Inservice Week
On Wednesday, I attended both the English PLC CCSS training and the math PLC CCSS training. On Thursday, I met with the English group for about 30 minutes and spent time helping our new staff members and others.
For English, the work I did over the summer on revising our curriculum map and philosophy, based on conversations we had at the end-of-year CCSS training, provided a good basis for the work we did on Wednesday. I had put together a rough map of each quarter, with a Big Question, an anchor text, some supporting texts, and most importantly the focus standards we would be teaching each quarter. I also identified some likely common assessments (both existing and obvious) and checked Renaissance Place for available tests. Using this information as a basis, the English department was able to identify the reportable standards for each grade for quarter one and determine their weight in the overall grade. These weights were finalized on Thursday morning.
For math, we worked on figuring out how to use our new texts. We obtained a screener to determine readiness for our accelerated math sequence. Over the weekend, I realized a great way to use the existing assessments as a pre/post test (the answer: use the multiple-choice tiered test over the entire book, as it is shorter and has cleaner numbers and we rarely use that particular form in a regular class).
On Thursday, I set up a demonstration for all staff members on how to use the Schoolmaster Gradebook program that focused on setting up the gradebook for proficiency grading. We met in my room at 10:00 and I projected my gradebook and showed how to set up the basics. One of the new teachers later said that my presentation was very clear and useful. I answered individual questions and did some trouble-shooting during the rest of the day.
I remembered that we needed to get permission for students to use Google docs. I went to Kevin to get the forms, copied them, and worked with the secretaries to get them sent out to homerooms on the first day.
I created a generalized rubric on a 0-4 proficiency grading scale, similar to GPA. I distributed this to
the staff.
I created a bulletin board in the staff room that outlines the topics each subject and grade will be teaching during the first quarter.
