art

Music

Counselors/SpEd/Title/Intervention

Health Enhancement (PE and Health)

Ind. Arts

Spanish

Tech/Library/Business

Family and Consumer Sciences

Forum meetings will be December 8, January 19, February 16, March 16, April 13, and May 11.

Late Work

I have struggled forever with how to deal with late assignments, projects, and homework. I think I started out early in my career with, "If it is late it's a zero." It was the tough love approach. By god I was going to teach them a life lesson and make my job easier. The idea was that the penalty was to serve as a deterrent. Surely, any rational student would see the error of their ways and maybe do it once. That is not what happened. The same late offenders continued to offend. Plus I was deemed unfair because I no longer spent time deciphering the truthfulness in a myriad of excuses. It was a zero. Some of the excuses were actually legitimate, but I didn't care. I then went to a strategy that I used for years and that was a graduated penalty. For every day late I would deduct ten points (90, 80, 70, etc.). That seemed to work better, but I then had an accounting nightmare. (Which kid and which assignment and how many days late was it?) In addition, the same kids offended and became resigned to a bad grade and in some cases gave up on learning. The goodie-two-shoes always complied but not the kids that really needed to.

One day I was having a discussion about late work with another teacher in Alaska and she said that she thought it was unfair to take points off a grade for a behavior. Also the grade should be a measurement of what they know not of their behavior. On elementary report cards we separate the two with content evaluated on one side and behavior on the other. Actually I was traumatized by that behavior side in first grade. Mrs. Sodowski carried me down the hall by my ear for talking in the bathroom, during bathroom break. I can distinctly remember trying to keep my feet on the ground as I struggled to pull up my pants from below my knees, but I digress. I took the teacher's reasoning to heart. I really want the grade to be separate so that it is a clearer measurement of what they know, especially for those kids that always turn it in late if ever. I believe giving the offending kids grade penalties may actually perpetuate the behavior. I think study backs are an excellent consequence to get kids to do the work and keep up. I don't think adding late penalties works and it skews the grade so it is no longer the measurement I want it to be. I guess "teaching them a lesson" (content/product) is more important to me than "teaching them a lesson" (responsibility). At least they should be separate.

The reason I have written this is that the middle school is starting mandatory study backs during lunch for any student with a D or an F in class. A discussion has been started regarding how much credit should be given for work completed at study backs. Some teachers believe the most they should get is 50%. Others believe full credit should be given. Finally, I think this is a very good topic for the staff in general to give their opinions, because I think every teacher has struggled with this issue and every teacher has a different policy. If you're a student it can be confusing. I am positive people will disagree with my stance, but there could be an epiphany out there somewhere. I have posted this to the HPT blog. You can go there and leave a comment of any type. Maybe one like, "Damn you Mike Roberts" or "You're so lovely." Actually, I would prefer possible solutions instead of attacking the messenger. Please, don't send me e-mails about this. The comments on the blog can be read by anyone.

Forum Minutes 9/29/2010

Forum Meeting

September 29, 2010

Attendance:

K-2:  Celie Perleberg

3-4: Jill Morley

5-6: Kathy Manders

7-8:  Mary Blinn (substituting for Mary Ahnert)

Intervention (Elementary): Bridget Martel

Tech Team: Sue Zielanski

Team 1:  no rep

Team 2: Vicki Heupel and Ana Young

Team 3:  no rep

Intervention (High School):  Clara Clark

Administration:  Cynthia Clary, Matt Jensen, Jackie Boshka, Cory Pierce

**Please remember that all teams must have a representative and a replacement when unable to attend a meeting.

 Nominations and election of Forum Chair and Secretary

                Chair:  Clara Clark

                Secretary:  Sue Zielanski

Reports on HPT meetings

K-2:  Essential Learning dealt with money--preskills discussion, using uniform language and consistent expectations, as well as recognizing versus identifying.

3-4:  Essential Learning dealt with geography—discussion centered on using project based learning and/or assessing each essential learning.

5-6:  Essential Learning-- the 5-6 team took one of our Language Arts essential learnings and went through some of the keys to assessment such as purpose of the assessment, design of the assessment, communication after assessment, etc; and that we had a good discussion and start on the assignment from our administrators

7-8:  Essential Learning and the use of rubrics for assessment.

Intervention:  Focus was on outlining the system of intervention (documentation).

Tech team:  Essential Learning was citing sources appropriately—how it relates throughout the curriculum, project based learning, and rubrics.

Team 2:  Essential Learning dealt with science—brainstorming, rubrics, implementation and assessment of understanding (which Vicki successfully incorporated into her classroom).

Intervention (High School):  Essential Learning was reading symbols—making connections.

Discussion

The focus of the discussion was the role of the forum, direction, outcomes, and expectations of the HPT teams and the vertical meetings.  How do we assess the essential learnings, preassessment,  breaking it down, what if they don’t get it,  and then deciding what to do with all of that information.  Forum reps will report on BOTH the HPT team meetings, as well as the vertical team meetings.

Good News

Travis Knoll is a National Merit Scholar.

3^rd Graders—Glacier Park Staff complimented them on being the best behaved, most knowledgeable group.

Jill Morley had a low reader tell her that they  loved to read.

Mike Roberts and the Yearbook class—Profits from That Coffee Shop and their highlights show.

**Next HPT meeting will continue the 7-step process.  Forum meetings will be October 13, December 8, January 19, February 16, March 16, April 13, and May 11.