North Hills Elementary School Specialists' Blog

PLC Meeting Minutes 12-7

2010-12-14T08:17:00.000-08:00

This meeting was led by Ms. Farthing.

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We discussed whether we could do our CFA before the holidays; Ms. Pate stated that she was going to, and so is Ms. Muzzy, due to the schedule of the units they are teaching and concerns about keeping the assessments relevant and valid.

We planned treats for the week of 12/13. We are teaming with 2nd grade and custodial staff to bring food on 12/15. We are going to do breakfast stuff & Ms. Muzzy will coordinate.

Music program: Ms. Farthing needs our help. She is going to check with Ms. Morning to make arrangements - maybe K-1 assistants? Maybe all of us? can assist Ms. McKenzie suggested taking part of the students who are not participating to the computer lab to work in Smart Tutor.

The music program (12/15 @ 6 pm) will be about 30 minutes. There will also be an all-school sing-along on Fri., 12/17. Ms. Farthing doesn't have more info at this time.

The specialists are going to request that we get more information about assemblies: when they are going to be happening as well as whether we are expected to take kids, supervise, pick up, drop off etc. We also would like to suggest to PBIS (?) that there be a standard procedure as far as when to go to the assembly: general announcement? phone call to room? set time? because it's been a bit confusing.

We also are going to request more info about when teachers have planning and other meetings that require a sub/assistant to cover their class, because it upsets the routine and the kids need more time to settle into our classes, and we'd like to be prepared.

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If there are any corrections or additions to these minutes, please let Ms. McKenzie know by leaving a comment here or sending an email.

PLC Meeting Minutes 11-9-10

2010-12-14T08:09:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the delay in posting these.

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Know of any needy students? Send names to Ms. Travis, Ms. Morning, or Ms. Krafft to pass on to Santa's helpers. They are going to ask Piney Grove & Mt. Tabor Church to do an Angel Tree.

Ms. Morning reviewed our data analysis and found it to be comparable to what goes on in the rest of the school. She expressed that admininistration will start sharing Blue Diamond data with us to help us see weaknesses in reading that we can help with. She gave us specific suggestions for each of our areas; i.e., Mr. Burkehad finding videos about famous athletes, etc., Ms. McKenzie helping students explore digital resources (Ms. McKenzie - add ESPN for kids? history channel, etc. to student resources?).

We discussed plans for our next CFA, which will be completed by the end of the quarter.

Specialists expressed concerns about time management - i.e., teachers being timely in dropping off and picking up their classes. We were informed that for 3rd grade, we may need to walk the classes down to lunch.

Ms. Verde from Little People's University is retiring and wants to come and volunteer, so she will be working in the cafeteria.

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SIT-related items:

Ms. McKenzie reported items discussed at SIT meeting.

Ms. Muzzy will talk to Ms. Stickler about scheduling Caroline's promise for the 1st week of December.

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If there are any corrections or additions to these minutes, please let Ms. McKenzie know by leaving a comment here or sending an email.

PLC Meeting Minutes, 10-26-10

2010-12-14T07:46:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the delay in posting these.

We finished up planning for the AR carnival at this meeting, as follows:

Mr. Burkhead is going to send spots to put on the floor for the cake walk, and will loan us the entertainment center. Alternatively, Ms. Muzzy will see about getting numbers from Ms. Carrington and getting them laminated per discussion at previous SIT meeting.

We will have 10 people in the cake walk at a time.

Piney Grove Baptist Church will be donating cakes - Ms. McKenzie will find out how many.

The specialists are also going to buy at least one cake; please bring $2 for Ms. McCabe.

Who will supervise our station?

6 - 6:30: Pate/McKenzie
6:30 - 7:00 Muzzy/Farthing
7:00 - 7:30: Burkehad/McKenzie?

Ms. Pate will take pics & alternate with me.

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Reminder: For upcoming CASL training, we need to create a rubric and read chapters 7 & 8.

On Mon, 11/1 at 10:15 there will be a percussion ensemble for 4th & 5th grade that will last 45 mins; we are to take 4th grade & supervise.

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If there are any corrections or additions to these minutes, please let Ms. McKenzie know by leaving a comment here or sending an email.

PLC Meeting Minutes 10-5-10

2010-10-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

Attending: Crim, Burkhead, Farthing, Muzzy, Pate, McKenzie

SIT update:

At the last SIT meeting, we discussed AR assembly & carnival. Assembly is at 2 on ~~Thurs 10/7~~ this was changed to Fri. 10/8 and Carnival is 6 – 8 on Thurs. 10/28. We will be doing a “snack” cake walk. We have to provide the snack cakes. Mr. Burkhead will provided hula hoops or spots. We will try to have it in the gym. Each of us will buy one box of 12 cakes and that should give us enough for the night.
Ms. Crim is going to dress up for the Assembly on Thursday (each grade level will have a character). She’s not sure yet who she’s going to be. Ms. Pate has written a skit, and Ms. McKillop’s class is going to be performing a song.

Career Day has been cancelled because of having to stay on the Imagine It! Schedule. We will look at scheduling another Career Day NEXT fall.

We are not sure about Field Day – in the SIT meeting minutes it’s recorded as either May 5 or April 29; Ms. Morning is supposed to get some info from Mr. Burkhead’s other school and make a decision about it.

We need to link Harris Teeter VIC cards to our school. See Ms. Ehrens to get info. Also continue to bring in box tops & soup labels, and start collecting Sunny D labels.

Do not prop doors open due to safety concerns.

We will be doing McDonald’s Night. There is some consideration of asking particular grade levels to handle particular months, but this has not been set.

Assessments:

With regards to our increased assessment & data reporting requirement, we decided to do 1 assessment quarterly – it will probably be performance based. We need to find out how we are going to be reporting our data – on a spreadsheet? We will need guidance from the Instructional Coordination Team in how to develop the recording sheet and how they would like for us to report our data.

