Almost done with month one

High School:

• Worked on my department weekly update – added information about Somerset County's Journey Through the Past weekend and a C-SPAN contest for students.
• Joined the Sunshine Club.
• Had my printer hooked up by a computer tech.
• Met with a teacher who was looking for additional resources.
• Reviewed lesson plans.
• Hung some photos to jazz up the boring walls.
• Met with a teacher who helps copy electronic materials for the department. Unfortunately, the computer he uses seems to be on the fritz so we were brainstorming possible solutions.
• Tried to upload the 21^st Century Skills and Careers standards that apply to high school teachers to Google Docs for staff use.
• Authorized a few purchases.
• Met with a secretary and the principal to talk about a previously unknown student activity count for social studies that has over $1000 in it.
• Worked on the 10/11 high school department meeting agenda.
• Spoke with one of the vice principals about ScanTron test form ordering.
• Worked on an e-mail to the district REACH teachers telling them they are not going to get meeting time reintroduced to their schedule as they requested.
• Met with the supervisor of world languages and ESL for an interesting personal/professional chat.
• Informally observed the only two teachers I hadn't seen yet.

 

Board Office:

• Began dealing with a REACH student issue. An 8^th grade teacher wants to remove the student from class. Because testing identified the student as REACH there is a process to go through for such a change. It is not a simple schedule adjustment like it would be at the high school. It seems the teacher has not even contacted the parents yet to indicate a potential problem. We scheduled a face-to-face meeting for tomorrow to discuss the situation. I also spoke with the student's guidance counselor on the phone.
• Began researching disability insurance.
• Finished typing up the 21^st Century Skills and Careers standards and Common Core Standards for Literacy in the Social Studies.
• Requested a quote for another middle school resource for REACH teachers.

LOOOOONG meetings today

More than half of my day today was devoted to the monthly supervisors/principals meetings. The district supervisors sit in a conference room at the Board office and every hour a different level principal comes in for a meeting. It is a necessary process to keep communication open, but it takes a long time - nearly 5 hours today.

 

Board Office:

• Principals/Supervisors Meeting.
• Responded to follow-up e-mail about the issue of women in Islam in grade 8 class from last week.
• Approved invoice for the purchase of books related to REACH for grade 7-8 teachers.
• Corresponded with a third grade teacher about the possibility of purchasing her mounted wall maps.
• Reviewed 2008-09 budget information.
• Corresponded with a high school teacher via e-mail about some needs she expressed.
• Worked on my budget for full K-12 curriculum revision including new books.
• Put my two upcoming professional days into the online attendance system.
• Added quite a bit to my slowly developing list of textbooks in use by social studies teachers throughout the district.
• Reviewed high school lesson plans.
  
  

Late Update Today

Board Office:

• Cleared e-mail (it piles up fast over the weekend!)
• Began compiling high school textbook counts for potential ordering
• Completed set up of file for secondary curriculum gap analysis
• Wrote Teaching American History grant needs statement
• Met with a former REACH teacher and current consultant to get trained on the assessments used in the district
• Proofread monthly report compiled by my secretary to be sent to the high school principal. This document requires all 21 high school teachers to e-mail summaries of what they've been doing this month.
• Previewed the novel "Middleworld." A copy of it and a CD of related materials were sent to me by the authors after I responded to an ad in Social Education last week. This could possibly be used in our middle school world history classes.
• Responded to a parent about a child who was not accepted into REACH. The parents was looking for specific testing information.
• Responded to a parent about a child who has chosen to move from AP US History to CP US History due to the work load and expectations.
• Read up a little about AP audits. This is a fairly rigorous process that must be followed by every teacher who teaches AP courses in order for the College Board to give its seal of approval to the course. Without this, most colleges will not award credits to a student.
• Read through the Gilder Lehrman Insititute of American History's quarterly journal.
• Read through the previous supervisors monthly report while putting together my own. This report summarizes everything I've done for my boss. These blogs actually came in really handy because I was able to just go through and pull things from it each day.
  
  

Already my fourth Friday

Wow! Time is flying by. It's hard to believe that I've officially been in this position for nearly a month. Unofficially, it has been even longer.

 

Board Office:

• Spent a lot of time typing in standards. I'm nearly finished with the actual social studies standards so hopefully that project will come to a close on Monday or Tuesday. My wrists will need a rest from all the typing.
• Met with a retired REACH teacher who still works with the program as a consultant and evaluator. We spent some time talking about the program and testing and he agreed to come back on Monday to spend a few hours training me so that I really know how the tests work. This should help me as we make decisions about the future of REACH and when I talk to parents about why their children did not make it in.
• Developed a schedule to observe a few of the teachers who I have yet to see at the high school.

High School:

• Observed a few more teachers informally.
• Met with a teacher who is also a union vice president. She is the most veteran member of the department so we talked about a variety of things for my benefit: history of text book decisions, district demographics, etc.

Board Office:

• Finished my weekly update. Since these e-mails get pretty long, I added in a "hidden" message. The first person to reply to the e-mail with the secret phrase would get a free copy of an awesome book about teaching history called "Lies My Teacher Told Me." I received the first handful of replies within a few minutes of sending the message. This might be something to do from time to time to keep people paying attention.
• Sent an e-mail to the REACH teacher I observed on Thursday with my initial thoughts at her request.
• Tried to find some materials for teaching World History for a new 9th grade teacher who transferred from the middle school.
• Read through the former supervisor's binder on QSAC - the state monitoring program. This is a high-stakes evaluation that occurs every three years. The State looks at all facets of the educational program including curriculum. We are up in 2011 for evaluation.
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction to talk about a laundry list of things I needed to get clarification on. This included: getting money returned for books purchased for a non-social studies class last year, scheduling REACH team meetings, getting money for the REACH consultant, creating committees for teachers, attendance at a new Community Partnership Network meeting.
  
  

I spent a lot of time at my computer in the Board Office today due to the time-consuming work of typing in new state standards so that I can begin to analyze where there are gaps in our curriculum. The existing curriculum was written in 2006 to reflect the 2004 state standards; the 2009 version of standards is dramatically different. I could probably have my secretary do this, but I think it's helpful to type it myself because then I am reading every standard and thinking about each one a bit while working.

