Friday, April 26

High School:

- Replied to parent emails about how we are handling grades in Genocide and Holocaust

- Asked some follow-up questions on the plan for grading World History common assessments

- Met with the new long-term sub to talk about next week and introduced her to her mentor

Board Office:

- Replied to an email from a REACH teacher about matrices

- Responded to a parent question about REACH opportunities at the intermediate school

- Corresponded with a high school teacher about professional development hours

- Prepared for a post-observation meeting 

- Followed up on yesterday's 5th grade meetings

High School:

- Met with a teacher for a post-observation conference that I anticipated going poorly. This teacher has had several poor evaluations and is still not improving in the areas where I think he needs to improve. The meeting went fine although we clearly disagree on certain things. I expect next week to receive a written rebuttal to what we talked about though.

- Met with the principal to talk about the long-term substitute situation, the open position we have for hiring, and AP US History summer training

Board Office:

- Sent out my weekly update to the social studies teachers

- Spoke with the intermediate school principal about next year's REACH teachers

- Spoke with a high school student about his concerns in a class

Thursday, April 25

Intermediate School:

- Attended a Colonial Day planning session

Board Office:

- Responded to an e-mail from a coach about a candidate

- Checked references on our newest long-term substitute and submitted the paperwork to make her hiring official

- Finalized plans to provide a release day to world history teachers to work on the final exam and common assessments

- Finished grading Genocide and Holocaust work

- Prepared for the 5th grade curriculum integration meetings

Intermediate School:

- Facilitated the 5th grade meetings where we focused on developing consistency in scoring a recently given common writing assessment

Wednesday, April 24

Board Office:

- Forwarded a copy of the letter regarding the teacher on leave to the high school department

- Responded to a student's request to meet with me

- Prepared for tomorrow's 5th grade curriculum integration meeting

- Prepared for tomorrow's Colonial Day planning meeting

- Spoke with the president of NJ Association for Gifted Children about partnering on a speaker next year

- Attended the annual Administrative Assistants lunch

High School:

- Met with an evaluation pilot teacher to review Common Assessment data

- Graded work from Genocide and Holocaust

Middle School:

- Held a post-observation conference with a teacher

Board Office:

- Responded to student's question about Genocide and Holocaust

Tuesday, April 23

Board Office:

- Reviewed a final letter to students/parents regarding the previously suspended teacher who is now out on leave

- Returned a parent phone call regarding student-teacher issues

- Provided feedback to a Rutgers student on her cover letter/resume

- Finalized an observation report

- Reviewed lesson plans

High School:

- Observed a long-term substitute. The lesson was okay. There were some challenging students in the class and we'll work together on developing strategies for dealing with them.

Board Office:

- Confirmed information about an online course for AP preparation

- Replied to a high school teacher's e-mail about concerns with a substitute

- Finalized an observation report

Monday, April 22

Board Office:

- Replied to emails from the 8th grade team about extending the current unit of study

- Corresponded with a high school teacher about student concerns and grading issues

- Spoke with the high school principal about how we are handling grades in the classroom where the teacher has been absent.

High School:

- Met with a long-term substitute for a pre-observation conference

- Met with another long-term substitute to review plans for teaching this week

- Observed a class

- Met with a teacher for a post-observation conference

Board Office:

- Finalized an observation report

- Worked on final edits to the 4th grade project rubrics

Friday, April 19

Out of District:

-Attended the NJASCD/NJACTE event (http://njascd.org/njascd/lib/njascd/April_2013_Symposium_Info.pdf). The featured speakers were the NJDOE person in charge of the new teacher evaluation system and a researcher/educator who designed one such evaluation system. I was part of the steering committee that organized the event and it was a good day.

