Wednesday, March 30

Board Office:

• Approved an additional student for REACH testing.
• Met with the assistant superintendent of personnel to finalize a plan for the project director position within the grant proposal. Later met with the superintendent to present an overview as well, then the assistant again, and finally the superintendent one more time to make a final decision.
• Responded to a high school student's e-mail requesting an interview about my views on technology use for a robotics project.
• Reviewed lesson plans.
• Reviewed applications for the elementary REACH opening.
• Spoke with a representative from AIHE about our grant proposal.
• Followed up with a high school teacher about my recommendations for an individual professional development plan for next year.
• Worked on annual performance reviews.
• Spoke with a high school teacher about the robotics interview request.

 

I attended part of a fundraising concert event organized by a high school social studies teacher in the evening as well. It was not well attended, but it was still nice to see students there performing for a charitable cause.

Tuesday, March 29

Board Office:

• Sent e-mails to teachers and their principals thanking them for volunteering at National History Day on Sunday.
• Edited the grant narrative to reflect recommendations made by teachers who reviewed it.
• Responded to a fourth grade teacher's e-mail about ideas of how to embed social studies instruction in literacy classes.
• Corresponded with a high school teacher about the grant.
• Responded to a teacher's e-mail about the annual performance review.
• Met with the assistant business administrator about the personnel section of the grant.
• Read the state's teacher effectiveness task force report and a counter-proposal from a group called EQuATE.
• Sent an e-mail to a high school teacher who has not submitted a monthly report since December.
• Spoke on the phone with someone from AIHE about the grant proposal.
• Updated the grant narrative to reflect what I spoke about with AIHE.
• Responded to a REACH question.
• Read through articles that were provided to us at supervisors' meeting.
• Spoke to a potential gifted and talented program review consultant. This person did the same kind of work for another nearby district and we spoke about the possibility of her working with our staff, students, and parents over the next few months.

 

Intermediate School:

• Rehearsed with the Grand Staff Ensemble.

Monday, March 28

On Sunday, I judged a regional competition of National History Day. This is a great event for students in grades 6-8. Three of my teachers attended and judged as well with the hope of learning about the program and, perhaps, bringing it to our students next year. Everyone seemed to have a positive experience so I am optimistic that we will figure out a way to incorporate NHD.

 

Board Office:

• Responded to a teacher's questions about the grant narrative.
• Provided access to the grant narrative to an additional teacher.
• Forwarded a voice mail from the parent who complained about a teacher on Friday. The parent now requests that we not meet with the student. Instead, the parents, teacher, and I should get together again for a meeting. This is unacceptable from my perspective and clearly the student's side of the story has to be part of any future conversation. I spoke to the assistant principal throughout the day and his assessment is that the student shares guilt. This is based on him meeting with at least one other student from the same class. It seems that the "bullying victim" brings attention to herself and challenges the teacher regularly. This is a much different depiction than the parent's point of view. He called the parent to share this side of the story and to indicate that there will be no additional meetings unless the student is part of it.
• Met with the assistant superintendent of personnel to discuss some personnel items in the grant budget. The only sticking point now is the project director stipend. I'll be playing with these options much more tomorrow.

 

Elementary School:

• Traveled with the literacy and science supervisors to fourth grade classroom's Equality Museum that grew out of a study about Martin Luther King, Jr. The kids were really into it and they did a very nice job.

 

Board Office:

• Forwarded information about observations to the middle school principal.
• Responded to e-mails regarding REACH testing.
• Responded to an e-mail from the outside teacher who assists with REACH testing.
• Drafted the annual performance reviews for four high school teachers and sent e-mails asking for some follow up information from them.
• Sent an e-mail to a high school teacher about an upcoming surgery.
• Met with the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction about the personnel section of my grant.
• Reviewed lesson plans.
• Responded to an invitation to join yet another grant consortium.
• Prepared for our next supervisors' PLC meeting by outlining two chapters of a book.
• Sent an e-mail to a high school teacher about her lack of lesson plans. If she does not make changes immediately, I will have to take more formal action.
• Talked with a few people about some discrepancies in how ordering is done. I think I have it worked out now, but it was confusing.
• Met with both assistant superintendents to finalize the personnel section of the grant narrative. I'm still not exactly sure how things are going to proceed, but I do have more information to work with.

