Professional Development

In class we discussed professional development. The purpose is to increase the capacity of the entire faculty of a school to strengthen student performance. The end result is to increase student performance and I think teachers forget why we are there. We choose our PD from our Terra Nova data and I think it works, if teachers are all on the same page( curriculum and standards).

Rested and Now Motivated

This past week has been a much deserved break for all of us. I am truly interested in the topic of "Motivation" and what it really means for me. I love working these 9 weeks on and two weeks off, this schedule that Rock Island has provided us, is really awesome. It gives us an opportunity to get refreshed and go back motivated to start again. I talk to many educators around the quad cities and they are so jealous, but most of all I have witnessed them going back to school still tired and the constant complaining. WOW how lucky we are! Enjoy the rest of break...

Monday's Class

The class on Monday provided some interesting topics. The theories of motivation really hit the point that the teachers have to be behind something for it be successful. Smaller projects may get done but for the larger plans the buy-in sounds like it is key.
Reading the IIRC charts about other schools was informative. I had a principal that would say, "well, the money is there, but I don't know if the money is there." Now I may know what he was talking about, maybe.
Brings me to the last topic of Thomas Ryan. What a crook! Should have done more jail time and they should watch him now, because some of the money got hidden- or was he that stupid.
Speaking of stupidity and off topic. If Thomas Ryan would have lived in Davenport, Iowa, he may have been able to get off on probation that would have included going to church for 8 weeks in a row. His pastor could have vouched for him and he could have turned his life around. That is, if he had only been in trouble with the law 1 or 30 other times. Hopefully some other city will have a better plan.

Bret

Orientation to district curriculum

I was impressed by Dr. Closen's quote "If you don't know what you are supposed to teach--how do you know when you've taught it?"  That made me think about whether or not our district has all of our curriculum arrows aligned.  New teachers especially need to know what the district expects them to be teaching--district standards, etc.  I am glad that the instrumental music department has gotten our act together and produced a curriculum for 6-12 grade.  Unfortunately, there is one teacher who doesn't follow it but he is retiring this year and that gives us hope that the new person will be a team player.

good job, Jay

Good job, Jay. You are doing exactly what a good teacher leader should do. You had an idea that would benefit your district. You did more than talk about it to your fellow teachers. You took it to the principal, the person who make the changes.

I will be interested in knowing how your professional development changes. Longfellow spent part of one our 1/2 day last year on Yoga.

Janet

professional development

Being in a small school district has its advantages (and disadvantages). One advantage is being able to invoke change. On Tuesday I talked at length with my Principal about our professional devolpment programs (or lack there of). He agrees it is an area that needs to be addressed in our district. Often the afternoons are planned by our part-time curriculum director. They are often times aimed at K-12. At best we may split into K-5 and 6-12. So most topics of discussion are very vague and little is accomplished. When I asked the question of how often we set a goal of improving student achievement with staff development, he agreed we are far from that. From our meeting came a promise of additional meetings and that we work more from research based platforms and get away from such vague meetings. I do understand, however, this may have to be a grass-roots type movement, where teachers take more responsibility of the inservices that we have in the future.

Monday's Class was Intriguing!

After reading the posts I have to agree with most of the comments. I really find the information from class extremely interesting and so beneficial to a teacher, department head or future principal. We have touched on so many areas and I feel they all are so important. I, like others loved looking at the case studies. It is so interesting to hear how others feel and what the "real" answers are. I also liked sorting through all the information gathered from the data sheets. Amazing how much information you can pull from a district we know nothing about. Finally, I am really interested in learning more about mentoring. I really hope our district continues to nurture the idea of mentoring; really great things can happen when we work together. I know when I started in RISD #41 my mentor was fabulous. I never felt like he thought it was a burden and always asked if he could help more; this was a great feeling being a new teacher in a big district. I hope this program continues for future newbies in the RISD.

Professional Development

On my way home from class I couldn't help but think about the conferences I attended and if they really did lead to improved student achievement. 3 summers in a row, I was talked into going on the HSTW conferences. Beside being in a different part of the US, I learned a little about a lot of different things. At first I felt honored to be asked, but I did not feel like I had gotten enough out of the mini sessions to help me in the long run. There really hasn't been much follow-up of what we came away with. Maybe I was asked to go because other people didn't see the value in it or didn't want to give up 4 days during the summer.

