High highs and low lows

Today was a day of extremes. I had conversations with staff members and a parent that made me think this job is not right for me and I had conversations with staff members that gave me energy and enthusiasm to keep on the track I think is right.

 

Board Office:

• Responded to another e-mail from the parent of a potential REACH student. This occurred again later in the day. The parent is nitpicking details when his daughter wasn't even close to making the cut. I provided him with more information about test scores than I normally do. My boss's policy is to tell them as little as possible. The research and my predecessor said to share the student's scores. The problem is in how much I should tell them about the criteria we use. It should be transparent for fairness, but if I tell them the exact cut-off score or scores of teacher and/or parent evaluations, it could lead to people trying to game the system.
• Met with the math supervisor to talk about the teacher who I had a poor post-observation conference with yesterday. She seems to agree with my assessment that I should not respond to the rebuttal he submitted. However, some of the information is, in my opinion, flat out wrong about how we should be teaching and if I observed the approach again, I would write it up critically again.
• The other secretaries sang "Happy Birthday" to my secretary (who is also the secretary for math and literacy), which made us concerned that we missed her birthday. It turns out it's not until next week, but there are days off for NJEA convention. We had an emergency meeting and decided to go in together on a small birthday gift and then another for the holidays.
• Received an e-mail from the teacher referenced two bullet points ago in response to my request that we meet again to follow up on his rebuttal. The e-mail was, in my mind, disrespectful and possible even insubordinate. It concluded with him "respectfully declining" to meet again. I may not be comfortable with the idea that I am a boss yet, but I am pretty sure that you aren't allowed to decline to meet with your boss when he asks.

High School:

• Had the post-observation conference with the high school teacher who has now 1) been talked to about teaching behavior, 2) been formally reprimanded for bathroom issue, and 3) been written up with a critical evaluation. As expected, she completely disagreed with my judgment about her lesson. Her approach is to grasp onto a small phrase or word and then twist it so the conversation gets to a point where no one knows what anyone else is talking about. I think I made myself fairly clear and her arguments are absurd. She went to the point of saying that her only weakness is being too prepared and doing too good of a job. Wow! Another rebuttal is in my future here.
• Responded to an e-mail from a high school teacher who presented as part of Princeton University's teacher education program last night.

Board Office:

• Subscribed to an electronic resource that was demonstrated at the NJCSS a few days ago.
• Proofread the high school teachers' monthly report summary (prepared by my secretary) to be submitted to the high school principal. Then I read each individual teacher's report and provided e-mail feedback when possible. My response to negative interactions with people is to seek out positive ones with others and this served that function to a degree.
• Prepared for an observation.

High School:

• Met with the high school vice principal because he asked for follow-up on the teacher who we had dealings with.
• Observed a teacher who presented a really interesting lesson related to "The Jungle" and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
• Had a post-observation conference with the Renaissance Top 5 teacher. We spent at least 30 minutes talking about educational philosophy and the future of our program in a way that was really beneficial for me. He was an applicant for this position and wrote much of the curriculum currently in use so he is a valuable resource.

Middle School:

• Had a post-observation conference with a teacher who I observed a couple weeks ago. Due to attending some in-service activities and a death in the family we had been delayed. We spoke for over an hour about educational philosophy and some exciting information he gained for a program devoted to how to best teach students who are learning English in the regular education classroom. Like the high school teacher I wrote about yesterday, he is excited about sharing with others.
• Wrote up and sent out the high school observation so that we could do a post-observation conference tomorrow.

A Rough Conference

High School:

• Reviewed copy for an article that will be running a central New Jersey newspaper about the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History affiliate program that our high school was accepted into.
• Reviewed world history lesson plans and distributed the pacing summary to teachers of the course.
• Cleaned up e-mails that accumulated during my absence.
• Held a post-observation conference with a teacher who I expected to be upset with the "Needs Improvement" rating he received. I was correct. He submitted a rebuttal, which is his contractual right. I wasn't happy with how the conference went and I don't think that I made myself clear enough about my expectations and why they are what they are. After reading his rebuttal later in the day, I was really angry. He worked to nit-pick my words to make his contradictory points. My feeling is that I probably just have to suck it up and ignore it instead of engaging in a never-ending battle. I just want to make sure that he knows what I expect because I will be in to observe him again and will write up the same weaknesses if they continued. Later in the day, I prepared point-by-point rebuttals to his rebuttals for my own edification. Sending this formally would only cause more problems instead of a positive working relationship.
• Informally met with a teacher who spent a few days at a professional development program for instruction of students with limited English proficiency. She was really excited about what she learned and wants to share it with other members of the department.
• Conducted a post-observation conference with another teacher. This one went well (he was evaluated as effective).