Friday, March 25

High School:

• Responded to e-mails regarding REACH.
• Conducted a post-observation conference with the teacher who was struggling. The observation went well last week, but the post-observation conference was not as good as anticipated. The teacher took some of what I was saying in a way that surprised me. There is still a lot of work to be done here, but it is very challenging to maintain an open dialogue about improvement.
• Responded to questions about REACH from an intermediate school guidance counselor and assistant principal.
• Spoke to the parent of a high school student with whom I have met twice regarding issues in a World History class (same teacher as this morning's post-observation conference). The parent was irate and alleged that her child is being bullied by the teacher. I brought the concerns to the appropriate assistant principal and then called the parent back with a plan of action. The assistant principal and guidance counselor will meet with the student on Monday to get the story and then they will meet with the teacher for follow-up.
• Conducted a post-observation conference with a social studies teacher and special education teacher who provides in-class support. They did a great job when observed and this was a great conference. Both teachers are non-tenured so it was very nice to be able to be so positive.
• Sent out the weekly update.
• Sent updated copies of the REACH matrices to a retired teacher who assists with testing.

 Board Office:

• Updated the matrices based on the teacher's feedback.
• Left a message for a gifted and talented consultant about a possible partnership.
• E-mailed information about the Rutgers University Graduate Certificate in Gifted Education to potentially interested teachers. Forwarded hard copies of the brochures via inter-office mail.
• E-mailed a professor at the University of Connecticut to schedule a phone call to discuss possible consulting opportunities.
• Placed an order for resources to assist with our gifted and talented review.
• Sent an e-mail to the teacher of the student from the parent complaint to inform her of the allegations as required by contract. The teacher responded with a question about whether this seemed to me like harassment from the teacher/student.
• Uploaded the Teaching American History grant narrative to Google Docs so that a small group of teachers could review and edit my work.

Thursday, March 24

I spent the entire day in the Board Office today mostly in conversations in the assistant superintendent's office.

 

• Met with the assistant superintendent, math supervisor, and science supervisor to discuss a request for information from one of the private pre-K/kindergarten providers in the town. The conversation led to discussions about PLCs, hiring procedures for a new supervisor, and a host of other topics.
• Read through the final program evaluation of a nearby district's gifted and talented program. I co-opted much of the information and timeline into my proposal for our own review.
• A number of people at the intermediate school have started asking if they can make additional REACH nominations because parents are pressuring them to do so. I spoke with the principal and then put together a memo instructing teachers exactly how to handle such parental requests.
• Looked up materials for Kids Vote, an annual program that takes place the night of the school board election. This falls under my purview and it's a month away so it's time to get to work.
• Met with the assistant superintendent (and literacy supervisor and superintendent at various points) to present my proposal for REACH program evaluation. It went really well and we set up the first full committee meeting for 3 weeks from now.
• Responded to phone calls regarding REACH.
• Met with the math supervisor to discuss issues that arose during the Local Professional Development Committee meeting today.
• Responded to e-mails regarding REACH.

Wednesday, March 23

Board Office:

• Returned phone calls regarding REACH testing.
• Replied to a teacher e-mail regarding REACH testing.
• Replied to an intermediate school e-mail about REACH placements.

 

Elementary School:

• Arrived early for a post-observation conference so I met with the principal and REACH teacher informally.
• Conducted a post-observation conference with the teacher who I observed last week. It went pretty well considering the challenging nature my evaluation.

 

High School:

• Submitted an analysis of why we should not sign on to another Teaching American History consortium to the assistant superintendent.
• Returned calls regarding REACH testing.
• Met with a teacher to make up last week's department meeting.
• Sent an e-mail to the elementary principals about conducting annual reviews of the REACH teachers.
• Got the principal to sign off on a field trip opportunity for AP Government students.