Thursday, April 18

Board Office:

-Worked on the NJDOE Model Curriculum project via video chat

-Responded to a question about retesting on the CogAT

High School:

-Worked with a vice principal on a teacher-student issue and then met with the teacher about it

-Provided support to a high school teacher regarding home instruction issues

-Replied to a teacher's email for support with a parent issue

Wednesday, April 17

Board Office:

-Prepared for and then led a meeting with the elementary school principals about the 4th grade regions project

-Worked on an issue with a teacher out on medical leave

-Responded to three parent contacts regarding REACH screening

-Attended training on Nexus 7 tablets for our pilot program in K-4

-Sent out a survey to world history teachers about a future release day

-Spoke with a substitute about a potential long-term sub situation

Tuesday, April 16

High School:

-Held a post-observation conference

-Sent emails to all USI and USII teachers summarizing yesterday's PLC decisions

Middle School:

-Stopped in to do an observation but the timing didn't work out

Board Office:

-Reviewed lesson plans

-Provided a teacher with supporting information to meet Corrective Action Plan expectations

-Provided feedback to a student from Rutgers regarding her resume and cover letter

-Followed up on the world history common assessment

-Worked with a high school vice principal on a student-teacher issue

-Responded to phone calls from three parents regarding REACH screening

-Finalized an observation report

-Spoke with an elementary principal about a student testing issue

-Prepared materials related to the 4th grade regions project

Monday, April 15

Intermediate School:

-Attended NJASK training

Board Office:

-Prepared for this week's observations

-Worked out an issue with the department writing rubric

-Reviewed applications for the open high school position

-Spoke with an elementary school teacher about a CogAT testing issue

High School:

-Met for a post-observation conference

-Observed a world history class

-Began working on a rubric score conversion issue with two teachers

-Spoke with an elementary REACH teacher about a special testing situation

-Sat in with USI and USII PLCs

Board Office:

-Met with the Asst. Superintendent for Personnel to discuss a teacher issue

Friday, 4/12

Board Office:

- Because I know the Township well, I drove the two assistant superintendents to a distant part of the Township after the police notified us of a bus accident. En route, we learned that the bus was not carrying our district's students and by the time we were there it was already cleared.

Middle School:

- Attended a technology planning session to map out the next three years of technology goals

High School:

- Held a post-observation conference

Board Office:

- Updated a pilot teacher's observation to reflect some additional information

- Distributed the social studies weekly update

- Drafted a schedule of summer activities related to social studies

- Finalized Grade 5 common assessment information and distributed

Thursday, 4/11

Intermediate School:

- Facilitated a Colonial Day planning meeting

Board Office:

- Prepared for this evening's presentation to graduated students at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education who are going into social studies education

- Attended the district supervisors' meeting

Wednesday, 4/10

Board Office:

- Responded to questions about an upcoming US History II common assessment

- Requested all teachers submit reflection materials for their annual evaluations

- Forwarded additional documents related to the 4th grade project to the project committee members

- Responded to a teacher's CogAT question

- Met with the Director of Special Services to discuss a CogAT issue with a special education student

Middle School:

- Observed a 7th grade teacher

Elementary School:

- Held post-observation conferences with my two pilot teachers

High School:

- Observed a US History I CP class

- Met with the principal to discuss scheduled for US History I Honors and AP US History

Board Office:

- Submitted reimbursement paperwork for the ASCD conference in Chicago

- Replied to an email from the person who supervises the high school REACH internships related to his retirement

- Finalized an observation report

- Prepared for tomorrow's Colonial Day planning meeting

- Updated the pilot teachers' observation reports based on our meetings

- Sent out additional information about the upcoming 5th grade common assessment

- Followed up on the CogAT/special education issue

Tuesday, 4/9

Board Office:

- Attended the district leadership team meeting

- Met with a parent to discuss why a child does not qualify for acceleration along with the Supervisor of Math and an elementary school principal

High School:

- Observed a teacher in US History I

- Met for a post-observation conference

Board Office:

- Distributed all remaining test materials for elementary REACH screening

- Emailed all district 4th grade teachers with project materials

- Sent an email to all AP teachers requesting summer work

- Submitted graduate study course approval paperwork for the summer semester

- Emailed a teacher and the principal about changes to who is teaching REACH at the intermediate school next year

- Followed up with an external consultant who worked with our teachers on the 4th grade project yesterday

- Reviewed lesson plans

Monday, April 8

Board Office:

- Spent the majority of the day (8am-3pm) facilitating work by the 4th grade project planning committee. We got a lot accomplished and the end-of-the-year project is off to a great start. We have some really exciting things in the planning stages!

