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