Our school has been trying to move towards more differentiated professional development. Dr. Closen talked about that in class and I can see a real need for that. I would rather spend time locally with my peers than go away to a conference. Our last 2 in-services were more differentiated. I felt like I came away with something valuable that I can use to improve student achievement. In the 9th Grade Academy, we have been having differentiated instruction conferences/training for the English and math teachers. It has been designed to be used in our own classrooms and worked on together.

Administrators need to think about the goal of improving student achievement before creating a plan for professional development for the staff.

I hope Rock Island High School will continue to move in the same direction for professional development.

Monday's Class

I thought that Monday's class gave us more of an indication of what it would take to be a principal. I especially liked discussing the different scenarios in the book. However, interpreting the data from the different schools on the IIRC was very challenging. I am not a math person at all, so it was very helpful to go over and understand a little better this type of data. Not saying that I am now an expert at it, but just that it gave me a better understanding of what administrators have to deal with.

Monday's Class

I enjoyed class on Monday. I particularly liked reading the cases in the text book and answering the questions about them in small groups and then in a large group. I like examining realistic situations that often come up in the educational world and reflecting on my opinion about them or how I would handle them as well as listening to the opinions of my peers. These types of activities prepare us for times we are in these situations. It was also nice that you grouped us differently for the activity. I had never worked with Karla or Kristin before and I enjoyed it (not that I don't enjoy working with my usual group). I also was shocked to hear all the stories of fraud that occur in the school system. Those stories certainly made for an interesting class!

Motivation

We talked about motivation of personnel during today's class. As a data team leader I really need to take this information to heart as many times I am the one to bring a new idea to our team (from other sources) and if I know or can find the motivational key for the members of the team then I can make the information more inviting for their acceptance or just for their consideration. This is an area that I think is key for principals as they work with their staffs and increasing student achievement. I also feel that this class has been motivational for me and I really appreciate the knowledge that I am receiving.

The information on mentoring has been very valuable. As a person who was given the assignment of mentoring without training or guidelines I value the ideas that were set out during class. I really want to be an asset to the person I am mentoring and know I should be doing more for her. Therefore, I have talked to the people in charge of the mentoring program and have volunteered to assist in the revamping or creation of the new program.

St. Patrick's Session

St. Patty's class was very informative with the data that was presented between the lack of correlation between the experienced teacher vs. the fresh new teacher willing to do whatever it takes to get student achievement up. Along those same lines, I have always thought how ignorant and detremental to the educational field it is to hire a new fresh face with such enthusiasm and drive, and then reward them with the most stressful teaching postion with the most challenging students in the school. Why does it seem the more experienced teachers, who of course also get paid the most, end up with the least stressful job in the building? Who makes these decisions? Are the districts that practice this type of placement really thinking through their decisions? What about new teacher moral? Or burnout, because they have so much pressure? Perhaps it just comes down to laziness of the administration and they don't want to make waves so they just settle. Or it probably just boiles down to who knows who with the most power and influence?
I have really been enjoying listening to Dr. Closen's insight and many stories into the adminstration world. It is quite fascinating and eye-opening.

Monday's Class

Oops! Poor editing skills. My sentence should say... would increase student achievement.

Janet

Monday's Class

I can't count the number of professional development workshops I have sat through, but I do know that the majority were not topics that would not increase student achievement. As a teacher leader I plan to be involved in planning for professional development workshops. Maybe I can help gear future workshops to focus on topics of this nature.

Janet

Professional Development

One of the most important things in class today was when we talked about the purpose of professional development. The purpose of professional development should not be focused on teachers but should be focused on increasing student achievement. This makes perfect sense in education and makes sure that students are the center of the schools. It seems that much of our professional development is wasted on things that don’t focus on student achievement but instead focus on other things. In fact, it seems schools in general would be more successful if they would always make decisions based upon increasing student achievement. It also seems that individual teachers would be more successful if they always focused on student achievement instead of other things. 100% focus on this will probably never happen but getting closer to having everyone focus on student achievement would certainly help.

benefical class

I thoroughly enjoyed class on Sat. The discussions were excellent. The instructor was well prepared and kept me interested. I am also enjoying the book. Longfellow will be changing and I will need to apply for a teaching position. The material covered in the book is making me feel more relaxed as I go through the process. I've decided to apply for the development team. I hadn't planned to, but after Saturday I feel that I am qualified and I can do the job.

Deb, we are a cohort, a family, there is no way we would leave you hanging.

