11/20 CO, Tour of the district

Started the day at Central Office discussing timeline for curriculum development for years to come.

Afterwords met with other coordinators to discuss and plan out our curriculum websites.

Figured out how to embed a google doc into edline: https://www.edline.net/pages/WGSD/Departments/Curriculum/Science/Science_Curricular_Resources

Worked on both science and social studies pages

Went over afterwords to view the PD room at WGHS.

Had lunch at Dairy Queen to support WGHS.

Went back to the office to meet Mary Ann.  We then toured the district viewing bins:

Edgar Road looked good but missing States of Matter kit 6 and Rocks kit 3...

Avery was well organized but missing Space kit 1,  Electricity kits 1-4 ...

 Hudson was small but neat!

 Bristol was missing a few Ecosystems kits 4 and 5...

Computer school was not pictured due to a concert in the hallway we could not get through.
Clark also not pictured because Mary Ann already said they were good.

Submitted PO for resource for Steger.

11/19 Kids Vote, Curricuplan, Curating, Right

Started the day at Panera in Brentwood meeting with Sandra Diamond from Kidsvote.
Resources:
Who is Sandra Diamond?

Sandy is the current Program Director for MY LOGO. This program, formally known as Local Government CECH-UP, is a joint program of the University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Education and University of Missouri Extension.

Diamond also serves as Director of Kids Voting Missouri, a position she has held since 1999. Prior to joining UMSL, Sandy taught Civics in the Hazelwood School District and worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as their Newspapers in Education (NIE) Coordinator. 

In 2010 Sandy was recognized by the Metropolitan Bar Foundation of St. Louis when she received one of their "Spirit of Justice" awards. Likewise, in 2006, Sandy also received the prestigious Warren S. Solomon Civic Virtue Award from the Missouri Bar. This award is given annually to someone who promotes civic virtue to teachers and schools throughout Missouri.  She also received the 2006 Barbara Ericksen Affiliate Excellence Award from Kids Voting USA.  This award is given each year to the Kids Voting USA Executive Director whose work demonstrates excellence in all facets of program implementation and who exemplifies the spirit of Kids Voting USA.

UMSL staff info: http://coe.umsl.edu/w2/About%20Us/Staff/staff_profile.html?staffmember=diamonds

Kids Voting: http://www.kidsvotingmissouri.org/

http://www.civicyouth.org/

Conversation was around:
Local government units
http://www.cech-up.org/

Afterwords I attended a webinar with CO staff on Curricuplan:

• web based, searched, documents, links, access to all grade level documents
• Calendar view - What's being taught when
• we create the headings
• Curricuplan How to document
• Compared to BYOC: http://www.schoolsoftwaregroup.com/SchoolSoftwareGroup/Home.aspx
• Compared to PerformancePLUS:  http://www.sungard.com/en/k12/products/plus360_performanceplus.aspx

At 10:30 I met with Jill Right to discuss Weather and Climate Unit for 7th grade:

• Development to utilize 2008 GLEs
• Create something revolutionary in 2009

At 11am I met with Heisserer and Simpson regarding curating of resources:

Budget - Hixson and High school get more money per pupil to support purchasing of resources - CNI can support when possible

• Any coordinator has to go through CNI steps to get CNI money
• Can't just buy the next version
• Chris and Science Department initiate

Standards are different based on process in writing

• who's process do we follow?

CNI supports forward thinking and doing things differently

• CNI can dedicate even more resource for this process
• CNI willing to dedicate more $

CO worry was if this is something impacts networking, apple not the best product to transfer across the district.  Money or resources to support the device.

Commitment to BYOD - what we make has to be able to run on any device.

Look at ALL products - 

Plan gather organize build (variety using the same resource)

3-5 days in the summer - 15$ per hour, 8 hour days

I then went back to Jill and her and I continued work on the Weather and Climate unit.

Here's the document we started...

Wrapped up the day by answering emails and trying to hunt down TLC details.

11/18 Office day

Started the day at 7:30 with the Edgar Road Faculty meeting.

I followed up on purchasing the uncovering books by Page Keeley.

I attended a Webinar on using iTunesU Course Manager.  I feel like this and Guidebook are going to be my educational Winter Break Projects.

