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!

PLC meeting 12/02/2015

The Goods:  Site Reports

Altamont

• Getting ready for the winter festival
• Presentations to Illuminate and Ed1stop are forthcoming

Bethany

• Book fair is coming
• Penguin Patch

Questa

• Concerts coming up
• Math night presentation coming
• PD on use of technology 

Wicklund

• Concerts coming up
• Holiday Shop

Lammersville

• Number talks

MHHS

• 8th Grade Early College Presentation
• Finals are coming up
• Basketball season and Wrestling season has started

DO

• Interviewing for two additional curriculum coordinators

Curriculum Committee Adoption Process

Our Curriculum Committee process has started!  Members of the committee have been invited and the first meeting has been scheduled.  There are a total of 8 people who have responded and will attend, but we may need to postpone if committee members cannot be present.

Here is an overview of the process:

January PD Day

We will continue the mathematical practices PD from October for K-12.  Subject specific PD for High School teachers in other departments is being planned.  An agenda will be forwarded to prior to the Winter Break.  

Delta College Testing Update

All 8th grade students will be taking the Delta College Compass Test in January.  All 8th grade teachers should be working with students to complete their Delta College application to complete the application process by December 18th.  Any questions about this process should be referred to Renee Sweeden at the High School.

High School Course Selection

Course selections will occur in early February.  All 8th grade students will be hearing presentations by the high school counselors at the school sites in January.  The high school will be having a curriculum fair for 8th graders and their parents on January 21st from 5:30pm-7:30pm in the Gym, and 8th grade parent information night will occur on the same night in the Multi-Use room from 7:30pm to 8:30pm.  The High School is also planning on a date for all 8th graders to come to the High School Campus and tour the campus, eat lunch, participate in classes with students, and meet the Link Crew leaders.

Subcommittee Recap Coming soon....

New Maestro in LUSD

LUSD has added a new music teacher to the elementary school music team.  Alan Perkins joined us after being a long time music teacher in Texas.  Welcome to LUSD and California!

New Math Teacher

Wicklund has welcomed a new Wildcat Faculty member.  Aziz Khalidi has joined the teaching staff at Wicklund as the 7th and 8th grade math teacher.  Welcome!

Wedding!

Allison Scherer at Bethany School recently became Allison Raffo.  Congratulations to Allison and her beau!

New Bobcat in our Midst

Congratulations to Nicole Kangas who had her first baby.  Nicole and Bethany are excited to welcome this new cub to the crew.

New Librarian

Altamont Elementary School has welcomed a new librarian in the Panther Pride.  Welcome to Cory Good!

A new Engagement

Congratulations to Yolanda Murphy at Questa Elementary School on her engagement!

Congrats on passing your test!

Susan Copponi is celebrating after recently passing the RICA test!

New Addition to the Mustang Family

Congratulations to MHHS teachers Garrett Beal and Cassy Carrasco on the birth of their new baby girl Amaya.  The proud parents are bonding and enjoying one another's company as they recover.

November 4, 2015 Meeting

The Goods:  Site Reports

Lots has happened at all of our sites across the district since the last PLC meeting.  Here are some of the highlights of the Site reports:

Bethany

• Successful Halloween Parade
• Red Ribbon Week
• Science Camp

Altamont

• Halloween parade, pumpkin patch, class festivities, truck or treat event, Halloween grams
• District Dance
• BBQ for middle school
  
• Started PLTW electives added this week
• Offering advanced coding
• Dance club started this week
• Star Lab is Starting

Wicklund

• Halloween parade
• Game night coming up next Friday
• Interventions started

Questa

• Halloween parade 
• Attended challenge 
• First movie night next week
• Report cards
• Conference time

Lammersville

• Halloween party, the cafeteria was decorated by the parents for the students. 
• Pancake breakfast coming up
• Intervention groups running
• Electives PLTW have been happening since September

Mountain House High School

• Challenge day yesterday, inspired students to speak out
• Faculty today shared their first innovation cycle where they completed action research on rubrics, teachers work on mastery based grading and a four level rubric. There are some amazing things happening in our departments. Loved what the PE department had to share. Teachers are encouraged to get out and share their research and what they are doing with other organizations. It was a very collaborative activity

6-12 Articulation

The PLC team had a discussion about how to begin a more intentional articulation on the transition between 8th and 9th grade.  It was presented that in order to do this, we need to talk about this transition starting in the middle school grades (from 6th through 12th grades).  Of particular interest in this articulation process are the core subject areas, along with the Professional Pathways.  PLC team members were asked for their initial thoughts about how to go about doing this.  

