| SDCO Newsletter |
No.
2, January 2006
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| Happy
New Year 2006 SDCO! What about the quality of YOUR 2006 large-crowd in-service day? |
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| Dr. Teresa Dempsey, SDCO President | |
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The first part of success is Get-to-it-iveness;
I certainly hope you had a warm and happy holiday with your family and friends. Welcome to our 2006 SDCO Winter Newsletter. Once again you can expect to see quality contributions from educators across Ohio on best practices in professional development. We always welcome contributions. Feel free to contact Editor Larry Pfrogner (lpfrog@ashland.edu) if you want to show off your district's good work! SDCO is certainly looking towards this New Year with excitement as we eagerly anticipate Tom Guskey's visit with us on Feb. 1, 2006! In the spirit of promoting SDCO's goal of high quality professional development for advancing student achievement, we have pledged to use Dr. Guskey's session as a kick-off to study standards-based assessment and grading with attending educators and districts throughout the remaining school year. Beginning an initiative is relatively easy; the complexity arises in sustaining it. SDCO hopes that our attempts in supporting this as a year-long effort will result in greater pay-offs than for those attending a traditional day-long workshop or conference. For those of you who attended the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) Annual Conference, I hope you enjoyed the conference and had an opportunity to attend the Ohio Reception sponsored by Charthouse Learning. A special thank-you to fellow SDCO Board Members, Sharon Jones and Michelle Kennedy, for making this a very special and fabulously fun reception! If you didn't have a chance to attend this year, mark your calendars for next year's national conference Dec. 2-6, 2006 in Nashville. And why not consider presenting at the national conference next year? As a past presenter, I can assure you that it is one of the best professional learning experiences you can have. Ohio educators have so much to offer! Proposals are due Feb. 9, 2006 and can be found at www.nsdc.org/conference06/proposals/. |
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| Bring
Your District Team to Work Face-To-Face With Tom Guskey |
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Dr. Guskey will be here personally for the February session in Columbus, with the April and June meetings planned as SDCO facilitated group sessions for follow-up, networking and individual team work. Contact Amy Dunson at 614.542.4117 or dunson@fcesc.org for more information. |
| Cincinnati's Lincoln Heights ES Joins NSDC's "12 Under 12" Network | |
| Tyrone Olverson, Principal | |
On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act. One of the principle goals of the Act is to hold districts and states accountable for "closing the achievement gap between high-and low-performing children." By 2014, all students must meet or exceed the states' proficient level of academic achievement. States cannot achieve this goal without individual schools making it a priority. The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) believes that 12 years is too long for low-achieving children to wait to perform at the proficient level, and that schools should pursue high quality staff development as a key strategy for eliminating the achievement gap. As a result, NSDC searched for 12 schools committed to raising performance for ALL students in under 12 years. Joining the network is Ohio's own Lincoln Heights Elementary School. In this and our remaining SDCO Newsletter editions, Principal Tyrone Olverson will report on Lincoln Heights' progress. |
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| Wellness is Professional Growth Too! | ||
Don't forget that there's more to your professional growth program than traditional academics. Here's a clever way of getting a nutritional message out to your colleagues. Fast food is cheap and convenient, but it's easy to gain weight if you eat out often. A meal of a sandwich, fries, and soda -- especially if they're super-sized -- can add up to more than a full day's allowance of calories and fat for most people! To find out your daily calorie needs, click here. If you frequently eat at fast-food restaurants, it's a good idea to look up the nutrition information for your favorite foods on the company's Web site. In general, if a serving has less than 5 percent of the daily value of a nutrient (such as fat or protein), it's considered low in that nutrient; 20 percent or more is considered high. Try this fun, interactive tool to find out more about common fast food items -- you may be surprised! |
| Where is Vince Lombardi When You Need Him? | |
| Melva Grant, Project GRAD Math Consultant | |
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| Teacher Leadership Led By Teachers | |
| Sherri Houghton, SDCO President Elect | |
During
the NSDC Summer Conference 2005, a group of teachers from South-Western
City Schools presented a 3 hour session titled, Teachers Leadership
Led By Teachers. This session was based on what the presenters
had learned since the South-Western Education Association began
offering a 15 hour Teacher Leadership Development Course. This
course is taught by a cadre of teachers and has become a prerequisite
for several district positions. During the conference participants
learned about how teacher leadership can impact a district and
developed ideas about what they could start doing in their district
to encourage teacher leadership. |
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| North Ridgeville's Universal Design for Learning | |
| Larry Bowersox,
Superintendent |
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North Ridgeville City Schools has been participating in a project titled "The Universal Design for Learning (UDL)" since April 2002. The UDL approach to teaching and learning helps teachers design the instructional delivery of curriculum to meet the needs of the wide range of learner differences. UDL provides multiple and flexible methods of instruction as well as a variety of alternative assessments to evaluate student learning. Our commitment to UDL promotes a varied and better approach to teaching and learning and it has helped the district to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind and other state and federal mandates. UDL professional development sessions included national speaker, SFC Dana Bowman, a double amputee who spoke on "No Limits! Removing Barriers to Student Success" This presentation focused on the role of teachers in helping ALL students achieve. |