I then worked on Phase one and two of resource adoption process:

Created below google forms:

• Phase one - Overall feel: http://goo.gl/W4OSX 
• Phase two Content focus:
• GLE - http://goo.gl/OfUot 
• NGSS - http://goo.gl/gucfV

I then did some research on Webster-Rock Hill Ministries

Afterwords continued learning about Google Apps for Education

Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1TtWeWmWrWeqiOC-qx3R_8uX1dBlMiglci_Yv635KgaQ

Wrapped up the day with a webinar on Preparing for the Next Gen Standards: https://docs.google.com/a/wgcloud.org/file/d/0B2myX1fkAsIBSER1U0J6YnhFd3M/edit 

11/17 Coordinator meeting, Clark,

Started the day with the coordinator meeting to discuss new teacher training agenda.

We sent an email to new teachers in regards to video taping themselves.

Then went over to Clark to visit the Rainforest project:

The hallway was amazing:

I was met by Ranger James where to took me on the tour.  We started learning about the Golden eagle's life cycle.

 Then was introduced to the Howler monkey and it's baby and adult stages:

 I learned about how to make a map and using a legend...

 Then went on the scavenger hunt using North, South, West and East coordinates...

Here's a drawing of a baby and adult Howler Monkey:

Then we read a story together where we learned about the money, it's life cycle, it's animal tendencies and where it lives...

Afterwords I went to Clark's 5th grade classroom where I began to learn about Heros for Hero's Week. The class started thinking and talking about the famous hero's like superman.

The class turned when student began discussing the concept of a policeman/woman or firefighter as being a hero.  This led to a wonderful video on Dr. Paul Farmer:

After the video a hero was defined as "An ordinary person, doing something extraordinary."  The rest of the week will be focused on this concept.

I then went back to Edgar road.

I spoke with Deb Sanders at McGraw hill about the resource selection process at Hixson.  SHe mentioned:

• iscience was based on the NEAP frameworks
• once the NGSS are finalized there will be an online supplement
• She wants to come in and do a show/tell
• page keeley probes are included

I spoke with Jill Right about unit plan and enrichment activities at Hixson for 7th Science.

I put together a set of resources that we may use to create an evaluation tool to be used by parents/students/teachers at Hixson.


At 3pm I attended a Chromebook webinar at TLC with tech and director of technology.

at 3:30 met up with Hixson department chairs to discuss eval tool for resources.

12/14 Coordinator Meeting, Office day

Started the day at the coordinator meeting where we discussed the article from 1985 from ASCD.

Article located here: http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_198503_saphier.pdf

From the article we discussed what were areas of strength and opportunities for growth.

Afterwords we toured Edgar Road and rated Bulletin Boards for the winter contest.

Coordinated acquiring resources from Pearson for Pilot at Hixson.

Sent request to order Page Keeley's Formative assessment book.  Here's an article about them: http://pal.lternet.edu/docs/outreach/educators/education_pedagogy_research/assessment_probes_uncovering_student_ideas.pdf

Called Steve Lawrence to discuss Screen printing

Made contacts regarding textbook evaluation tools and Printed options to discuss next week

Finished the Edgar Road video

Set up a time to go see the rainforest thanks to James!

Learned and piloted Guidebook.

Set up Agenda for 2/6 6th grade science and 1/8 world studies meetings

Sorted files from downloads and resource created from the week.

Attended Edgar Road Holiday Party!

12/13 Hudson

Today's day we centered and organized around 5th grade.

Notes included:

How do we Acquire new information?

MAP Skills:

·      Scientific Method

·      Transition from Facts to critical thinking

·      Hands on

·      Science fair projects – with groups

Examples:

·      Consider purchasing Page Keely Formative

·      Do more questioning activities

·      Scientific method based activities

·      More hands on

·      More informal assessment (lead to feedback)

·      More consistent Benchmarks along the way

·      Using data to identify areas of weakness BEFORE the assessment

·      Look for ways to make more personal connections (PBLU.org)

·      Lacking connections to the diversity of all learners background

·      Have McGee over to share MAP data (tear apart together)

How do 5th graders acquire new information?

Now:

·      Notes

·      Activity

·      Discussion

·      Video or video clip

·      Websites

·      Vocabulary

·      Demonstration

·      Research

·      Story books

·      Field trips

·      Current news

·      Act it out

·      Science journals – everything we do, notes, research, labs and activities

Possibility:

·      Songs

·      Movement

·      Coloring

·      Sorting

·      Play

·      Investigation

·      Removing the fear of risk

·      Focus on the process as opposed to the outcome

·      Be willing to give time

·      Science Journals – Wonder pages, questions, collecting data, science at home, favorite experiences, real life examples, collection from year to year, focus on the emotional connection to the experiences

·      Idea of capturing a document/image to preserve for future years.