 

Board Office:

• Sent out information about annual performance reviews to all high school social studies teachers and elementary REACH teachers. I am doing things differently than they have been done before in these departments because I am asking teachers to document the learning that has taken place in their classrooms in a meaningful way. I may get some critical feedback from the people who normally express concern at the things I have done so we shall see.
• Spoke with an elementary principal about a missing field trip form.
• Submitted paperwork to get reimbursed for my attendance at the Middle States Council for the Social Studies conference.
• Read a few back issues of Educational Leadership.
• Met with the science supervisor to talk about the post-observation conference.
• Responded to a teacher's e-mail about this weekend's National History Day judging.
• Returned calls regarding REACH testing.
• Sent a clarifying e-mail about a future presentation to two teachers.

Tuesday, March 22

Intermediate School:

• Met with a team of volunteers who took the lead on planning a Colonial Day event for 5^th graders next spring. We did some great brainstorming.

 

Board Office:

• Read through notes from a County meeting on PLC implementation that provide great supporting ideas.
• Returned calls regarding REACH and World History Honors
• Responded to an e-mail from a high school teacher regarding Medal of Honor program.
• Discussed the creation of PDP goals with other supervisors and sent information to the middle school principal. I'm still uneasy about the lack of uniformity especially as we race into the PLC focus.
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent of Personnel regarding the teacher observation I did at an elementary school last week. Also scheduled an appointment to talk about personnel budget for my grant application.
• Reviewed the timeline for REACH program evaluation.
• Spoke with someone from AIHE about our budget proposal.
• Met with the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum to discuss the grant and REACH.

 

Elementary School:

• Met with a principal to discuss the process for hiring a replacement for the retiring REACH teacher. He would like to keep the process in-house while I would prefer to open the search up to the entire district and beyond.
• Met with a retiring REACH teacher to pick her brain about the program and get unfiltered feedback that only someone who is leaving can give. We had a wonderful conversation that provided lots of great information for me to work with.

May 21, 2011 Revised

I was out of the district on Friday to attend the Middle States Council for the Social Studies conference at Rutgers University. It was a smaller-than-expected crowd with very few of the NJ leadership faces I would expect to see. However, I met a couple people and was introduced to someone important in the organization who asked for my card to contact me about getting involved in the group in a leadership role. I also attended at least one workshop that I think I can bring back to teachers for immediate use.

 

Monday, March 21

 

Middle School:

• Ran a department meeting during which I provided an overview of the REACH screening process per teachers' requests.

 

High School:

• Returned phone calls regarding REACH and/or World History Honors placements.
• Met with vice principal to compare notes on the observation we conducted last week.
• Returned additional phone calls.
• Replied to an e-mail from the intermediate school principal about supply money.
• Sent out observation reports to teachers for review.
• Spoke with someone from a consortium partner district about the process for joining our grant.
• Responded to a high school teacher's e-mail that was not favorable about the program I was hoping to bring back from the conference.
• Provided some support to a high school teacher who is trying some new differentiation strategies.
• Worked on the Professional Development Plan survey in Google Docs.
• Spoke with the intermediate school principal about annual performance reports and forwarded him some information.
• Responded to a teacher's e-mail about REACH.
• Followed up with potential consortium districts via e-mail.
• Read through a couple issues if Education Week.

 

Board Office:

• Followed up on additional phone calls and e-mails.
• Attended a budget presentation given to all administrators in advance of the same presentation given tonight at a Board meeting. Due to significant concessions from the teachers' union, other more drastic changes (including the loss of 270 non-certificated jobs) will not occur if the budget passes.

 

From there, I went to Rutgers University for an open house about a new Gifted Education Graduate Certificate program. It was very interesting and I would consider doing it myself if I wasn't pursuing a doctoral program right now. I did connect with a couple people who may be able to support our program review though so that's exciting.

Monday, March 21

I was out of the district on Friday to attend the Middle States Council for the Social Studies conference at Rutgers University. It was a smaller-than-expected crowd with very few of the NJ leadership faces I would expect to see. However, I met a couple people and was introduced to someone important in the organization who asked for my card to contact me about getting involved in the group in a leadership role. I also attended at least one workshop that I think I can bring back to teachers for immediate use.

 

Monday, March 21

 

Middle School:

• Ran a department meeting during which I provided an overview of the REACH screening process per teachers' requests.

