November 13, 2012

By Allan 　

Hi All,

I hope everyone had a nice three-day weekend.

Eight items of note for this week:

• Building Reps for Formative Assessment PLC – Schools will be sending teams of one K-2 teacher, one 3-5 teacher, and one intervention specialist (preferably a Learning Center teacher) to attend three sessions in a professional learning community on formative assessment. Guest teachers will be provided and teachers will receive the book, Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right-Using It Well. A description and dates are below and in the attached flyer. If you are interested in being the K-2, 3-5 or intervention specialist rep, please let me know by the end of the week.

K-5 Classroom Assessment for Student Learning PLC

Using Formative Assessments:

• Teachers will acquire a deeper understanding of the standards
• Teachers will collaboratively create formative assessments that provide feedback on the identified learning target
• Teachers will use formative assessments to develop clear learning targets in order to develop/adjust an instructional plan that ensures all students are successful in meeting rigorous state standards.

Book:

Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right-Using It Well

Building Teams:

K-2 rep, 3-5 rep, and a Learning Center teacher (or other intervention specialist)

Dates:

Session 1: 12/11- 8:00-11:30 (Auditorium)
Session 2: 2/27- 8:00-11:30 (Auditorium)
Session 3: 4/23- 8:00-11:30 (Auditorium)

• eSIS Attendance Reminder, Completed by 8:15 – Teachers should be sure to enter attendance no later than 8:15 each morning. Teachers should also record any tardies that come in before 8:00, but after 8:00, students entering the building will be given a tardy slip from the office. The autodialer begins calling parents at 8:30, so it’s important to have attendance done well before then. On a related note, we may want to have a staff conversation about what constitutes a tardy, so that we’re recording tardies consistently across the building. Is a tardy not being in your seat at 7:55? Or is a student hanging up their coat and backpack at 7:55 considered on time? More to come on that one.

• Celebrate BEST! 11/29, 4:00PM at Chavez – Please come and celebrate that BEST is fully funded this year on Nov. 29th, 4:00-5:00 at the Chavez library! Shelley Berman, Mayor Piercy, school board members and BEST partners will all be attending. I’m not sure if folks know it, but BEST was very nearly not funded this school year, so this event is being held to thank BEST partners, celebrate their funding, and build support for the future. I will be attending and it would be great if any staff are able to attend or are able to encourage community members or local businesses to potentially attend. See the flyer for details.

• Planned 4J Network Outage – If you are reading this before Monday morning, remember that the 4J network will be down from 8:00AM-5:00PM on 11/12 for upgrades.

• OSPIRG Energy Service Corp Classroom Presentations – OSPIRG is a student-directed nonprofit at the University of Oregon and are offering free educational presentations for students K-5 that focus on the value of conserving energy and promoting active environmental stewardship. If you are interested in a classroom presentation, see the email I was sent last week and contact Thuy Ann Nguyen (thuyann.nguyen@gmail.com). You can also find out more at energyservicecorps.org and ospirgstudents.org.

• Teacher iPad Tip – Here is a blog post from a teacher who has one iPad in his classroom. He uses it for a variety of instructional purposes. Please take a look at his ten favorite apps and how he uses them. His favorite apps are EVERNOTE, ITHOUGHTSHD , SKITCH, DROPBOX , VOICETHREAD , EXPLAIN EVERYTHING , SOCRATIVE , SKYPE and more. Check it out!

• The Power of iPads in the Classroom – In this blog post, Australian researcher and parent Daniel Donahoo writes about the importance of tablet computers and mobile technology in education. He writes, in part, about an experience he had at a meeting with fellow parents in which teachers described the benefits of using iPads in the classroom. The technology, Donahoo writes, “re-inspired” educators and led them to discover new ways to teach students and engage them in classroom lessons.

• Schedule of Events for the Week – Here are the events of note for the week:

Nov. 12 (M)
Veterans Day – No School
8:00-5:00, 4J Planned Network Outage

Nov. 13 (T)
8:00-11:30, Grade 3 Understanding Rigorous Mathematical Content PD (Ed Center)
11:55, Allan meets with 5th Grade News Crew
2:15-4:30, TSS Interviews (Office)
2:30-3:30, Collaborative Meeting

Nov. 14 (W)
8:00-11:00, Allan to Superintendent’s Cabinet Meeting (Melissa to cover)
3:00-4:00, North Region Principals Meet with Shelley

Nov. 15 (H)
8:00-11:30, Grade 4 Understanding Rigorous Mathematical Content PD (Ed Center)
1:00-2:30, Allan and Angela L. meeting with Kim Ketterer and Peter Tromba (Howard)
2:30-3:30, TLT Meeting

Nov. 15 (F)
8:00-11:30, Grade 5 Understanding Rigorous Mathematical Content PD (Ed Center)
10:00-11:00, Allan Meeting with Jim Torrey (Howard)

Have a fabulous week, everyone!

Allan

This entry was written by Allan, posted on November 10, 2012 at 8:46 pm, filed under Announcements, Articles, Literacy, P.D., Technology. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.