Learning Designs

·      Do the lab and leave it set up for 3 to 4 more days – part of the daily 5 workshop

·      Video your lab and have it available

·      Bits of a video to wrap up the day

·      Play a game

·      Integrate movement and vocabulary – Charades

·      Act it out using an object

·      Seek to integrate the curriculum within other areas/times

·      Discussed how other schools do it

·      Discussed the advantages and disadvantages of specializing

Afterwords we continued conversations by focusing our efforts on Chemical Interactions unit

We created the following Goal/objectives:

Essential Learning Goal:

SWBAT identify patterns of changes.

Objectives:

• ·  SWBAT Construct models of atoms and molecules to demonstrate three-dimensional structure
• · SWBAT Describe and compare the properties of matter, including density, state of matter, volume, and mass
• ·  SWBAT Describe ways to Separate components in a mixture/solution
• ·  SWBAT Identify chemical changes in common objects as a result of interactions with heat, light, water, and air

And then discussed assessment and preliminary learning designs: https://docs.google.com/a/wgcloud.org/document/d/1cVhAnc3v74ZUVkujDJ3wIy_335mXmxBPF3JRhccxaCg/edit#

12/12/12 Steger, Hixson

Started the day at Steger.  The day was organized around the 6th grade science team.  Agenda below:

After school went over to Hixson to facilitate the discussion around resource adoption.  Agenda included:

• Idea of morphing some textbooks along with starting digital books
• Which units are in desperate need of new texts?
• 8th grade = Chemistry/Energy -> Electricity/Magnetism -> Forces and Machines
• Physical Science
• 7th grade = Genetics -> 1 class set of Weather (via matching) -> Life Science
• Life Science
• 1 more class set of Weather 
• Tech dilemma in regards to digital books.
• Platforms for digital books
• I talked to Rob to look into what we would get if we wrote a book on Apply IBooks and switched it thru Bookry so that PC's would be able to view the work.
• Are there other platforms that we should look into?

Progress moving forward will be guerrilla style.

TO DO as a result from the meeting:

Contact Pearson/Prentice Hall, Glencoe/McGraw Hill

Convene to make eval tool

Contact Kirkwood for tool

D to email weather

Install InDesign Tech Req

12/11 Edgar Road, Hixson, WGHS, Steger

Started the day reflecting on Chapter 7 of Marzano's Art and Science of Teaching.  I revieded my blog post: http://coachinandout.blogspot.com/2012/12/check-yoself-before-you-wreck-yourself.html then attended Edgar Road's Chapter 7 Staff Development.

Afterwords I went over to Hixson to meet with the Hixson tech department to discuss the curation process and what role he's comfortable playing or placing input.  Their ideas and skill are invaluable to this process.

I then met with the 8th grade Social Studies department chair about Thursday's after-school meeting.

I then went over the WGHS to scan the 764 page DBQ for World History Binder.

Afterwords headed back to Edgar Road.  Packed up all materials for the next three days of meetings.

Prepped for 6th grade World Studies Meeting and went over to Steger for the meeting.

12/10 Office Day

After a week of meetings and three key meetings coming up I am spending the day int eh office trying to ensure everything rolls smoothly.

Started the day working on 6th grade World studies.  Finalized, printed and copied the agenda.  Highlighted key points in article for discussion.

At 10:00 I went over the Hixson to meet with Dr. Heisserer we discussed the resource selection process and steps to take next.

Afterwords went back to Edgar Road to get some more accomplished:

Organized resource for 6th grade full day curriculum workshop:

• Created NGSS sorting activity
• created, printed and copied agenda
• copy and pasted GLEs for Rock Cycle, Force and Motion, and Earth's Processes
• Printed and copied student activities
• Pasted resources onto Server
• Made presentation for day

I started on the handout for the Phase description for Curation of Resources...

Edgar Road will be going over Chapter 7 tomorrow so I read through Chapter 7 and did a Blog post on the highlights.

12/7 CO, 2nd and 3rd year Teacher Training

Started the day stopping by Edgar Road to pick up snacks, drinks, and my book for the 2nd and 3rd year teacher training meeting.

I then went over to central office.  I made copes of the chapter for anyone who needs it during the 2nd and 3rd year teacher training.

I then attended the Coordinator meeting.  Agenda included a check in from all areas and a conversation that included an "unpacking"of an ELA CCSS standard.  Really cool the work of unpacking and how much overlap there is from CCSS ELA and Social Studies.

After the coordinator meeting I stuck around to meet with the CNI superintendant to discuss the next phase of the resource adoption process.