 

Board Office:

• Sent department meeting dates to Assistant Superintendent as part of information for grievance response
• Worked on my department-wide weekly update
• Found a book to purchase for all of the middle school REACH teachers that I think will give them practical ideas for their classrooms
• Read the journal Social Education and took action on a number of things I saw in it
• Read a little bit about the QSAC monitoring that the state of New Jersey does every three years. We are due up in 2011 and it is a very important evaluation system of school districts.

Middle School:

• Met with a teacher to discuss a response to the parent e-mail about teaching about women and Islam from yesterday. The conversation went well although I still disagree with some stances the teacher is taking. He/she did agree to send the response instead of having me send it. If the parent follows up again, either the middle school principal or I will take over.

Board Office:

• Worked on standards documents and weekly update

Elementary School:

• Observed a REACH teacher providing a small group pull-out class to fourth graders and then full class instruction to second graders. As has become the norm, I was very impressed at the level of conversation among the elementary school students. The fourth graders were breaking down Gardner's multiple intelligences theory, which most teachers first encounter in 400-level college classes. Wow!
• Met with the principal. He immediately suggested a lack of resources in social studies in an area where my predecessor spent a few thousand dollars last year so that was not a good start. When I got back to my office, I reviewed the materials and then sent an e-mail to the grade-level teachers who were concerned asking them to invite me to visit and work together on how best to use the materials.

Board Office:

• Continued working on standards documents, not only in social studies but also in literacy and 21st century careers and skills - all areas that social studies teachers are now required to address.
  
  

Some More Firsts

High School:

• Submitted a work order to get the printer to work with my computer again.
• Reviewed summer reading assignment and teacher responses to my e-mail from yesterday about maintaining the deadline. I also went around talking to teachers. It seems that only one person was doing some other than the stated deadline.
• E-mailed an elementary principal about social studies-based books for literacy classes.
• Cleared email
• Observed a few teachers
• Read through information about the Teaching About Asia program at Princeton University. I did this last year and now I can recommend some of my teachers to go as well.
• Read through some Board policies
• Reviewed new 100 hour professional development requirements from the State
• Worked on budget analysis
• Reviewed a concern shared by a middle school parent about a specific point a teacher made about the status of women living under Islam. This led to conversation with the teacher and the principal because this is a noteworthy parent. Will be meeting with the teacher tomorrow to more carefully plan a response.
• Reviewed state standards
• Read a lot of articles about the teaching of religion as part of my background research on the parent concern.
• Attended a high school supervisors' meeting

Board Office:

• Attended a meeting with other district supervisors about a grievance filed by the teachers' union about meeting requirements. Although I don't think I am responsible for what they are bringing up, it was labeled as against all district supervisors and elementary principals.
• Spoke with the Assistant Superintendent about elementary books (parent contact from yesterday) and the teaching about religion issue
  
  

New Challenges

Today was a day of new challenges, at least in the afternoon. A few situations came up that I was unprepared to handle. I imagined this would be the way things would develop. When a new issue arises, I figure out how to handle it and tackle it.

 

High School:

• Reviewed lesson plans
• Informally observed four teachers. I am down to just a few more to go before I've seen all middle and high school teachers.
• Spoke with a representative from American Institute of History Education about our Teaching American History grant research. He seems to think we are in a good position right now with the quality and quantity of research I have done.
• Reviewed more lesson plans

Board Office:

• Sent a message to former supervisor about the potential of Hillsborough inviting representatives of the IEEE (Rutgers University engineering) into world history classrooms to tie technology into social studies. This would continue a previous pilot program.
• Cleared e-mail that was starting to pile up.
• Worked on finishing the master department schedule.
• Began working on elementary social studies gap analysis. This is a labor intensive project where I look at every standard (hundreds of them) adopted in 2009 by the state to determine which ones our existing curriculum (last revised in 2006) alread meet and where there are gaps for us to fix during the next revision.
• New Issue - discrepancies among USII teachers about summer reading requirements. I spoke with the English department supervisor, reviewed the assignment posted on the district website and did some of my own reflecting. The conflict is due to the fact that some teachers are extending the deadline by a month while others are sticking to the original due date. My position is that we cannot extend the deadline for some students and not for others when we posted clear expectations before the summer.
• New Issue - a fourth grade parent sent an e-mail of concern about the the age of the book used in his son's class (1997 copyright). He wanted to know when we'd be getting new books and what materials are made available to teachers in the meantime up to date and adequate information.
• Met with my secretary to review budget information again. I have to write the 2011-12 budget in October and I have to spend the 2010-11 money ASAP before it gets frozen to save money. This is rumored to take place in January.
• Sent an e-mail to the elementary REACH teachers in response to their request for more money to buy supplies. My position here is that they already received more money per person than other teachers last spring and those supplies should still be available since they didn't arrive until May.
  
  

Second Department Meetings

Today was a busy day with high school and middle school department meetings. To accomodate the high school staff members who coach, I held a 7am meeting (1 hour before the start of my day) for those people who have other after-school obligations. This is a great thing! In my previous teaching life, coaches just didn't come to meetings at all. This shows dedication on the part of the 5 people who came in early to stay on top of department happenings.

 

High School:

• Held department meeting with 5 coaches. The meeting went quickly and I think it went well. They gave some supportive feedback about lesson plan material I was presenting with hesitation and seemed excited about the TAH grant information I shared.

Middle School:

• Like the first meeting, the middle school department meeting went very well. There are only 9 people in the department and that helps a lot I think. Most of the meeting was devoted to teachers reflecting on the change to REACH. Although they are doing more work, staff seemed upbeat and excited about the opportunity. I like this department a lot!

Board Office:

• I finished the press release for the elementary Constitution plays and sent it out. There are now two articles I've written on the district website. http://www.hillsborough.k12.nj.us/hillsborough/site/default.asp
• Reviewed the 2009 state standards for social studies in preparation for a curriculum revision meeting.
• Spent 2-3 hours in a curriculum revision meeting. The issue is that we are required by law to align all of our curricula to the new state standards. Those standards were adopted in 2009 or 2010 depending on content area and are required to be implemented by 2011 or 2012 depending on content area. The major issue is that this is at the same time as huge budget cuts. There are fewer staff available, the staff still here is stretched thin and there is very little money to pay people to write curriculum. The thought of purchasing new books to match new curriculum is hard to even comprehend. So we spent a lot of time discussing how to do all of this 1) legally or 2) on a reasonable time line. I now have to put together a cost analysis for social studies in about 10 days.

