How good are your teams?

As we prepare for the Summer Leadership Conference please take some time to review the information illustrating the continuum of team interaction. As you read, consider the following question:

• As administrators, how can we support teams to continue growing and strengthening collaboration during PLCs? Do we go back, with our staff, and have conversations about what strong collaboration looks like?

(Collaboration: Lessons Learned. American Association of School Librarians. Fall 1996.)

I look forward to reading your comments. Have a great week.

Special thanks to Jill Bergerhofer for writing this blog.

Building Culture

Recently there was an article published in the Kappan entitled Principals as Cultural Leaders.   The article shared some data on what the writers learned from buildings that had leaders who cultivated a culture of leadership as opposed to leaders who controlled leadership. While the article mostly addressed elementary schools there is also research that looks at secondary buildings. I don’t believe their comments about secondary schools reflects our district but it is interesting as to review data around leadership and the impact it has on the success of students and buildings. I am interested in your thoughts.

The family meetings will be held next week. Please bring your computer. If you want to review your School Learning Plan off-line please bring a copy. At the meeting we will continue to make connections between professional development and Strategic Plan 2. School Learning Plans will be reviewed and we will turn our thoughts to the 2011-2012 school year. Finally, you will receive a brief update on the Leadership Conference.

Have a great weekend and we will see you next week.

PLCs

Good morning. Brace yourself. It looks like we are in for some wicked weather this week. With that in mind I am going to re-post some great reading materials recently highlighted in ALLTHINGSPLC.  Robert Marzano is featured in a video clip that discusses how to strike the right balance as a leader.  Marzano talks about how district leadership can support learning in the buildings. Another article of interest is Breakfast with a Purpose. The article shares how a group of administrators from a variety of districts meet for breakfast to discuss PLCs in their buildings and the work that is being accomplished. Finally, for a bit of laughter, Tim Kanold offers a funny clip on how to bring balance to your busy lives. I hope you enjoy the post. Stay warm!

http://www.allthingsplc.info/wordpress/?p=1695

Believe it or not!

Recently I came across an article predicting the 21 things that will become obsolete in the next 8 years. Some of the items identified were a surprise. I thought you might enjoy the re-posting of  the predictions. In order to get to the article you may need to copy the address and post it in your Explorer address bar.

http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/21-things-that-will-become-obsolete-in-education-by-2020-474.php

On another note, we will be sending the schedule for the February walk-throughs in the next week. Please let us know if you need any changes made.

Finally, no more snow days! They are  pretty but too disruptive. We all need a full week of learning soon.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! How many times have you heard that phrase in the past two weeks? A new year almost always brings resolutions– both professional and personal. Some of us tend to identify areas we really want to improve on and set lofty goals while others are content to keep improving in areas that were identified several years ago. As for me, I have trouble keeping resolutions if it requires drastic changes in my routine. I have basically had the same resolution for several years. Be nice. That is it.  For me that simple resolution reminds me to listen, ask questions, breath deep, and watch how I interact with others. Now, I am not saying that I always keep my resolution but those simple two words do cause me to reflect on my behavior and attitude towards others. What is your resolution? Will it make your life more manageable or bring additional stress? At our next family meeting you will be ask what your resolution or goal for your school is this upcoming year. Will you stay the course or will there be big changes coming?

 The January family meetings will be held next week. The secondary meeting will be on January 12^th while the elementary meeting is on January 13^th. Both meetings begin at 8:15 a.m. and will be held in High Plains at the District Office. For both meetings we will spend time on reading and literacy. To prepare for the meetings please read the attachment appropriate to your grade level. We look forward to seeing everyone.

Another example….

