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.