High School:

• Reviewed lesson plans
• Held the full high school department meeting. This went less well than the morning version. Teachers were not happy about the lesson plan format information I was presenting. The main point of contention was the idea that they should be linking their lessons to not only social studies standards but also to standards for technology, 21st century skills and careers, and other disciplines. I understand the frustration and things never got out of hand, but it was not a lot of fun. The discussion about the TAH grant was fruitful however. In fact, one staff member is a reviewer for the grant program so his input will be extremely valuable.
• Discussed independent study idea with a few teachers and I think we came to a common understanding of what independent study is and what it is not.
• Worked on the department master schedule.
  
  

Finishing the second week

I was much more tired as the second week came to a close than I was after week one. I guess having five full days will do that to you!

 

Board Office:

• Reviewed program of studies and honors criteria in preparation for my student newspaper interview and because I need to know the information
• Updated the REACH website
• Completed department meeting agendas for the high school and middle school for Monday
• Attended an improptu meeting with the science supervisor and the assistant superintendent for curriculum due to an elementary school principal's request that those subjects be cut down by 10 minutes a day next year. Currently science + social studies (1 period) happens for 30 minutes per day. This is an area I know little about but one that I will have to get involved with. Due to more and more intense scrutiny being placed on math and literacy results on standardized tests at all grades from 3-8, teachers and principals wind up focusing all of their attention on those subjects. My contention is that we should be teaching literacy skills in the context of social studies.
• Worked on my schedule for next week

Elementary School:

• Attended fourth graders performance of a play about the Constitution in honor of Constitution and Citizenship Day. It started as two of the students greeted me in the school office and walked me to their classroom. Then the students dutifully repeated after their teacher, "Hello Mr. Mingle." The class was divided into four groups; each one performed in a different first grade classroom. Although I doubt the first graders understood anything, the performers did a great job. Many of them memorized their lines and they used inflection and emotion to a degree I wouldn't have expected. Once all the groups got back to their classroom, they went up to a class constitution they wrote to sign it. Once I got back to my office later on, I called the parents of the greeters to compliment the boys on how well they did.

Intermediate School:

•  I bounced around to four different classes in grades five and six to see how they were covering Constitution Day. There was a wide variety of approach, expectation, and performance. One section was REACH and there was a noticeable difference between the students there and their peers next door. I need to investigate more to figure out how much of that has to do with actual ability and how much has to do with teacher expectation.

Board Office:

• Sent out weekly update to district social studies staff
• Forwarded a press release about the distance learning event to the person responsible for such things
• Met with the assistant business administrator and someone in payroll to get my paycheck details fixed
• Began digging into previous budgets to make some decisions
  
  

E-mail-A-Friend: MONTGOMERY: School board replaces staff

Story:
MONTGOMERY: School board replaces staff

   MONTGOMERY — The Board of Education made a few last-minute hires at the end of last week in anticipation of the impending school year, which started Monday.

   Superintendent Earl Kim said the special meeting was held Sept. 3 because another meeting was needed before the start of the year. Several district employees resigned to take posts in other districts, he explained, and while those resignations were anticipated, in some cases the board had to wait to act.

For more of this story, click on or type the URL below:

http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2010/09/09/the_princeton_packet/news/doc4c895bc8b86d8785456937.txt

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First Back-to-School Night

I spent the entire day today at the high school. I was way behind on my goal of observing every teacher there so part of my goal for the day was to get into some more classrooms. I did find myself hesitating as I neared certain classrooms. There are some teachers who have I not even had a conversation with yet. We met during the first department meeting, but that's it. As a result, I don't really know them by face so I am worried about walking into a classroom and watching some English teacher for a few minutes without even realizing it. Oh well, this is something I have to get over!

 

• Cleaned up e-mail
• Read through program of studies in order to prepare for a student newspaper interview about honors criteria
• Began working on a press release for a distance learning activity with the National Constitution Center. I finished the release later in the day after the event took place.
• Observed 4 teachers
• Met with the direct of guidance (and later the principal) to talk about independent study. This is an option for students for three reasons: 1) extended or enriched independent study, 2) community service, 3) career exploration. What I found on the three students' requests that came to me was that the students did not think through their applications. Because students earn academic credit, I believe this should be something they take seriously and includes some kind of assessment to determine whether they learned anything from the experience. I am going to send an e-mail to the cooperating teachers and maybe talk to them at next week's department meeting before I approve these independent studies.
• Attended the National Constitution Center distance learning event. One teacher put this together on short notice as a favor for a friend that works in the education department of the NCC. She was able to get 7 students involved. All of these students prepared for the discussion by completing some things for homework to help them answer the question, "Are the principles of the U.S. Costitution reflected in your school?" I was able to sit in with the students as they prepared with their teacher and while they were talking with students from Miami, Philadelphia and Ft. Buchanan in Puerto Rico. They had a great time! Unfortunately problems with the technology on our end obstructed the experience to some degree and we had to quit early, but it was a good first foray into distance learning for me, this teacher, and all 7 students.
• Read through some articles from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
• Sat for an interview with a senior writer from the school newspaper. They are writing about all new school staff members. She was well-prepared and recorded everything to make it easier to go back later. We even had a chance to chat about the paper, which was nice. I don't think I answered her questions very well actually so we'll see how I look when the issue comes out.
• I went home for a few hours and then came back for back-to-school night. I didn't really have any responsibilities at the event. Teachers handle their own classes and building administrators handle the organization, but I thought it would be good to make an appearance. I spent most of the time talking with the assistant superintendents, high school administrators, and a couple other people who were mostly standing around in the commons area. It was good to make a few additional contacts and I only ended up staying until about the midway point before my boss told me I could go home.
  
  

This week is flying by!

Originally, today was set aside for meetings with all the principals in the districts throughout the day. That meeting was cancelled last minute so I had a completely free day in my schedule. Hopefully I put it to pretty good use!

