First Day Back

Middle School:

• Ran the monthly department meeting. It went pretty well although we were sluggish starting due to people coming back from Thanksgiving break. Discussion of a few important topics such as honors testing, PLCs, OnCourse, went well.

 

Intermediate School:

• Held a pre-observation conference with a teacher I will be seeing later in the week.

 

Board Office:

• Prepared for upcoming observations.
• Worked on the weekly update.
• Completed my monthly report and submitted it to the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction.
• Prepared for December department meetings.
• Participated in an online discussion about a 5^th grade Colonial Day celebration.

 

High School:

• Found atlases in a storage closet that were supposed to go to a middle school teacher.
• Read two issues of Education Week.
• Held a post-observation conference with a high school teacher who I observed just before break.
• Researched how to become a reader for AP exams. Although I can't do it because I am not an AP teacher, some of my staff would greatly benefit from participating.
• Held a pre-observation conference with a high school teacher who is one of the most veteran but also one of the most interested in innovation in the department.

 

Board Office:

• Spoke with the intermediate school guidance counselor about the student whose mother wants a REACH screening NOW. I am expecting an angry parent phone call in the near future.
• Followed up on the DBQ Project workshop with the teachers who attended.
• Proofread the high school teachers' monthly report summaries.
• Created a flyer and updated the school website to reflect a Law Day video contest for students.
• Researched a few items to order based on an earlier meeting with a high school teacher.
• Did a quick preview of this week's lesson plans.
• Worked on an e-mail to the high school department about PLCs.

An Old Entry

Apparently I missed a day last week. This is a summary of what I did on Tuesday, November 23.

 

Elementary Schools:

• Conducted post-observation conferences with two elementary school REACH teachers.

 

High School:

• Cleared some e-mail and worked on observation scheduling
• Worked on the weekly update
• Worked on honors analysis
• Met with a teacher to provide support with using OnCourse
• Prepared for my afternoon REACH meeting at the middle school
• Met with a teacher who attended a voluntary workshop over the weekend
• Research graduate school options
• Updated the district website

 

Middle School:

• Met with three parents along with the principal to hear their concerns about a particular teacher and the general REACH model being used this year at the middle school. Answered questions and provided information as necessary. The parents left feeling good about how things went.

 

Board Office:

• Ordered some supplies/materials that can be used as holiday goodies at our December meetings – a 2011 Civil War calendar for teachers at the intermediate and high schools and a book of fun/weird world history facts for the middle school
• Distributed observation report from yesterday's observation
• Prepared for middle school department meeting
• Analyzed marking period 1 grades at intermediate, middle, and high schools
• Looked through an online map resource

Time for a break!

The final day before Thanksgiving break was a short day for administrators as well. We were dismissed a little before 2pm. Most of my colleagues were out using vacation days so it was a quiet day.

 

Elementary Schools:

• Conducted two good post-observation conferences at two different elementary schools

 

High School:

• Met with one of the honors world history teachers to discuss feelings about honors/AP.

 

Board Office:

• Presented my correlation study about the honors testing procedures we use with grade 8 students to the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. She immediately agreed with my conclusion and gave me permission to move forward with my plans of adjusting the honors testing procedures for this year. The main change is moving the testing to one day only by eliminating sections of the test that seemed statistically insignificant in predicting who should move to honors.

 

High School:

• Back to the high school to meet with the other honors world history teacher about honors/AP. This meeting went really well.
• Sent out weekly update for Social Studies.

 

Board Office:

• Responded to the Intermediate School guidance counselor about a parent who was requested special REACH consideration.
• Prepared for Monday's Middle School department meeting.
• Followed up on odds and ends in the office.

A short week begins

High School:

• Prepared for observation
• Observed a high school teacher – the only one without tenure – deliver a pretty good lesson.
• Met with a teacher to discuss possible new AP courses
• Worked on compiling the honors data for my analysis of our honors testing procedures

 

Elementary School:

• Conducted a successful post-observation conference with a teacher

 

Intermediate School:

• Conducted a successful post-observation conference with a teacher

 

Board Office:

• Sent my response to a high school department member/union leader who questioned a statement I distributed last week about my expectations for lesson plans
• Cleared up some confusion about someone I am paying to help with REACH evaluations
• Worked on observation reports and getting them out to applicable staff members
• Met with math supervisor to continue the analysis of honors testing data. The conclusion seems to be that the methods we are using right now are not achieving their goal. That is, they don't accurately tell us who will be successful in honors at the grade 9 level. If this is the case, then the entire testing system may need to be scrapped. Unfortunately I am working on a very tight time frame to get this done.

