PLC Meeting Minutes 4-14

Our PLC meeting last week was cancelled.

---

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.

----

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

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

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

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

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.

---

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

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.

---

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

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)