 

Board Office:

• Organize office, empty inboxes, etc.
• Schedule a visit to an elementary school to see 4th graders perform a play about the Constitution for 1st graders
• Create a schedule to visit all of the middle school teacher I have yet to see
• Send an e-mail to a REACH parent with a summary of the student's Iowa scores
• Read Iowa and COGAT score reports so that I have a better understanding of what they mean
• Update district holidays in Outlook
• Get excited at the new $ amount that was deposited in my checking account for my first supervisor paycheck
• Analyze some purchase orders as part of figuring out budgets
• Talk with the science supervisor about a range of things including monthly reports we have to file with the assistant superintendent

Middle School:

• Observed 6 teachers for 1/2 period each. I saw a wide variety of teaching styles and activities and was impressed by the strong common elements in the content being covered from class to class. I have now seen all 9 middle school teachers and they seem really genuine in their appreciation for my stopping by.

Board Office:

• Follow up on independent study issue from yesterday after talking with other supervisors and deeming the proposals lacking. This included scheduling a meeting with the director of guidance at the high school, e-mailing counselors and teachers
• Worked on agendas for middle and high school department meetings
• Browsed some electronic files on a shared administrative drive
• Worked on the REACH and Social Studies websites
• Read through high school teacher teaching preference forms from the end of last school year to see how close their actual schedules are to what they requested
• Spent time discussing lesson plans from a philosophical standpoint with the math supervisor and read through lesson plans from last year to get an idea of whether my expectations are too high.
  
  

A Day on the Campaign Trail

Last Sunday, I spent a day working on Democrat Ed Potosnak’s campaign to represent the 7th district of New Jersey in the US House of Representatives. I wrote last month about my ill-fated attempt to volunteer once before. This time, I was Ed’s “body man.” This meant that I drove him from stop to stop, walked with him wherever he went, interacted with constituents, signed people up for the mailing list, handed out literature, and met lots of important people along the way. It was a long, long day, but I had a great time. I had hours of one-on-one time with the candidate and we talked very openly about his ideas and my input was valued. In the end, he wound up suggesting changes to an upcoming press release based on our discussion.
Anyway, here’s the day:
7:15 Pick Ed up in Somerset
This almost started out badly as no one answered the door when I got there. On the way to our first stop of the day we got to know each other a bit. The weather was clear to begin but the forecast was gloomy.
8:00 Church Service at Bethany Baptist Church in Newark
This was potentially the most awkward stop of the day. This predominately African-American church is not even in the 7th district, but the pastor is an important community leader. Dr. Howard is a veteran of the civil rights movement and he and Ed have met to talk about issues before. Ed and I were two of the three white people in attendance.
I have to say that this was one of my best church-going experiences ever. The people were genuinely excited to have us there. I think I shook the hand of nearly every person present for the service. The pastor recognized Ed and “his assistant” from the pulpit.
The only negative part of the experience was that it started raining while we were inside.
9:55 Diner Stop at White Diamond Diner in Clark
This was the first real campaign stop of the day. Ed bought me breakfast and we were there long enough for the tiny diner to turn over 2-3 times. He walked up to every person there and introduced himself, talked about his campaign, and answered questions. Most people were polite and no one really seemed upset about being interrupted while eating breakfast surprisingly. The problem was most of the people were not actually from Clark and so Ed took to asking their hometown at the beginning so as not to waste anyone’s time if they were not potential voters/constituents.
11:10 Union County Musicfest in Clark
Unfortunately, the turnout for this event was quite small due to the heavy rain. We were told by people who had been there the day before that it was packed during the beautiful weather. This is a pretty big concert event with national acts like Soul Asylum and Train playing for free. We did meet with quite a few people including one guy who was a huge supporter already and another guy who told us that he has worked on a number of Democratic campaigns previously. He offered to help out on this one too.
I met a legislative aide for a state senator. Although I didn’t meet the senator himself this was an interesting conversation. He asked if I was Ed’s chief of staff so either congressional candidates have really young staffs or I looked older than usual.
13:05 Clark Oktoberfest at Deutscher Club Park in Clark
This event was a little more peppy than the previous since it was under pavilion cover. There was live music, flowing beer, and people dancing. We met another random campaign person here who designs campaign literature for Republicans throughout the country. In fact, she designed the mailings for one of the primary challengers of Leonard Lance (sitting Congressman in the district).
Although Ed’s disarming ways kept people happy, when he sent me to make first contact with some of the crowd, I was not as successful. A few people wouldn’t even take the flyer and one guy seemed like he was going to bite my face off.
14:30 New Jersey Democratic State Committee Picnic at Burkes Park in Sayreville
This was another out-of-district stop, but it was an important place to meet party leaders from across the state. In fact, as we got there we ran into Senator Bob Menendez whom Ed needed to ask for campaign funds. I met a lot of important people including the state party chair, the party leader from Hillsborough (who sent me a follow-up e-mail to try to get me involved locally), and others. It was interesting being in a crowd of people who automatically supported Ed because of party affiliation. Most of the morning was spent talking to random people, many of whom were Republicans. Although no one was vicious, there were uncomfortable moments when meeting someone who refused to talk to Ed simply because of party label. There was nothing of the sort at picnic.
We also had a nice barbeque lunch. Ed had a couple beers, but I thought I should refrain since I still had a full day of driving him around ahead of me.
16:05 Somerville Jazz Festival at Somerset County Courthouse in Somerville
This was the “hometown” stop of the day for me. Somerville also lies outside the district, but it is surrounded by towns that are in the district (Manville, Bridgewater, Hillsborough) so the thinking was that lots of in-district people would be present. This was probably the most unsuccessful stop of the day. Most of the people we approached were from far outside the district (New York mostly) and the rest were extremely local (Somerville). We did talk with a couple at the end of the visit who were clearly Republican but willing to deliberate. Ed’s responses to all of their questions were reasoned and logical, he drew some of our car talks into his answers and made me a part of the discussion, and in the end I think he might have earned their vote…or at least their legitimate consideration.
17:15 Michael Pock and John Graf for Bedminster Council Fundraiser at private home in Bedminster
This was the only fundraiser of the day and it wasn’t even for Ed; instead it was for two local candidates for town council. One of them, John Graf, was actually the first choice for officiate Ali and my wedding. The only reason we didn’t go with him was because he was already booked for that day.
This event was on the 130-acre (yes, you read that correctly) estate of a nice couple. The property included a horse barn, guest house, pool, basketball and tennis courts, etc. It was finished in 1929 so it reflects the height of the ‘20s extravagance just before the bottom fell out.
We arrived as all the candidates made speeches and Ed was the closer. He seemed to impress the local and county party leadership. I talked with a full-time employee of the county party and the person leading the local community campaigns. We enjoyed some food and drink (again, I refrained from the alcohol) and chatted with the guests. I obtained lots of contact information for campaign updates and, more importantly from a crowd like this, possible donors.
This was the only stop where I really had to work to keep Ed on time. I reminded him a few times that we had to get going, but there were a lot of important people to talk to so he had trouble breaking away.
18:55 Cranford 9/11 Remembrance Service at First Presbyterian Church of Cranford in Cranford
The final stop of the night was an interfaith service to remember the six victims of the attacks of 9/11 who hailed from Cranford. Young family members of the deceased performed music or read poetry as part of the service. At the end of the inside portion, the entire massed group walked by candlelight across the street to the community’s 9/11 memorial for a final word. The memorial was made up of six stone pillars, each with a nameplate of one of the victims. The family members in attendance brought candles to the pillars of their loved one – very moving.
This was not a campaign stop where we talked to people and handed out literature, but we did meet two county freeholders and some local officials.
On the way back to Somerset, we had to make a pit stop to pick up some campaign information in North Plainfield. Ed seemed gracious for the 14 or so hours I put in throughout the day and I felt like I did something meaningful and gained a lot of out it personally. He invited me to continue in this kind of role with the campaign on future weekends and if something appropriate comes along I think I may. Of course, time gets more scarce once I start judging marching band competitions in a couple weekends, but the election is rapidly approaching on November 2 and if he got elected I’d have an important connection in Washington.