Janet

Mission Statement

In class we discussed that mission statements should incorporate three elements. We looked at our district's mission statement and another districts. It was interesting how our mission statement was one sentence and stated the main outcome. The other school district included all elements, but was a little to wordy. I think we have to find that medium.

THANK YOU!

I just wanted to thank Dr. Closen and everyone else again for your flexibility in changing one of our class meeting dates from April 5 to April 20.  Sixty junior high students, one music judge and I breathed a sigh of relief that we will not have to stress over changing our string solo music contest to another weekend. I am not sure how I made that mistake--guess I didn't copy the class dates down correctly back in November or whenever we decided. Thanks again--just one more reason I am glad to be teaching in Rock Island.

Achievement Correlations

I must say that I was surprised at some of the data shared regarding student achievement and various contributing factors.  For instance, the teachers years of experience had no direct correlation between student achievement in 3rd, 5th, or 8th grade.  The connection between the teachers amount of additional education showed the same [no correlation] in 3rd and 5th grades; however, there was a small increase in student achievement for the 8th grade students.  An example would be a math teacher that gets a master's degree in mathematics, according to the data, might show a slight increase in student scores.  The data that I found most disturbing was the negative correlation between teacher salary and student achievement.  Data actually showed that the more a teacher makes, the less likely students are to show increased achievement in 3rd, 5th and 8th grade.  Wow!

An Information Packed Class!

Saturday's class was extremely informative. I love getting first hand information from a past superintendent about the hiring process of teachers and principals, and what employers are looking for. This will help if I decide to become a principal as I hire teachers. More immediately as I move to St. Louis next school year, I will soon be on the other end of the hiring process and I am certainly going to be using this information when I interview.
I enjoyed examining the data on the school report card in class. I also enjoyed the exercises from the text. The discussions that came about from the readings were interesting. I really like the book and am learning a lot. Finally, my favorite thing about Saturday's class is the combination of new information and concrete examples and stories.

Thies - Exciting!

I completely enjoyed the first session of class. I loved all of the analogies that were expressed throughout the day and will be hanging several of them in my classroom and hall.
To begin, I feel this course or one with similar background information should be mandatory for a Bachelor's degree in Education. In just one session, I feel that I can better understand where the administration is coming from in the decision making process and all teachers should have at least a basic understanding. I now see that decisions can't be so black and white. There does not seem to be a scenario that fits the what if this happens...., because terms of incidents are always different. I feel that this information needs to be broadcast and could help administration and teachers work together in the decision making process. Which backs another idea given in class - that committee or teacher input is just that - ideas. This is another big flashing light in better understanding the role of administration.

Are you in the right SEAT?

WOW! How many of you are pondering this question right now? What an eye opening first day of class. I have heard a current administrator state in many meetings about being on the right bus and we will go far. But the true test is looking and seeing are you in the right seat. Think of that teacher in your building who is always looking like this could actually be the worst day of their life. And what about the compulsive screamer, I hear them now. Or the students that run the classroom, because the teacher has no clue about classroom management nor wants to learn. They definitely are not sitting in the right seat.

What a Day!

Wow! What a first day of class. The further we get into the program the more I feel that being a principal is a goal I want to strive for. I liked the statement "It is not so much about what you learn but that there are no right/wrong answers. It is all relevant. You need to look at everything in context and there is no black and white." I get the feeling that this class is going to open my eyes and increase my understanding and patience with those in administration.

A topic of discussion that hit home was when we talked about teachers or committees have "a" say versus a "final" say. This has been a hot topic in our building with various committees expecting that their "opinion or recommendation" be implemented and then becoming angry when it is altered before implementation or not being implemented at all. I think that it needs to be made clear at the onset of a committee gathering that they are not the end all. That is the principal or superintendent.

Another topic that hit home was when we talked about the "right people in the wrong seats." I really like the phrase and the concept behind it. I can see utilizing it in the classroom to help explain a decision that has been made. I also found the Future's Wheel a valuable tool to be utilized to look into and plan for the future. It takes you out of the present and makes you look at the bigger picture.

As informative as this session was, I am looking forward to the next.

IIRC

I enjoyed looking at the IIRC website. Its nice having a former superintendent to answer questions about budget changes. The best part for me was looking at the scattergram. It is definately the most important testing data I've seen. Our teachers' first excuse in not improving test scores is our low income students. It will be nice to show them actual data on how many districts overcome more problems than we have. On the other hand, it shows we are actually doing very well when compared to districts of our size and financially similar.