For the Good of the Order:

Mr. Burkhead has spoken to Ms. Henderson, and she is going to try to schedule SIOP training for us – we need reading credit!

PLC Meeting Minutes 10-4-10

2010-10-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

**There was no meeting last week due to SIOP training. We met today instead of tomorrow because of additional SIOP training.

Present at today's meeting: Morning-Cain, Henderson, Krafft, Pate, Muzzy, McKenzie

We shared which grade level's data we will be reporting on for our data center. Mr. Burkhead and Ms. Farthing need to let Ms. Morning know which grades they will be reporting on ASAP.

If you have not turned in your first quarter essentials, you need to do so ASAP.

Ms. Morning recently attended a Title I Mtg & info was shared there that each specialist has to have some kind of growth measurement. We need to give some kind of CFA; we can do 2 CFA’s & 1 EOQ test or JUST a quarterly assessment. Our CFA data analysis would be due at the same time as the other PLC’s. We need to decide this as a PLC – whether to do quarterly or CFA mini-assessments / EOQ test. We will have an extra PLC meeting on Tues., Oct. 5 (just us teachers) at 11:30 to decide what type of CFA we will do and discuss data collection & presentation.

We are going to have training today in the staff meeting on Classroom Assessment. We do not have a previous assessment to bring yet, but when the trainer comes back in Nov. we need to have a CFA or quarter test ready to review. We will be provided with a copy of the book that we are going to be trained on: Classroom Assessment for Student Learning by Richard Stiggens. Some of us will be sharing a copy of the book.

Staff meetings will run til 4:45 – 5:00; be prepared.

We discussed the upcoming AR assembly and carnival. Specialists will be doing a snack cake walk.

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If there are any corrections or additions to these minutes, please let Ms. McKenzie know by leaving a comment here or sending an email.

PLC Meeting MInutes 9-13-10

2010-09-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

(I'm sorry, I forgot to take attendance at this meeting. -MM)

We opened by discussing the Trust article in our PLC notebook. We feel that respect for each other is a strength for our team & for the faculty in general. We acknowledge that everyone is at different competency levels but we are all working to improve. We feel that personal regard is a particular strength for us as a staff. We feel that our staff does have integrity.

We each received a golden egg and we had to write a commitment to the 4 vital signs from the article, or select one. These eggs will be placed on a bulletin board having to do with our “Soaring to Success Takes Teamwork” theme.

SIOP training will be held on the 28^th, but specialists will not have it at that time. Rosie will schedule a separate training for us. Specialists will not have PLC's on the 27^th or the 28^th.

Reminder: We need to pick a grade level and start to record data to develop our data centers.

Ms. Morning presented an overview of Classroom Walk-Throughs. Specials will be part of CWT's this year. Make sure you have an EQ posted (Ms. Muzzy's board is a good example of how to do this for our setting) and if possible, the SCOS objective number it relates to.

CWT's are “snapshots.” Teachers get a grade level report, but we will get a “department” report. In CWT's, information that is being sought are trends and areas for improvement. This also helps to determine what professional development is needed. CWT's are not teacher evaluation tools, but part of the cycle for continuous improvement. When administrators do a classroom walkthrough, they will look for learning objectives & EQ's; they will determine whether the lesson objective is evident to students & if we are followign the SCOS. The essential question should be in kid-friendly language.

We received a copy of the standard CWT checklist – this is not the version used by WSFCS, but it's similar enough to get the idea.

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If there are errors or omissions in these minutes, please leave a comment here or email Ms. McKenzie so that they can be corrected. Thanks!

PLC Meeting Minutes 8-31-2010

2010-09-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

Attending: Morning-Cain, Henderson, Crim, Phillips, Burkhead, Muzzy, Farthing, McKenzie, Land (arrived late)

We discussed our schedule. 3^rd grade specials were moved back to 10:50 – 11:30 because of conflicts with their lunch schedule. 1^st grade specials will dismiss at 2:40. We need to have 4^th grade lined up at 10:30 though teachers may arrive at 10:35 on PLC days.

For duty-free lunch: classroom teachers will drop the students off in the cafeteria; they may have to wait in the cafeteria for us to finish our 3^rd grade classes.

We will keep the same mission statement and norms as last year.

We reviewed the purpose of PLC's: 1) collaboration and 2) data evaluation

Specialists will have to have a way to collect and show data that demonstrates learning this year. Like classroom teachers, we will have a data center, but we can make it our own; we don't have to call it a data center. We need to analyze our student work and display it. We need to start gathering evidence that our students are learning. We reviewed examples of data centers. We can start off by picking a particular grade level and then expand to collect data on more grades. Data centers can be maintained by specialists instead of the students and can be updated quarterly. Data can be taken by a checklist or by some other method we determine. We can use something like the CFA Data Analysis Form that's behind the purple tab in our PLC notebook, or we can determine our own. Ms. Crim does not need to worry about this. For the rest of us, data centers need to be up by the first week of October.

After the holiday break, we will elect a new PLC chair, a new reporter, and a new timekeeper.

Behind the purple tab in our PLC notebook, on the last page, there is an article called “Trust” – we need to review it for next week and identify the 4 indicators (Respect, competence, personal regard, integrity) look like in our PLC & in the school as a whole.

When planning our lesson, we continue to be focused on these questions:

We are still focused on 4 questions when planning:

What do we want our students to know, understand & be able to do?

How will we know they have learned it?

How will we respond when they have not learned or when they have learned?

Teachers may include the utilization of specialists when doing action planning (for difficult areas of instruction/differentiating instruction. We will need to collaborate with classroom teachers to develop activities for such plans.