Better Day Today

It felt like I got a lot accomplished today. In addition, I felt much better about morale and rapport than I did at the end of the day yesterday. Hopefully, this continues!

 

Board Office:

• Responded to a request for an interview from someone representing the high school newspaper
• Put together a proposal to get REACH teachers a meeting approximately once a month
• Reviewed middle school and intermediate school lesson plans and scheduled a few informal observations
• Updated the district REACH website
• Completed universal precautions training – this is state-mandated yearly training about what to do if a student is bleeding and stuff like that
• Worked on department meeting agendas for next week

 

High School:

• Worked on the weekly update message
• Organized my office a little bit. The office still needs a lot of work. I have mostly bare walls that need decorating!
• Met with a teacher about textbooks. He does not want to distribute books to his world history students because he doesn't really make them use them. I suggested that he offer the books to anyone who might want to study from them. While is laudable that he does not rely on the textbook as his solitary source of instruction, I am a little concerned that he never uses it. I will have to look into this a little more closely.
• Organized some things in the book/supply room
• Reviewed two independent study proposals from students looking to work with teachers in the social studies department. These were not curriculum-based. Instead the students would be aides in the classroom. One of the proposals included that the student would enter grades and assess essays of other students. This is definitely unethical and I think it violates the Family Educational Records Protection Act (FERPA). Based on feedback I got from the teacher, I requested a meeting with the director of guidance to talk about this program. If students are earning academic credit for these independent studies then we need to make it more meaningful.
• Put together a department master schedule for the high school
• Met with a social studies teacher and a technology specialist about the possibility of getting a small group of students involved in a distance learning project with the National Constitution Center on Thursday. Everything worked out throughout the course of the afternoon and so our students will be able to join students from across the country in a discussed about whether their school reflects the ideals of the US Constitution. This program is in honor of Constitution Day (Friday).

 

Board Office:

• Worked on the REACH site some more
• Read about a 9/11 service project in the local newspaper that was completed by an entire elementary school that I did not previously know about. Sent an e-mail to the teacher/principal involved congratulating them on the project and suggesting that I would have liked to have known about it when I was sending out tips for incorporating 9/11 into the curriculum.
• Enrolled the Hillsborough Township schools in a national mock election for the November congressional elections
• Had my secretary brief me on Kids Vote. This is a program run with the spring school board elections so that students have a vote to take part in alongside their parents at the polling places. It is a thinly-veiled attempt to get parents, who presumably vote yes on the school budget, to come out to the polls. This is run by my office.
• Met with the assistant superintendent. The first order of business was her apology for forgetting to tell me that I was supposed to go to the Board of Education meeting on Monday night. They introduced all new staff there. It wasn't my fault so I shouldn't feel bad about missing the meeting, but it would have been good to be present when they talked about. Second, we discussed my REACH meeting proposal. Since a meeting with all the principals in the district was postponed, this is going to have to wait. Finally, we talked about back to school night at the high school. Although there isn't really anything for me to do there, supervisors attend to offer an additional presence and perhaps to step in if any parents try to corner teachers.
• Sent out a release about the distance learning project that will be going on Thursday to high school social studies staff
• Wrote back and forth with a high school staff member about a curriculum experiment she is engaged in and the independent study issues I mentioned earlier

Tough Day

Today was another busy day and it ended in a way that made me feel uneasy and anxious. I think I got a lot of good work accomplished, but I had the feeling in the pit of my stomach that I used to get as a teacher when I knew I had to deal with a really angry parent or something.