Board Office:

• Responded (twice) to the parent of a student who was not accepted into the REACH program. This student missed the cut-off by a significant margin yet the father is pressing hard. His arguments are based on another school district's lower(?) expectations and his daughter's participation in private programs. I have to be careful not to answer the way I'm really thinking, but I want to be clear that she will not be allowed into the program no matter which tactic he uses.
• Completed a follow-up form about my professional day to the New Jersey Social Studies Supervisors' Association meeting a few weeks ago.
• Compiled the results of the mock election. Only two teachers from the entire district participated. Even with that disappointing participation rate, I put all the results together and published them for anyone interested.

Middle School:

• Conducted an observation that went pretty well. The teacher did a wonderful job of combining study skills with actual content. My tendency is to be overly positive with something like this when it occurs so soon after a negative interaction like the post-observation conference earlier in the day.

Board Office:

• Tested out an online resource that was introduced to me at the NJ Council of the Social Studies conference yesterday.
• Developed my online classroom site enough to try to put it into action with this week's weekly update.
• Read about formative assessment and Backward Design in preparation for some future assessment Continuing Education Unit I'd like to run.
  
  

Sorry for the delay!

On Tuesday I was out of the district to attend the New Jersey Council of the Social Studies conference at Rutgers and a workshop run by the New Jersey Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development about the new common core standards at a restaurant in Bridgewater so these notes are actually about Monday.

 

Board Office:

• RSVPd that I would not be attending an elementary Veterans' Day assembly
• Divided the high school staff into groups for the Professional Learning Communities in-service
• Finished up some observation reports
• Prepared a pacing guide for the three required high school courses. I basically tried to connect the curriculum to the actual school calendar to get a general idea of where people should be. No one except me seems to be following this method.
• Worked on my monthly report.

 

High School:

• Worked on organizing the sample materials in the book room
• Sent an e-mail to the middle school principal in response to a budget question
• Met with the high school principal to discuss the challenging teacher situation and to alert her to the poor lesson observation that will be added to the other issues
• Delivered the official memo to above teacher about the bathroom situation. She is required to receive notification that the letter is being placed in her personnel file.
• Read through a few months worth of Education Week. This is the preeminent weekly education publication and there were many stacked on my desk when I got here so I skimmed them.
• Reviewed lesson plans via OnCourse. This week's focus is the pacing of World History classes.
• Had a post-observation conference with a teacher from earlier in the week. It went fine although the teacher's perceptions of things were far different from what I thought they would be.

 

Board Office:

• Sent a follow-up e-mail to the elementary principals who had not yet responded to my requests for a social studies open house day at their schools.
• Read a dated study called "What helps students learn?"
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction to discuss the teacher issues and other things related to observations.

Another week down

High School:

• Attended a meeting with all supervisors and principals to plan for the in-service days scheduled for November 1 and 2. It went pretty well with good discussion. I was not an active participant but some of the suggestions I made during the first meeting were implemented. This meeting took most of the morning.

 

Board Office:

• Signed off on my October travel expenses.
• Worked on the schedule for observing the REACH teachers.
• Read through the district's monthly news and recent Board minutes.
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources to discuss my request to waive benefits. Once he heard that Ali was in Horizon's state benefits plan, we were all set. New legislation means we are not allowed to have two Horizon plans.
• Did some reading about professional learning communities online.
• Followed up on some observations I did this week.
• Spoke with a high school vice principal about the memo to file we are writing regarding bathroom teacher. I also let him know that I am writing up a pretty critical observation report on the same teacher and he suggested I bring the principal into the discussion.
• Spoke to the high school principal and we scheduled a meeting for Monday morning to discuss the situation.
• Approved an order for a REACH teacher – the first to submit a request with items linked to specific projects/units of study as I requested on Monday.
• Signed up for a webinar called "Save time! Save money! Get results!"
• Sent out my weekly update to all social studies teachers.
• Worked on the next 6 weeks worth of observations.
• Posted documents that might help teachers with all of the different standards they are supposed to be incorporating into their planning and instruction.

A Mixed Bag

I felt anxious most of the day today. I'm not sure if it was because I needed to have a conference with the first teacher to whom I gave a critical evaluation or if it was because I learned that a former colleague who just became the supervisor for a 1-school district with fewer than 1/2 the # of students as my district is making 20% more than I am. It was just an anxiety type of morning. By the afternoon, things felt better, but it took some time to get there.