Following are some of the thoughts about beginning the articulation process:

• Create a timeline and create benchmarks along the way. 1st benchmark could possibly be articulating priority standards
• Better to start with RCD Leads. RCD created priority standards that might need to be evaluated based on laying out the standards and seeing how they can bridge one grade to another.
  
• We also need to pay attention to the social transitions. Leadership in K-8 schools and HS need to collaborate
• Students in HS struggle with  completing a lab report. we could potentially have cross grade projects/labs
• The idea of an elective fair so that students understand it. There was a request to have a description of the pathways in High School
  
• It is powerful to have 8th grade kids talking to HS students face to face. It is better to have this exposure rather than a coordinator or counselor. Those conversations are valuable.
• PLC teachers can go back to sites and talk about what HS articulation could look like and report back to PLC on ideas/concerns/questions

Sub-Committee Work

For the remainder of the meeting, the team split into subcommittees to talk about the work that they are doing.  Many of the items on this list are brainstorm ideas, and are meant to start the conversation about the work that each group will be doing.  The following subcommittees reported their work:

Professional Development/Data

• Professional Development
• We talked about the recent PD that we engaged in and discussed that there was lots of positive feedback. The majority (84%) of survey responses believed the Number Talks PD to be valuable or very valuable!
• Compass Learning
• Need to touch base with teachers about best practices with the Compass Program
• Many don't know that you can use it for EL and SpEd students
• Also can be a resource for help in writing
• Great things have been seen at the sites, and we need to let people know how great they are doing.
• Encourage teachers to share with one another

Communication

• Committee continues to work on the PLC blog and is dedicated to publishing information from meetings the day after the meeting.
• Would love for people to send pictures to the communication team to post for all to see.
• If there are special things going on at the sites we would like to publish those too.

Special Populations

• Go Quest will help with GATE needs.
• Khan Academy can be a resource
• Project Based Learning resources
• Engage NY lessons will provide high levels of rigor and increase expectations within the grades and provide project based learning
• Allow students to demonstrate mastery in content, and allow them to have access to curriculum at their level.

Culture

Fun ideas for culture building:

• (BYOB) Bring your own Banana, and then have a banana split party
• (BYOM) Bring your own Mugh party and have hot chocolate
• End of year talent shows
• Aerial photos of the students/staff...would love to do this for the 140th anniversary of the district with the staff
• Minute to win it, scavenger hunts that takes people in and out of classrooms they don't ever visit
• Ugly sweater contest
• Staff Shirts
• Team Building

Instructional Norming

• Walking and Talking Instruction:  detailed plan to have this at each site.
• Rotate teachers throughout the school day
• Discuss what the focus of these visits would be
• Get full engagement

October 19, 2015 Meeting

The Goods:  Site Reports

Each PLC meeting we have an opportunity to share out "The Goods," or the awesome things that are happening around the district.  If you have some "Goods" to share with the PLC, and the district, let your site PLC member know, and we'll get them recognized here.  Here's some of this month's "Goods"

• SWAG (Securing the Way to Academic Growth) started and kids are excited (Lammersville)
• Spelling Bee
• Visit from Trustee Lampel at Altamont
• Lammersville festival went great
• Teachers at Wicklund are working hard and staying positive!
• Questa had a great carnival that raised lots of funds!
• Bethany: our PLC member Nicole Kangas has a new baby boy Garrett :)
• Bethany: dress up week next week, staff are all pirates for Halloween 
• Jennifer Reynoso: Started Social Skills groups
• Tammy Hurst: Heifer.org donations Bethany won. As a district brought in $1300
• Wicklund, Questa, and Lammersville walk -a-thons raised lots of funds
• It was wonderful to have the special board meeting and to talk as a family

Discussion about Friday Collaboration Meetings

There was a conversation about Friday Collaboration Meetings and the possibility of adding staff meetings to address the need of covering specific "nuts-and-bolts" without taking time away from Collaboration.  While this is an option for school sites, the item was tabled, and no specific direction was established in regards to regularly scheduled staff meetings.  Specific discussion around the need for time for teachers to work together to both understand, plan, prep and implement curriculum.  Concerns and ideas will be brought back to admin forum, and will be discussed at future PLC meetings.