I then set up and prepared for the 2nd and 3rd year teacher meeting.

WIth help we facilitate the 2nd and 3rd year teacher training where we used this presentation to facilitate the reading of Chapter 3 from "Never work harder than your students."

Also during the workshop teachers Jigsawed the chapter and created this resource to demonstrate understanding and facilitate discussion.

12/6 Curating Resources, DLT, Meetings and SS facilitators

Started the morning with science over at Hixson.  We discussed Resources and made a decision.
Our plan is to determine our greatest needs now, purchase those resources.  And plan for the future of curating resources for the future of Science instruction at Hixson.

After words I went over to Clark for the DLT observation.  We observe a 5th grade classroom and discussed Marzano's design questions as they relate to curriculum and instruction, teaching and learning.

Some images from the day...

After the observation we rehashed what we saw and where we are headed as a district and had conversations about science and social studies.

After the DLT meeting I met with Mrs. Corley.  We discussed options for curating a digital resource.  We started a document here.

I then went over the WGHS to meet with the Tech Director.  We discussed options for digital resources and possible questions as we move forward.

After that headed over to Central Office for the Social Studies Facilitator Meeting K-5.
Agenda Included:
Checking in
Highlighting GLEs
Writing Learning goals
Discussing C3 content standards

12/5 Day at Edgar Road, SS vertical Team

Today I spent the day in classrooms at Edgar Road.  I got a chance to work one on one with teachers and see many fun and exciting lessons.

Highlights of the day were:  Working on proficiency scales, discussing 20% time and spending time with a great kindergarten class.

Did you know you can just cut a pumpkin, put in some dirt and grow some plants....

I was also able to complete work for my Online PBLU class: Showcasing student work

I listened to the Teachercast Podcast on Digital Footprint to prepare for presentation at METC.

I also prepared for the Social Studies Vertical team and facilitator meeting by copying resources for the day.  Notes for the day posted here: https://docs.google.com/a/wgcloud.org/document/d/1wKbI9yozMU8PAGQiPcUpEWzp1napdPO1QseIWtGni6Q/edit#heading=h.vbd8videssa3

12/4 Hudson, Clark, Edgar Road, Central Office

Today's going to be a busy day!

Started the day at Hudson meeting with 5th grade teachers and planning our curriculum workshop day on 12/13.

Our plans include:

Morning discuss more MAP (morning work) MAP based into daily curriculum - (seek and find other activities) Science

Split chunk of science 15 before, 15 after - how do we manage

Acquiring new information - Better system of "notes" for the kids science (social studies second) - decide on format like

Learning design for building (activities ) - see what on server, science

LUNCH

Email avery teachers to bring a unit or advertise 

Attack a unit science Chemical interactions

what other activities

what is extra

SMART Notebook file

ME TO DO:

email teachers regard afternoon and agenda

(Print pdf of "kit")

GLE of Chemical interactions

afterwords went to Clark to observe Social Studies with 2nd graders.  Students were reporting out their research and findings of a country of their choice.  Projects looked like:

Afterwords I went back to Edgar Road:

• Made copies of agenda for Science Vertical Team
• Made presentation and copies for Social Studies vertical team
• Made copies and presentation for SS Facilitator meeting

At 1:30 headed back over to Clark to work one on one with a student seeking acceleration in the area of science, afterwords edited and submitted my report to Ms. Jackson.

Watched Video of a colleague at apple:

We had our Science Vertical team meeting after school.  Agenda: https://docs.google.com/a/wgcloud.org/document/d/1wKbI9yozMU8PAGQiPcUpEWzp1napdPO1QseIWtGni6Q/edit 

12/3 NGSS, Acceleration, PDC, Strategic Planning

Started the day setting up and preparing for a Next Generation Science Standard Workshop

Took notes on the day: https://docs.google.com/a/wgcloud.org/document/d/1cN3XHLnuRvCAhA1EgrBQnR4KToNNVX0o-7_sTMsAT4Y/edit

Science Standards in Practice Handout HERE

Science and Engineering Dimensions Handout HERE


Went back to Edgar Rd.

• finalized 5th grade GLES for SS
• Watched Puentedura SAMR model Podcast on itunes U
• Prepped for SS facilitators
• Prepped for Science and Social Studies Vertical Team Meetings

At 1:30 I arrived at Clark.  From 1:45 - 2:30 I spent time with a student seeking to be accelerated a grade level.  I administered a Social studies diagnostic for a student seeking advancement.