 

High School:

• Prepared for observations by reviewing lesson plans.
• Observed a world history class. The teacher led the fun culminating section of a project. The students were actively involved and were energetic and passionate about what they were debating – who were the most important figures of the Renaissance? The excitement came from the "Top 5" approach. I've used a similar lesson when talking about the Industrial Revolution so I liked seeing this.
• Sent the Director of Technology an offer. They can reclaim the desktop computer from my high school office and deploy wherever needed and they provide me with a docking station for my district-issued laptop. I think it's a win-win!
• Worked on moving sample textbooks from my office to the bookroom. This was a project and it's not even done yet.
• RSVPd that I would not be attending one elementary school's Veterans' Day assembly due to attending another. RSVPd that I would attend the intermediate school's tombstone project. The students created tombstones of historical figures and will present their information on Friday, 10/29. It was a sneaky way to do something that seems Halloween-ish but is really school work.
• Researched tracking and thoughts on honors class in preparation for our high school supervisors' meeting next week.
• Began an analysis of standard-level classes. I am looking for evidence to either keep this level (below honors and college prep) because it helps a group of students who need the very small class sizes and slower pace or evidence to get rid of this level because it holds these students back and unnecessarily discriminates against special education students and/or minority students.
• Observed another world history class. This was the teacher who I've dealt with for bathroom issues. The lesson was not effective. About midway through the period the teacher said, "We're done. What do you want to do?" Once the students pointed out that they had lots of time left, they transitioned into reading the textbook. The teacher told me that she "can't do this (teach?)" when I'm in the room. This one should be fun...
• Submitted information to the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction about the former REACH staff member who is going to do some work for me. This has to be approved by the Board at an upcoming meeting.

 

Middle School:

• Conducted a post-observation conference with the first teacher to whom I gave a "needs improvement" rating. It went very well. She felt she deserved the evaluation she received, was appreciative of my offer to come back to do another observation so I could note her improvement, and we left the meeting positively. I don't think the next NI conference will be as successful.

 

Board Office:

• Worked on developing a schedule to observe all 6 REACH teachers and to spend a full day at each of the 6 elementary schools so I could be available for teachers. I haven't met most of them and I need to do so and find out what's going on at that level.
• Continued developing observation schedules through December. I'm actually making good progress but November is tough due to all the days off.
• Got a flu shot in the same building as my office for free due to being a Board employee.
• Began a teachers' contract analysis to make notes for negotiations.

Productive Day

I came into today expecting to spend the entire day in a room planning for the upcoming in-service days, but that only occupied about 4 hours of the day and it was interesting so it wasn't so bad.

 

Board Office:

• Finalized and send observation report for a high school teacher.
• Began working on the weekly update.
• Conducted a pacing analysis of US History I and sent a summary of where everyone was in the curriculum out to the teachers of the course.
• Reviewed lesson plans.
• Met with someone from payroll to talk about benefits.
• Attended the in-service training. Two other supervisors were the lead people in planning. The focus of the in-service is the development of Professional Learning Communities. I was a member of a pilot team last year and I believe in the ideas espoused by the people behind this concept. I think November 1 and 2 will be interesting because if we don't present the overview well, it might be hard to get people on board and this is a project that will take years to fully enact.
• Sent a "no" letter to a REACH student and sent a postponement letter to another REACH student.
• Reviewed COGATS results for students who we tested for REACH who are new to the district.
• Completed the paperwork to receive a demo set of electronic response clickers.
• Approved a purchase order for some additional books.
• Completed the memo about the bathroom teacher and sent it to the high school vice principal for his input.
• Spoke with a representative from "Democratizing the DBQ," an organization that is holding a professional development session on a Saturday in November. I am buying a lot of money's worth of materials and in exchange four of my teachers get to go to this session for free.
• Began putting together an inventory of books that the previous supervisor left behind. I am calling this our professional library and my vision is that the books will be stored in a high school storage closet so people can access them if needed.
• Began working on November department meeting agendas.

No titles today

Board Office:

• Began working on an election packet. Throughout the day I put together an 8-page guide to the 2010 election. I signed us up for the National Student/Parent Mock Election and sent instructions to all Social Studies teachers K-12 for participation. There were two pages for each Congressional candidate and details about some issues and other candidates.
• Spoke with the math supervisor about "Waiting for Superman." This conversation repeated itself with the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction and the Director of Technology later in the day.

 

High School:

• Prepared for some upcoming observations by checking lesson plans.
• Conducted a pre-observation conference with the teacher who we had issues with last week. There may end up being an issue this week as well as the teacher has not posted lesson plans for the day I am to observe her yet.
• Spoke with someone from a neighboring school district to finally get some standardized test scores from a potential REACH student.
• Updated the Social Studies news website with a link to a new article. You can read it at http://www.hillsborough.k12.nj.us/hillsborough/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=319294.
• Spoke with a representative from the American Institute of History Education for a monthly progress update on our grant application.
• Scheduled the next round of observations and sent out invitations to other teachers for the round after that.
• Spoke on the phone with the supervisor of social studies in a nearby district who presented at the NJSSSA meeting I attended two weeks ago. I was looking for some guidance in adopting one of his approaches. I was a little dismayed at his suggestion that it would take at least 3-5 years to do it and that I probably need to spend the first year or two just getting the staff to trust me. Change is slow!
• Sent observation reports to two teachers. One of them suggests a need for improvement...that might be the first tough post-observation conference.
• Observed a teacher who did a nice job.