We will not have to schedule an additional meeting besides PLC's due to scheduling difficulties , but we will always meet on Tuesdays.

We need to identify 10 – 12 Essential Objectives/Topics (combined of all grade levels) for this semester & email this to Ms. Morning-Cain before the first week of October. List objective numbers & summary of each objective.

We need to each establish a classroom mission statement which will apply to grades K-5. The school's mission statement needs to be posted in our room. We need to have a feedback tool (plus delta's issue bin/parking lot).

We discussed Race to the Top. We (specialists) are going to have to get in the mindset that we will have accountability assessments for our classes. The state is going to develop the form of accountability.

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If there are errors or omissions in these minutes, please leave a comment or email Ms. McKenzie so she can correct them.

PLC Meeting Minutes 4-14

2010-04-13T09:32:00.001-07:00

Our PLC meeting last week was cancelled.

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Attending this week: Farthing, Muzzy, Maglio, Burkhead, McKenzie, Pate, Crim, Morning-Cain

Ms. Morning discussed the status of the Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 project. We are in crunch time. Classes should have read through chapter 12. Students will begin their culminating project within the next couple of weeks. They will research the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and the four girls who were killed in the bombing, and present their research in a PowerPoint presentation.

Summative evaluations for teachers are coming up. Teachers who are evaluated using the new teacher evaluation tool need to begin to pull evidence for their standards. Ms. Morning gave examples of evidence including:

PLC notebook/notes
data analysis
examples of quality lesson plans
parent communication
how we incorporate literacy
global awareness activities
technology use

Ms. Morning will also send out a questionnaire to teachers to help them gather evidence and prepare for their summative interview.

Ms. Pate & Ms. McKenzie are on a different evaluation tool and will not complete this process. New evaluation tools are being developed for Media & Tech coordinators.

Upcoming events & related information:

Friday, April 16: Career Day in the morning. Specialists have been assigned positions for helping. Ms. Crim will put a final schedule in our boxes tomorrow or Thursday.

Next week: Administrative Professionals week.

Friday, April 23: BUG/Terrific Kids ceremony. We will follow the same schedule as last time. We need to bring in treats and/or candy for the bags for the students. Ms. Muzzy will coordinate with Ms. Harvin to get the bags done. Ms. Pate and Ms. McKenzie will be at a workshop and will be unable to assist.

Week of May 17: EOG's

June 4: Field Day in the morning

Planning for the graduation ceremony is going on. 5th grade and possibly 4th grade will be taken off campus for the ceremony. If you plan to give awards at the ceremony, please let Ms. Bitting know ASAP so that she can make sure you get on the program. Our business partner, Piney Grove church, is providing strong support for this event and Minister McCloud is coming to meet with the 5th grade teachers on Thursday for more planning.

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If there are any corrections or additions to these minutes please leave a comment or email Ms. McKenzie to let her know.

2010-03-30T06:34:00.000-07:00

Career Day Is Coming!

We're going to have our Career Day in the morning of April 16 this year. I will send a schedule for you to follow as soon as I have all the presenters lined up.

In Classroom Guidance I am talking to K-2 classes about the many different jobs that exist in our community and country. We are also talking about the universal character traits a person needs to develop to be successful in a job.

I will be sending an email asking 3-5 teachers to let me visit your classroom for about 20 minutes before April 16 to prepare your students for what will be happening that day. Please respond as soon as you can.

As usual I will be asking Specialists to help that day. I will be contacting you individually about that in the next few days.

I'm still trying to fill all the spaces we have for presenters, so If you know someone who relates well to children let me know.

Weekly Wrap for March 22nd

2010-03-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Essential Pieces,
Last week I embedded a message regarding uniforms. The first five teachers that responded to the weekly wrap were able to dress out of uniform for two days this week. The winners were Mrs. Nazareth, Mrs. Ehrens, Mrs. Stickler, Mrs. Humphries. and Ms. Bradley. I will from time to time put little prizes with in the weekly wrap to verify the staff members that have read the weekly wrap. In case you did not know Lindsay Brown got married today. She is now Lindsay Bowser. I probably spelled the last name wrong:) Chris Runge sent us the DVD of first grade's PLC meeting. It is excellent! I will share a clip of it at the staff meeting on Monday. Thank you First Grade!! I can't believe that 3rd quarter is over. Please try to relax over the spring break.

Important dates to remember:
March 29th: All grade levels will have PLCs on Monday for SIOP training.
March 30: RC Day (No vacation Day) Retentions are due to Ms. Morning
March 31: RS day or Annual Leave
April 12 and 13: SWOT Analysis Due (Please bring to your PLC meeting)
April 12: School Improvment Team Meeting
April 12-16: CFA Testing

Suggested Classroom Accomodations for Specific Behaviors

2010-03-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

When you see this behavior:

Difficulty following through on instructions from others

Try this accomodation:

Gain the student's attention before giving the directions. Use alerting clues. Accompany oral directions with written directions. Give one direction at a time. Quietly repeat the directions to the student after they have been given to the rest of the class. Check for understanding by having the student repeat the directions.

PLC Meeting Minutes 3/16/10

2010-03-16T14:46:00.000-07:00

Attending: Pate, Burkhead, Muzzy, Farthing, McKenzie (arrived late), McCabe (arrived late), Morning-Cain (arrived late)

We had additional reading training by Juliet Brown. She shared some statistics and quotations from the Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease.

During this training, there was an emphasis on reading aloud within our classes so that kids can connect reading to more areas than just their core classroom. We can provide additional models of a reader; read-aloud is good for even older kids.