Science Fair

New rules were established in regards to Science Fair this year.  3rd grade projects must be completed on an individual basis in order to be considered at the county level.  The decision was made to allow 3rd grade classes to do class projects, but students and parents need to understand that they will not be able to be recognized at the county level unless they do an individual project.
There was also a discussion about the need for professional development around the teaching of the scientific method, and how to present the science fair projects so that students are prepared to participate.  Additionally the group discussed the need for all sites to roll out the science fair projects at the same time, and with enough time for high quality projects to be completed by the students.

Technology Update

Our district continues to work on addressing the issues with the WiFi network.  The problems have been escalated to our service provider, and to the company who provided the hardware for the WiFi network.  It was encouraged for all staff to report back to their tech representatives at the site levels when the WiFi goes down as our district needs to know when the outages are occurring so that we can report it to those in charge of fixing the problem.  PLEASE DON'T JUST ASSUME IT IS GETTING WORKED ON!!!  If it is out, report it!

Illuminate Training

The use of the Illuminate data system is going to roll out slowly over and extended period of time.  Initially RCD team members will be trained, and will be able to learn how to use the system to make our jobs easier in the realm of assessment and information gathering.  Administrators were trained today, and helped to provide feedback to Illuminate about the way that the system preferences are set for ease of use, and useful application in our classrooms.  RCD team teachers will be trained, and provide additional feedback.  Site techs will be included in the roll out on December 1st, and bits and pieces of training will come out slowly through site techs over the course of the school year.

Professional Development Day

October 26th, all teachers K-8 will be engaging in professional development in relation to mathematical practices.  Training in addition to supplies will be provided to teachers, and all teachers will be able to leave the all day training with specific things that can be readily implemented into the classroom on a daily basis.
High school teachers will engage in Compass Learning training in relation to the a-g approved curriculum that is now available for credit recovery, intervention, and mastery based learning applications.

September 2, 2015 Meeting

District Update

Heather shared that the District is very apologetic about the issues of broken Chromebooks, network issues, and MAP testing glitches. The District began procedures to get Chromebooks working already, the Network connectivity issue appears to be resolved now after working with AMS, and we worked with NWEA to have them resolve their issues that were causing problems for our MAP testing.

Gradebook and Standard Selection

The issue of too many standards being available to select from in the gradebook has been addressed with AERIES and is a function of how AERIES.net is designed · RCD Update – Heather shared that District and Site Admin have met to discuss concerns from teachers that they would like more support from a Core Curriculum. She will be meeting with the RCD Design Team leads to determine next steps for providing teachers with more Core Curriculum support. She also shared that the issue with copies being delayed is being addressed by moving to a different vendor for printing which will provide a speedier turn-around time.

Request

There was a request to have a better “definition” of what types of things will happen on Site Collaborations vs. Site meetings. Heather has shared this with the District Office who will be working with Site Admin to provide more clarity to staff.

Walking and Talking Instruction

Ryan Gonzales provided leadership for this. Team members watched a video and did a calibration exercise to prepare for upcoming ‘walks’.

CAASPP

Heather gave an update that CAASPP scores will come out next week on 9/9, 11:00 AM, officially. Preliminary data indicate that Lammersville Unified has much to celebrate. Scores are higher than the state expectations for the first round of testing! Kudos to all!

Subcommittees

Heather asked the sub-committees to discuss from the perspective of their sub-committee, how we all can celebrate the many positive and wonderful strengths we have as a District and help keep the focus on the positive. Each committee met and gave fabulous ideas! Heather has already shared these with Dr. Nicholas and Dr. Gill who LOVE all the ideas. We are now working on an implementation plan.