 

High School:

• Returned phone calls regarding REACH and/or World History Honors placements.
• Met with vice principal to compare notes on the observation we conducted last week.
• Returned additional phone calls.
• Replied to an e-mail from the intermediate school principal about supply money.
• Sent out observation reports to teachers for review.
• Spoke with someone from a consortium partner district about the process for joining our grant.
• Responded to a high school teacher's e-mail that was not favorable about the program I was hoping to bring back from the conference.
• Provided some support to a high school teacher who is trying some new differentiation strategies.
• Worked on the Professional Development Plan survey in Google Docs.
• Spoke with the intermediate school principal about annual performance reports and forwarded him some information.
• Responded to a teacher's e-mail about REACH.
• Followed up with potential consortium districts via e-mail.
• Read through a couple issues if Education Week.

 

Board Office:

• Followed up on additional phone calls and e-mails.

Thursday, March 17

High School:

• Provided a breakdown of CogAT scores to the parent of a 2^nd grader.
• Met informally with a teacher who informed me that she would be taking maternity leave in the fall.
• Met for a post-observation conference with a teacher that went well.
• Responded to an e-mail from an elementary REACH teacher about letters informing parents of CogAT results.
• Put together a PowerPoint for the middle school teachers about how students get evaluated for REACH.
• Conducted an observation of an in-class resource class that went very well.
• Met for a post-observation conference with a teacher that went well.
• Spoke to a representative from Crossroads of the American Revolution about partnering for an in-service as part of our TAH grant application.
• Observed a struggling teacher and it went pretty well.

 

Board Office:

• Returned accumulated phone calls regarding honors world history placement and REACH.

Wednesday, March 16

Board Office:

• Attended the monthly principals/supervisors meeting. We focused on: language of professional development plan goal for PLCs, whether to count PLC hours towards state PD requirement this year, and philosophy towards test prep.
• Returned phone calls about honors placement and REACH testing.
• Sent my resume in to support my application to be a reviewer for Teaching American History grants.
• Scheduled a meeting with a retiring REACH teacher to get her uninhibited feedback on the program before she leaves.
• Read through the brainstorming that came up in the high school department meeting on Monday and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of information in some groups.
• Left a message for a non-profit called Crossroads of the American Revolution to discuss a partnership opportunity in our TAH grant proposal.
• Responded to a high school teacher's e-mail about my request for a meeting time to make-up what he missed at the HS department.
• Prepared the agenda for the middle school department meeting on Monday.
• Sent an e-mail to the teachers who volunteered to organize the 5^th grade Colonial Day event next year.
• Tried to find articles to provide to teachers during post-observation meetings related to recommendations I made for improvement.
• Reviewed the personnel file and then met with the science supervisor to get some feedback on the elementary teacher I observed yesterday.

Tuesday, March 15

Board Office:

• Processed phone calls that came in over the previous 24 hours regarding CogATs and honors placement.
• Met with math supervisor to talk about concerns she had from a high school department meeting that could be applicable across content areas.
• Sent an e-mail to the high school department clarifying requirements for obtaining 100 hours of professional development based on questions that came up during our meeting yesterday.
• Attended the supervisors' PLC – always interesting conversation in a stimulating intellectual environment.
• Spoke to an elementary REACH teacher about testing and other concerns in her building.
• Returned phone calls that came in from the previous 24 hours.

 

Elementary School:

• Observed a first grade teacher at the request of the principal. This is a veteran teacher who recently returned to the classroom from another position in the district. There was no classroom management whatsoever with students doing whatever they wanted. This will be a tough one to write up and deal with.

 

Middle School:

• Observed a seventh grade teacher who I observed earlier in the year. The previous issues were addressed but I think she may have gone too far in the opposite direction. Nothing outlandish but there are some recommendations (even if there are no "needs improvement" ratings).

 

After work I attended a 90-minute workshop sponsored by the state affiliate of the National Association for Curriculum Development focused on 21^st century skills. Although I have heard most of the content of the presentation before, it is an area of interest for me so I enjoyed the discussion.

Monday, March 14

High School:

• Ran a make-up department meeting. No problems.
• Responded to e-mails about summer options.

 

Intermediate School:

• Ran a productive grade 6 meeting. We discussed the changes to the pacing and the team seems to be on board with working collaboratively to make the changes work next year.