We reviewed some released items for reading EOG’s for grades 3 - 5 and noted the higher-level vocabulary and subject matter that would seem abstract and difficult for our particular population of students to connect to. We discussed the particular phrasing within passages and items, and focused on how we can use these types of phrasing and vocabulary with students to help them get used to the terms. We received a sample chart of character traits to use to expand students' vocabulary (i.e., humorous vs. funny). We also received small cards with sample questions to ask in the areas of analyzing, generating, knowing, integrating, organizing, applying, and evaluating. A major point of discussion was on increasing the level of vocabulary we use when we are speaking to children.

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If there are items missing or that need to be amended, please leave a comment or contact Ms. McKenzie.

PLC Meeting Minutes 3/9/2010

2010-03-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

Attending: Farthing, Muzzy, Burkhead, McKenzie, McCabe, Pate, Morning-Cain

We watched Essential Pieces video that Ms. McKenzie created that was to be presented at the board meeting this evening.

We had a Reading Training session presented by Juliet Brown on the Balanced Literacy model.

Balanced Literacy framework handouts are available on Learning Village. Search Learning Village for “balanced literacy” & it will bring up BL resources for each grade level. Click on one of the grade levels and look for X Grade Balanced Literacy Model.

How are you integrating literacy into your lessons? Leave a comment with what you are doing with each grade levels.

Ms. Brown presented a PowerPoint with highlights of the Balanced Literacy model.

Emphasis on using language that connects the words “infer,” “inference,” “draw conclusions,” “summarize” in daily interaction with our students.

Ms. Brown encourages us to each create a word wall for our particular area.

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If there are any corrections or additions to these minutes, please leave a comment or contact Ms. McKenzie.

Computer Skills 3-15 to 3-22

2010-03-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

Kindergarten

Core Curriculum Connection: literacy: color words, proper capitalization

New Skills:

Vocabulary: Internet, web browser, online, link
Using Internet Explorer Favorites at school
Going from getting the computer logged in to Smart Tutor (Murrill)

Review Skills:

Opening a program by double-clicking the icon
Logging in independently
Word processing: using shift, space bar, enter, backspace (all other K classes)

1st Grade

Core Curriculum Connection: literacy: rhyming words; math: subtracting

New Skills

Opening a spreadsheet template
Entering values into a cell
Viewing charts/graphs in a spreadsheet template
Examining how spreadsheets can be programmed to calculate answers to math problems

Review Skills

Parts of a spreadsheet (cell, row, column, chart/graph)

2nd Grade

Core Curriculum Connection: Science: weather/water cycle; writing: editing/peer editing

New Skills

Using mouse/arrow keys/backspace/delete to assist with editing a word processing document
Using spell check to assist with editing
Formatting: double spacing

Review Skills

Word processing (using capitals, placing punctuation appropriately, using only one space between words)
Opening and saving files
Using graphic creation program (KidPix)

5th Grade

Core Curriculum Connections: Science: weather/climate; Social Studies: geography/map skills

New Skills

Accessing and interpreting weather.com
Recording data in a pre-prepared template in a word processing program
Using Google Maps to locate a specific address

Review Skills

Dealing with pop-ups and banner ads
Opening a document from the shared space and saving to one's personal space on the file server
Accessing the Watsons Go to Birmingham wiki (more information on this lesson can be found at the wiki)

Computer Skills 3-5 to 3-12 rotation

2010-03-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

Kindergarten:

Curriculum area: Literacy, color words

New Skills

Using the number pad, including using number lock when the number pad is off
Logging into the computer

Review Skills

Typing letters and numbers
Using special keys: space bar, shift, enter, backspace
Maximizing/minimizing windows, closing windows
Logging off the computer

First grade:

Curriculum area: Literacy, word families

New Skills

Opening the spreadsheet program (MS Excel)
Opening a file and saving a file
Entering data into a spreadsheet and examining the resulting graph

Review Skills

Logging on & logging off a computer independently
Parts of a spreadsheet (rows, columns, cells)
Naming cells

Second grade:

Curriculum area: science - weather/water cycle

Review Skills

Word processing (using capitals, placing punctuation appropriately, using only one space between words)
Opening and saving files
Using graphic creation program (KidPix)

Third grade:

Curriculum area: art - primary colors

New Skills

Spreadsheets: purpose and parts
Opening MS Excel
Opening a file from the file server (S: drive) and saving it to H drive
Entering data into a spreadsheet and observing changes when a SUM formula is used

Fourth Grade

Curriculum area: writing/research - citing sources

New Skills

Appropriately citing a book used for a research project (ALA format)
Formatting text using bold, italic, and underline; changing text alignment (left, center, right)

Media

2010-03-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

For the past 3 weeks our K-2 students have been reading 5 of the North Carolina Children's Book Award nominees. The students will choose which book they enjoyed the most and during the week of March 22nd they will be allowed to vote on their favorite. The books we have enjoyed so far are:
Sally Jean the Bicycle Queen by Cari Best
Traction Man meets Turbo Dog by Mini Grey
Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski
Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman
A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker

Classroom Guidance

2010-03-05T12:03:00.000-08:00

In Classroom Guidance next week we are going to continue talking about perseverance. Children will work in groups to complete a challenging task. We will learn the "I can do it!" cheer.

Music K-1-2

2010-03-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

For the last three weeks, these students have read three different books with the title of Stone Soup. We have compared and contrasted these books, and some of these can be seen on the wall outside of my room. We are preparing to do the musical with the same name on April 8, so please, teachers of K-2, review the words to the songs with you students. Thanks for your help.

Music - Grades 3-4-5

2010-03-04T13:11:00.001-08:00

This week the older three grades have been watching and listening to the video Three Mo' Tenors. We have heard at least four or five different musical styles while listening to the video. We have talked about opera, Motown, acapella music, gospel music, songs from musicals, and jazz music. Students have heard songs in the English, Italian, and French languages. It was an enjoyable week for me and one where the students used a lot of their prior knowledge. Most students seemed to get a lot from this study, and I feel it was really valuable for them.

