NOVEMBER 2016
High School
HIGH SCHOOL
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Trent Stern | 239-4369 | tstern@ Upcoming PD
N/A C&I Update High school ELA curriculum review committees have revised unit guides for grades 9-12. On October 14 teachers had the opportunity to review these documents and provide feedback to guide our future work. Teachers will begin using these documents to inform their instructional decision making and will evaluate the efficacy of these documents throughout the remainder of the year. My hope is that these documents empower teams of teachers to have deeper, more meaningful discussions about content, pedagogy, 21st-century skills, intervention, innovation, and more. I anticipate reevaluating these documents at the end of the year. At this time a team of teachers will also begin working on conceptualizing a common assessment plan for high school ELA. Finally, I am developing a literacy intervention plan to meet the needs of struggling high school readers. A preliminary plan will be shared with principals in the upcoming weeks. HIGH SCHOOL
SCIENCE Christie Purdon | 239-4375 | cpurdon@ Upcoming PD
No upcoming PD. I continue to attend science PLCs each Thursday on a rotational basis. This is informal and I join in the conversations and support the problem-solving process. I am always available to meet with teachers individually or as teams in buildings as requested! 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
WL teachers make good use of the late Arrival First Thursday for cross district collaboration to meet virtually by course. They share activities and complete unit assessment tasks that are identified in the Work in Progress notes document for each course. I will begin to make the rounds to each HS WL department during late arrival to discuss the Seal of Biliteracy, the results of the AAPPL spring 2016 testing and to outline the upcoming emphasis on thematic unit design. C&I Update Ongoing after school sessions to review and update Unit guides, common semester exams and common unit performance assessments. This month Spanish 1, French 1 and Latin 2 will meet after school. The high school department chairs will meet in November to discuss process for the Seal of Biliteracy, upcoming proficiency external assessment for 500 WL students and the plans for March 20 professional learning day. HIGH SCHOOL
PERFORMING ARTS Janelle Brower | 2369-4109 | jbrower@ Upcoming PD
March 20, Full Day. Learning targets under development. C&I Update High School Band Curriculum revision, Full day sub for November 19. HIGH SCHOOL
LIBRARY MEDIA Cristy Bolton | 239-4234 | cybolton@ Upcoming PD
HS librarians will meet at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, November 10. C&I Update HS librarians continue to share units and lessons that focus on collaboration with content area teachers. They also took time in October to discuss maker space programming and curriculum integration. |
HIGH SCHOOL
MATHEMATICS Adam Wade | 239-4226 | awade@ Holly McCarty | 239-4261 | hamccarty@ Upcoming PD
N/A – However, if you see an opportunity where you would like Holly and I to work with individuals or teams within your math department, feel free to contact us. We are here to help!! C&I Update On Friday, October 14th, teachers had an opportunity to fill out rubrics to evaluate resources for all courses they currently teach. We will tabulate the rubric data and qualitative feedback and use this information to narrow the number of choices in each course adopting (Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Advanced Algebra, Precalculus, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics) down to two choices. Once the data has narrowed each course down to two choices, current teachers will have an opportunity to indicate their preference among the two selections. HIGH SCHOOL
SOCIAL STUDIES Kelli Haeffner | 239-4263 | khaeffner@ Upcoming PD
The next district PL day is on March 20th. Details to come at a later date. C&I Update Presidential Election: Students will have the opportunity to take part in Kids Voting Kansas, an online presidential election on Tuesday, November 8th. 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 November. Our next meeting will be a full day on March 20th. 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
High school PE teachers will be meeting with a district athletic trainer to learn about cross training. They will also attend a student privacy presentation with all K-12 PE teachers. C&I Update N/A HIGH SCHOOL