 

High School Office:

• Conversed via e-mail with an elementary school teacher who is trying to put on a Constitution Day play on Friday.
• Reviewed high school department lesson plans.
• Observed two teachers.
• Met with a teacher who was invited to participate in a distance learning opportunity through the National Constitution Center on Thursday. This would require pulling 5-8 students out of class for part of the day, getting the technological logistic figured out, getting permission from the principal, etc. on short notice. By the end of the day all of the permission had been granted and a meeting scheduled for tomorrow to determine if the technology in the distance learning lab would allow for this to take place.
• Met with a teacher who wanted to express concern about leading a large program that involved a cooperative teaching approach with professors from the Rutgers University engineering department. These professors are piloting a program where they bring technology to students via world history. The hope is to get more people excited about science. The program is a good one, but this teacher does not want to be in charge of it like he was last year.
• Met with a teacher who was concerned about comments I made on his lesson plans. I had commented last week at the lack of detail regarding his plans. This week I asked questions about how he was going to keep students engaged during three class periods where his plans made it seem like he was just showing a movie. He indicated that he and the previous supervisor did not get along. I told him I'd come see one of his classes as he requested. Once I did that he seemed to feel better, but I am confident that my comments and questions were appropriate and were certainly not unfairly hard on him. Later in the afternoon my secretary asked me about this teacher because she was already hearing rumors that he was going around complaining that I was picking on him. It's like we are the high school students instead of the educators. This is the issue causing me angst right now. If my secretary hadn't told me about his complaining (and a lot of other personal background), I probably wouldn't be bothered by what actually happened when I spoke with him 1-on-1.

Middle School:

• Observed an 8th grade and a 7th grade REACH class and saw two ends of the spectrum. The 8th grade class had a mature discussion about 9/11 and terrorism that most high schools students would struggle to match. The 7th grade class learned how to take notes in an extremely structured way. The 8th grade class was engaged, excited, and interested. The 7th grade class was bored, tired, and compliant. Good contrast for me to see.

High School:

• Dealt with phone/e-mail messages, mostly regarding the REACH program
• Observed two more teachers

Board Office:

• Talked with REACH parents on the phone. The calls went well even though they had the potential to not go so well. One parent did tell me that she doesn't envy my position dealing with people who are upset or will be upset at changes to the program.
• Reviewed more high school lesson plans.

Finally into some classrooms

Friday was a heavy day of travel, but I was able to meet the rest quite a few people and see teachers and students engaged in learning, which is, after all, the whole point of this thing.

 

Elementary School:

• Met with 6 elementary school REACH teachers from across the district. Most of the time was spent on them trying to find common time to meet as a team. In the past, they were given a block of time in their schedules for collaboration, but that is no longer the case. My promise to them is to try to convince their principals to release them from lunch duty once or twice a month. The teachers also asked for money despite the fact that they are given more money to spend on supplies (crayons, construction paper, etc.) than any other teachers in the district so far as I can tell. I refused to commit to giving them more money until I saw whether other teachers had more pressing needs.

High School:

• Got my key card activated so I can get into the building.
• Observed a sociology class that was discussing the controversy of building the Islamic Center near Ground Zero. I was not impressed by the lesson. The teacher's incredibly relaxed and informal approach did not seem to impress the students and it almost created a dud of a class. When the time came for students to discuss their perspectives on the controversy no one would volunteer and the teacher basically gave them a free pass because it was a "sensitive issue." Finally, at the 11th hour, a student plunged in and then a lively discussion ensued. Unfortunately, the teacher seemed to have some minor misinformation as well. I left when the class transitioned into a new activity.

Intermediate School:

• I headed to the school that serves students in grades five and six to observe a social studies teacher showing approximately 50 5th graders video clips of news footage from 9/11 followed by a reading of her memoirs of the day when she was teaching in Brooklyn. I had a great time! The students were engaged, asked interesting questions (In which direction did the smoke blow? What happened to the plane when it hit the building? Who did it? Why would they do this?) and offered insightful prior knowlege that mostly began with the phrase, "My Mom told me..." The memoirs idea was most appropriate because all 5th graders write their own memoirs later in the school year so this activity modeled the practice. I gained a new appreciation for how advanced discussion of modern events can be in 5th grade.

Board Office:

• I met wth my secretary to debrief from the morning REACH meeting.
• Worked on the weekly update.

Middle School:

• I observed a 7th grade REACH/SS class. They began with a difficult quote from Mayor Bloomberg about freedom of religion and how it applies to the Islamic Center situation. Then the lesson transitioned to 9/11 more specifically. The lesson did not go exactly as the teacher planned because the students were so eager to share what they knew and ask questions. Like in the sociology class earlier in the morning, there was some misinformation here. I think teachers have difficult time saying "I don't know" and "I'll get back to you." Instead, they do the best they can and hope it's fairly close to the truth. Although I have probably been guilty of this myself, I think it is important that we show students that we are always learning too and cannot possibly have all the answers. Anyway, the discussion was really strong in the classroom and I enjoyed being there. One of the 7th graders even came up to me at the end of class to congratuate me on my promotion.

 

Intermediate School:

• I had a meeting scheduled with the two 6th grade teacher who are teaching SS and REACH (like the 7-8 grade teachers) so that I could answer their questions and provide them copies of the REACH curriculum. These were two veteran teachers who just felt a little uneasy because they weren't given much direction. I felt like I couldn't really provide them much more than they already knew, but they were so grateful for whatever I said that the meeting was clearly successful.
• Met with the 5th grade REACH teacher who actually teaches pull-out enrichment classes like the elementary schools. It turns out she used to be a People to People delegation leader so we spent some time talking about that.

Board Office:

• Finished the weekly update including resources for Constitution and Citizenship Day
• Sent in a professional day request to attend my first NJ Social Studies Supervisors' Assocation meeting in October.
• Skimmed some lesson plans for next week and worked on a schedule to observe teachers
• Began planning agenda for September 20 department meetings at high school and middle school
  

Things get busy

I originally planned to get out into classrooms on Wednesday afternoon, but that fell to the wayside due to things I had to take care of in the office. Hopefully, I'll have better luck on Friday and Monday.