Reading this week in AG

2010-03-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

This week in AG we are working on figuring out how we would feel if we were in the situatuions the characters in the books we are reading are in.

PLC Meeting Minutes 3/2/10

2010-03-04T12:18:00.000-08:00

Attending: Burkhead, Muzzy, Farthing, Crim, McKenzie, McCabe (arrived late), Morning-Cain, Maglio

Ms. Farthing thanks all who helped with the We Has Jazz musical performance last week.

Ms. Morning has asked the specialists to manage a school-wide newsletter next year to increase parent communication. Ms. Muzzy will head up this project.

Ms. McKenzie instructed those present in how to reset Google passwords (if necessary) and how to use a Google account to log into the blog and create blog posts and comments, and we practiced doing so. Ms. Morning encourages all of us to post to the blog as it may count as part of our technology development for our IGP's.

Specialists who did not attend this meeting need to get in touch with Ms. McKenzie so that she can add you as a contributor and show you how to post to the blog. We can post about our activities and ask for input from core teachers and other staff.

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Note from Ms. McKenzie: I know these minutes are incomplete but cannot remember what I am missing. Please comment with any corrections or additions. Thanks!

Going with the moment

2010-03-04T08:50:00.000-08:00

Today the kindergartners were outsideof my door having a lesson on Green Eggs and Ham. After my second graders got in the classroom, I decided to play the song from Seussical, "Green Eggs and Ham" for the second graders and the kindergartners. The kindergartners all came into my room and we listened to the song. I taught the words to the children, and they all sang it. It was a lot of fun for all of us.

burkhead-practice

2010-03-04T08:44:00.000-08:00

this is a practice

farthing practice

2010-03-04T08:41:00.001-08:00

This is practice. Hope it works.

PLC Meeting Minutes 2/22

2010-02-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

Attending: Muzzy, Farthing, Pate, McCabe (arrived late), Crim, Burkhead, McKenzie

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We discussed staff development needs.

As specialists, our suggestions for professional development are as follows:
How to read and interpret data
How to incorporate reading into different specialist areas
Incorporating global awareness into lessons with and without technology
Work sessions for developing lessons using technology, global awareness, and Marzano’s strategies & Essential Questions
Time management - personal & professional

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We discussed the Paws – are Hall Paws still in effect? Who is responsible for checking on homework completion each week? Are teachers supposed to let someone (Ms. Morning?) know if the class completes homework?

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Ms. Crim discussed the career fair. It will take place in April. Ms. Crim is working with Ms. Morning and will present the plans for the career fair. So far it seems that K-2 will only go to one speaker. Some discussion was held about how many speakers grades 3 - 5 should get to see and how students should be assigned/choose their speakers.

Contact Ms. Crim if you have ideas for volunteers & ideas for the career fair.

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Ms. Muzzy discussed the use of FitKids materials to increase engagement in the classroom. (Can someone provide a link to a description of these materials?)

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Upcoming PLC topics:

3/2 - open (was supposed to be wiki/blog work session but McKenzie will be out - this session tentatively moved to 3/23)
3/9 - Reading training w/Juliet Brown
3/16 - Reading training w/Juliet Brown
3/23 - wiki/blog work session (tentative)

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Ms. McKenzie will be out on 3/2; someone needs to volunteer to record minutes.

Meeting Minutes 2/16

2010-02-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

Attending: Farthing, Burkhead, Muzzy, McKenzie, Pate, McCabe (arrived late), Morning (arrived late), Maglio (arrived late)

The lesson plans for the Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 unit will be collected. They are due to Ms. Morning on 2/26.

Ms. McKenzie introduced the specialists to the Watsons wiki. Later one of the PLC meetings will focus on specialists creating their own page for the wiki & uploading or copying & pasting their lesson plans onto their wiki page.

Ms. Farthing asked Ms. Muzzy to make a backdrop for the upcoming We Has Jazz production. Ms. McKenzie & Ms. Farthing will work together to create a flier for the program.

Reminder: bring Ms. Muzzy $1 for BUG/Terrific Kids treats.

A comprehensive needs book is supposed to be developed by March 7 (can someone elaborate on this in a comment please? I cannot remember what this was about. - MM)

Also, there was some discussion professional development needs for schools, for us in particular – stuff that will help us for tutoring; write this down in narrative form during next PLC; idea: more training for teachers on SmartTutor. Include how much time we might need for PD (ongoing, blocks of time). Think about teacher evals.

We discussed needs for reading credit (CEU's) & Juliet Brown is going to set up some trainings during PLC’s in March. Ms. Morning is going to work with Ms. Henderson to set up the SIOP trainings in the staff development registration website.

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Tentative schedule for upcoming meetings:

2/22: Discuss & write up ideas for staff development
3/2: Wiki & blog work session
3/9: Juliet Brown will come for training*
3/16: Juliet Brown will return for training*

*We will look at the balanced literacy framework and talk about questioning strategies when reading to or with students.

Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 Wiki

2010-02-16T08:08:00.000-08:00

The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 Wiki is at

http://watsonsgo2birmingham.pbworks.com

PLC Minutes for 2-9

2010-02-15T18:17:00.000-08:00

Specialists need to send their lessons for the Watsons Go to Birmingham to Ms. Morning so that they can be included in our collaborative lesson book & for the board meeting (March 9).

We will probably be alternating the 5th grade novel study each year between Maniac McGee and Watsons.

We will get reading credit for particpating in this collaborative unit.

We will also get reading credit for SIOP.

Help with We Haz Jazz – Specialists are asked to help in music on days 4, 5, 6 through Feb. 26 to help supervise/manage behavior during rehearsal (2/11, 2/12, 2/16). 5^th grade speakers will be missing specials day 4, 5, 6 this rotation and Ms. Farthing would like ALL 5^th graders to report to music from 2/22 to 2/24 and all of them except the ones in PE on 2/25.