CAREER & TECH ED Linda Affholder | 239-4077 | laffholder@ Upcoming PD
November 2 – Programming teachers will attend Compute Midwest conference in Kansas City (subs provided through Perkins grant. C&I Update November 14 – FACS teachers will meet to align Culinary curriculum with new state competencies and meet with a local chef to learn about the event and hospitality industry. |
MIDDLE SCHOOL
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Jen Duke | 239-4266 | jdduke@ Upcoming PD
During our Oct. 14th PL, MS ELA teachers collaborated to determine what was needed to create true student-centered learning in our classrooms in the areas of instruction and assessment, as well as determining the direction of future professional learning. After coming to consensus on these topics, I will be working to find resources and opportunities to serve teachers in these areas. C&I Update A tentative small committee meeting is scheduled for December 7th regarding writing assessments and common rubrics. MIDDLE SCHOOL
SCIENCE Christie Purdon | 239-4375 | cpurdon@ Upcoming PD
No upcoming PD. I am always available to meet with teachers individually or as teams in buildings as requested! 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
N/A C&I Update N/A MIDDLE SCHOOL
PERFORMING ARTS Janelle Brower | 2369-4109 | jbrower@ Upcoming PD
December 6, Early Release. Learning targets under development. Upcoming Festivals: MS Orchestra – November 18, 9:00-2:00, BVW This festival serves as a summative assessment for Middle School orchestra students. Three judges from outside the district will evaluate student performances and provide feedback for improvement using the MS Orchestra Festival Rubric. A judge will clinic each group after their performance. MS Junior Thespian Festival – November 12, 2016, 8:00 – 12:15, LKMS – This enrichment opportunity features numerous workshops and presentations by members of the Kansas City Theatre community. C&I Update Unit Design work and assessment development in all subjects. MIDDLE SCHOOL
CAREER & TECH ED Linda Affholder | 239-4077 | laffholder@ Upcoming PD
N/A C&I Update November 8 – Middle School FACS teachers will meet to revise unit plans to incorporate a Problem-based approach. |
MIDDLE SCHOOL
MATHEMATICS Adam Wade | 239-4226 | awade@ Holly McCarty | 239-4261 | hamccarty@ Upcoming PD
We meet with math coaches on December 8th. C&I Update Algebra 1 teachers have been participating in the resource adoption process with High School teachers. Please see the High School Math C&I Update for more info on this. We have also created a Google Drive where teachers can contribute quality assessments and differentiated activities. Many teachers were already contributing during both our last Math Coaches meeting and our last professional learning. The Google Drive also contains a blog where teachers can give feedback on the activities and assessments, and describe what is working well in their classrooms. With the help of math coaches, we set a 30-60-90 plan for getting all teachers to implement and reflection upon a differentiated activity/lesson in their classroom. MIDDLE SCHOOL
SOCIAL STUDIES Kelli Haeffner | 239-4263 | khaeffner@ Upcoming PD
The next district PL day is on March 20th. Details to come at a later date. C&I Update Presidential Election: Students will have the opportunity to take part in Kids Voting Kansas, an online presidential election on Tuesday, November 8th. MIDDLE SCHOOL
VISUAL ARTS Kathleen Cigich | 239-4337 | kcigich@ Upcoming PD
There will not be any content specific PD for middle school art teachers in November. Our next meeting will be December 6th during early release. C&I Update Middle school art teachers are working on completing curriculum documents and implementing the new Kansas standards. MIDDLE SCHOOL
PHYSICAL EDUCATION Kathleen Cigich | 239-4337 | kcigich@ Upcoming PD
There will not be any content specific PD for middle school PE teachers in November. Our next meeting will be December 6th during early release. C&I Update Middle school PE teachers will be sharing teaching strategies based on units in their curriculum at an upcoming meeting. Our goal for second semester will be to review our scope and sequence and revise as necessary. MIDDLE SCHOOL
LIBRARY MEDIA Cristy Bolton | 239-4234 | cybolton@ Upcoming PD