 

Board Office:

• Met with the Director of Technology to set up an online presence for me. This is the first step towards the 3-5 year goal I mentioned earlier. It is also good for me to be on the same page as Technology because that department can make exciting things happen.
• Read through a study conducted by the American Enterprise Institute about the teaching of civics in American high schools.
• Attempted to test an online geography resource but I cannot download Google Earth, which is required for the program. See bullet point about getting on the good side of technology...
• Met with my secretary to debrief on yesterday's meetings and to begin planning for a holiday party.

Where did today go?

The list of what I did today seems to be lacking, but I know I was busy!

 

Middle School:

• Ran the monthly department meeting. As always, the discussion was productive and the teachers were happy to receive some additional school supplies and a book about teaching gifted children.

 

High School:

• Followed up on my budget requests from Friday.
• Observed a teacher. The lesson was average. The teacher did not do anything wrong or receiving any "Needs Improvement" ratings, but it wasn't a spectacular lesson either.

 

Board Office:

• Returned to the office at the Assistant Superintendent's request. Received good news about some things we talked about on Friday and got some good support on the high school teacher issue and observations.
• Spoke with the parent of a student who was accepted to REACH for this year but moved out of the district. Asked my secretary to send the form letter we use to confirm that he met our criteria to the new school district.

 

High School:

• Grabbed some supplies to bring to the REACH teachers.
• Observed a teacher. The lesson was below average. I don't think the teacher is going to agree with my evaluation, but I was not impressed. The stated lesson objectives and state standards were not really addressed by the activities, the students were mostly off task, and the relationship between students and teacher was too friendly to be productive.

 

Middle School:

• Met with the first teacher I observed for a post-observation conference. We had a great discussion and she was really appreciative of the feedback and suggestions I offered.

 

Elementary School:

• Conducted a meeting with the six elementary REACH teachers. It went pretty well considering I was telling them about my new expectations for how they spend money. I think they were happy with my follow up on a number of issues they asked about.

 

After work, Ali joined me to see "Waiting for Superman" at a nearby theater. The Hillsborough Education Association organized the showing. I don't have time right now to fully reflect, but I thought the movie was well done. I don't think it was misleading or inaccurate. I think it presented difficult truths about education. Of course the move was sensationalized in order to make a specific point and some areas were focused on more than others for the same reason, but that is the case with every documentary. I think those on both extremes – union leaders who immediately put down the movie and charter advocates who take it as the answer to the world's problems – need to back up and consider contrary viewpoints.

Another Friday

High School Office:

• Followed up on student/teacher issue with the vice principal. Throughout the morning, I worked on typing up a summary of the events that occurred to be used either as an e-mail to the teacher or as an evaluative memorandum that will be placed in her file.
• Updated the press release for the Gilder Lehrman affiliate school selection from last week and sent it to the Assistant Superintendent and the Superintendent's secretary for posting and publication in the monthly newsletter.
• Rescheduled a post-observation conference with a middle school teacher at her request.
• Did some research into AP Economics using materials from another high school.
• Rescheduled a few future observation-related conferences due to changes in my schedule.
• Unpacked boxes of sample books in the book room.
• Left a message for someone from a neighboring district to get me NJ Ask scores for the student (again).
• Familiarized myself with the New Jersey Social Studies Supervisors Association website now that I have access.
• Approved a revised purchase order for some materials for a middle school teacher.
• Sent an e-mail to the supervisor of another district requesting access to materials they use that I would like to copy (not the materials, the method for sharing). I also scheduled a meeting with the Director of Technology to see if this is feasible.
• Met with the teacher of the Economics elective to discuss where the course should go. His feeling was to keep it as an elective and not move to AP.
• Finished the write-up of an observation from yesterday.

 

Board Office:

• Got a card from my secretary wishing me Happy Boss's Day. Why is there such a thing?
• Finalized the agendas for the REACH and middle school department meetings for Monday.
• Finished district budget requests for 2011-12. These need a lot of work (in my opinion), but I did the best I could with 5 weeks experience.
• Sent the weekly social studies update.
• Worked on my document comparing the offerings of other comparable high schools and the criteria they use for honors classes.
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent to discuss a number of things: REACH budgeting, paying someone to help reevaluate REACH entrance criteria due to changes in the state test, financial literacy book money that is owed to my budget, and the teacher situation.

No time for lunch

I didn't get a chance to eat lunch today because of the timing of things. I'm learning that I have to schedule that in and I have to assume that meetings will take much longer than scheduled and not put appointments right after them!

 

Board Office:

• Reviewed the file of the middle school teacher who I about saying needs improvement. I only found one previous evaluation to that effect and it was about ten years ago.
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent to fill her on the high school teacher bathroom situation and to get her permission to leave our supervisors' meeting to attend a conference with the teacher.
• Responded to a student and teacher at the high school. The student was requesting an exemption on a summer assignment deadline. She was absent on October 8, the last day to turn in the work for any credit. Despite the fact that she had all summer and the first month of school, I gave the teacher the okay to accept her work for partial credit due to the fact that her absence on the 8th was excused.
• Reviewed updated information about the national mock election to include in the weekly update.
• Helped box up some of the many sample books that were piling up outside my office to be shipped to the high school. I think I am going to try to turn a section of the book/supply room into a professional library.
• Sat through the introductory portion of the monthly supervisors' meeting.