As a follow-up to our conversation about mapping there is one more example of how curriculum mapping is being used in Blue Valley that I would like to share at this time. Blue River Elementary School targeted a unit of study, Personal Narrative in writing, to map. Debbie Kelly, principal, used subs to get teams time to work for an extended period of time with Mary Jane Weishar, Literacy Coach. The teams mapped the same unit at each grade level. Because of this they can now use the “Analyze” portion of Rubicon to put the maps from each grade level side-by-side for a vertical view of the same unit. This can be seen in the attached slides. By doing this the staff can have an in-depth vertical discussion on any category of the map. The second step to the work was demonstrating to teachers how to copy the team map into their own and how to edit and add to these essentials to fit their classrooms. In this one unit, then, they’ve accomplished all of the district expectations and accomplished something useful to teachers. This is an excellent example of framing the work to benefit the learners and the teaching staff.

The purpose of sharing work from Blue Valley schools is to allow us to step back and reflect on the work of our peers. All of you have excellence within you. We can learn much from each other.

Have a great winter break. It is my privileged to work with all of you.

Blue River Maps 10-11 Writing

Thinking towards the future

As we continue to think about mapping and the use of maps as a way to record what is taught in the district,  maps also give us an opportunity to “audit” what activities are being taught to support student learning. Are the assignments the traditional assignments that have been done for several years or are we seeing an infusion of 21^st century skills? Do students have ways to demonstrate their learning outside of just a writing assignment or completing a test? I am providing a link to a video featuring Heidi Hayes Jacobs talking about a 21^st century curriculum. The video is part of a promotion for her new book but there is some good information provided. I was going to have you listen specifically to Chapter 4.  Just click on the attached site to listen. I am looking forward to seeing you next week.

http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Authors/Heidi-Hayes-Jacobs.aspx?id=62618361001&nvid=a13b1

Where are we going?

Curriculum Mapping will continue to be an important part of curriculum and instruction. However, as we review the needs of the district and look to our new strategic plan, maps can be used for a more refined purpose. For the past four years Blue Valley has focused on capturing authentic student data. To help with the collection of that data it was important that we were able to verify what was being taught, when it was being taught and how it was being taught. The final piece needed was how learning was being assessed. Our district has been able to capture that through dairy and team mapping. As we continue to evaluate the work of the district we continue to learn.

 Curriculum mapping is a rich source of data.  As school leaders we now understand that there are many types of data that contribute to a student’s success and that at least three types of data should be used to support good decision-making. Some of those data pieces include:

 1. Student Achievement data – this can be observed and measured.

2. Curriculum data – data collected from individual maps regarding skills and content taught, assessments, and instructional practices.  Targeted data collection embellishes the maps in useful ways that can help students learn.

3. Perception data – data collected that reflects how students, parents, and staff feel about different aspects of the school.  This can include curriculum and instruction.

4. Student data – data includes demographic information, home life information and information about students in general.

5. Research data – this refers to research done in the field to help guide educators as to what is effective in the classroom.

As we think of mapping in the future our primary focus on individual maps will begin to shift. Individual maps will continue to be very important for the recording of what is actually being taught. Curriculum data is what is collected through information on individual maps.  That data is important to collect as it helps inform school decisions when changing strategies or content.  Some examples for collecting curriculum data are:

 1. As curriculum is revised in the future, the luxury of bringing in teachers to revise the content of a subject area and share it with all teachers in the system will be a thing of the past. Given the interactive software available today and the search functions of the mapping software the district will use the data available to recommend changes. An example of that is a recent search of when long and short vowels are taught in the first grade. A search of the curriculum maps found that most teachers introduce and teach the vowel sounds during second quarter. The district pacing guide had them identified to be taught late third and fourth semester. Based on the information found in the search and conversations with teachers the skills need to be adjusted to be taught during the second quarter. This was all discovered by mapping.

2. Capturing students writing and the types of writing can be accomplished through mapping. Teachers can document all of the writing activities in their classroom on their individual maps for a certain time period. After that a search can be done to determine if the staff is on target with how the building wanted to implement writing. To extend this research, staff can review how the writing was assessed and what the measurement tool was used.

 Curriculum mapping in 2010-2011 will continue. However, the focus will begin to shift to the collection of targeted data and not just identifying what has been taught. Individual and team maps will continue to help with the collection of what was taught. Targeted maps will help each school to identify what is important for their needs and what information is needed to continue to move learners forward. 