Ms. McKenzie and Ms. Farthing will collaborate to create a flier for 5^th grade parents – We Haz Jazz will be performed on 2/26 at 1:30.

Ms. Farthing & Ms. McCabe will be reading/editing the essays for the Mary Starling Short Story essay contest. All 5^th graders will have the opportunity to write a short story.

We discussed a behavior plan for a particular student.

Piney Grove Baptist Church is collecting water to send to Haiti, and all specialists are especially encouraged to donate. Water can be dropped off in the kitchenette area off the main office.

Ms. Muzzy volunteered to pick up pencil-topper erasers & candy for the BUG treat bags (edit: please bring $1 for Ms. Muzzy).

Ms. Crim requested cover for her 1st grade coverage on Friday 2/12, and Ms. Muzzy agreed to cover.

2010-02-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

When you see this behavior:

Difficulty completing assignments

Try this accomodation:

* List and/or post(and say) all steps necessary to complete each assignment.
*Reduce the assignment into manageable sections with specific due dates.
*Make frequent checks for work/assignment completion.
*Arrange for the student to have a "study buddy" with phone number in each area.

Apologies for no minutes posted

2009-12-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry that no minutes have been posted for the past few weeks. Last week we had part 2 of SIOP training and the week before that I was out due to illness.

Suggested Classroom Accomodations for Specific Behaviors

2009-10-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

Many of you are teaching children with learning disabilities and at times struggle with how to help them be and feel successful. I will begin to post strateiges, tips and sites to go to to assist you in making your students with learning disabilites more successful. These strategies are useful with students with and without learning disabilities.

When you see this behavior:

Difficulty following a plan: sets out to get straight A's and ends up with F's (sets unrealistic goals)

Try this accommodation:

-Assist the student in setting long-range goals: break the goal into realistic parts
-Use a questioning strategy with the student: ask, what do you need to be able to do this?
-Keep asking this question until the student has reached an obtainable goal.
-Have the student set clear timelines of what she/he needs to do to accomplish each step (monitor the students progress frequently).

2009-10-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

This is a sample post.

PLC Meeting Minutes 10-20-2009

2009-10-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

Attending: Crim, Burkhead, Pate, Smith, Muzzy, McKenzie (arrived late)

We had a HYIS/SIOP (High yield Instructional Strategies / Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) overview presentation by Rosie Turner from Title I office

We received handouts of the PPT slides – see Ms. McKenzie if you would like copies.

Emphasis: strategies used to help ESL students help all students

Handouts will be posted in Learning Village and Ms. Morning will get an email copy of the PPT presentation.

There will be SIOP meetings on Nov. 24 for grades 3 – 5 and Nov. 30 for K-2.

We discussed the Marzano strategies, which are emphasized for SIOP as well, and in pairs talked about the ones that we felt were most important before sharing with the group.

One of the handouts gives a description of the LEP levels with suggestions of strategies to use with each level.

Emphasis was given to the non-linguistic representation strategy as well as similarities and differences. Those of us who were present need to register for the SIOP training – we will get credit for it.

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Our thoughts are with Ms. Farthing as she recovers from her surgery.

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If any information is incomplete or incorrect, please leave a comment on this entry and Ms. McKenzie will correct it ASAP.

PLC Meeting Minutes 10/13/09

2009-10-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

PLC Minutes 10/13/09
Present: Pate, Farthing, Crim, Muzzy, McKenzie, Burkhead (arrived late), Morning-Cain (arrived late)

We discussed using Similarities & Differences from Marzano’s strategies in our lessons.

We feel we can start using the rules that we decided on last time. We will wait til quarter change to change the rules.

Ms. Crim talked about a lesson she has done with 5th grade about respect & how a student expressed a belief that the rules are the same in specials already.

Some discussion of PBS – still in the planning/organizing process. We will have input into the PBS priority behaviors, etc. as they are developed.

Ms. McKenzie spilled the beans on the new specials rotation schedule.

Question: are the PLC minutes (from other grade levels) we are getting in our emails from current plans or past plans? We think they are current plans, but even if they are past, we can still reinforce the skills discussed.

Ms. Muzzy reminded us to turn in the write-up for the Specialist Spotlight by 10/23.

Science, Math, and Technology Curriculum Night will be 11/5. Specialists are willing to assist with SMT night depending on what is planned at SIT.

We discussed grants for the library & the formation of the MTAC committee (Pate & McKenzie will be working on this). Discussion of AR too (Michelle, please comment with the plans for AR for 2nd, 3rd, 4th quarter).

We volunteered to help Michelle with shelving & weeding the collection, or anything else she needs. We discussed recruiting more volunteers to help in the library.

Mrs. Morning presented the new six-day Encore rotation schedule that will be presented to SIT this afternoon & we discussed the benefits of this type of schedule in terms of increasing time for collaboration and for us to work with students on individual skills.

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If any information is incomplete or incorrect, please leave a comment on this entry and Ms. McKenzie will correct it ASAP.

PLC Meeting Minutes 10/6/09

2009-10-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

Attending: Maglio, Crim, Farthing, Pate, McKenzie, Smith (arrived late), Muzzy, Henderson (arrived late, left early), Burkhead, McCabe (arrived late)

Discussed:
PBS
What behaviors do we want to see school-wide? (not discussed, really, just mentioned)
How can we make rules the same for every special?
We went over our individual rules & discussed wordings for consistent rules that would cover the expectations we had in our classes based on our current rules.

Ms. Crim guided us through establishing common rules.

Suggestions:
Listen and follow directions the first time they are given.
Use only respectful words and actions towards other people and our materials.
Work cooperatively.
Raise your hand to ask or answer a question.
Move quietly around the room, and line up quietly. (Burkhead will modify given that moving quietly around the room is not something the children do most of the time in PE.)
Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself.