Week Over!

Elementary School:

• Met with some teachers throughout the day. It was a half day for parent-teacher conferences so turnout was lighter than usual. I wasn't feeling too well so this was not a big let down for me.
• Observed a good REACH lesson.
• Sent my weekly update out to social studies teachers throughout the district.
• Continued working on the analysis of the honors world history entrance exam.

 

High School:

• Held a pre-observation conference with a teacher who I will be observing on Monday. The conversations went well. She is the only non-tenured teacher in the high school department so she is in a tough place knowing about budget concerns.

 

Middle School:

• Held a post-observation conference with a teacher. It went well and was quick and to the point. We were on the same page and things were good to go.

 

Board Office:

• Finished putting together a summary of the high school department's concerns about implementing PLCs.
• Did some preparation work for next week.

A Late Update

Elementary School:

• Met with teachers throughout the day at all grade levels to talk about social studies and hear their resource needs.
• Rescheduled observations for the week after Thanksgiving to make room for a new committee meeting.
• Observed the REACH teacher do a good, creative lesson.
• Registered for a trial of a Rand McNally online map program.
• Read in the book "How to Overcome Staff Division," which is about how to bring reform to a divided school faculty.
• Analyzed the first grade curriculum to match it to the new state standards. Results = we are pretty close already so there shouldn't be massive changes to make.
• Began analyzing the honors testing procedures used for students moving from grade 8 to 9. I am using current students in grade 10 as the test case by looking at their honors entrance criteria and their grades in 9^th grade.

A Day in the Office

Board Office:

• Prepared to follow up on Monday's high school department meeting by researching responses to teacher concerns about PLCs. Found some great stuff!
• Attended a district supervisors' meeting for about 3 hours. There were some good topics of discussion and I got some clarifications on PLC issues that I wanted to address.
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent for my budget meeting for REACH. Everything went well.
• Responded to some e-mails from technology staff about Google Earth. It looks like I might get access to it for my staff!
• Prepared to distribute information about applying for Gilder Lehrman summer programs. Priority consideration is one of the perks of our affiliate status that we got a couple months ago.
• Updated my Social Studies and REACH budgets to reflect the meetings I had.
• Put together the first draft of proposals to the Board of Education's curriculum committee to add AP World History and AP Economics next year.
• Did some follow up activities related to recent meetings.
• Rescheduled a few observations due to newly scheduled meetings.

A Day in the Office

Board Office:

• Prepared to follow up on Monday's high school department meeting by researching responses to teacher concerns about PLCs. Found some great stuff!
• Attended a district supervisors' meeting for about 3 hours. There were some good topics of discussion and I got some clarifications on PLC issues that I wanted to address.
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent for my budget meeting for REACH. Everything went well.
• Responded to some e-mails from technology staff about Google Earth. It looks like I might get access to it for my staff!
• Prepared to distribute information about applying for Gilder Lehrman summer programs. Priority consideration is one of the perks of our affiliate status that we got a couple months ago.
• Updated my Social Studies and REACH budgets to reflect the meetings I had.
• Put together the first draft of proposals to the Board of Education's curriculum committee to add AP World History and AP Economics next year.
• Did some follow up activities related to recent meetings.
• Rescheduled a few observations due to newly scheduled meetings.

Lots of stuff today

Elementary School:

• Scheduled a meeting time with the high school teacher who I have problems with at her request to help her use the online lesson planning program
• Responded to an e-mail from a Cengage Online Learning representative whose son traveled with me on a People to People trip a couple years ago
• Met with teachers from grades K-4 throughout the morning
• Conducted a REACH observation with a second grade class. It went alright, but the students were not entirely cooperative so the teacher had to spend a lot of time managing behavior.
• Logged opinions about the addition of AP World History and AP Economics as they came in via e-mail.
• Responded to the Literacy supervisor's request for information about newspaper and yearbook funding in other districts.
• Found and distributed an article for parents of gifted students that the elementary teachers will be able to share with parents during conferences next week.
• Reviewed grade 5 lesson plans and sent a pacing summary out to the teachers.
• Spoke with the teacher and principal at the middle school about the parent e-mail I received on Friday looking for a meeting. I also wrote back to the parent to tell her she had to meet with the teacher before meeting with me. Since she has had that meeting, we are now moving to meeting next week. It seems like the parent has complaints about a lot of areas other than REACH that might be influencing this current concern.
• Critiqued the lesson plans of the high school teacher I met with last year to talk about writing good objectives. His plans this week are slightly better, but he mostly just changed key words to make them sound better instead of actually changing his approach.
• Did some research into the possibility of getting an elementary teaching certificate for myself to give me a little more credibility at that level.

