Professional Development 2/22

Today we are sitting in the library for our PD.  Next Tuesday is the 7th grade writing assessment and the ET block will be 120 minutes.  Megan is offering up a writing lesson plan for ET.  She handed out a thick packet with a lesson plan, an article, and a say-mean-matter chart.  At first, I was thinking "why would I want to do a writing lesson with my ET?" but now that I see the content, my view has changed.  The article is about bullying and when it crosses the line from cruel to criminal.  I do plan to use this article in my ET next Tuesday, maybe not in the exact lesson plan form that Megan is offering but I do believe a discussion and short writing exercise would be beneficial to my ET.  I think that our students have strong opinions about bullying and what constitutes bullying and they need to share those opinions and hear about options for reacting to bullying. 

Some teachers are concerned about how students will react to bullying and that it may lead to suicide.  Other teachers are expressing their opinion that as a school we need to talk about bullying and how students may react to this.  My opinion - which I am going to share since I am blogging - is that talking about things is a great way to help students in a general manner.  Students can find out answers to their questions, dispel beliefs, and realize that others feel the same way.  The article is about Phoebe Prince and the 9 students who bullied her until she decided to commit suicide.  This is a horrific story and upon further review, the content of the article is good, but I'm not sure that it is a perfect article for my ET.

 We are waiting for the 7th grade teachers.  still waiting.......we waited 15 minutes for the meeting to resume.  Apparently, we have a full agenda and now we must rush through it.

Now, we are getting certificates for students that have improved on CSTs over the past 2 years.  We are getting a lot of points for students who move from FBB to B.  Next we moved into departments and Megan is handing out a list of students who are very close to moving up a band on CSTs.  We are supposed to choose some students as a focus group during our instruction.  I have a confession - I got bored during the transition of passing out papers and I took a walk around the hallways and I visited Ms. Gonzalez in the main office.  It made me realize that if I was a student and there was down time, I would probably act out because what else is there to do?

Ms. Gonnella is handing out the new staffing ratios for 2011-2012 - AWESOME!!  To break it down for you - class size is going to 38.5 each.  We will share Patty Granados with another middle school.  Counseling ratios will increase to 1000:1 for each counselor.  Negative outlook - the next year will be even worse financially!!  How is that possible, you ask?  I have no idea!  We will lose 2 regular staffed positions to lower our count to 27.  Our projected enrollment for next year is lower than this year.  We need to publicized this information.  I am now even more distraught than I thought possible.  Thanks for listening.....


Robin Nagle