High School:

• Met with a vice principal and the teacher about retaliation against the student who expressed concern about the bathroom situation. The teacher still does not seem to get why this is an issue. Once she left, we spoke with the student and the student's mother (who is still incredibly supportive) and offered them the option of moving to another class without changing anything else in her schedule. The student requested one more day to see how she was feeling.

Board Office:

• Attended the rest of the monthly supervisors' meeting. We debriefed on the Board meeting from earlier in the week, talked about the 2011-12 budget process, began talking about what we want out of contract negotiations with the teachers' union, and prepared for an in-service on November 1 and 2. We were also given a stack of books to read related to professional learning communities, differentiated instruction, 21st century skills, and I got an extra one about gifted education. Later in the day 10-15 books I ordered on gifted education arrived as well.
• Approved two professional day requests for teachers who are attending a program for teaching English language learners in the general education classroom. They have to miss a lot of school, but it is at the request of another supervisor so...

Middle School:

• Ran my first post-observation conference with a teacher and it went really well. She was appreciative for the feedback on her lesson, both positive and constructive. It went really well. I suspect some others will be less pleased about receiving recommendations on how to improve even though I think that is exactly what my role is.
• Observed a teacher conducting a class in the Media Center where students were online most of the time. It was very focused on a particular task and the teacher had students submitting work and reading the assignment through his Moodle page, which is a digital classroom platform. There some glitches, but it was a good step.

Board Office:

• Worked on department meeting agendas for the middle school social studies department and the elementary REACH teachers for Monday.
• Asked my secretary to change an order she put into the system that I didn't know about ahead of time.
• Read through the College Board's overviews of AP World History, AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics. All three are in my budget request for next year.
  
  

First Real Problems

So two things emerged today as issues to be dealt with...

 

High School:

• Signed off on one of my high school teachers missing quite a few days of school to attend a program devoted to helping English as a Second Language students.
• Conducted an observation. This was an early morning class so students were a little groggy but it went pretty well.
• Met with a teacher for a pre-observation conference. We had a pretty good discussion about some general things before talking about his class. He is very laid back - too much so at times - but I liked the attitude he presented during our talk.
• Talked with my predecessor for a few minutes. She was in the building meeting with a few teachers about a program she is continuing to work with where Rutgers professors come into social studies classes to talk about the connections between engineering and history.
• Got a phone call from a vice principal that led to numerous additional conversations and meetings so I'll write about it all here. The same teacher who I had to call in to talk about parent complaints last week was at it again. A student reported that despite requesting permission to use the bathroom three times, the teacher would not let her go. Finally, the student walked out of class, used the bathroom, and reported to the vice principal. I sat with the VP while the student told us her story. We took her story to the principal. The VP corroborated the story with a few other students from the class and then we decided to meet with the teacher. She was combative from the start. She talked in circles bringing up lots of random events that were only loosely connected to the issue. She responded to our directive to let students go to the bathroom with sarcasm. It was helpful for me to have the VP there because I have trouble putting a stop to nonsense and laying down the law when it's necessary. Once she left, we explained the progression to the principal. I then stopped at the teacher's duty to remind her to call the student's parents soon and that there should not be any retribution for the student coming forward. Case closed....When I got back to my office I called the student's mother to let her know that we listened to the student's concern and acted on it. I listened to the mother's concerns about bathroom access in general and we had a nice talk that ended with genuine appreciation on the parent's side for the call. Shortly after I got a call from the VP that the teacher held the student after class, reprimanded her for going to the administration "disrespectfully and caused her to miss the bus home. The mother came in to get her and meet with the VP...more on this tomorrow.
• I communicated with a REACH teacher via e-mail about yesterday's student. She spoke with the parents (four mothers) and the feeling is to give the student another chance at REACH. Once we have time to talk, the teacher and I will discuss the possibility of placing the student "on watch," which is the first step to removing her from the program.

Middle School:

• Conducted an observation of a teacher. This is potentially problem number two. The teacher did not have control of her classroom and students were not shy about being disobedient. There were no repercussions for students who ignored the teacher's instructions, which is why I don't think her constant requests for quiet were honored. During student activities, I observed eight students engaged in physical contact such as hitting materials out of hands, grabbing arms, etc. As a result, I am going to mark this teacher as needing improvement in the area that says "establishes and maintains the classroom climate in a manner that promotes growth and values the positive contributions of each learner." This may not seem like a big deal, but teachers so rarely get marked that way that I suspect it could be a confrontation.

High School:

• Obtained keys to the department book room for two teachers new to the building.
• Sent my high school budget requests for 2011-12.