 

Board Office:

• Met with the Literacy supervisor and then my secretary to debrief yesterday's high school department meeting. Also received an e-mail from the teachers' association president that said she heard there were reluctant participants in my meeting but that I handled the situation well. I think everyone is on the same page. The teachers were attacking central office decision-making but not me directly. I even agree with most of their criticisms, but we have to figure out the way to make it work.
• Researched the Museum of Interesting Things, a traveling show that was suggested to me as a possible REACH activity. Forwarded the information to elementary REACH teachers for their review.
• Worked on creating laminated NJ desk maps for fourth grade teachers.
• Responded to a national survey on social studies education as requested by the National Council of the Social Studies.
• Forwarded a page from The Week that considers President Bush's reemergence on the national media scene from multiple perspectives to the high school teacher who contacted me last week about liberal media bias.

Anxiety Today!

Today was an anxiety-inducing day due to the number of meetings I needed to conduct.

 

High School:

• Ran the make-up meeting for four coaches who would not be able to attend the afternoon meeting. This went pretty well and gave me the impression that a civilized conversation about the PLCs would be possible during the afternoon session with the full department. I misread this one!

 

Intermediate School:

• Held my first meeting with the grade six team. It went pretty well with them offering useful feedback and good discussion about challenges they face. I will be able to follow through on some of their requests, which is always good.

 

Elementary School:

• Ran my second Social Studies Open House. I wasn't with another supervisor for this one and the schedule was a little different due to an assembly. In addition, I had to leave about 90 minutes before the end of the day which made it hard to see everyone so it was not as successful as visit number one. I did meet up with a few teachers who shared unexpected concerns. There aren't enough books in second grade (it turns out books were only purchased for 2 class sets rather than 1 set for each class). The maps are out of date in essentially every classroom. One teacher hoped we could teach Social Studies content via REACH and computer resource instead of in their daily class. Fun.
• Responded to a high school teacher's e-mail inviting me to observe a class today.
• Sent an e-mail to tomorrow's elementary school.
• Observed a REACH teacher with another interesting lesson. It wasn't quite as impressive as last week's, but this teacher was with a full class of first graders instead of a pull-out class of a few fourth graders.
• Researched the History Channel DVD set "America: The Story of US" and offered to purchase a set for each of the school media centers.
• Reviewed lesson plans in OnCourse and sent reminders as needed to people who had not submitted them.

 

Board Office:

• Traveled back to the Board office for a budget meeting with the Assistant Superintendent, but she was behind schedule so we didn't get a chance to have the meeting.

 

High School:

• Conducted the department meeting. The main goal for me was to review the group norms that were set during the in-service a couple weeks ago and brainstorm ways to overcome the obstacles to PLC implementation that are within our control. They were not interested. They did not come prepared with the materials I asked them to have with them. They included norms that were not appropriate. When I tried to talk about things we could do to implement the PLCs, they basically refused to acknowledge that we could accomplish anything without all the external factors addressed first. One teacher challenged the 50+ years of research into the PLC model of professional development. Another teacher questioned whether it was actually possible to get 2400 students to meet expectations for learning. Another questioned whether it was reasonable to think we could overcome challenges that students bring to school whether they be economic, family relationship, etc. I was really caught off guard because they were assailing the very facets of the PLC model that I thought were unassailable. I believed that it was impossible to oppose the concept of working collaboratively to improve learning for all students. Back to the drawing board...

Anxiety Today!

Today was an anxiety-inducing day due to the number of meetings I needed to conduct.

 

High School:

• Ran the make-up meeting for four coaches who would not be able to attend the afternoon meeting. This went pretty well and gave me the impression that a civilized conversation about the PLCs would be possible during the afternoon session with the full department. I misread this one!

 

Intermediate School:

• Held my first meeting with the grade six team. It went pretty well with them offering useful feedback and good discussion about challenges they face. I will be able to follow through on some of their requests, which is always good.