 

Board Office:

• Processed phone messages. Students received their world history placements in the mail over the weekend so I'm receiving calls from all the people who did not get in. I'm also receiving some lingering calls about REACH nominations that went home two weeks ago. Later this week REACH letters will inform 500 families that their second graders do not qualify for screening to continue in the program so the phone will get crazy.
• Sent copies of the updated REACH matrices and letters to the teachers for final approval.
• Prepared for the supervisors' PLC meeting tomorrow.
• Forwarded an e-mail regarding National History Day.
• Sent an e-mail to REACH teachers about scheduling an in-service day in late May.
• Prepared to conduct observations this week.
• Commented on a positive e-mail a struggling high school teacher received from a parent.
• Contacted a former colleague about a local history partnership.
• Went to the library to read up on local history as part of my mission to find a local historical organization to partner on our grant application.
• Sent an RSVP to attend and forwarded information about a new certificate program in gifted education at Rutgers University.

 

High School:

• Unpacked and organized additional supplies.
• Ran the monthly department meeting. Our focus was the annual performance review process which includes the setting of a professional development goal. I tend to follow the rule of law in these situations and have read up on state and district requirements. The standard in the past has not been the same so there were a lot of questions and concerns/complaints about things. I have not read through the products that I asked groups to come up with (recommendations for PLC goals for next year), but clearly we are in the challenging phase of change still.

Thursday, March 14

I was out on Friday for part two of a workshop called Designing Teaching and Learning for the 21^st Century Learners. It was run by the state education specialist in social studies so it was good from a networking point of view to attend. I did gain some useful knowledge and experience working with the new Common Core standards in Literacy and the state standards, but it wasn't quite what I expected or wanted.

 

Thursday:

 

BOE:

• Forward observation reports to teachers.
• Worked on Teaching American History grant proposal modifications and sent to AIHE.
• Responded to a question from an elementary REACH teacher about annual evaluations.
• Responded to a high school teacher's question about a project in World History Honors.
• Attended the monthly supervisors meeting at which we discussed: the budget, PLC training, PLC statement for annual evaluations, school coverage expectations, follow-up on some previous meetings, and a number of other topics.

 

Intermediate School:

• Provided a brief overview of Moodle to a teacher.
• Met with the principal to discuss the possibility of a full-day Colonial Day event next spring for students in grade 5.

 

BOE:

• Worked on edits to REACH matrices and form letters.
• Followed up on TAH grant matters by e-mail and phone with school districts.

 

On Saturday, I did a little work in the high school office as well including contacting local historical organizations to partner with our grant proposal.

Wednesday, March 9

Board Offices:

• Checked messages from yesterday and returned phone calls to two parents of students nominated for REACH.
• Forwarded a signed copy of my recommendation letter to a former student teacher.
• Created a schedule to conduct a few observations today.

 

High School:

• Observed two of the three high school teachers who I evaluated with "needs improvement" earlier in the year. In both cases, I was able to remove the "NI" but there are still things I can suggest for both to continue working on.
• Talked with three teachers who caught me in the hallways or my office. One is working on a program with a group at Rutgers for US History I Honors students to participate in an extended model Congress program.
• Sent information to a guidance counselor regarding honors testing for a student who will be new to the district.
• Informally observed a USI Honors class that is discussing the creation of the American education system. They were debating educational reform and making their own presentations – I thought it would be interesting to hear from high school students on this topic.
• Received and began reviewing the first draft of our Teaching American History grant proposal.
• Attended the high school supervisors' meeting – main item of discussion was annual evaluations which begin in the very near future.

 

Board Office:

• Sent information about REACH classrooms to the director of technology so he can order interactive projectors for them.
• Sent teachers updated information about CogAT results.
• Sent e-mails to two districts that I contacted last week to invite into our TAH consortium.
• Called three additional districts to invite into our TAH consortium. I only spoke to one person and that district, representing about 10,000 students, signed on. Another district responded to my e-mail reminder and suggested they would participate as well. So our consortium now represents approximately 25,000 students, enough to qualify for the full federal grant.
• Met with the assistant superintendent to discuss the grant and some other things.
• Audited my budget accounts to see if we could squeeze a few more things out.

Monday, March 7

All of the supervisors are taking turns covering for an elementary school principal who is away so today was my turn.

