PD for January 31

announcements
from Ms. Wilson: eighth grade t-shirt designs being accepted.
from Mr. Watson: keep an eye out for specific behavior problems.
Discipline talks will be scheduled, possibly through homerooms so we're all on the same page.
Bruin Corps is planning a college night February 17th.
Music program is happening starting next semester.
Budget committee needs to meet and discuss department needs.
Some ET changes are being made for second semester to help raise test scores.
The next tour is taking place Friday, February 10th. Departments will let Mr. Watson know what teachers plan to have available.
from Mr. Morrison: we are participating in a Laker's contents to help us.
UTLA announcements

We then moved into departments to discuss:
CFA data
pacing plans for next semester and CFA schedule
Prep for tours

PD on January 24th: SDAIE_Departments for CFAs_Sixth Grade Meeting

We started in the parent center with Mr. Watson giving us an overview of our PD for today.

Then Meghan went over the goals and objectives for her session:
Goal #1: Increase teacher familiarity with Thinking Maps and being to plan for more consistent/frequent use of Thinking Maps across content areas.

Goal #2: Model teaching strategies ~four corners~ that may be useful for classroom interaction and instruction.

Goal #3: To be responsive to teacher feedback from past trainings:

• Confusion about Thinking Maps v. Graphic organizers. 
• Models of Thinking Maps in content areas.
• More time to plan and collaborate.

Meghan distributed playing cards.

Spades completed a Flow Map about the use of Thinking Maps.

Meghan then explained how she would draw cards so a random student in each group would be presenting the findings.

We then worked in collaborative groups on Thinking Map implementation. After completing our evaluations, we moved into departments to work on CFAs.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Well, here we are in the Parent Center and a few snacks were provided by a group of financial advisors. Mr. Watson started the meeting and acknowledged that, although this was not on the agenda, he wanted to allow our guests to share some financial information.

We then moved into department meetings to work on CFAs.

At 3:15 we met back together.

Mr. Watson went over the proposed minimum and shortened day schedule that will be brought to SBM for approval.

In June, the proposed last day of school is June 18th but this has not been agreed to by UTLA.

Sipper Project plans from last year occurred and now they have hired architects/design firm. Mr. Watson attended a meet and greet with project managers and he would like a small group to form to be able to meet with these folks. Ms. Nagle, Mr. Peralta and Ms. Wilson have a meeting Friday about movement of their classrooms.

Dr. Saxon asked about the AC project. They are still working through the first floor of the Administration building.

Staff Lounge, be courteous and take your share, people! You WILL not bite the hand that feeds you!

Faculty Healthy Living Program will be coming from Claire.

IHP/SAS restructure: sixth graders will be placed in honors and skip pre-Algebra for seventh grade. There will then be an assessment to determine if students will stay in Algebra or go back to pre-Algebra. Will also want to strengthen our SAS classes in other subject areas to be project-based and AP Readiness courses.

Emerson Tours: set up a table in the hallway with work and lesson description. Next one is February 10th.

Elementary School Visit set for Thursday at Westwood Charter.

March 15th Parent Conference Night. Rosie is the keeper of the calendar.

UTLA announcements: Diane Ravitch tonight at 5:00... UTLA is fighting the early start calendar and holding RIF meetings again.

That was about it.

Professional Development for January 10th

Ms. Jones started the meeting and then handed things over to Ms. Schooler who introduced some SDAIE connections. Today we are focusing on Thinking Maps.

She passed out a handout and went over objectives. We are looking at Thinking Maps both in departments and across the curriculum.

Connections refer to how our instruction helps students access prior knowledge. Connections can be made in terms of CONTENT, EXPERIENCES AND SKILLS/PROCESSES.

Once we reviewed the three ways students can make connections, we looked at how Thinking Maps can provide common experiences and process.

We then broke into groups and discussed how different Thinking Maps can be used in our specific subject area. In my group, we all have used these graphic organizers (although some more than other.) Mr. Perez plans to use the Double Bubble to examine the Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Mr. Peralta discussed how he will use the Flow Map for storyboarding and the Bubble Map for brainstorming events for student autobiographies. I (Ms. Nakada) plan to use the Flow Map for students to sequence the steps in the research process.

The fire alarm went off. Then it stopped.

Ms. Parker mentioned the value of additional graphic organizers and Ms. Marcial noted that you can still use other organizers but these Thinking Maps are emphasized in elementary and these provide common experiences.

Ms. Schooler encouraged us to use a Thinking Maps for our next CFA and to leave comments on the blog. Woo hoo!!!

Mr. Watson welcomed everyone back and wished everyone a happy New Year. He reminded us that the CFA work is reflective of what was discussed before the break.

We then moved into departments to continue Thinking Map and CFA discussions. In English we talked about Flow Map working to summarize the research process and then using the tree map for response to literature essays.

After department meetings, we came back to check in with Mr. Watson and were done for the day.