Insurance

Let's use this area to have a threaded disscussion regarding insurance. The BLOG is a great way to have this disscussion so that everyone can see the discussion and therefore will know what's going on.


Yesterday I sent out an email to the staff seeing how many people would like to shop around for insurance. So far, i've had 45 emails with a big fat YES! Feel free to post any comments and concerns. You can also use this area to let me know you would like to be involved!!!

Forum Minutes 3/16/2011

Attendance:

K-2:  Celie Perleberg

3-4: absent

5-6: Kathy Manders

Wellness: Sue McGregor

Intervention (Elementary): absent

English:  Charlie Ball

Math:  Marya Dolezal

Tech Team: Sue Zielanski

Intervention (High School):  Clara Clark

Social Studies:  Stormy Taylor

Science:  Vicki Heupel

Administration:  Matt Jensen, Jackie Boshka, Cory Pierce

Good News:

CRTs are going well at both schools with students taking them seriously.  iPod touch incentive seems to be a motivator.

Cowabunga is this weekend.

Blood Drive went well on Wednesday.

Missoula math contest results are back.  Eight students received a superior and several received honorable mention.

Wellness team is almost done with their checklist and eager to move on to the recommendations.

Two high school students are back to complete the rest of the year.

Reports on HPT meetings

K-2: Checked out Kalispell’s rubric and were pleased to find that Bigfork’s is more extensive.

3-4: 

5-6:   Continued working on writing assessment prompts.  Planning to have at least one writing assessment after Spring Break.

Wellness:  Prepping for the board presentation, after checklist is completed they will work on recommendations and improvements with the help of surveys.  Mary has applied for a grant but have yet to hear back about it.

Intervention: 

Tech team:  rschooltoday online worksheets and trails9.org assessment.

Intervention (High School):  will be presenting workshop information at a staff meeting.

English:  Discussed formative assessments, how they utilize discussions for comprehension and dealing with absences.

Science:  Worked on essential learnings and the overlap between courses/grade levels. Vicki has been working with the online worksheets at rschooltoday and how to use them for assessments and remediation.

Social Studies:  Continued working on assessments and the board presentation.

Math:  Working on PreAlg assessment banks for each quarter, formative assessments, daily quizzes, techniques for checking for understanding, and nongraded versus graded assessment.

Art: Worked on assessments, Sarah is working on a blended classroom.

Board Presentations: Showcase alignment and assessments, website work and other trainings and technology you have used this year.

Calendar is narrowed down to four.  Staff will receive the choices soon to vote on.

Next meeting  is April 13, 2011.

Forum Minutes 2/16/2011

Attendance:

K-2:  Celie Perleberg

3-4: Michelle Kaney

5-6: Julie Bonner

Wellness:  Mary Ahnert

Intervention (Elementary): Bridget Martel

Tech Team: Sue Zielanski

English:  Charlie Ball

Science: Vicki Heupel

Social Studies: Stormy Taylor

Math: Jessica Johnson

Intervention (High School):  Clara Clark

Administration:  Jackie Boshka

Good News

Cynthia Wilondek is the new recipient of the High School teacher of the month trophy.

The 7^th graders went to the MATH COUNTS competition and took 3^rd place, competing against mostly 8^th graders.

Valentine’s Day dance featured student artists.

Science Fair had more projects than ever before.  Assembly will be held on Thursday for presentation of the awards.  The winners will compete at the county level.

Reports on HPT meetings

K-2:  Celie Perleberg—Continued working on common assessments for Math.  Terry Gross was volunteered to be on the calendar committee.

3-4: Michelle Kaney—Continued their work on common assessments for Math.

5-6: Julie Bonner—Came up with a calendar for the calendar committee.  Joe Pitts volunteered to be on the committee.  The team focused on writing assessment and came up with three writing prompts for assessments to be used throughout the school year to obtain measurable results.

Wellness:  Mary Ahnert—Email was sent to staff about the wellness committee.  They are seeking a student and parent representative to attend their meetings.  Currently working on grants available and the application process.

Intervention (Elementary): Bridget Martel—The team needed a more efficient way to look at students needing intervention.  They created an academic profile form that lists the assessments currently given as well as the student’s prior test history.  The form includes a recommendation section.  The profile can following the student from elementary to high school and be transferred with a student who changes school districts. Started out for students with difficulties but certainly could be used for all students. 

Tech Team: Sue Zielanski—Will be working on the Information Literacy Assessment at trails9.org.

English:  Charlie Ball—Worked on the various assessments that are given at specific grade levels.  Will be used for entrance and exit information.

Science: Vicki Heupel –Currently no placement test,   summative assessments are by individual teacher.  They are currently going through the year and aligning the essential learnings with the tests.  Also discussed the transition from eighth to ninth grade and created a form for essential learnings that will be used for each student for intervention.

Social Studies: Stormy Taylor—Looked at what is currently in place, how they assess, and their expectations of what students should know.  More release time would be beneficial, as well as plagiarism software and maps.  Also discussed the gap in social studies from 8^th grade to Junior year. (Perhaps a freshman elective for Geography?)

Math: Jessica Johnson—Marya volunteered to be on the calendar committee and will present the calendar that they created.  They are working on math assessments to be given three times a year.  Next meeting will be to work on PreAlgebra  test bank.