 

Elementary School:

• Ran my second Social Studies Open House. I wasn't with another supervisor for this one and the schedule was a little different due to an assembly. In addition, I had to leave about 90 minutes before the end of the day which made it hard to see everyone so it was not as successful as visit number one. I did meet up with a few teachers who shared unexpected concerns. There aren't enough books in second grade (it turns out books were only purchased for 2 class sets rather than 1 set for each class). The maps are out of date in essentially every classroom. One teacher hoped we could teach Social Studies content via REACH and computer resource instead of in their daily class. Fun.
• Responded to a high school teacher's e-mail inviting me to observe a class today.
• Sent an e-mail to tomorrow's elementary school.
• Observed a REACH teacher with another interesting lesson. It wasn't quite as impressive as last week's, but this teacher was with a full class of first graders instead of a pull-out class of a few fourth graders.
• Researched the History Channel DVD set "America: The Story of US" and offered to purchase a set for each of the school media centers.
• Reviewed lesson plans in OnCourse and sent reminders as needed to people who had not submitted them.

 

Board Office:

• Traveled back to the Board office for a budget meeting with the Assistant Superintendent, but she was behind schedule so we didn't get a chance to have the meeting.

 

High School:

• Conducted the department meeting. The main goal for me was to review the group norms that were set during the in-service a couple weeks ago and brainstorm ways to overcome the obstacles to PLC implementation that are within our control. They were not interested. They did not come prepared with the materials I asked them to have with them. They included norms that were not appropriate. When I tried to talk about things we could do to implement the PLCs, they basically refused to acknowledge that we could accomplish anything without all the external factors addressed first. One teacher challenged the 50+ years of research into the PLC model of professional development. Another teacher questioned whether it was actually possible to get 2400 students to meet expectations for learning. Another questioned whether it was reasonable to think we could overcome challenges that students bring to school whether they be economic, family relationship, etc. I was really caught off guard because they were assailing the very facets of the PLC model that I thought were unassailable. I believed that it was impossible to oppose the concept of working collaboratively to improve learning for all students. Back to the drawing board...

A Busy Friday

Board Office:

• Cleared out lots of e-mails. This included a Veterans Day e-mail from an elementary teacher, a follow-up from a high school teacher, a new issue regarding a student in honors US history who probably shouldn't be there, and scheduling a meeting for grade 6 on Monday.
• Typed up a PLC self-assessment document to use future meetings.
• Prepared for Monday's PLC/department meeting at the high school.
• Prepared for a grade 6 meeting at the intermediate school that was not planned.
• Finished and distributed my social studies weekly update.
• Exchanged e-mails with a high school teacher about media bias. The teacher sent me a pointed message about liberal bias against President Bush that he believed was refuted by President Bush's appearance on Oprah. I did some subsequent research into the topic for expected future conversations. My position is that high school teachers should be provided students with the opportunity to read/hear a variety of perspectives, but they should be able to make up their own minds.
• Discussed issues with a potential student teacher at the high school or middle school. The candidate is a graduate of the district, has three siblings at the high school, and is desired because he would also be a basketball coach this year. My concern is whether coaching a sport is appropriate while doing the extremely demanding job of student teaching. The high school principal does not want the person there because it is an ethical concern due to family relationships.
• Corresponded with a high school teacher who wanted DBQ materials that she saw a colleague with. I referenced the e-mail I sent out that offered the materials in September and she recognized that she missed her chance.
• Corresponded with a high school teacher about a possible technology grant that could help purchase a computer that is no longer functioning in his room.

 

Middle School:

• Observed a teacher doing part two of a Veterans Day lesson. It was pretty interesting and a creative way of engaging students in the meaning of the holiday. There were some weaknesses towards the end, but it was a good effort nonetheless.
• Conducted post-observation meetings with two other teachers that went very well. The teachers provided me with some good insights and feedback on a variety of topics.

 

Board Office:

• Called the parent of a REACH candidate who was not accepted. The mother just wanted some test information and she was extremely pleasant. The conversation went very well.
• Responded to some follow-up on the honors issue that developed in the morning at the high school.
• Registered for the Middle States Conference of the Social Studies at Rutgers University in March.

