UASSC+March+2011

UASSC meeting 3/18/2011   Present: Kris McDaniel (DPI), Tina Flood (Milwaukee), Nan Bunnow (Appleton), Becky Newcomer (Waukesha), Jeff Blaga (Racine), Michele Ludvigsen (Racine), Sue Gabbey (Racine), Gary Stuedemann (Beloit), Mark Hinterburg (Kenosha). By phone: Ann Franke – Eau Claire, Jim Schmitt – Eau Claire Introductions Info on Global Marketplace, Oshkosh Literacy workshops. Good & welfare – Hey, how’s life? J   · Beloit has added numerous classes, even with budget cuts looming (AP Geo, Holocaust course, ) · MPS – because of budget issues, will state requirements change? (no) · Racine – brought Criminology on board as an elective, take as dual enrollment · Beloit – wide range of reading abilities, moving to 5 block schedule (8 period day) – teachers will teach 3 blocks, 1 block intervention, 1 prep --- to work to raise reading scores --- could Gary send the schedule to the rest of us so we can all see what it looks like? Common State Standards – · All info from sheet · Info on Texas standards? · Racine – unpacked current WMAS to find the big concepts – send to the rest of us?  o Each concept (ex: power) has 3-4 patterns  o Gives students the “flavor” instead of minute details  o Difficult to teach that way – hard to get used to. · Kenosha – picked 6-8-12 essential benchmarks to drive the units of study.  o How can you unpack to “tease out” the skills that are essential? · How to do this with large districts (MPS – 40+ high schools, for example) · Pearson has Wiggins as an author – essential understandings · (MPS) TAH – // DBQ project // – binders w/ materials organized around essential questions, with documents to answer the question, every high school teacher in to be trained. · LOC grants? Budgetary issues – how to keep a quality education for all our students in a time of budget cuts? · Kenosha - $29m shortfall – MPS - $74m shortfall  o MPS will be closing (probably) 30 schools, merging schools, multiple schools added in (such as Hamilton adding others)  o Racine – referendum on 5th, moving central office  o Kenosha – reduce graduation requirements? · Don’t work out of fear – how can we deliver education differently?  o Technology – will we have one master teacher projecting out to larger numbers of students, with teacher assistants/coaches to work with them  o Virtual schools – could be expensive (creating own courses, licensing, train teachers, buy into a consortium, etc)  o K-5 – instead of age-based grade levels, look at threads – if they meet benchmarks, they move forward, not necessarily by age/grade (meeting benchmarks & standards, move forward)  o Larger class size  o Teach more classes  o Licensing issues – marry content areas (foreign lang/world geog course, Am lit/US History) – how to answer these licensing areas  o Change in school setup – longer days, 4 day week, etc (year round school – elem in Kenosha)  o Teacher furlough days (MPS) – already did this in Beloit (cut of workdays)  o Eliminate summer school (MPS) except for seniors who need to graduate – what would this and ideas of 4 day weeks do in regards to child engagement -- would school districts continue some kind of summer/Friday activities? · Budget – read over budget outline from DPI & DOA · Impact in our districts – kids of color, kids of poverty, influence on environment <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> o Is there an increase in number of homeless students? – many districts (Beloit, MPS, Kenosha, Racine, Appleton) · Are districts having issues in bringing teachers together for PD? · Contracts – loss of WEAC days, loss of PD days, etc (MMSD, Racine & Green Bay settled, MPS settled earlier, but supt wants to reopen it; Kenosha wants to reopen (health care/retirement issue)) <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> o Loss of lanes/credit movement in pay schedules – what value will they see in PD? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> o How can we create value in PD? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § Teacher coaching opportunities <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § New schedule (Waukesha 2012 – 13) – beginning of school day is “academic options” (about ½ hour) for teachers to have time to work one-on-one with students some days (remediation, student groups, etc) as well as PLC time for PD during this time. <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 2in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level4 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · Tosa East is working similar schedule – intervention blocks, student release days for PD <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § How do you build in PD into the school day? – is there a district/school commitment to putting it in the schedule? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § Having PD time is one thing – is the time used wisely? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 2in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level4 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · How could those days be organized to most efficient use? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § MPS – banking days – some days controlled by district, some by school <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § Does admin say what must be done on PD days? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § How much will teacher morale affect PD done on a volunteer basis? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § Tying PD to local IHE’s (dialogue beginning in Beloit) <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § Online repository for teachers to upload powerpoints, etc? How could this be set up at a state level? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 2in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level4 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · Wikis? Diigo (social bookmarking – find me at //kmickeyd// – you can see the things I’ve tagged & bookmarked)? My Big Campus. Blackboard. Moodle. SharePoint. <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 2in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level4 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · How can we encourage teachers to post and share? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 2.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level5 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> o Hesitant to post for evaluation purposes <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 2.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level5 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> o Ownership <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 2in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level4 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · Meet teachers where they’re at – FB, Twitter, diigo. How can these be used for repositories and PD? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § Summer Academy – team building over the summer, keynote speakers (Waukesha – attendance has started going down – offering higher stipend). In modular format. University profs. District instructors (adjunct through Carroll). Offer for credit. <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § MPS – started w/TAH grants – online courses on history, district instructors become adjunct through Stritch, teachers can take for credit, reimbursed through district. <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § Open PD up to surrounding districts? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> o PD days? <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § Loss of WEAC, not approved for PD such as WCSS, these days, etc <span style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level3 lfo2; text-indent: -0.25in;"> § Approve ahead of time? (at beginning of year?) Is there value – would it help the cause if we have a common set of principles, elements, etc in social studies PD? Then, you could return to your districts and say “The 11 largest school districts in the state say that this is important in social studies education.” Does that offer a position of strength in “fighting” for social studies PD? Technology in classroom – · My Big Campus (Kenosha) as set up as a “hub” to use other programs. · Ebooks Lunch! Role of department chairs? · Racine – liaison between teachers & Jeff, lead department meetings, budget, etc (there was talk in the past to have them be instructional leaders) – dept chair is contractual position (used to have one extra prep period, now receives a small stipend) · Kenosha – dept chairs at each HS. Run dept meetings, assist Mark in quarterly content meetings (different degrees of cooperation depending on building). Issues with contractual responsibilities, etc in past – trust strengthened over time. Monitor texts. · MPS – different HS’s have different responsibilities. Question on role & responsibility, esp since the HS’s have different expectations. Some receive release time, some do not. Admin has hinted at no dept chairs – how could information be disseminated? Desire for “snitch” details from dept chairs – if they won’t, admin doesn’t see huge value in their position. · Beloit – addendum contract (as with a sport) (not much), administrative job requested, attempt at more responsibility, dept meetings, review state test scores. · Waukesha – Humanities leader is dept chair for 4 high schools in 3 different content areas. Site budget, so that’s mostly done at school level. PD release, run dept meetings, scope & sequence curriculum issues (Aligned by Design). · Appleton – program leader (.6 position), housed in HS, supposed to cover 7-12 (3 high schools, 4 middle schools) – since they were housed in one building, there was a feeling of disconnect. Now, curriculum support specialist that does building & district support, one at each HS building, released 1 teaching period + no supervision duty. 2 of the 3 are dept head. Desire to increase district attention over just building. Attrition of books · Beloit – st loses book, pays, money goes to general fund, not to dept (same in Kenosha – seems pretty common) AP students bought own texts - $5 or so. If kids lose books, have them buy one secondhand and return it – much cheaper than paying a fine. · Kenosha – moving away from textbooks (ebooks, online – they are changing their tech policy) Common assessments · What is the role of common assessments? · Is it across the district, or just across one school? · How are they administered? Could we write a common strong statement of importance of dept chairs in urban districts – would that help? Can we get copies of lists of roles & responsibilities from each district? This could be a great help as we see the budget constraints going into effect – to help define their role and make sure that they are not taken advantage of. Grants & resource availability? · Check your local businesses interested in community outreach - might be a way to help with costs of resources. · [|http://www.donorschoose.org] – simple procedure to set it up, can get donations towards your project, if funded, they send product, you need to take pics, etc, thank you cards. If you are not fully funded w/i 6 months (or so?), all the money that was donated to you goes to another project. Projects are expected to stay with the school. · Grants – Teaching American History grant, Library of Congress primary sources grants. Used textbook companies: - check this page and add as needed. :)   · For individual books:    · For classroom sets/large quantities of texts:    Anyone seen a cost comparison between e-books and paper textbooks?    Online textbooks? -My World – tied to Wiggins    -Holt McDougal/McDougal Littell (group feels has better customer service, training)    -Pearson    Push for AP classes? Yes    · Beloit – consequences for test results? No desire for that tie. Vertical teaming – how to help elementary teachers prepare students to reach that AP goal? Is there vertical teaming going on?    · Racine – fear of tie to test result. More fear now.    · Modify HS expectations to MS & elem teachers – this is what’s expected. (MPS)    · (MPS) – summer school for enrichment – pre-AP    · Waukesha – AVID class helps with AP prep (very expensive program to start)    · How can we best prepare students for AP courses?