 

Board Office:

• Redid some informal observation scheduling for Friday/Monday
• Followed up on some e-mails, most notably I previewed a video of news footage from 9/11 that a 5th grade teacher wants to show on Friday.
• Read late lesson plans
• Spoke with the mother of an 8th grade student who transferred to the district from Bridgewater-Raritan. She was inquiring about the process to get tested for the REACH program becaue the student was in the equivilant program there. I asked her to request the BR send us confirmation of the student's participation and I called the BR office to get that confirmation myself. Later in the day I spoke with the middle school counselor responsible for the student's schedule. I ended up approving her placement from home during Thursday's Rosh Hashanah holiday once BR sent me the information.
• Attended a meeting of all district supervisors for about 2.5 hours. We covered such a wide range of topics that it is difficult to summarize here. We discussed information about our state testing scores that will be released on Friday or Monday, planning for November in-service days, and much, much more. Maybe I'll come back to this point later on some time.
• Talked with the parent of a 3rd grade student not accepted into the REACH program. The parent wanted copies of all the student's testing information, but I spoke with the Assistant Superintendent and the policy is not to release any such information. I'm not totally sure why because it seems to me that we give the impression of hiding something when we refuse to share scores. I think the real concerns are 1) the parent can't make sense of the raw data anyway without seeing how the numbers compare to other students and 2) we don't want parents comparing students' results and using that to make some kind of argument.
• I took some time to act on items from the supervisor meeting agenda that needed my attention.
• Spoke with an elementary REACH teacher about the previous student and worked to schedule a meeting with all of the elementary REACH teachers for Friday morning.
• Reviewed learning style assessments that a few teachers used at different levels.
• Spoke with a representative fro the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History about the possibility of Hillsborough applying as an affiliate school. Since the application wasn't all that difficult and it costs nothing, I went ahead and applied.
  
  

First Official Day

Well, Tuesday was my first official day - or so I thought. It turns out that Hillsborough is going to retroactively start me on September 1 since I was here anyway. So I'll end up getting paid for a few more days than already anticipated, which is nice.

 

Board Office:

• I spent the first few hours of the morning reviewing lesson plans. My responsibility is to read the lesson plans of all 21 high school teachers. I also read 8 of the 9 middle school teachers and a sample of lower-level teachers. All lesson plans are posted through a web-based application so all administrators have the ability to read all district teachers' plans. I was mostly looking to see what people include in their plans and for references to teaching about 9/11 on Friday the 10th. I fear that I may already be starting my evaluative nature the way I graded my students. I couldn't ignore the fact that some teachers had terrible lesson plans. They did not include objectives or they spelled 70% of the words incorrectly or they so obviously copy-and-pasted from one day to the next that the plans didn't even make sense. There were even 15-20% who failed to post their plans at all. I don't believe I should ignore this sort of thing so I called people out on areas that needed calling out. Of course, I noticed that no other supervisors checked lesson plans yesterday. Similarly, no principals (who are responsible for middle school and below) checked plans. So I have to tread carefully. I hope to talk with the Assistant Superintendent to get some reality updates on how to handle this.
• Finally my diplomas are hung. It makes my office look more official.
• I decided to go ahead and order the books from Barnes and Noble for teachers. If I count them as supplies (like pencils, paper, etc.), then I think it is okay to provide them to teachers with no expectation of them being returned to the district after use. If I counted them as textbooks, I would have needed Board of Education approval for the books and they would remain school district property.
• I provided my criminal history check information to the Personnel office.
• Developed PowerPoint slides for REACH teachers in grades 6-8 to use during back-to-school night so that we speak with a common voice about the changes to the program.
• Read through two tests we use to identify students for REACH - COGATS and S-FRITS. I don't remember what they both stand for, but the first one is a cognitive abilities test and the second is an intelligence test.
• Finished putting together information about Constitution and Citizenship Day to send to teachers on Friday.
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel/Interim Superintendent. I don't actually get any vacation days during year one although I earn them as I go. So on July 1, 2011, I'll be given all the days I earned this year. He indicated that he would be able to give me comp time (even though such a thing doesn't actually exist here) since I worked for two weeks on my own volition for free.
• Developed a list of all the school districts Google Maps thinks are within 35 minutes of Hillsborough that are located in Somerset, Hunterdon, Mercer, and Middlesex counties as potential Teaching American History grant partners.
• Nearly finished my research into how talented and gifted education is handled in 21 comparable districts across the state.
• Approved the purchase order for the Barnes and Noble books.

 

Last Day Unofficially

For the faithful readers out there: I have taken to using this as sort of a daily reflection/planning process. I get to my desk 15-20 minutes earlier than required so that I have time to read over my notes from the previous day. This helps me think through a plan for the day in front of me. So if the days seem to not make sense from time to time, that is why.

 

Anyway, Friday was a very important day.

 

Board Office:

• Reviewed some professional development resources from Education Week at the request of the Assistant Superintendent
• Requested a quote from Barnes & Noble for books to use as teachers' prizes
• Cleared my e-mail, which is now getting very long due to being on the automatic distribution list for all 9 schools in the district
• Completed state-mandated sexual harassment training online

Then, the state updated the status of my long-awaited supervisor certificate to issued so lots of people sprung into action. I spoke with the Director of Human Resources in Montgomery, the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel in Hillsborough, my boss (Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction), and then got in my car to go to Montgomery to resign in person. I spent a little time there handing in the stuff I still had (keys, computer) and chatting with the administrators who were around. What a relief!

 

Board Office:

• Spent 45 minutes on the phone with a representative from the American Institute of History Education discussing the possibility of applying for a Teaching American History grant. It is going to be a pretty good amount of work but the payoff would be huge if we were awarded the money.
• Signed my contract. This will still need some work as it does not indicate my 15 post-graduate credits. I'll meet with the superintendent to discuss that today. I may get a $2000 bonus for those credits so I don't want to ignore it.
• Completed the Teaching 9/11 resources and sent it to all social studies teachers K-12
• Completed my first Weekly Update e-mail and sent it to all social studies teachers 5-12

We were given permission to leave at 2:00 for the holiday weekend. I had a couple things to take care of at the high school though so I ended up working until about 2:45.

 

High School:

• Moved 17 copies of the "short" World History textbook from a classroom to a storage room on the otherside of Hillsborough High School (and up a flight of stairs)
• Incorrectly thought I found a needed teacher's edition and support materials and brought them to a teacher's desk

Certificate Issued

I'll post more on Tuesday about what I did as a supervisor today, but at 8:50am this morning, the state issued my supervisor certificate. A few minutes later I was on the phone with the Director of Human Resources in Montgomery and the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel in Hillsborough. By 9:20 I was in the Montgomery district offices tendering my official resignation. They had crafted a way to get the Montgomery Board of Education to accept my resignation contingent upon receipt of my letter and to hire my replacement on the same grounds so everything went into effect immediately. On Tuesday, I'll begin as an official employee of the Hillsborough schools.

