PLC Meeting 10/05/16

Math Assessment and lesson design update - Heather Sherburn

K-8 Math teachers are in the process of meeting at each grade level for two days of training and development.  One teacher from each grade level is working with Coordinators to discuss the assessments that we are giving, and looking closely at the modules that have been designed for instruction.  These teams are working on determining whether changes need to be made in the assessment or the modules to serve the purpose of helping students master the math standards.  

K-1 teachers have already met, and their training and collaboration went very well.  Teachers looked at goals and standards and analyzed whether each test question to standards, and the instruction being delivered in the classroom.  Teacher input during this process has already been an invaluable resource during this process.  Teachers representatives will bring feedback and directions/changes to be made back to each of their sites.  

Subcommittee Reorganization

As the PLC team continues to define its scope of work for the year, and for the future, the group had a discussion about the sub-committee groups and what they would be working on.  The decision was to focus on the following topics:

• K-12 ELA/ELD Support
• K-12 Math Support
• K-12 Alternative Education Support 
• K-12 Strategic Support
• District Culture
• K-12 Social Emotional Behavioral Support

Homework Policy Discussion

Dr. Gill and Tammy Hurst provided a condensed version of their board presentation on homework.  The presentation is provided below. 

 The highlights of the research presented are:

• What is homework?
• Anything done at home

• CDE - no specific guidelines
• LUSD - no adopted Board policy
• High School has homework Plan LINK
• Guidelines developed by principal and staff
• Amount of time
• Expectations
• Math
• Homework given after problem set
• Homework should be purposeful
• ELA
• Nothing required in new curriculum
• At teacher's’ discretion
• Purpose to practice skills
• Other subjects
• No specifics

• U.S. students spend far less time than other countries in academic content
• Lots of homework could impact health and family time

The subcommittees got together to discuss the information we learned, and talked about our thoughts about homework. The result was the following collaborative document: LINK

PLC Meeting 09/07/16

Reflections on What We have Learned

Heather led us in an exercise to share with one another a "nugget" of knowledge that we've learned over the last year, summer, and the beginning of the school year.  Here are some of those "nuggets"

• Be a good listener.
• Let it go...it's OK to move forward and work without knowing it all.  
• Learning to incorporate mathematical practices.
• Never assume kids understand the directions you just gave.
• Teachers are some of the most resilient professionals on earth.
• No such thing as left brain/right brain things...the brain develops on both sides at the same time.
• Leadership is really problem solving..don't overthink it.
• Avengers...all of our team members and superheros.
• Innovation, Collaboration, Creation takes time.  We must give one another time.
• Communication makes everything easier.
• I've learned how much I don't know, and how much more I want to know.

Discussion on the PLC Purpose

Further discussion about the purpose of PLC was discussed during our meeting.  In connection with a review of the "Growth Mindset," our team looked at the current purpose statement, and whether we need to change the current statement which says:

"As instructional leaders representing LUSD, we recognize our schools as the heart of learning, caring, and support for all stakeholders.  We commit to open communication, collaboration, and the pursuit of positive solutions to prepare our students for success in academics, society, and their future."

We used the following video to learn more and understand the idea of the Growth Mindset:

The team also had an in depth conversation about the need to use real-time data to begin analyzing the information coming out of assessments and instruction, and provide real feedback to impact change provide solutions.  

PLC Meeting 8/17/16

PLC is Like...

This year we started out our meeting introducing ourselves as members of the PLC team and by completing a simile that states:  "A PLC is like a ________________ because__________________"

Here's some examples: 

A PLC is like M&M's because they are all different colors, but they all come together to create a great result.

A PLC is like a box of chocolates because you really never know what you're going to get.

A PLC is like an umbrella becuase it covers everybody.

A PLC is like a soccer game because it lasts 90 miutes.

A PLC is like the weather because it sets the tone for the day

A PLC is like a pepper because it is the spice and the good.  