Discussed team roles in PBS – Ms. Crim gave us a handout with the roles listed; she can’t really explain it but she gave it to us to look over. We are part of the “Communication Coordinator” team.
Specific responsibilities suggested for Communication Coordinators from this handout (keep in mind these are for contemplation only right now - PBS is a multi-stage process and we are not at this stage yet):
Support Staff communication by newsletter & web page:
- Write PBS articles to include in the monthly school newsletter created by the newspaper committee. Coach must proofread before submitting.
- Maintain PBS section of school web page by updating monthly.
Staff meeting Information:
- PBS information for staff meeting agenda, team will create what content will be shared (5 – 10 mins)
Incentive/Communicaiton Boards:
- Create & update (monthly) a Parent PBS board
- Createa lounge bulletin board with a section for data, weekly super skills and expectation reminders (at beginning of year, both lounges)
- Create a PBS teacher incentive board (at beginning of year)
- Maintain PBS Bulletin Boards
Signs:
- Post weekly super skills and expectation reminders for the specific areas we are targeting in both lounges.
- Create and hang signs throughout the building that focus on targeted skills and are tied to the school-wide expectations. Signs should be big, bold and simple with consistent language throughout the building
Lesson Plan Coordinator
- Remind staff of the lesson plan schedule via emails and announcements
- Update lesson plans as needed
Incentive Directors:
- Keep up with student incentive program
- Keep student incentives supplied for staff
- Keep up with the staff incentive program

PBS Bulletin board: can we use one that’s already up, or do we need to put in a work order to hang one elsewhere? Ms. Farthing suggested maybe her board. Ms. Muzzy suggested using Ms. Lassiter’s board and that seemed to be the most agreeable.

Ms. Crim asked about how rewards work in class & how often rewards are given. We each shared our reward systems (please leave a comment to this blog entry with yours, specialists).

We need to just think about the common rules described above, our rules do not have to be changed this week; there will be more discussion next week. How are they worded – is that ok with you? Any suggestions? Is everything included that is important to you?

Mr. Maglio discussed using some kind of behavior documentation for regular ed teachers & for yourself & to make sure students who repeatedly misbehave – their parents are contacted, etc., before office referral. Possible consequences are period suspension (missing the special, etc.).
Consistent consequences that seemed agreeable to everyone:
After 1st class where behavior problem is experienced – documentation given to teacher & child flips card.
After 2nd class – call parent & flip card once
After 3rd class – office referral & flip card once

Ms. Muzzy will take over the Specialists’ Spotlight newsletter. She will share copies of previous newsletters with new folks so we know what to get together. Stuff for the first newsletter will be due Oct. 23 to Ms. Muzzy.

Here is a link to a past Specialist Spotlight newsletter for those of us who are new and have not seen one before:

http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/education/components/docmgr/download.php?sectiondetailid=55063&fileitem=20945

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If any information is incomplete or incorrect, please leave a comment on this entry and Ms. McKenzie will correct it ASAP.

PLC Minutes from 9/30 meeting

2009-10-01T04:42:00.000-07:00

Specialists are required to turn in lesson plans. They are due Mondays by 4:30 pm. They do not have to follow the template that we were given, but should include the elements of it.

Ms. Morning let us know that 4th graders need reinforcement in nutrition and 5th graders need reinforcement in ecosystems. Maree will post links to websites that include information on ecosystems and science education in general.

Collaboration with core teachers seems to be improving, but can still improve.

Ms. Eure is encouraged to collaborate with grade level teachers on report cards/grading based on the specific skills and activites that she is teaching.

The next SIT meeting is 10/13; the date was changed because the Title I team is coming on the regular SIT meeting date. SIT will be discussing plans for curriculum nights and specialists are encouraged to share ideas.

There will be a technology night on 11/5. Ms. Morning-Cain is going to be meeting with members of AKA at a nearby university to work out volunteers who might be able to teach some sessions on things like texting. She will meet with their graduate advisee on the evening of 10/1. We also want to have at least 1 Wii there and Ms. McKenzie will be contacting local video/game rental stores to see about renting. Ms. McKenzie also offered the use of her PS2 & DDR. Ms. Morning would also like to see something done with Tweeting. Suggestions were to have stations set up throughout the school and have parents/visitors rotate throughout.

Book fair week is Nov. 2 - 6 - Specialists should plan to help during their off time. Book fair night is 11/5 and volunteers are needed. PTA will provide some volunteers that night & throughout the week.

Behavior in specialists' classes is still mixed. We are meeting with individual teachers to discuss things like seating charts, and taking initiative to call parents when necessary.

Ms. Morning suggested specialists go around to classes in the morning and do random spot checks of percentage of homework completion; Classes with 100% homework completion can earn a paw. Kindergarten classes are still lower on paws than other classes.

We are moving to the PBS behavior model. There is a training 10/1 and 10/2; 1 rep from each team is going. Ms. Crim is going to represent specialists since the guidance counselor needed to go anyways and that would reduce the number of specialists out. Maree will find a link for PBS to put here soon.

Following up from last PLC meeting, the 5th grade poetry project did not work out due to a lack of time.

We are going to participate in a reading program in conjunction with WFU. Students can earn rewards involving attending a basketball game for free and/or getting to go down to the court for reading 15 or 20 books. Ms. Pate, can you comment with more info on this?

Wake Up the Library, a 5K run / 1 mi run/walk was discussed; staff are encouraged to register and participate.

Ms. Farthing inquired as to what support we can be giving core teachers at this time; no concrete suggestions were offered except to be emotionally supportive / allow teachers to bounce ideas off us, etc.

We need ideas for 2 curiculum nights coming up in the spring. Can we do a specialists night?