Board Office:

• Worked on developing the district social studies and REACH budgets.
• Scheduled some additional observations.
• Talked with my secretary about her supply needs for 2011-12.
• Read through the teacher at the high school's personnel file to determine if there have been previous reprimands (there haven't).
  
  

Another Full Day

Board Office:

• Responded to an e-mail request for information from a parent about a student who did not get accepted into REACH.
• Ordered books for intermediate school teachers that they mentioned during our department meeting on Monday.
• Ordered a mounted wall map set for a teacher in a new 3^rd grade classroom.
• Proofread memos to all Grades 5-7 teachers looking for new REACH nominations for next year.
• Responded to a high school teacher's e-mail request for access to online resources.
• Spoke with an elementary REACH teacher about a student new to the program with Turret's Syndrome who is having trouble. The student is reluctant to come to REACH and the teacher would like to talk with the student's parents about delaying her entrance until 2011-12.
• Prepared for an afternoon meeting with the high school principal to discuss the 2011-12 budget.

 

Middle School:

• Conducted an observation of a teacher. The lesson was active and engaging and the students had fun, but I am not sure how much they really learned from it. Something for us to talk about during the post-observation conference.

 

High School:

• Left a message for the person in charge of assessment in a neighboring school district. We have a new student who is being evaluated for REACH and I need to obtain her state test scores from last year.
• Sent out a reminder about ordering GradeMaster (Scantron) forms.
• Spoke with a teacher about maps that she (and others) would like me to consider ordering.
• Updated the Social Studies website. I have discovered serious errors and huge inconsistencies with what is posted about our courses in various locations.
• Met with the principal to discuss budget priorities. We seem to be on the same philosophical page in most areas. I was looking for clarification about levels in our courses, the new financial literacy graduation requirement from the state, and the possibility of some new AP courses.
• Observed a teacher who led an interesting class about Columbus.
• Typed up course descriptions for potential posting on the website.

 

Board Office:

• Exchanged e-mails with a high school teacher about books I observed strewn about the room during my observation of another teacher.
• Prepared some information about a Darfur education project for the weekly update.
• Approved purchase orders.
• Asked my secretary to prepare the many sample texts that arriving for shipment to the high school book room.
• Entered a payday pool.
• Did some additional research about the DBQ Project and sent information to teachers who indicated an interest in the resources.
• Filled out the paperwork to sign up for the New Jersey Association for Gifted children.
• Volunteered for a district technology committee.

Long day!

In list form, today will look like a light day, but it was actually really long and busy!

 

High School:

• I was at the high school before 7am for the make-up meeting for the coaches who cannot attend the after school meeting. It went pretty well although it is hard to get everything accomplished in 30 minutes (the regular meeting is an hour long).

 

Intermediate School:

• My first meeting with the Grade 5 teachers went really well. We had a good, informative (for me) discussion about what materials are already in use and what they think they could use for the future. The theme of the day was teachers being budget-conscious and conservative in their requests and it started here. They are curious about creating a grade-level colonial day as a big experience for all students. Right now some students do this, but it depends entirely on their teacher.

 

Board Office:

• I worked on clearing my e-mail from the weekend, but there is still more piled up than I would like. E-mail included teacher lesson plans due to supposed technical problem with the actual program, request for wall maps at an elementary school, contact with a parent about a student's placement in honors and questions about a REACH student.

 

Middle School:

• Conducted my first formal observation ever. I chose a teacher who I was really impressed with during my informal observations and I think that was a good decision. She did a fantastic job so I was able to commend her appropriately, but there were a couple of easy suggestions to make to improve the lesson as well.

 

High School:

• Met for a pre-observation conference with a teacher I am observing tomorrow. We had a pretty good conversation and I like the lesson she is planning to deliver.
• Reviewed lesson plans for most teachers. Because of how busy things are now, I have adjusted my lesson plan review to be much more superficial. I suspect this will become the norm. I need to choose something to focus on each week and let the other things go by.

 

Middle School:

• Had a pre-observation conference with a middle school teacher who happens to be doing nearly the exact same lesson as another person I am observing. The conversation was fine – not too exciting but it was fine. This teacher did bring up that many of the middle school teachers are supposed to form professional learning communities as part of their annual professional development plan. I participated in a pilot of this sort of thing last year and it is a big district initiative, but I don't think the teachers really know what it's all about. I suggested they wait until after our November in-service training before starting.

 

High School:

• Held the full department meeting. It went well, better than last month for sure. We talked about many things and then teachers had time in curricular groups to work with the 2009 NJ standards devoted to 21^st Century Skills and Careers. Some teachers are understandably skeptical about the necessity of these standards, but they all played along and I think most people feel more comfortable and less threatened than they did last month.
• One teacher stayed after the meeting to chat about a district move to eliminate the lowest level academic courses at the high school. Currently there are Honors/AP, College Prep, and Standard. In most cases, the standard courses are going away. He wanted to express his concern about that decision and asked for information about why/how that would be good for everyone. He felt that the CP classes would have to be brought down a little to accommodate the standard students.