A PLC is like glitter because when you use it and put it on things it makes everything shine.  

Finally, the PLC team had an opportunity to read part of an article (LINK) that helped us to focus and redefine what our district PLC is.  We learned that the group that meets once a month is actually part of a district-wide effort  to support an "ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve." 

The PLC team further discussed the purpose statement for the PLC team from last year, and we talked about the fact that we would need to revisit this purpose as we move into the next school year. 

PLC Meeting 5/4/16

Curriculum Committee Update

The curriculum department has been very pleased with the participation and dedication of all of the members of the curriculum committee and the teachers running the curriculum pilots.  Committee members have worked hard into the "informed consumer" process and the piloting of the materials of the chosen materials.  The pilot process has been completed, and an adoption recommendation will be brought to the school board meeting at the May 4th meeting.  The following recommendations will be made to the school board:  

• K-2: Houghton Mifflin Journeys
• 3-6: Benchmark Advance
• 6-8: Houghton Mifflin Collections

Music Program Update

Music teachers and the curriculum department continue to work on the logistics of implementing the new "Traveling Troubadours" schedule where music teachers will travel together during the school day to provide instruction for band students at each K-8 school site.  Music teachers will work with administration to recommend plans for a new schedule.

End of Year BBQ Plans

The end of year district wide BBQ has been scheduled for Friday May 20th  at 2:00 P.M. and will be held on the quad at Mountain House High School.  The BBQ will start with a tournament between all of the schools in a fun game of live-sized Hungry Hungry Hippos.  Get your school's team together, come hungry, and leave happy!

LCAP Feedback

The PLC meeting finished off with PLC subgroups meeting together to go through the latest revisions of the LCAP plan.  Each team looked at the plan through the lenses of communication, culture, data, instructional norming, and special populations.  Each group filled out a portion of a table to provide their specific feedback.  You will find some of this feedback in the table below:

Sub Committee	Ideas
Communication	Cliff’s Notes Version needs to be created Actual document needs to be formatted for general consumption Electronic Version Created
Culture	When something is piloted we need to make sure we go back to revisit how things went? Ie. middle school model, go quest, Moby Max.
PD/Data	What do parents need to know from this? What do students need to know? How do we communicate that in a manageable way?
Instructional Norming	How are we deciding our SMART goal percentage?  I.e 5% raise in students taking AP exams.  Is this a good goal? Too aggressive? Not Aggressive enough? How do we know?   Do we need to be more specific about ‘adequate’ resources(pg 37). What’s adequate? Why are we still having students take the MAP Language Usage test? What does it measure?
Special Populations	How will the $66,000 for Operating Expenditures and Professional consulting

PLC Meeting 4/6/16

Curriculum Committee Update

K-6  teachers on the committee have been hard at work conducting the first of our curriculum pilots called "Journeys" and "Collections."  Heather and Jenna have been visiting many of the pilot classrooms and have loved seeing the materials in use, and hearing how it is going in the classrooms. Pilot Teachers recently received training on a new set of materials called "Benchmark", and will start their pilot the week of 4/11/16.  

iPad Pilot

While we were looking forward to an iPad pilot for TK through 1st grade, we will be postponing the iPad pilot so that we can have time to continue research, gather a list of interested teachers, and begin a pilot during next school year.

Report Card Update

Report cards and their formatting will continue to be worked on as we move forward in the implementation of the Common Core Standards.  Report cards have been reviewed, and will be cleaned up for the 16/17 school year, but will not change to Common Core Standards until the Report Card Committee can work to collaboratively make the needed adjustments.  The work on the new report cards will begin during the 2016 school year, and will be fully developed for the 17/18 school year.

Compass-Hybridge

Many of you know that Compass Learning is slowly transitioning into a new product called Hybridge.  Jenna presented some of the major changes that people may see in the new product, and how it works.  PLC members discussed the differences, and more information and training will come to the sites as this change continues to roll forward.

