Kofa Professional Development

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Cambridge Update and Information

There are two specific items to share with you today: 1) The Science courses for our Freshmen beginning next year in the Cambridge curriculum will be the BIOLOGY curriculum. There has been study in the district looking at Coordinated Science, 21st Century Science and Biology. All certainly have merit in their own right. For our district, at this time, BIOLOGY will be the selected curriculum. 2) World History Training will be in May rather than the April 28,29,30 dates. This is a logistical issue for trainers, nothing more. g

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Campus Expectations 2011-2012

While we have our current year of teaching and planning, we have already begun our shift into the 2011-12 school year. Cambridge, Master Schedule, Elective Programs, etc. are all being discussed and set up for the most successful opportunities possible for students and teachers.

It is no secret that I believe without discipline and common expectations, the stuff we know and teach will not meet the potential with our students. In a world of high expectations, we MUST provide a disciplined, safe environment for our students.

The team of adults at Kofa High School is a large one. If one of us does not support the whole, it weakens our team.

A small group of teachers have been meeting with Mr. Keegan in an effort to establish campus expectations that will be common among all of us. From that we hope to move towards classroom expectations that support our overall mission.

I will be posting their recommendations for you.

#1 ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITY

Students will come to class prepared for the day's academic challenges.
Evidence: All students will carry binder to class.

Ideas: Binders will be specifically organized at the Freshman levels. This will be a "taught" skill and requirement in all freshman courses. The Freshman teams will agree upon the order of the binder and will support the development throughout the year.

All other grade levels will have organzied binders. Teachers who wish to move forward in the development and expectation would need to form a teacher team that would bring the ideas to the teachers for discussion.

#2 SOCIAL RESPECT

Students will demonstrate respect in their campus surroundings.

Evidence: All students will participate with their classroom teacher in cleaning a part of the campus as assigned on a weekly basis.

Idea: Ms. Leenerts has a proposal to present to our teachers on this idea.

#3 BEHAVIOR / INTEGRITY

All students will demonstrate personal integrity and appropriate behavior.

Evidence: All students will abide by the code of conduct. All teachers will enforce the code of conduct equally. All athletes will dress appropriately daily as well as dressing as directed by their coach for "game day".

ISSUES the Campus Expectations Team has discussed in addition to putting forth these suggestions:

$$ for campus cleaning materials

The faculty must be able to TEACH, MODEL and ENFORCE the student code of conduct and agreed upon expectations.

The lack of enforcement by all teachers for simple expectations makes life tough for the teachers who do it.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Questions from Kofa Cambridge Presentation

Well, first of all...MY FIRST BLOG EVER! I'm actually nervous about this, but thankful it's to the Kofa family who will "forgive" the rookie and any unknowing bad Blogging manners! Below are the questions that were submitted after the planning period informational session on Cambridge. As answers are "discovered", or if my answers need to be "changed", they will be added here! Happy Blogging! ********** How does this affect Health and PE? At this time, Health and PE will not be affected. Students still need the required electives by Board Policy. In addition, Health and PE are important aspects of our curriculum. Our teachers becoming increasingly adept at cognitive skills that can be supported in PE, for example journaling, logging of data, measurement, and organizational skills. Our PE department is not a traditional department in its offerings. They work together to provide a curriculum that students CHOOSE to take in their coursework. Will the district create a final exam in addition to the Cambridge exam? If so, which will be administered on final exam day? Although final exams have not been discussed specifically, Common Assessments and Exams will continue for our students and teachers in order to assess student achievement. How are we addressing the fact that our textbooks will be obsolete? I am waiting to see the resources that are a part of the curriculum. Will Cambridge teachers be given more copy allotments? At Kofa High School, we do not make copies for the sake of making copies. In an effort to preserve our environment and resources we have made a conscious effort to steer away from copies and become more efficient in our manner of offering curriculum If copies are necessary we will make them. If equally or more efficient means of operating for student achievement are viable, that is what I would expect. Often times, many options of "copies" are due to poor planning or rushed need. Plan for success and conserve resources just as you would in your own home. Is there a possibility for Collaboration Pay? It is rumored to exist (but we remember what Gina says about rumors, right?). I have not ever heard of "collaboration pay". Collaboration is mandatory as we move into a 21st century learning culture. Quite honestly, it will be part of who we are regardless of pay. Collaboration and working together will be mandatory simply due to the fact that education has changed and the best teaching now happens in working with one another collaboratively on planning and planned assessments. As we move into major accountability for educators at local, state and federal levels, I would think we would be moving quickly into sharing, planning, and working together simply to keep our positions in education . What are we going to do about SPED students who are at a low reading level? What are we going to do about all students at a low reading level? What are we going to do about teachers not prepared for this type of curriculum? What are we going to do about administrators who aren't trained in blogging???? Folks, we do the same thing we always do...WE TEACH.

WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT WE ARE ALL READING TEACHERS. Then we are going to find the best, most effective strategies out there and USE them in our classrooms. We are going to learn from AVID. We are going to change up the way we do things. We are going to teach our kids to read and build in support for all students, teachers and administrators! :)

Is there a possibility of a modified block? The cool thing about Kofa is there are always possibilities. This type of schedule move would have to be a teacher group initiative, with discussion and collaboration for us all. I would not support a move into a modified block without that collaboration and consensus. Personally as an educator, I would LOVE to explore the possibility. But I also know that change is difficult yet constant. Is there still room for the Fine Arts for Freshmen? There will not be aFINE ARTS portion in our curriculum for 2011-2012, but it will continue to be looked at for future. Can I get a copy of the power point? We will post it to our PD Website. Is there a possibility for Mobile Labs? We have two currently at Kofa. They were purchased with ARRA grant funds. With the lack of capital budget due to legislative cuts in education, grants would be the only possibility in the near future for us to fund more Mobile Labs. How does this affect STEAM ? STEAM is not a Kofa initiative, but the Cambridge curriculum will be used at all schools for all Freshmen programs. I do not believe a curriculum such as Cambridge would do anything but ENHANCE student achievement in any program. What if a 9th grader comes in as a math "whiz" and is above the level of Cambridge? First we celebrate! Then we find a "whiz" of a program. This student and family would be invited to learn all about Move On When Ready and the Board Examination System and decide the best path for that student.