A Busy Friday

Board Office:

• Cleared out lots of e-mails. This included a Veterans Day e-mail from an elementary teacher, a follow-up from a high school teacher, a new issue regarding a student in honors US history who probably shouldn't be there, and scheduling a meeting for grade 6 on Monday.
• Typed up a PLC self-assessment document to use future meetings.
• Prepared for Monday's PLC/department meeting at the high school.
• Prepared for a grade 6 meeting at the intermediate school that was not planned.
• Finished and distributed my social studies weekly update.
• Exchanged e-mails with a high school teacher about media bias. The teacher sent me a pointed message about liberal bias against President Bush that he believed was refuted by President Bush's appearance on Oprah. I did some subsequent research into the topic for expected future conversations. My position is that high school teachers should be provided students with the opportunity to read/hear a variety of perspectives, but they should be able to make up their own minds.
• Discussed issues with a potential student teacher at the high school or middle school. The candidate is a graduate of the district, has three siblings at the high school, and is desired because he would also be a basketball coach this year. My concern is whether coaching a sport is appropriate while doing the extremely demanding job of student teaching. The high school principal does not want the person there because it is an ethical concern due to family relationships.
• Corresponded with a high school teacher who wanted DBQ materials that she saw a colleague with. I referenced the e-mail I sent out that offered the materials in September and she recognized that she missed her chance.
• Corresponded with a high school teacher about a possible technology grant that could help purchase a computer that is no longer functioning in his room.

 

Middle School:

• Observed a teacher doing part two of a Veterans Day lesson. It was pretty interesting and a creative way of engaging students in the meaning of the holiday. There were some weaknesses towards the end, but it was a good effort nonetheless.
• Conducted post-observation meetings with two other teachers that went very well. The teachers provided me with some good insights and feedback on a variety of topics.

 

Board Office:

• Called the parent of a REACH candidate who was not accepted. The mother just wanted some test information and she was extremely pleasant. The conversation went very well.
• Responded to some follow-up on the honors issue that developed in the morning at the high school.
• Registered for the Middle States Conference of the Social Studies at Rutgers University in March.

Veterans Day and a Looooooong Meeting

Board Office:

• Cleaned out some more books from my office to send the professional library I'm creating at the high school
• Read some articles about Veterans Day, partially out of my own interest and partially in preparation for a program I was going to attend

 

Elementary School:

• Attended a Veterans Day program run by one of the REACH teachers. It was a big hit with a large number of veterans, most relatives of the students, active duty military from a NJ base there to let kids climb on a Humvee, songs, speeches, etc. The kids (and teachers) did a great job and the veterans were touched.

 

Board Office:

• Sent an e-mail to a school I will be visiting next week for my Social Studies Open House
• Attended a meeting for 4.5 hours with the district supervisors. In that time, we didn't even finish the agenda! Topics of discussion included: incident command management training, a demo of a curriculum building program, discussion of "Waiting for Superman," grant opportunities from the local education foundation, the budget process, reflection on PLC professional development, planning of meetings to discuss program of studies at the high school with guidance counselors, brainstorming of district-wide curriculum concerns, review of 2010-11 Board goals, discussion of a format to brief the new superintendent on curriculum, discussion of monthly curriculum presentations at Board meetings, discussion of the role of social media in education, discussion of negotiations with the teachers' union, and more!

First elementary open house

Today was the first of my six Social Studies Open Houses at the district's elementary schools. My goal is to provide K-4 teachers an opportunity to meet me and express their likes and dislikes about the curriculum and resources they have available to them. I eased into things nicely today because the science supervisor was there as well.

 

Elementary School:

• Throughout the day, I met most of the teachers at all grade levels. The most extensive conversations took place with the kindergarten teachers (who need new maps), the first grade teachers and the third grade teachers.
• Observed the school's REACH teacher during an amazing lesson that successfully demonstrated the strengths of the program. The fourth grade students in the room were doing the kind of critical thinking and problem solving that I wish all of the high school teachers would attempt.
• Scheduled post-observation meetings for all of the REACH teachers.
• Visited the kindergarten classrooms to assess the quality of geography resources they have available. The 1993 world maps need to be updated.

 

Board Office:

• Reviewed US History II lesson plans and sent out a pacing update.
• Prepared for my meeting with the teacher who did not want to meet with me.

A Rude Awakening

Coming back from 3 days off (administrators), 5 days off (teachers) and 9 days off (students) would naturally be a challenge. Add on to that a power outage at the middle school that threatened to necessitate the closing of school and a down computer network that made it difficult for half the district's staff to log in and you can see a challenging morning. Luckily things were up and running and back to normal pretty quickly so the day went along as expected.

 

Board Office:

• Sent out DVDs to teachers who requested them from the collection of stuff I was trying to clear out of my office
• Prepared for the day's observations
• Sent e-mails to elementary schools about upcoming visits
• Reviewed some US history lesson plans
• Put together information about a Holocaust art and writing contest for students
• Prepared for school superintendent exam

 

Middle School:

• Conducted an observation of a great teacher that went pretty well.