- Reviewed lesson plans of one teacher.

- Prepared for a parent meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

- Reviewed 8th grade lesson plans.

Friday, April 5

Board Office:

-Interviewed two colleagues about teacher evaluation training for a grad school project

-Replied to a parent's email about an age discrepancy on a child's CogAT results

-Replied to a summer course question

-Sent Confratute proposal to the Assistant Superintendent

-Replied to a 6th grade teacher's question about pacing in light of state testing

-Worked with the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel on recording an introduction to our end-of-the-year fourth grade project

-Finalized observation reports for the two pilot teachers and pushed them out

-Corresponded with an elementary school principal about a job opening there

-Worked on my part of the model curriculum for the state and sent it out for review

-Spoke with a parent about posting of assignments online

-Drafted a letter to Great Adventure to get them involved with our 4th grade project

-Distributed the social studies weekly update

-Worked on the plan for Monday's 4th grade project committee meeting

Thursday, April 4

High School:

-Observed a World History Honors class

-Spoke with the principal and department liaison about the medical condition of a teacher

-Sent final filming information for 4th grade project introduction to Asst. Superintendent for Personnel

-Worked on my part of the action plan for the teacher I met with earlier in the week

Middle School:

-Went to observe a teacher to find out he was absent

Board Office:

-Replied to a question about how to handle CogAT questions from parents

-Replied to a parent's question about CogAT results

-Replied to a teacher's question about CogAT results

Elementary School:

-Observed a 3rd grade teacher

Board Office:

-Responded to an 8th grade placement question

-Spoke with a representative from Renzulli Learning about Confratute discounts

-Replied to a parent's question about summer course options

-Replied to an email from the teacher who received the memo clarifying an expectation

-Provided feedback on the revised common assessment plan for US History I

-Replied to a parent question regarding posting of grades and assignments online

Wednesday, April 3

High School:

-Spoke with a high school teacher about a medical issue with another teacher in the department

-Conducted an observation of an AP Economics class

-Checked in with the teacher in for maternity leave and with the department liaison

Board Office:

-Spoke with the intermediate school principal about how to handle a REACH nomination issue

-Finalized an observation report

-Spoke with the high school principal about the teacher with a medical issue

Elementary School:

-Conducted an observation of a second grade class

High School:

-Attended the high school supervisors' meeting

Board Office:

-Attended my monthly curriculum chat with the superintendent

-Finalized the coverage plan for the teacher on medical leave and submitted it to all who needed it

-Emailed all 5th grade teachers with information for them to review regarding the upcoming common assessment

Tuesday, April 2

High School:

-Attended a meeting of the Option II committee where we finalized plans for new procedures for approved summer course options

-Provided the evaluative memorandum to the teacher from yesterday

-Responded to a parent's email about REACH

-Spoke with a supervisor from another district who is going to come into our district as a consultant next week

Elementary School:

-Held pre-observation conferences with two teachers I will be observing later this week as part of the pilot program for the new teacher evaluation system

Intermediate School:

-Met with the 5th grade vice principal to talk about room assignments for Colonial Day

-Met with a team of teachers to talk about a REACH nomination issue

Board Office:

-Replied to a high school teacher about online book access

-Distributed CogAT result information to all 2nd grade teachers and principals

Monday. April 1

Board Office:

-Prep for meeting with teacher to discuss use of rated "R" movies and other lingering concerns

High School:

-Met with teacher to discuss issues. Meeting went pretty well until the very end, but overall it was good.

Board Office:

-Sent a memo to the Business Administrator to reserve funds for the remainder of the fiscal year.

-Wrote up the teacher's meeting from this morning into formal evaluative memorandum language.

Elementary School:

-Attended a meeting with a team of special education and REACH staff to discuss a transition plan for a student who is gifted but also has Asperger's syndrome.

Board Office:

-Worked with my partner for a grad school project on gifted education

-Reviewed US History II and US History I common assessments and provided feedback to the appropriate teams of teachers

-Prepared for this week's observations

-Reviewed lesson plans