 

Elementary School:

• Greet the students as they arrived on busses
• Approve teacher absences in the tracking system
• Review lesson plans
• Drafted a reference letter for a student teacher and sent it off to her
• Forwarded a quote for Teaching American History grant services to the business office
• Forwarded information about partnering with the Township senior center to interested teachers
• Spoke with another supervisor about an incident that took place at this elementary school while he was here. A student wrote some disturbing things on the wall of a bathroom. The investigation has not gone anywhere in determining the culprit.
• Drafted agendas for department meetings next week and reviewed professional development standards that will play a role in annual performance reviews that will take place soon.
• Sent information to assistant superintendent about textbooks that I would like to dispose.
• Provided information about our TAH grant proposal to another district.
• Responded to a high school teacher about an AP reading questions.
• Supervised dismissal.

 

I was out on Tuesday to take a personal day so nothing to report there!

Friday, March 4

Middle School:

• Met with two teacher and a potential student teacher. The point of meeting was to screen the candidate to decide whether he was strong enough to bring into the building to student teach next spring. I thought he handled himself very well. Since I was going to do some informal observations this morning, he tagged along. Over the course of about two hours, we sat in on 8 of the 9 social studies teachers. It was great for him and for me to see our teachers doing some really wonderful things.

 

Board Office:

• Responded to an e-mail from a high school teacher about AP reading.
• Spoke on the phone to an elementary school parent about REACH testing.
• Responded to an elementary school REACH teacher about classroom teachers' questions about testing.
• Finalized the letter that is going to parents of 8^th graders who are partially recommended for honors world history.
• Sent out the weekly update.
• Agreed to cover an elementary school on Monday instead of Tuesday.
• Proofread the letter that will go out to parents of 2^nd graders whose Cognitive Abilities Test results just came back.
• Worked on updated the entrance matrices for REACH.
• Sent an e-mail to the teachers who I plan to observe again due to marking them as needing improvement the last time I saw them.
• Sent out e-mails following up on the student teacher's visit this morning.
• Read through the Teaching American History grant survey results.
• Called to invite district to join our TAH consortium. One small neighboring town agreed on the spot. I left messages for the others.
• Uploaded text information to the state website as required by law before we're allowed to dispose of it.
• Met with my secretary to discuss CogAT scoring discrepancies and forwarded the information to REACH teachers.

Wednesday, March 2

One thing I forgot to right about yesterday – On Tuesday afternoon, I attended a rehearsal with the Hillsborough Grand Staff Ensemble, a group of current and retired district teachers and friends who put on two concerts a year to raise money for scholarships for graduating seniors pursuing music at the college level. I thought it would be a fun way to get involved with an aspect of the district I wouldn't normally see and it was!

 

Elementary School:

• Read to a 2^nd grade class as part of Dr. Seuss' Read Across America Day.

 

Board Office:

• Responded to a student's question about AP classes.
• Accompanied the AP Government & Politics class to Governor Christie's town hall meeting. This took up most of the morning. I was impressed by Governor Christie's speaking style and approach; he was funny, self-deprecating, and well-spoken. None of the bullying tactics that have been shown in video clips and elsewhere occurred during the visit. Of the 9 questions he took, 2 came from our students so they really had a great experience. He did focus primarily on reductions in pensions and health benefits for current and future state employees. If the reforms pass as he recommends them, our take home pay will decrease by approximately 15% based on my rough calculations. He also oversimplifies the problems he's identified in education to the point that most people now believe cutting teachers' benefits and pensions will somehow fix all of the structural issues facing schools, especially those in the poorest parts of the state.
• Reviewed the science supervisor's document to collect teachers' information for annual performance reviews. I am having a little bit of trouble wrapping my head around this extremely important and time-consuming process. This document is the main evaluation tool for teachers and I have a feeling I am going to run into difficulties with the two vocal union leaders in my department.
• Met with the assistant superintendent to debrief on the Governor's visit and to talk about some other things that came up.
• Responded to a high school teacher's e-mail about AP summer institutes. His argument was that I cannot require teachers to go to a summer institute (even if the district is paying for it). My argument is that I am absolutely not going to assign teachers to new AP courses who have not been trained in those courses.
• Began working on a unit outline for a professional development program I began a few weeks ago that continues next week.