Gibbons 3-15-08

I enjoyed the class today because I have gotten to know the people in the cohort and it is nice to get together and see everybody (weird? but true).
Talking about the skidiving took me back to realizing that, yes, it was the most scared I have ever been in my life. I went twice on the same day because the first time gave me the shock, that I could not believe how afraid I was. I was in the 3rd group to go and if 2 ladies would not have gone before me in the 1st two groups, then I probably would have been the guy that came back with the airplane. "Did you think about dying?" Hell yes! Both times the door came open- it definitely went through my mind.
On a lighter side, I doubt there's many people that you hang out with Dr. Closen that can top what happened to you. It reminded me of the scene in "Jaws"; where they were sitting around comparing who had the worst scars. You could end the whole conversation by saying "screw you guys, check out what happened to me! (wusses!!).
I also liked hearing about Burbank. When I taught in Chicago I looked at some apartments across the street from Reavis High School, but everything was very expensive. I think back now and wonder if I would have gotten a place on the southwest side, if I wouldn't still be teaching there.
What I learned in class today is fine. I imagine I am not going to be a principal, so if we are going to sit for 8 hours, I appreciate that it is at least interesting. I like the people in the class and the conversation is always decent.

Bret Gibbons

Connie - March 15 08

I have been involved in the interview process as a business owner and in education. In education, I have always been on a panel of anywhere from 3 to 6 staff members. Most of the time, there was at least one administrator on the panel.

During our discussion about the interview process, I was surprised the statement "references available upon request" could cost a person a job opportunity. Also, I was aware a person's appearance is very important for an interview, but I did not realize how important it was when dropping off an application.

"It's not so much what you learn..."

My "aha" moment of the class today was Dr. Closen's quote "It's not so much about what you learn but about the fact that there are no right or wrong, black or white answers.  Everything should be taken in context."  That made me think that it isn't enough to just set a rule, you have to look at each infraction and judge accordingly.  If a first grader brings a key chain with a tiny plastic gun on it perhaps you should rethink the policy of expulsion for a weapon or weapon look alike for this particular incident.

Everything should be taken in context.

We have been having an ongoing discussion between teachers and administrators at our school concerning certain types of weapons being brought to school.  The administrator in charge has been saying exactly what Dr. Closen said:  There are no right or wrong answers.  Everything should be taken in context, and everything is relative.  The teachers keep insisting that it should be a black and white issue, either you are wrong or you aren't, but the administrator is saying that we need to look at each incident separately.  I am starting to see where she is coming from.  We cannot look at everything in black and white.

Interview Questions

I really liked the part about the things to avoid in the interview process. Without being aware of them ahead of time I can see where it would be easy to fall into some of those bad interviewing tactics. I can especially see a problem with the Halo effect where it would be tough not to give someone a job when you really like them. I could also see where the confirmation bias would be easy to fall into. It would be better not to make a quick judgement and be objective about the interview and give everyone and equal chance. Overall its important to not have pre-conceived ideas about a candidate coming in for an interview and try and judge everyone fairly and equally.

My thoughts about today's discussion

I really enjoyed the section that was discussed regarding the interview process. There are many factors to take into account that I never would have thought twice about. For example, the "Halo effect" that may be a challenge for some on the interview panel because many of us go into a particular setting with pre-conceived ideas and judgments. Also, making sure that you don't use offensive phrases or tone when your the interviewer that may make the applicant become defensive and over reactive. This could obviously cause an unfair disadvantage or negative outcome for the applicant due to his/her defensive response.

It is always important to remember as a teacher and administrator to get to the root of a problematic situation taking place in the building or individual classroom. Walking through possible ways to resolve the situation at hand with an open ended discussion involving everyone, not just the few that may be the most biostrous in that setting can be beneficial and be a teachable moment for all.

One last comment I would like to include is about smiling and demonstrating your optimism with a smile. I personally feel it is a priceless contribution and cost nothing for all the positive outcomes that one can receive. It can put many at ease, you can win over those that were in denial, or you can simply change someone day around for the better just by flashing a sweet warm smile in someone direction. When I see someone in a authority position and they never smile that personally makes me feel very uncomfortable and somewhat intimidating. I suppose that in itself would somewhat be a plus if you want all those around you to be constantly reminded that"your the Boss".

I continue to look forward to upcoming discussion and personal issues during this class.