First Day with Staff

Today was the first day back to school for staff and I ran my first two department meetings so that was really the mental focus. I have been having trouble sleeping this week. I think it is due to my anxiety about getting my supervisor certificate issued and not anxiety about actually assuming the responsibilities of the new job. To summarize, my certificate has not been issued yet so I cannot resign in time for a special Montgomery Board of Education meeting being held Friday at 8am. The next meeting is scheduled for September 14. That means they could require me to attend two in-service days next week and the first two days of school before I am released from my contract. I am working on getting in touch with Montgomery administration to figure out if that is what is going to happen.

 

Anyway, my Thursday...

 

High School Office:

• I spent my time until about 8:20 getting my computer to work with the reinitialization process that took place on September 1. In the meantime, I met some of the teachers as they were coming in and out.
• I sat in the audience for the high school faculty meeting and was introduced to the school staff by the principal.
• Took my ID photo
• Met various people
• Ran my first department meeting. This only took about 20 minutes because I covered what I needed to cover and let them get on with set up for the first day of school, which I think they appreciated. I began with a staff trivia game based on information I collected in the surveys. This is based on a game that two friends of mine made up for the staff at Ridge High School. So there was a clue (this person was the Connect Four champion of his/her entire fourth grade class). Four people guessed correctly so we picked one of those people to win a prize. The prize was the memoirs of Dick Winters, the commanding officer for much of the time that Easy Company was in WWII (Band of Brothers). I chose that book because the person described by that clue wrote in her survey that her favorite book related to history was Band of Brothers. I also had a little keychain version of Connect Four as a prize for the clue person. No huge issues came up at the department meeting and everything seemed to run smoothly. Later on in the day, the veteran staff member wrote me an e-mail thanking me for the excellent meeting and sharing some positive feedback. I think that's a good thing.
• After the meeting, I went to the book room to see how we were doing on the areas in which we were short. It was reported to me that one world history teacher needed 16 additional books and the people in the room all accused the same person as being the hoarded. I wasn't really looking forward to this confrontation, but I went looking for her anyway. When I could not follow her, I decided to approach it a different way. I sent a stern e-mail to all the world history teachers setting out my expectation about how many books they could have. The thought was that this would provide me the ability if I found a stash of books later to hold people accountable. Lo and behold, by the end of the day, not only did we have enough books....we had plenty of extras.
• I spent some time on the phone with human resources in Montgomery, Hillsborough and with the state office of licensure to no avail.

Middle School:

• Met teacher whose classroom we'll be using for department meetings and had a good chat while getting things set up
• Ran a department meeting with the small staff of 9 teachers along with the principal. We focused on their new responsibilites teaching one section of REACH in addition to their regular 7th or 8th grade social studies classes. This basically means they have one section of students who are identified as being gifted and talented in some way. That does not mean they are advanced social studies students necessarily (although most are); their gifts/talents may be mathematical, artistic, etc. I think it went really well and somehow I seemed to know what I was talking about. I think it's from doing so much reading of whatever materials I can find in the office and my research into what other schools do with REACH. Whatever the case may be, the meeting went well and everyone seemed to leave feeling confident and optimistic.

Board Office:

• Researched the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to consider applying to be an affiliate school district and to consider using them for the Teaching American History Grant
• Read over 09-10 annual evaluations of high school staff
• Other small odds and ends as they arose
  
  

Last day before teachers return

I dealt with some of the less desirable parts of being a supervisor today plus got to work on a really exciting opportunity a little as well. Busy day!

 

Board Office:

• Try to get Java scripting to work again after the computer systems were reset
• Left a voice mail message for middle school principal about our Thursday meeting
• Called intermediate school to set up a time to meet with the principal and get a tour
• E-mailed a staff member about her proposal to teach USII in a new way
• Processed some staff member surveys
• Sent the department meeting agendas out to the high school and middle school

Intermediate School:

• Met the principal and got a tour of the facility that serves students in grades 5-6

Board Office:

• Worked on Social Studies/REACH crossover for Thursday's middle school department meeting
• Sent a memo about state-recognized religious holidays to all district staff
• Read through the first few sets of lesson plans that have been submitted
• Sent a memo to all special education teachers who will be working with social studies staff
• Put together materials for teaching about 9/11 and Constitution Day
• Talked to the father of the student who was trying to get into honors world history twice. Due to his suggestion that we were discriminating against his son (who is not of any discernible minority group...), I met with the Assistant Superintendent to make her aware. I also forwarded information to the high school principal since the family will probably go there next.
• Spoke to the mother of a 5th grade student who was accepted into the REACH program and did my best to answer her questions about it.
• Called the state for an update on my certificate. They suggested that it could take a few weeks for the paperwork to get from the mail room to the examiner...
• Met with my secretary to discuss the plan for Thursday which includes my first two department meetings with staff
  
  

Week 2 Begins

I felt like I didn't have a lot to do today mostly because I was (and still am) waiting on other people to get back to me so I can move forward on a few things. That's a little frustrating. I guess I'll have to make phone calls to get on them!

 

Anyway...the rundown:

 

Board Office

• Researched Teaching American History grant requirements and process
• Contacted students at Montgomery who asked me for letters of recommendation and set up a way for them to get things to me via a former colleague
• Processed new teacher survey responses
• Completed paperwork for New Jersey Council of the Social Studies conference and membership
• Worked on department meeting agendas

High School Office

• Attended part of a differentiated instruction continuing education unit offered by the supervisors of math and science and met one of the middle school social studies teachers
• Read through some personnel files to learn a little bit of the history

Board Office

• Communicated via e-mail with a department member who is also a union vice president about my department meeting make-up policy to make sure it was allowed
• Began researching gifted and talented programs in comparable school districts
• Communicated back and forth with the social studies supervisor at Ridge who also runs their gifted program
• Sent Nystrom map supplies to grade 2 teachers
• Worked on resource packet for teaching Constitution Day on September 17
• Met with Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction to discuss 1) one teacher's request to teach in an experimental way, 2) my first department meetings, 3) my Teaching American History grant proposal