 

I went home for three hours for dinner before...

 

Intermediate School:

• Attended a Board meeting with most of the district's administrators.
• Official approval and introduction of the new superintendent who will begin in January
• Annual presentation of assessment data by the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction
• Although I didn't know about this before the meeting, I was recognized by the Board's curriculum committee for getting the high school accepted as a Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History affiliate school.

Busy busy

At some point, I will have to post a recap of the supervisors' meeting I attended on Thursday, but things are getting busy now because classroom observations are beginning!

 

High School:

• Clear e-mail from day out of the district
• Finalize plans for 10/11 department meetings at high school and intermediate school
• Meet with teacher for observation pre-conference. This turned into a good conversation about this person's aspirations to seek a graduate degree in administration and helped me get some additional background on issues such as common assessments.
• Met with teacher to provide him with one of the department's digital video camera to be used by one of his social studies-related extracurricular activities.

Board Office:

• Talked to the Director of Technology about some issues with LCD projectors at the high school.
• Worked on developing the 2011-12 budget; my requests for the high school are due on October 13 and for the district less than a week later.
• Met a member of the Board of Education who stopped in my office to introduce himself. He was really interested in talking about marching band because he is a band parent and that part of my resume caught his attention.
• Attended a meeting (2+ hours) with most district administrators and some principals to see a preview of the Assistant Superintendent's annual report on how students did on standardized tests. This will be presented on Monday night at a Board meeting.

Middle School:

• Had a great pre-observation conference with a teacher that developed into a philosophical discussion about assessments and in-class support models.
• Dug into the book room to inventory existing materials, look through novels that exist for Literacy classes, etc. One of the middle school teachers stopped in to give me some perspective and the school's reading specialist also came by to talk about it all.

Board Office:

• Sent out my weekly update e-mail to all social studies teachers.

High School:

• Picked up my district laptop to use during observations.
  

Nothing coming to me

The title has no significance. I just couldn't think of a title!

 

High School:

• Tried to find an audio version of one of our textbooks for a student with special needs. The child study team will end up ordering one (I think), but I was able to find a way for the student to hear audio summaries of each chapter online at least.
• Continued scheduled observations. At this point, I have booked 11 of the 13 people I need to observe during the month of October. Remember that each observation requires me to block of 2 1/4 hours of time in my schedule for meetings before and after as well as the visit itself. In addition, I will have to type up an observation report for each one.
• Read through the student newspaper including an article about new staff (for which I was interviewed) and an editorial calling for standards to be raised for entrance to AP classes. This was especially interesting because I think the HS administration may be leaning towards removing the prerequisites altogether and allowing self selection to classes.
• Put some recent educational research links into my next weekly update.
• Worked my way through the book room to inventory what was there, move things around to be more organized, and remove some things to be sent to other places.
• Found out that the high school was accepted to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Affiliate Schools program. I applied for this a few weeks ago and it brings a lot of free resources to our teachers. We are the 10th high school in NJ accepted.

Board Office:

• Had an informal meeting with the assistant superintendent to discuss some questions about making my first budget (curriculum due on 10/6; full budget due on 10/18).
• Began writing a press release for the Gilder Lehrman acceptance.
• Updated upcoming department meeting agendas to include information about the Gilder Lehrman program.
• Responded to an e-mail from a middle school counselor about honors testing for 8th graders (which is in limbo).
• Along with the math supervisor, I spent a lot of time as a practice audience for the assistant superintendent's presentation to the community that will be held tomorrow night. This is the initial meeting for something called the Community Partnership Network that aims to increase communication between school officials and community members in a proactive, positive way. I will be attending the actual meeting as well.
• Read through more of my predecessor's files. This has been a helpful way to get informed about issues before tackling them myself.
  
  

Schedule is filling up

Now that I have begun scheduling teacher observations along with pre- and post-observation conferences, my schedule is becoming jammed. This week remains manageable, but things really get crazy starting on Monday.

 

Board Office:

• Met the new superintendent briefly for an introduction. I also met him again later in the afternoon during another swing through the Board office.
• Sent our reminders to teachers who had not responded to my text inventory requests. Most of the missing counts came in throughout the day.
• Scheduled observations of those teachers who already completed their preference form online.
• Dealt with a slew of e-mails ranging from a teacher's request for a video camera to tape Model UN meetings to the need to purchase an audio version of a textbook based on a student's Individualized Education Plan. There were text inventory e-mails and information about professional development.

Intermediate School:

• I met with a vice principal who was a social studies teacher to get a handle on the resource situation at the school. There is an odd hodgepodge of books being used partially because of curriculum changes that took place 5 years ago. My goal is to get an accurate count of what we own before making recommendations about what we need to add. I spent some time in a book closet counting everything including a copy of an old textbook that was published just a couple years after I was born.