Intervention (High School):  Clara Clark—Has not met, will be attending an intervention conference next month.

Reminder for teams to sign up for the board presentations.

Next forum meeting will be March 16.

Forum Minutes 1/19/2011

Attendance:

K-2:  Celie Perleberg

3-4: Michelle Kaney

5-6: Kathy Manders

Wellness: Mary Ahnert

Intervention (Elementary): Heidi Raab

English:  Charlie Ball

Math:  Marya Dolezal

Tech Team: Sue Zielanski

Intervention (High School):  Clara Clark

Social Studies:  Cynthia Wilondek

Science:  Vicki Heupel

Administration:  Matt Jensen, Jackie Boshka

Good News:

Semester tests.  Student Council will again be providing juice and bagels on Thursday.

Reflections reception and show is excellent.

7^th and 8^th graders went skiing.

Senior class is sponsoring parent’s night out on January 28^th. Free babysitting from 6 to 10.

No drop outs first semester.

Three seniors are graduating early.

Vicki Heupel is high school teacher of the month.

Reports on HPT meetings

K-2: Aligning report cards with the Everyday Math program.

3-4:  Looked at the calendar and would like a half day HPT time but the lunchtime schedule is a problem for the elementary.  Working on math assessments and are now using the IXL Math program.

5-6:  Focused on the scientific method and were pleased with the classroom results.

Wellness:  Following the OPI guidelines.   Sue McGregor is the chair.  They will be seeking student and parent input and are working on assessing the school environment.

Intervention:  Implementing the intervention process at the Elementary.  Created a data room for all assessments K-8. 

Tech team:  rschooltoday training

Intervention (High School):  Six people will be going to a Pyramid Response to Intervention Workshop in March.  Are anxious to see how it will work at the high school level.

English:  Talked about the calendar.

Science:  No common assessments for Science so looked at individual assessments to be edited.

Social Studies:  Each brought an assessment to check with state standards.

Math:  Each brought an assessment to align with the state standards.  Discussed the calendar to adjust for more HPT time.

****HPTS should propose a calendar for recommendation next year.  Volunteers for the calendar committee are needed.

Next forum meeting is February 16,  2011.

Forum Minutes 12/8/2010

REMINDER:  All reconfigured teams need to make certain they have a rep for the next forum meeting.

Attendance:

K-2:  Celie Perleberg

3-4: Michelle Kaney

5-6: Kathy Manders                                                               

Wellness: Sue Loeffler

Intervention (Elementary): Bridget Martel

Tech Team: Sue Zielanski

7-12 English:  Charlie Ball

7-12 Science: Vicki Heupel

7-12 Math: Marya Dolezal

Intervention (High School):  Clara Clark

Art:

7-12: Social Studies

Administration:  Jackie Boshka

GOOD NEWS:

·         Two math teachers have been hired.

·         Trish Shults has been appointed to the Student Literacy Board for the state of Montana.

·         Door decorating at the High School will begin next week,  5^th period.  Theme is Christmas Around the World.

·         K-5 is working on an assembly that will include singing and dancing.

·         Nobel Peach Prize for student behavior is being implemented at the Elementary.  Peaches can be nominated by teachers and peers.

·         Running Across the U.S. is starting in Sue’s P.E. classes.  Students will earn shoe laces and a runner to add for each 5 miles they run.

·         Anthony Baker is the Student of the Month at the High School.

               

Wellness:  Sue Loeffler talked about the new wellness team.  The initial focus of this team will be food and nutrition.  Eda will address the budgetary restrictions at their next meeting. They will also be looking at increasing the P.E. requirement, creating goals, and finding out what other schools are doing successfully.

K-2:  Discussed the possibility of rescheduling Parent Teacher conferences for next year. Suggestions were all day, two days of early release, and spread out over 3 days.  Jackie stated there will be a calendar committee for next year’s calendar.  The team also worked on fine tuning their report card (essential learnings).

3-4:  Working on the geography assessment but decided they really want to focus on math and create a solid assessment in this area first.  

5-6:  Worked on creating a formal assessment for writing.  They came up with several possible prompts to use.

7-12 English: Discussed the difficulty in assessing for each grade level in English.  They looked at different tests for each grade level and would like to have some sort of formal assessment at the 9^th grade level.

7-12 Math:  Looked at aligning the assessment with the standards.  They also plan to look at the semester and end of the year final to create assessments that are consistent.  They also plan to create a “pacing guide” so that a new person stepping in to the department would have a timeline to follow.

7-12 Science: Worked on checking assessments and essential learnings.

Tech:  Tech team is beginning to work on the new District web site.  We are awaiting training from rschooltoday.  There are many great features that we are anxious to share with everyone.

HS Intervention:  Working on how to develop and practice RTI at the high school level.

Intervention: They have developed a packet that was handed out and explained to staff that shows the process, flowchart, guidelines, and iplans for Intervention.

HPT Schedule Change Ideas:

·         extend school day by a few minutes to create a full day of HPT

·         early release one day a month

·         half a day once a month (one day might be too much HPT!)

·         a day in between semesters for grading, etc.

·         could we have an occasional break from assessment during HPTs?

Early Release: December 15^th, Clara will email HPT goals on Monday

Forum Meeting:  January 19^th

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.