Music Program Update

The LUSD Music Program will be undergoing some major changes as we move forward into the next school year.  Along with the addition of new staff, during the 16/17 school year, all 5th grade students will receive music instruction in 4 smaller groups with all 4 elementary school music teachers teaching specific groups:  brass, woodwinds, percussion, and Choir/General Music.  The new program has been billed as the "Traveling Troubadour" approach.  

In addition to the information about the music program, the PLC team discussed the work that is being done to bring some consistency to music teacher expectations in regards to homework, parent communication, instrument inventory, instrument purchase and rental, etc.  It is the intention that the music teachers work in collaboration with teachers, and site and district administration to develop and establish common expectations across the district that help students to become excited about their participation in the music program.  

GATE

More work has been done with the GATE committee to determine the appropriate referral process, testing and portfolio requirements to be qualified for GATE.  Current plans detail the opportunity during the 4th grade to be referred for GATE during this school year.  PLC discussions revolved around the timeline for 4th grade referrals during this school year.  A decision was made to bring this information to the next Admin Forum meeting for further discussion. More information will be reported in the next PLC meeting.

Grant Writing Committee

The new grant writing committee has been established in the district, and will be headed up by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Gill.  A survey was sent out and over 40 people filled out the survey and indicated their interest to serve on the committee.  The grant writing committee will have its first meeting on May 2nd at 6:30 P.M.  The first meeting of this committee will be determining the scope of the work that will be done, and determining sub committees that will be developed to focus on grant writing in specific areas of need.  

PLC Meeting 01/06/15

The Goods--Site Reports

• Altamont
• reviewing science fair, math talks
• held winter festival before winter break--raised $6000
• Bethany
• MAP tests started
• getting ASB kiddos ready to go to CASTLE conference in LA
• Starting Delta College Tests
• Lammersville
• enjoyed sending home progress reports before the break
• Mountain House High School
• really enjoyed finishing semester 1 before the break
• implementing Lan School for Chromebook and student management
• Questa
• made about $14,000 from their penguin patch ASB is going great
• Starting Delta College test is on Tuesday
• Wicklund
• started MAP testing
• ready for Delta College test
• Science Olympiad team goes to Sacramento this week to compete
• Other:
• had fun with team building on Jan 4th
• Tammy Hurst used the just dance for PE and kids had a blast
• MAP results are looking good

Curriculum Committee Update

Curriculum committee is planning on getting started at the end of January. The date for the meeting and the agenda for the meeting will be announced soon.

Staff Portal

The new Staff Portal is up and running and ready to go. Information, documents, contacts, and even a live feed of this blog will be up on the staff portal soon. Also included on the staff portal will be links to all of the units of study and the links to the resources to all of the units of study. The link to the staff portal can be found HERE.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) Update

As we gear up and prepare for our students to be tested on the new NGSS science standards in the 18/19 school year, our district is working to plan an implementation plan for our students. Administration, teacher leads, and 6-12 science teachers have been participating in professional development at the county office of education. Decisions about an integrated science pathway or a subject specific pathway will be discussed and decided on in the springtime. Additionally, it was mentioned that the PLTW Launch curriculum is NGSS aligned, and may help us with this transition. Altamont Elementary School is currently piloting the PLTW curriculum, and other school sites expressed an interest in training and implementation of this program.

CAASPP Digital Library

The PLC team was given access to the new common core CAASPP digital library for teachers. This digital library is a national repository for lessons, units of study, assessments, and resources for teachers as they search for information to plan instruction aligned with the common core standards.

Parent Math Workshops

We are excited to announce that Parent Math Workshops will continue next week at Wicklund (Monday Dec. 7th) and Questa (Tuesday Dec. 8th). Here are a few pictures from the previous workshops at Altamont, Lammersville, and Bethany that took place this week. It has been wonderful to share useful information as well as fun and interactive activities with parents in our community. Parents left with many resources including a packet of fluency games, a deck of cards, and dice to play with their kids at home!