There is no Professional Learning scheduled for MS librarians in November. C&I Update MS ELA, science, social studies and librarians worked with Paige Jaeger and Mary Boyd Ratzer in September to learn more about using the WISER framework for inquiry work. Teachers received a lot of great resources in our Sept PL, and we are excited to continue the process of learning and implementation of the WISER framework. The ESST team is now in the process of creating materials - posters, bookmarks, etc. for teachers to post and use in their classrooms. |
ELEMENTARY
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Mary Jane Weishar | 239-4179 | mweishar@ Upcoming PD
Adoption Technology Review - all elementary teachers need to have completed by November 14 Elementary ELA Content Team - will meet to continue evaluation of the new ELA adoption resource November 17 all day. Writing Wednesdays with Weishar November 2 - 3rd-5th Using Mentor Texts with Informational Writing November 9 - K-2nd Using Mentor Texts with Informational Writing C&I Update The ELA Content Team is continuing to work on evaluating Journeys (K-1), Ready Gen (2-5) and Benchmark Advance (K-5) using the evaluation results from Oct 14, Professional Learning Day. All 2nd-5th District Common Narrative Writing Performance results should be turned into their Reading Specialists. The district will be reviewing this data to assist in updating elementary writing curriculum. ELEMENTARY
SCIENCE Callie Wietzel | 239-4268 | caweitzel@ Upcoming PD
Throughout the fall one teacher per school per grade level will meet for a full day. These times will be used to work through our curriculum and pedagogy including literacy integration, assessment development, and other best practices. The last meeting is with Kindergarten on December 7th. 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 will be written for science units. Additionally, work will be done focused on vocabulary, reading integration, and assessments. ELEMENTARY
WORLD LANGUAGE Diane DeNoon | 239-4101 | ddenoon@ Upcoming PD
Teachers will be extending the discussion on 10/27 about the importance and priority of developing students’ interpersonal speaking skills. They will experiment with ways to support students in asking and answering questions vs. only answering questions to increase their ability to hold a conversation. Teachers are also practicing in class with engaging students using four ipad apps that we have trained on this fall: Book Creator, Nearpod, Explain Everything, Seesaw and Edmodo. C&I Update N/A ELEMENTARY
PERFORMING ARTS Janelle Brower | 2369-4109 | jbrower@ Upcoming PD
February 16: Morning of Conferences. Elementary specials tech integration conference – under development. C&I Update Upcoming scope and sequence revision during 2016-17 school year. ELEMENTARY
LIBRARY MEDIA Cristy Bolton | 239-4234 | cybolton@ Upcoming PD
There is no Professional Learning scheduled for elementary librarians in November. C&I Update Librarians worked collaboratively to share grade level collaborative lessons that integrated technology. They also worked at identifying common indicators in the library media scope and sequence, and various content area scope and sequence. This is a great tool to use in PLC discussions. |
ELEMENTARY
MATHEMATICS Jennifer Taylor | 239-4262 | jtaylor@ Upcoming PD
There is no content specific PD scheduled for this month. C&I Update I met with one 2nd grade teacher from each building on October 6th. Using our state standards and BV curriculum, we created some excellent time and money resources. We will meet again on December 8th to look at our current 2nd grade curriculum and Scope and Sequence. I have also given your 2nd grade teachers some supplemental formative and performance assessments for each topic to use if they would like. Again, I would love to come out to your school to share the Learning Continuums to help your teachers incorporate their student’s MAP data with their guided math groups. I will be meeting with Math Coaches on January 19th and we will begin talking about the acceleration process. ELEMENTARY
SOCIAL STUDIES Callie Wietzel | 239-4268 | caweitzel@ Upcoming PD
On November 3rd and 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. ELEMENTARY
VISUAL ARTS Kathleen Cigich | 239-4337 | kcigich@ Upcoming PD
There will not be any content specific PD for elementary art teachers in November. Our next meeting will be 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 November. Our next meeting will be February 16th during conferences. C&I Update N/A |
Special Education
Click here to visit SPECIAL DELIVERY, the Special Education portion of this blog.
Direct URL: BVSPED.weebly.com.
Direct URL: BVSPED.weebly.com.