At 3:00 I arrived over at Central office for the PDC meeting.  Agenda included:

• Read a grant
• Watched a video:

• Notes and brainstorming for Online digital collaboration tool

At 5:30 I attended the Strategic Planning Meeting for Mission/Visionin for the district.  Agenda included:

• discussion of Mission and Vision
• 2 trials of attempts of mission and vision
• likes and not like

11/30 Coordinator Meeting, Social Studies Network

Started the day finishing up the day's post from activity from 11/29 seen here...

Went through TONS of e-mail since I was engaged in training the previous day.

Attended the coordinator meeting at Central Office at 8:30:

• update
• Edline
• Walkthroughs
• APR
• CNI server
• January 4th PD day

Read 10 characteristics of authentic learning.

Finalized resources for Monday's Next Generation Science presentation held in Board room.
Set up a 5th grade work day with Hudson/Clark.

Checked out resources from Edcamp.org: http://edcamp.org/

Read/Watched 5 minute film festival on twitter: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-twitter-education

Attended the Social Studies Network held at CSD.

CCSSO - sponsoring work for Social studies

NEVER creating a national set of standards for the social studies

C3 framework is a state led framework for interpreting the CCSS standards through social studies

Shared goals: Civics, Geography, Economics, and History

Fewer, higher, clearer

emphasis on skill and dicliplinary thinking instead of content

Goal: produce better citizens

Qualities of citizenship

Dimensions and Inquiry Arc of the C3 Framework

Dimensions:
1 - Developing questions and planning investigations
2 - Applying tools and concepts
3 - Gathering, evaluating, using evidence
4 - action!

Teach CIVICS not Political science.  Framework is not without content but on disciplinary thinking.

CCSSO cooperating to figure out how to apply frame work to specific state standards, emphasize teaching ELA through social studies.

PLAN - full framework to come out spring 2013.

Clarification and more found at CCSSO.org and the C3 framework

p.59 CCSS ELA reference (Social studies people felt that

All the ELA stuff  - Science and Social Studies are the avenue to which ELA standards are to be applied.

They don't imagine significant changing in the content and grade level teaching particular content matter.

Framework is at the National Level, standards are at the state level.

What is the process of citizenship not just rights and responsibilities of citizenship.  Use their knowledge of history, etc to impact their role now.  How do we impact and sustain groups....

Conversation LACKING around how to assess thinking skills and turn it into data.

Multiple choice test scores go up when students are asked to write and produce writing work.

Framework for NCSS: http://www.socialstudies.org/standards

Reflected on Oklahoma's C3 standards: http://ok.gov/sde/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/C3-SocialStudies.pdf

MOCHE offerings:

• Historian on call....Available to help with PD and teacher context
• CCSS support

After the meeting I made connections with the Social Studies coordinators of Mehlville and Parkway with the intent of collaboration in curriculum development.

I then went home to wrap up e-mails and set up the to-do list for the weekend:

• Order materials for 3d grade science force and motion
• Finalize Monday's Next Generation Science standards presentation
• wrap up science facilitators
• prepare for vertical team meetings
• prepare for social studies facilitator meeting
• Read Science iOs and investigate with materials
• Read resources from Social Studies Network meeting
• continue working on 5th grade social studies learning goals and essentials
• wrap up PBLU course
• assess 8th grade resource for resource adoption process
• Finalize acceleration assessment for 1st grade student
• order resources from Nystrom
• Write WAR blog post

11/29 Treca Digital Academy, Apple Science iOs Training

I'm a day late on the post due to travel and lack of access to the web.  Please accept my apologies.

Spent the day at Treca Educational Solutions in Marion Ohio.

There I was training on the new full day training called "science iOs"

We used three piece of tech during the session, seen below:

The first piece was verier's labquest 2.  We were trained on how to use the device and the pH probe ware.  Learned how to pair it with a laptop or mobile device and harvet data.  We then used the date to create a media focused lab write up.  Some of the resources from the lab are below:

After investigating with the Labquest we turned our discussion to resources on the iPad.  We learned how to use the Bodelin Proscope.  This device syned with the AirMicroPad app to display and capture amazing images, seen below:

Paper

Computer typing

Up my nose

Eye

Eye 

Eye 

Skin

Sweater Fabric

Table top

Denim

Skin

Computer Screen

Leaf

We then investigated the Leafsnap and Educreations apps.

The day was wrapped up discussing Mountain Lion Server and how it could be used in the traning and school networks to "turn in" resources from the iPad to the teacher's device.