JANUARY 2017
High School
HIGH SCHOOL
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Trent Stern | 239-4369 | tstern@ Upcoming PD
N/A C&I Update This semester teachers should be using the revised ELA unit guides to inform their instructional design and classroom assessment. These documents are a "work-in-progress" as is the process of implementation. Later in the semester, ELA Department Chairs will gather to review committee feedback regarding common assessments and writing expectations for grades 9-12. Additional information to follow at a later date. HIGH SCHOOL
SCIENCE Christie Purdon | 239-4375 | cpurdon@ Upcoming PD
I will be meeting with Field Biology/Zoology teachers and APES teachers on January 10th and Physical Science teachers on February 8. We will continue to design and create lessons and assessments. C&I Update We are continuing to use our new science resources to teach our BV curriculum. The goal is for teachers to use all three dimensions of our standards as they teach. 3D lessons include the practice(s), the core idea (content), and the crosscutting concepts. HIGH SCHOOL
WORLD LANGUAGE Diane DeNoon | 239-4101 | ddenoon@ Upcoming PD
Diane will visit most of the HS WL departments during a Late arrival Thursday AM in January to discuss: -Seal of Biliteracy status -AAPPL proficiency scores from 2016 and upcoming STAMP proficiency testing in February 2017 -Background on thematic unit design in preparation for upcoming March 20 workshop with Laura Terrill, presenter. C&I Update These course groups will meet after school during January to update unit guides and common assessments: French 1 French 2 Spanish 4 will meet during a 1/2 day session with subs provided. Action Item: Upcoming event: BV World Cultures and Languages Fest Thursday, January 19, 2017* 5:30 p.m. – 8:30p.m. Blue Valley CAPS 7501 W. 149th Terrace Overland Park, KS 66223 (Event planners: Tammi Graf and ESL Department & Janet Graham (CAPS) *Thursday January 26th in case of inclement weather HIGH SCHOOL
PERFORMING ARTS Janelle Brower | 2369-4109 | jbrower@ Upcoming PD
N/A C&I Update N/A HIGH SCHOOL
LIBRARY MEDIA Cristy Bolton | 239-4234 | cybolton@ Upcoming PD
HS librarians will join many content areas for professional learning on Monday, March 20. The ESST team is working on designing a day for teachers to share, work collaboratively, and engage in meaningful conversations around their passions and needs. More to come on this soon! C&I Update N/A |
HIGH SCHOOL
MATHEMATICS Adam Wade | 239-4226 | awade@ Holly McCarty | 239-4261 | hamccarty@ Upcoming PD
We have just completed gathering teacher feedback for the 2017-18 resource adoption. Teachers’ top choices now receive cost estimates and then go up for Board approval before being formally ordered. Our goal is to have the resources in our hands in March, so that we can use the March PL day to begin training teachers on the new resources. We would also use PL time in both April and August to continue this training. C&I Update Holly and I are studying Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler. Dr. Boaler has many ideas for helping students and teachers develop a growth mindset in mathematics, and we plan on using her work to help both our teachers and students. HIGH SCHOOL
SOCIAL STUDIES Kelli Haeffner | 239-4263 | khaeffner@ Upcoming PD
Our next professional learning time together will be on Monday, March 20th. More details on this at a later date! C&I Update Geography, Government, US History, and World History committees will meet on Wednesday, January 25th to continue curriculum work on these subject areas. HIGH SCHOOL
VISUAL ARTS Kathleen Cigich | 239-4337 | kcigich@ Upcoming PD
There will not be any content specific PD for high school art teachers in January. Our next meeting will be a full day on March 20th. High school department chairs will be meeting to discuss upcoming PD opportunities. C&I Update High school art teachers are using Google Drive for collaboration including curriculum work, advocacy ideas and sharing resources. HIGH SCHOOL
PHYSICAL EDUCATION Kathleen Cigich | 239-4337 | kcigich@ Upcoming PD
There will not be any content specific PD for high school PE teachers in January. Our next meeting will be a full day on March 20th. C&I Update N/A HIGH SCHOOL
CAREER & TECH ED Linda Affholder | 239-4077 | laffholder@ Upcoming PD
N/A C&I Update January 10: Emerging Technology teachers will collaborate on curricular units for Spring 2017 and research future curriculum options to better address student college and career readiness needs. January 24: FACS teachers will work with a culinary expert to develop instructional units for Baking and Pastry course. |
MIDDLE SCHOOL
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Jen Duke | 239-4266 | jdduke@ Upcoming PD
N/A C&I Update A small team of teachers met on Dec. 7th to create a common rubric and assessment for argumentative writing to be completed during third quarter. More information will be given at the next Nuts and Bolts meeting. Ellen Jardon (MS Ed Tech Specialist) and I continue to work with teams of teachers surrounding technology integration. MIDDLE SCHOOL
SCIENCE Christie Purdon | 239-4375 | cpurdon@ Upcoming PD