Board Office:

• Researched an interesting document-based question resource. For every set we purchase, I can send one teacher to a professional development session on a Saturday in November. I am thinking about ordering one of each set (there are four) and then going to the PD with 3 teachers invited along.
• Reviewed lesson plans a couple of times throughout the day.
• Signed off on my mileage for September. I get reimbursed for the driving I do from school to school.
• Worked on my curriculum revision budget. I think I may be a little too ambitious with this compared to the other supervisors. My proposal would cost $300,000 to implement. I don't think that will actually get approved, but in order to become compliant with the 2009 standards, we need to pay teachers to rewrite every course in the district.
• Reviewed standards versus curriculum in a couple of areas and found that things may not be as difficult as I originally thought. In fact, at some grade levels, we may be able to slow down and go into more depth.
• Worked on plans for Monday's department meetings at the high school and intermediate school.
• Read through REACH monthly reports.
  
  

A New Boss

What an interesting morning it turned out to be. I had a couple great conversations with the Literacy supervisor, first about new literacy standards but then about a range of educational issues. We learned that a new superintendent was hired. He is currently the superintendent of a neighboring K-8 district and was the youngest principal in the state at the age of 28 when he was appointed to his first administrative post.

 

Board Office:

• Talked on the phone with a REACH teacher about potential meeting times and scheduled an afternoon meeting for October 18 that should keep everyone happy.
• Began working on a spreadsheet to analyze class sizes.
• Met with Literacy supervisor.
• Worked on observation scheduling by creating a form in Google Docs to allow teachers to request specific dates/times. I have to conduct a minimum of 36 official observations between now and January. Official observations include the 45 minute observation, a 20-40 minute post-observation conference, and optionally a 20-40 minute pre-observation conference plus the write-up.
• Ordered some additional REACH research books.
• Finished and distributed the weekly department update. Only 4 out of 50 or so recipients responded to last week's hidden contest in the weekly update so I may have to reevaluate whether this is the best way of distributing information. My thought is that I'd rather send one long e-mail with tons of information than many short e-mails that become annoying.
• Sent e-mail to all teachers I'm going to observe during the first round of observations (October 11-25).
• Continued adding to my high school text inventory. Way too many teachers have missed the deadline for sending me their information.

 

Middle School:

• Met with the principal to decide a schedule for observing the social studies teachers at the level. We agreed that I would try to observe all 9 of them since I am new, but he will step in and help out if I get overwhelmed.
• Toured the book room to look for useful materials and figure out what unnecessary resources are still hidden there.

 

Board Office:

• Looked for updates on the mock election I signed us up for, but there aren't any available.
• Approved purchase orders.
• Continued working on observation schedule.
• Set up time to meet with the intermediate school principal to look through the book room to make some room for materials to be transferred from the middle school.

One month down...

Without planning it that way, today turned into a REACH day. I spent most of my time researching gifted and talented education, reading, and thinking about where the program needs to go.

 

Board Office:

• Submitted my monthly report to my supervisor.
• Skimmed books that are on my desk about gifted and talented education.
• Reviewed some NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards information on the state's website.
• Worked on my weekly update, specifically an article about Germany finishing repayment of WWI reparations this week.
• Met with my supervisor to discuss the wording of an e-mail I was going to be sending to the elementary REACH teachers informing them that they were not going to get increased meeting time as they requested.

 

Middle School:

• Met with a teacher and the rest of the grade-level team and guidance counselors to discuss the teacher's wish to remove a student from REACH and move her to a regular section of social studies. We discussed the pros and cons of such a decision and the process for exiting a student from the gifted and talented program. The situation was left with the teacher agreeing to contact the parents to discuss.

 

Board Office:

• Sent some supporting materials to the middle school teacher about gifted learners.
• Sent the e-mail to the elementary REACH teachers.
• Began reading and formatting the National Association for Gifted Children standards for education for a future analysis of our program.
• Developed textbook procedures for taking out and returning books at the high school to be presented at the next department meeting.
• Met with a parent who wanted his son in the REACH program. This was an unscheduled pop-in meeting – the worst kind. I talked in circles a bit, but he didn't extend the meeting too long and I have a plan for the next step if he follows up.
• Approved a series of purchase orders.
• Spoke with the agent from my new disability insurance provider.
• Discussed some problems with ordering atlases for the middle school teachers with my secretary and communicated with those teachers via e-mail.
• Tried to figure out potential times for REACH department meetings based on the varied school bell schedules.
• Worked on random pieces of information for October department meetings.
• Researched books that might be useful for me to read about gifted education as part of our review of the program.
• Met with my secretary to discuss notes she took at September department meetings. She tries to write down what people are saying when I'm not around. So when I'm talking to one group of teachers, she listens in on another group. As a result, this list contained some things that I didn't even know about. So we went through and I took action on everything I could.