Tuesday, March 1

Board Office:

• Popped in to talk to the assistant superintendent about getting the AP Government students permission to attend the governor's town hall meeting on Wednesday, but she was not there because she was at the high school overseeing state testing.

 

High School:

• Met with the assistant superintendent and principal and got the requisite signatures for an expedited field trip approval.
• Met with the AP Government teacher to talk through the things that needed to happen in order to get students on the trip. This included: permission slips, media release forms, transportation, etc. It all came together successfully.
• Met with a teacher who wanted to talk about possible resources for the new AP World History course.
• Worked on letters of recommendation for two teachers for a summer program.

 

Board Office:

• Proofread the monthly report of social studies to the high school principal.
• Responded to a student's question about AP European History.
• Responded to a student's questions about summer course options.
• Worked on placing a student teacher at the middle school. We decided to have a meeting with the candidate to make sure that we liked him and to figure out which placement would be best for him. Left a message on his voice mail.
• RSVPd to attend a presentation about Google Earth.

 

High School:

• Dropped off the teachers' recommendation letters.

 

Board Office:

• Met with the assistant superintendent to talk about the problems I'm having with the grant process and the business office. We are hoping to meet with the business administrator tomorrow.
• Called the federal Department of Education to try to get some clarification. Their position is that we can partner with any group we want and as long as we are okay with the amount of money they are charging us, they don't care.
• Reviewed lesson plans.
• Began working on a timeline for a REACH program review and proposal of changes. This will require a great deal of work between now and October including committee meetings, community forums, etc.
• Sent an e-mail to one of the leading researchers in gifted education, a professor at the University of Connecticut (the leading university for gifted education) to see if we might be able to hire her as a consultant in our program review.

Monday, February 28

I did not get to work until 11:15am due to taking half a family illness day to catch up on sleep from being up the night before.

 

Board Office:

• Caught the summary of the supervisors' PLC meeting.
• Met with an outside consultant who analyzed some REACH testing data for me. Due to unusual changes in state testing last year, we will need to adjust our criteria this year.
• Our governor is holding a town hall meeting in the municipal building on Wednesday morning so I worked on getting permission for AP Government students to attend. This is challenging for a number of reasons – 48 hours of time to get approvals and transportation, no way to actually reserve seats for the students, it falls during state testing at the high school. I stopped in the Township Administrator's office but since it is being run by the governor's office, no one there could really help me. We worked on this throughout the day.
• Met informally with the person in the business office who is asking for me to jump through quite a few hoops before proceeding with our grant application.
• Updated the district web site with some information. An article about an activity in high school social studies classrooms can be found at http://hillsborough.patch.com/articles/students-study-history-of-skyscrapers-with-help-from-rutgers-and-hersheys.

 

Elementary School:

• Conducted a good meeting with the elementary REACH teachers. We discussed: testing timeline for the spring, adjustments to the matrix, public perception of gifted education in town, our trip to the Philadelphia Art Museum, and the possibility of installing interactive projectors in their classrooms.

Friday, February 25

I'm a little behind in posting but for good reason! I was out on Monday morning after spending Sunday into Monday at the hospital waiting for the birth of my nephew. He and Mom are doing well!

 

Board Office:

• Responded to requests for information about model Congress from a middle school teacher
• Attending an emergency budget meeting where we came up with proposals to cut $90,000, $100,000, $150,000 or $200,000 from our proposed curriculum budget. My areas are the lowest of the core content subjects so there will be very little reduction.
• Spoke with an elementary REACH teacher about a student.
• Responded to a request for information on behalf of the high school principal.
• Followed up with a high school teacher who is attending outside meetings in place of our district PLC.
• Sent the weekly update.
• Responded to a student e-mail about summer course options.
• Submitted my monthly report to the assistant superintendent.
• Drafted letters of recommendation for two high school teachers who want to attend summer programs.
• Met with the assistant superintendent to discuss a purchase order and a teacher's request to miss school to serve as a reader for an AP course.
• Sent an e-mail to potential teachers of the new AP courses about summer responsibilities.
• Sent a quote request regarding the Teaching American History grant.
• Researched a summer program for gifted educators.