8th grade teachers will meet on February 1 for an all day meeting. We will continue to design and create lessons and assessments. We will also work with our Ed Tech team to learn how to design digital breakouts for our students. I will meet with 7th and 6th grade teachers later in February and March. C&I Update We are continuing to use our new science resources (CPO Science) to teach our BV curriculum. The goal is for teachers to use all three dimensions of our standards as they teach. 3D lessons include the practice(s), the core idea (content), and the crosscutting concepts. We also have Ellen Jardon (EdTech Team) supporting middle school science teachers in integrating technology with our science. MIDDLE SCHOOL
WORLD LANGUAGE Diane DeNoon | 239-4101 | ddenoon@ Upcoming PD
Tuesday, January 24 early release -Background on thematic unit design in preparation for upcoming March 20 workshop with Laura Terrill, presenter. C&I Update Tuesday, January 24 early release Discussion of curricular changes for 2017-18 Discussion of new course proposals for 2018-19 Background on thematic units in preparation for upcoming March 20 workshop with Laura Terrill, presenter. These course groups will meet after school during January to update unit guides and common assessments: MS French 7 MS French 8 Action Item: Upcoming event: BV World Cultures and Languages Fest Thursday, January 19, 2017* 5:30 p.m. – 8:30p.m. Blue Valley CAPS 7501 W. 149th Terrace Overland Park, KS 66223 (Event planners: Tammi Graf and ESL Department & Janet Graham (CAPS) *Thursday January 26th in case of inclement weather MIDDLE SCHOOL
PERFORMING ARTS Janelle Brower | 2369-4109 | jbrower@ Upcoming PD
January 24, 2017. MS Early Release: Teachers will discuss course proposals for the 2018-19 school year. MS band teachers may explore new method books if time allows. Band/Choir and Strings teachers will plan music festivals if time allows. C&I Update MS Speech and Drama curriculum committee work will begin soon to revise the following courses for the 2017.18 school year: Grade 6 - Innovative Communications, Grade 6 - Theatre, Grade 7 - Theatre and Innovative Communications. Grade 8 - Theatrical Production. Grade 8 - Innovative Communications. MS Music curriculum committees will meet to soon to revise curriculum to include MS programming changes for 2017 -18. This will help teachers to prepare for the pacing changes that will need to occur as a result of 6th grade music courses meeting every day. MIDDLE SCHOOL
CAREER & TECH ED Linda Affholder | 239-4077 | laffholder@ Upcoming PD
N/A C&I Update January 18: Sub day for FACS teachers to collaborate on curriculum for new/revised courses January 24 Early Release: FACS, Pre-engineering and Computer Tech teachers will collaborate on curriculum for new/revised courses. January 26: Sub day for Pre-engineering teachers to collaborate on curriculum for new/revised courses. |
MIDDLE SCHOOL
MATHEMATICS Adam Wade | 239-4226 | awade@ Holly McCarty | 239-4261 | hamccarty@ Upcoming PD
We are meeting with math coaches on Thursday, January 19th. We are going to continue to work on our 2017 acceleration exams. Please refer to the “High School section” – “Upcoming PD” for updates on the 8th grade Algebra 1 resource adoption. C&I Update Holly and I are studying Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler. Dr. Boaler has many ideas for helping students and teachers develop a growth mindset in mathematics, and we plan on using her work to help both our teachers and students. MIDDLE SCHOOL
SOCIAL STUDIES Kelli Haeffner | 239-4263 | khaeffner@ Upcoming PD
Our next professional learning time together will be on Monday, March 20th. More details on this at a later date! C&I Update The 6th grade curriculum committee will continue to work on developing unit guides on February 9th at Hilltop. MIDDLE SCHOOL
VISUAL ARTS Kathleen Cigich | 239-4337 | kcigich@ Upcoming PD
Middle school art teachers will be meeting during Early Release on January 24th to begin curriculum revision for 6th grade for 2017-18. Teachers will also have a full-day sub provided by C&I on Wednesday, January 25th to work on course proposals for 2018-19. C&I Update Teachers will be working on curriculum changes as they propose new courses for the 2018-19 school year. MIDDLE SCHOOL
PHYSICAL EDUCATION Kathleen Cigich | 239-4337 | kcigich@ Upcoming PD
Middle school PE teachers will be meeting during Early Release on January 24th to look at health and wellness units in their curriculum. A guest speaker will be joining them to talk about nutrition. C&I Update N/A MIDDLE SCHOOL
LIBRARY MEDIA Cristy Bolton | 239-4234 | cybolton@ Upcoming PD
MS librarians will meet during PT Conferences on Thursday, February 16. We will continue work around incorporating the DLC iPads into instruction. Librarians will also work on sharing curriculum units. We will also to take time to discuss the known factors around MS changes and any impacts and opportunities it creates for tech integration and collaborative instruction. C&I Update The ESST team will be sending out a "Spotlight on Inquiry" so teachers can see how other are successfully using the WISER framework with inquiry instruction. Posters and bookmarks have been designed. We are test printing the design, and will have these sent out to buildings very soon. As many buildings begin looking at Problem-based Learning, the inquiry framework will continue to be very important as inquiry is the driver in PBL. |
ELEMENTARY
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Mary Jane Weishar | 239-4179 | mweishar@ Upcoming PD