Ms. Jones emailed in saying that she enjoyed doing the Specialists Spotlight newsletter last year. The general consensus was that we would like to continue it this year; further discussion will be held at the next PLC meeting.

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Edited by Ms. McKenzie to add: Here are the science links from the 5th grade science content session held at the central office that Ms. Morning gave me. Most are good for teacher planning, but there are a couple that might be good for students to visit.

DPI K-5 Science units: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/science/units

Released Sample EOG Items: http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/accountability/testing/eog/science/

Comprehensive view of ecosystems: http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9j.html

Innovative resources across many areas including science: http://school.discovery.com/info/aboutus.html

Ecosystems and their interrelationships among various plants and animals: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/taiga/taiga.shtml

Information about ecosystems and other topics: http://www.fi.edu/tfi/units/life/habitat/habitat.html

Supports NCSCOS in Science: http://www.nckidscience.com

Awareness of how animals and plants interact with their environment: http://www.nhptv.org/natureworks ** This one seems to be a good one for students

Subjects & activities related to science & other curriculum areas: http://www.uncw.edu/smec/gk_fellows/lessonplans.html

Know more about a particular animal and its adaptive characteristics: http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/animals

2009-09-18T21:07:00.001-07:00

Maree,
You are doing such a good job.

Mrs. Monring

Meeting Minutes 9/15

2009-09-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

PLC Mtg. 9/15/09
Attending: Morning-Cain, Henderson, Crim (left at 11:35), McCabe (arrived late), Burkhead, Pate, Shrum, Farthing, McKenzie (arrived late).

Ms. Morning discussed # of observations, formative vs. summative

For people getting summative evaluations:

There will be a pre-conference; you need to have the TE Self-Assessment completed before this pre-conference & no later than 9/20; print one out for your observing administrator & save it online for yourself. Pate/McKenzie/Crim will not do this because they are on a different type of observation format.

At pre-conference, 1st observation will be set – it will be a formal observation. If your administrator is Ms. Morning, she will discuss teaching practices with you, including things like how you group students, what your teaching strategies are.

After the first observation, then you will have a post-conference to discuss 1st observation & self-assessment. IGP goals will be set collaboratively during the post-conference. The IGP will be turned into administrators.

For people who are on formative assessments, Mr. Maglio will meet with you to set IGP goals. He may or may not observe you before you set IGP goals. If you are on Ms. Morning’s list, she *will* observe you before setting IGP goals with you. Formative people still have to do self-assessment before 9/30.

Be collecting evidence for the teacher eval & for your IGP throughout the year. Collect evidence of collaborating with each other.

Ms. Morning discussed specific examples of evidence that could be used for each point of the teacher evaluation form. Suggested: keep records of meetings that are held for specific areas or projects, emails and meeting minutes, work samples from students, and there are more examples at the bottom of page 21 of the self-evaluation form.

Ms. Morning suggests that we will need to provide extra support to core classroom teachers for standard 2 of the evaluation.

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Reviewed mission statement. We need to type the mission statement and send it to the leadership team and post it on our doors.

Meeting times were set as from 11:15 to 12:00.

Ms. Farthing brought up the 5th grade poetry project and some discussion was had about having 5th grade do this in conjunction with Ms. Farthing – but it’s due in 2 weeks. Ms. McCabe talked about her experiences with doing the poetry project at Konnoak. Ms. Farthing, do you have a link to info about this? The poems are due 9/25. Ms. Farthing gave the info to Ms. Morning to share with the 5th grade teachers.

Last, Ms. McKenzie showed this blog which was set up for us to share info and to collaborate. Please see her if you have questions or difficulties with it.

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If any information is incomplete or incorrect, please leave a comment on this entry and Ms. McKenzie will correct it ASAP.

Meeting Minutes 9/9

2009-09-16T07:58:00.001-07:00

This is where the minutes for our 9/9/2009 meeting will go.

Specialists PLC Meeting Minutes Form

2009-09-15T11:00:00.001-07:00

Specialists--Feel free to comment on any changes that might enhance our PLC Minutes Form.

North Hills Elementary PLC/Specialist meeting Sheet

Date_____________ PBS: (__ min.):

Chairperson_____________________ Are the students motivated?
Weekly Target: (Objective)
Announcements: (3 min) T1: ______________________
T2: ______________________
T3: ______________________

Collaboration (____ min.): If not, how will they become motivated?
Share Best Practices/ Activities:
What do the specialists need to know?
Weekly Target:
T1: __________________________
T2: __________________________
T3: __________________________
T4: __________________________ Where are the most discipline problems
occurring?
Sharing of ideas, strategies &
How will the specialists find out? Resources:
Share Best Practices/ Activities:

What will we do if they don’t find out? How will we know if it is working?
Weekly Assessment
T1: ______________________
T2: ______________________
T3: ______________________

How will we know if we accomplished our goal?
Weekly Assessment
T1: _________________________
T2: _________________________
T3: _________________________
T4: _________________________

Reading Integration: (__ min):

What reading skills need to be reinforced?
Weekly Target: (Objective)
T1: ________________________
T2: ________________________
T3: ________________________
T4: ________________________

How will they be reinforced?
Share Best Practices/ Activities:

How will we know if reinforcement is working?
Weekly Assessment:
T1: ________________________
T2: ________________________
T3: ________________________
T4: ________________________

Issues (Questions, concerns for the Leadership team) (3 min)
____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

What great things are happening? What are some opportunities for improvement? (5 mins)

Plus Delta

North Hills Specialists Mission Statement

2009-09-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

The mission of the specialists at North Hills Elementary School is to collaborate with each other and other staff members to extend, encourage, enhance, and enrich students' learning experiences.

2009-09-14T18:47:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the North Hills Elementary School Specialists' Blog!