 

Intermediate School:

• Conducted an observation of a good teacher that went well.

 

Board Office:

• Did some research into the use of social networking like Facebook for community relations
• Worked on the observation schedule
• Began writing a press release for a high school teacher who was selected to attend an East Asia Studies program at Princeton University. This is a program I did last year.

A Rude Awakening

Coming back from 3 days off (administrators), 5 days off (teachers) and 9 days off (students) would naturally be a challenge. Add on to that a power outage at the middle school that threatened to necessitate the closing of school and a down computer network that made it difficult for half the district's staff to log in and you can see a challenging morning. Luckily things were up and running and back to normal pretty quickly so the day went along as expected.

 

Board Office:

• Sent out DVDs to teachers who requested them from the collection of stuff I was trying to clear out of my office
• Prepared for the day's observations
• Sent e-mails to elementary schools about upcoming visits
• Reviewed some US history lesson plans
• Put together information about a Holocaust art and writing contest for students
• Prepared for school superintendent exam

 

Middle School:

• Conducted an observation of a great teacher that went pretty well.

 

Intermediate School:

• Conducted an observation of a good teacher that went well.

 

Board Office:

• Did some research into the use of social networking like Facebook for community relations
• Worked on the observation schedule
• Began writing a press release for a high school teacher who was selected to attend an East Asia Studies program at Princeton University. This is a program I did last year.

Short Day Before a Break

Thursday was another short day - done at 1pm - and this time with a 3-day weekend to follow due to the furlough day on Friday.

 

Board Office:

• Read books about assessment and professional learning communities
• Worked on the November 15 department meeting agendas
• Scheduled observations
• Finished and distributed the weekly update
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent to discuss the teacher whose conference I felt did not go well
• E-mailed said teacher to schedule a meeting
• Read through lots of old gifted and talented files
• Organized the office some more
  
  

Quiet Day

Wednesday and Thursday are odd days. On Wednesday, all members of the teachers' union (which includes most secretaries) were furloughed as part of cost-cutting measures. So there were only a handful of people in the office. Thursday is the first day of NJEA convention so the same members have the day off. On Friday, the members of the administrators' union are also furloughed. This was catch-up and big project time so it appears that I did little. We were also allowed to leave at 1pm so that plays a role.

 

• Continued compiling data and began analyzing.
• Worked to get rid of as much stuff as possible from the office. My goal is to clear up some space to make it a little more comfortable.
• Read a book about assessment.
  
  

Did I Do Anything Today?

I had to be in the Board Office all day today because teachers and principals were doing follow up work on yesterday's in-service and the Assistant Superintendent felt it was important that supervisors not be there. We ran the first day so the goal was to provide a united administrative front.

 

I spent most of my day compiling data and putting it into useable formats. I am trying to answer the question, "Should we eliminate the standard level of social studies courses at the high school?" and I am attempting to look at the current demographics of those courses for patterns. If I can prove that we are hurting the students who are in those classes by not putting them in college prep level, then it will be clear that we should eliminate them. If it turns out that these students are demonstrating competency in the classes and are benefiting from the system, then we keep them.

 

• Sent an e-mail to the first school that I will visit on my Social Studies Open House elementary school tour.
• Read through evaluations from yesterday's in-service. Most were great but as always my attention lingers on the ones that were not so good.
• Completed a professional development report for my attendance at the NJCSS and applied for reimbursement for expenses.
• Helped two intermediate school teachers with new Literacy standards.
• Read the 2009-10 Board of Education goals online.
• Previewed a series of leveled readers that a 5th grade teacher requested. These provide four versions of the same content so teachers can differentiate between varying levels of reading ability. They look the same on the handouts so students may not even realize what's happening.
• Conducted research as described in my intro.
  
  

Two for One

This entry is for Friday...all of Monday was spent at the high school for a district-wide in-service devoted to introducing the idea of Professional Learning Communities to the staff.

 

Friday...

 

High School:

• Held a post-observation conference with a teacher from the day before

Board Office:

• Spoke with the math supervisor some more about the teacher issue from the day before.
• Registered to attend the Middle States Council of the Social Studies conference in March.
• Created flyers for two student contests for teachers to display.
• Did some reading in a book about assessment.
• Worked to get class roster information into a useable format for data analysis. The software we use for student information is embarrasingly outdated so this was very challenging.
• Created and sent the weekly update.

Intermediate School:

• Attended a display of tombstones for explorers that students made. They were very creative and tied class material into Halloween in an interesting manner.