Reading Specialists - February 9th IPAD Training C&I Update The excitement in Elementary ELA is our new anchor resource, Benchmark Advance. Professional Learning is being planned for the spring and next August. (Dates, places, and times will be coming soon.) A cadre of teachers, literacy coaches, and district leaders will be trained 2 days in February to assist with the training of the Benchmark resources. A group of Reading Specialists will be working on gathering of materials to assist classroom teachers with dyslexia. Action Item: If any teacher, PLC or school needs any assistance with any Literacy needs please contact me. ELEMENTARY
SCIENCE Callie Wietzel | 239-4268 | caweitzel@ Upcoming PD
No upcoming PD. C&I Update We will continue to use our new BV curriculum based on the NGSS as well as our purchased resources (TCI). This is a year where we will make additions or deletions based on data from the 2015-16 school year. During meetings with grade levels, essential questions & learning targets were written for science units. ELEMENTARY
WORLD LANGUAGE Diane DeNoon | 239-4101 | ddenoon@ Upcoming PD
There is no elementary WL PD in January. C&I Update There will not be any elementary WL curriculum work in January. Action Item: Upcoming event: BV World Cultures and Languages Fest Thursday, January 19, 2017* 5:30 p.m. – 8:30p.m. Blue Valley CAPS 7501 W. 149th Terrace Overland Park, KS 66223 (Event planners: Tammi Graf and ESL Department & Janet Graham (CAPS) *Thursday January 26th in case of inclement weather ELEMENTARY
PERFORMING ARTS Janelle Brower | 2369-4109 | jbrower@ Upcoming PD
Elementary General Music Teachers can choose to participate in the Ed Tech Team's, "Keep Calm and Innovate On," workshop for elementary specialists at HCC on January 18 from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. C&I Update N/A ELEMENTARY
LIBRARY MEDIA Cristy Bolton | 239-4234 | cybolton@ Upcoming PD
Elementary librarians will meet during PT Conferences on Thursday, February 16. We will continue work around incorporating the DLC iPads into instruction. Librarians will also work on sharing curriculum units C&I Update Librarians worked with Paige Jaeger & Mary Ratzer in September around the WISE inquiry framework. Many of them have begun using this framework in collaborative instruction. We will work to gather feedback around the use of the framework and its usability as a common framework going forward. |
ELEMENTARY
MATHEMATICS Jennifer Taylor | 239-4262 | jtaylor@ Upcoming PD
I will meet with your building math coaches on Thursday, January 19th. We will go over the new guidelines for math acceleration. We will also be adding a performance task to each acceleration test. C&I Update I met with 2nd grade teachers one final time in December. Using years of MAP data and teacher input, they developed several drafts of a new scope and sequence. Collaborating with 3rd grade teachers, they also added some 3rd grade standards which would be introduced in 2nd grade. These standards tie in nicely with several 2nd grade topics. Second grade students would NOT be expected to master these standards-they would simply be introduced to the standards. Teachers also created additional supplemental lessons for various topics. As I gather feedback from teachers and principals regarding the change in scope and sequence, I will prepare a final draft to be approved by the Board. All changes will be implemented for the 2017-2018 school year. ELEMENTARY
SOCIAL STUDIES Callie Wietzel | 239-4268 | caweitzel@ Upcoming PD
On April 6th the ES SS Curriculum Committee will meet to continue the work that was started last year on the scope and sequence. The focus for this year will be on assessments and different learning experiences, as well as enhancing the 5E lesson plans. C&I Update From last year, we have 5E lesson plans in our unit guides for teachers to share and use (T:drive -> Education Services -> Social Studies -> BVSS Unit Guides or print shop). In addition, scope and sequences for each grade level, sample 5E lessons, suggestions for the first ten days of lessons, and links to online resources, including the KSDE HGSS Skill Expectations can be located on the Blue Valley Social Studies Weebly - http://bvsocialstudies.weebly.com/ and on the curriculum resource page. Action Item: Please help support your teachers by directing them to lesson plans in the BV SS Unit Guides on the T:drive or through print shop. While teachers are not required to follow these lessons plans, they were created by BV ES Teachers, edited by our curriculum committee, and offer a lot of support for our ES SS Curriculum. ELEMENTARY
VISUAL ARTS Kathleen Cigich | 239-4337 | kcigich@ Upcoming PD
There will not be any content specific PD for elementary art teachers in January. Our next meeting will be a technology focused morning on February 16th during conferences. C&I Update Elementary art teachers took a self-assessment regarding the different assessment strategies that they are using in their classroom. Our goal for second semester will be to begin to implement more assessment strategies that will provide data to impact their teaching. ELEMENTARY
PHYSICAL EDUCATION Kathleen Cigich | 239-4337 | kcigich@ Upcoming PD
There will not be any content specific PD for elementary PE teachers in January. Our next meeting will be February 16th during conferences. C&I Update N/A |
Special Education
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