Successes

The field of education will experience significant change in the next five years. Each school system needs to have tools in place that supporting learning and serves as a record of each child’s educational experience. To be able to do this, transparency must be used to plan and monitor instruction. Curriculum mapping has allowed that for Blue Valley and much more. A synopsis of how Curriculum Mapping has supported learning can be seen below .  Mapping has allowed for conversations to take place about what is to be taught at a grade level and/or in a course. Curriculum Mapping has been the vehicle that teachers have been able to use for planning and intervention. Since Blue Valley has begun mapping, the curriculum is more closely aligned across the district than any other time. The understanding of what we are to teach and defining how to teach the content is also more visible than any other time.

1. The mapping software has allowed for easy access to the design process of curriculum. Standards are easily available. Planning includes essential questions for the unit being designed. Teachers must think about the skills students learn and how those skills tie into a bigger content picture. Teachers need to think about why they are making the decisions of materials, assessment and instructional strategies being used.
2. Mapping has allowed the district to look for gaps in instruction. As maps are being designed in the software schools, feeder systems and the district are able to look for specific assessments, strategies or skills that are being taught. This allows for conversations about why there are gaps or what is missing in content areas, and provides a place to record updates in order to eliminate the gaps.
3. Mapping has allowed teachers to reflect, week to week, month to month, and year to year on what and how they have taught. Mapping supports our accountability piece.
4.  Maps are beginning to support teachers entering our district. New staff members are now able to access maps of teachers in the content areas. This supports the new staff member and their students. Time is not lost trying to determine what is required.
5. Curriculum mapping is becoming a teacher’s tool. It allows teachers to keep all resources in one place. The maps are set up for planning and housing the needed information to demonstrate what the learner is has been taught and learned.
6. Common core standards will be adopted in the state within the next six months. In order to share the standards with teachers and to insure their use the standards will be visible in the mapping software. Teachers can use the units they have already designed to see how the standards align with existing units and assessments.
7. The quality of assessments, both formative and summative, is critical to learning. Types and frequency can be search using the mapping software. The district will be able to look at a content area and analyze what types of assessments are given. If social studies classes’ only use multiple choice items when they test, teachers can use this information to plan different assessments that may engage higher-level thinking.
8. The purchasing of textbooks will decline over the next five years. More and more of the resource materials used will be online. As new courses are written and existing courses are revised the work will be done within the mapping software. A course will be housed in the software with the standards, content, skills and resource materials. Teachers will be able to use those maps when teaching the course.
9. The mapping software now houses all school learning plans. This allows the SLP to be available to staff in the building and across the district. Buildings and leadership teams can learn from each other and the progress of their work by reviewing school learning plans in the system.

Preparation

 As the staff begins to prepare for the December Family meetings I wanted to share with you some thoughts about curriculum mapping. There will be several posts around this topic prior to our December meeting. Please take time to read the postings.

The 2010-2011 school year begins the fifth year of curriculum mapping in Blue Valley School District. During this time there have been many successes and some challenges. The reason for this document is to summarize the purpose of the work, accomplishments in Blue Valley through curriculum mapping, and to identify work that will continue. The importance of mapping cannot be recorded in an isolated initiative. Rather, it is work that impacts all areas of learning. Mapping, done in conjunction with Professional Learning Communities and Assessment for Learning, has improved the learning in our district. We continue to look to mapping to glean important data regarding student academic achievement and the taught curriculum. 

Curriculum mapping can serve two purposes. The first is to document baseline entries. These entries have long-term goals, offer a broad view of what is being accomplished in the district, allows us to collect data over a several year period and can help determine curriculum. The second purpose of mapping is collecting targeted data.  Targeted data refers to specific data entries that are named (tagged) so that they can be consistently documented and easily searched. Targeted mapping allows a system to look at short term goals. These goals can be determined by student needs, can be broad or detailed, look at only isolated pieces of curriculum, have a limited timeline, and can capture specific information for use when making decisions.  For both purposes we need to be strategic in how we move forward.