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| Try This at Your Next Professional Development Session | |
| Larry Pfrogner, Newsletter
Editor |
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Here's an alternative to using MapQuest.com for giving driving directions to your next professional development session. This site, of course, gives you helpful driving directions too. However, the most unique features are the three-dimensional panning capability (just like TV weather reports!) and the point and draw option for finding address locations in cities and towns across North America. It's pretty amazing FREE technology! |
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| SDCO President Honored | |
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| Educational Leaders Select 2005 Book of the Year | |
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Thousands of leaders attending the 37th National Staff Development Council (NSDC) Annual Conference honored Alan M. Blankstein as the author of the 2005 Book of the Year, Failure Is Not an Option: Six Principles that Guide Student Achievement in High Performing Schools. "The fact that practitioners made this selection speaks highly of the value they perceive it has for schools and school system leaders," said NSDC Executive Director, Dennis Sparks. The organization's President, Deborah Childs Bowen, added, "Failure Is Not an Option does an extraordinary job of translating research into practice. It is imminently practical." |
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SDCO
Showcase Article |
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But I have some good news for you (no, it’s not about my new Geico insurance), there remains optimism on the professional development front. We do know what works. It’s documented daily in classrooms and school buildings just like yours. One of
Jim Beshalske, Classroom Teacher Each was asked to write independently with no collaboration and to submit the finished essay prior to publication of the first October newsletter. Through our four SDCO newsletter publications this year we will share with you what professional development looks like from “perspectives across the profession.” |
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| Need
More Information on the Staff Development Council of Who are the board members? |
| Extensions of the
above newsletter articles. |
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| Another large-crowd in-service day talk | ||
| Dr. Teresa Dempsey, SDCO President |
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For this Issue's Courageous Conversations, I share with you a piece that was written by Dr. Grant Wiggins. Many of you may know him from his work on Understanding by Design. The message in this piece however, is not relative to his content expertise, instead it is a message to anyone bringing another in-service or workshop to their school or district on ANY topic. Wiggins' piece conveys a powerful message. Many of us in the role of professional development get so caught-up in the idea of bringing in a consultant that in introducing the consultant, they spend more time memorizing the consultant's resume and accomplishments to read aloud to the audience than they do communicating with the group WHY the consultant is there and then WHAT is going to happen as a result. Although I am nowhere on the level of a Grant Wiggins, it is inevitable that half-way through a workshop I'm conducting that someone may meekly (sometimes not so meekly!) raise a hand and ask "What are the expectations…Why are we here…What's next???" I (or whoever the presenter is) can't answer that question. So I look around - sometimes the curriculum director/principal or administrator that planned the event is there - and sometimes not! What happens then? The point is that there is little to no professional learning occurring because participants are blinded or angered by the fact that they don't know WHY they are there. Trust me, it frustrates presenters, too! My belief is that this does not occur maliciously. It just may be overlooked as something that it is on a "need-to-know-basis" perhaps? Stephen Covey reminds us that "to begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you are going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction." Learning on any level, exponentially increases when learners have clear purpose and direction. Excerpt from Vol. 1 Issue 1 of Big Ideas: Exploring the Essential Questions of Education, Online Journal - www.bigideas.org.
Well, her remarks were more reassuring: she spoke confidently about what I would say and why it was worth listening to. By contrast, I am so often introduced by someone who merely reads my bio statement. She, however, told folks about UbD, and what they could expect. "He'll talk to you about the six facets of understanding, he'll challenge your thinking about how to plan, he'll speak of the importance of and the need to use more performance assessment," etc. As clear and helpful as this administrator's opening remarks were, however, she still did not give the 800 people there a good reason why I was invited to this district at this point in time. What makes these forced-march in-service days so ultimately unappealing is not the size of the audience nor the challenge of the environment. It's the lack of any apparent plan in the district which my contribution is meant to serve. What I would love to hear is something more like this: "As you know, for the past few years we have committed ourselves to improving the performance of students on higher-order challenges. That's why we have brought Grant Wiggins here today: he can assist us with the issues we have collectively identified as critical…." In other words, I am here to help you do your work, not merely to talk about mine (and thus just another flavor-of-the-month speaker), where there is an explicit overarching plan and context into which my visit naturally fits.As it turned out, the audience was generally polite and attentive, and a number of folks wanted to chat afterwards. But I wish school leaders would do a better job of making all professional development activity appear to be an obvious response to a consensus analysis of what needs doing. Or, at the very least, could you please make clear how the three ongoing initiatives (e.g. mapping, differentiated instruction, UbD) relate to one another, and how my presence supports the explicit overarching goal that makes those three an obvious fit? Your staff will thank you and your consultants will serve you better. |
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| Cincinnati's Lincoln Heights ES Joins NSDC's "12 Under 12" Network | ||
| Tyrone Olverson, Principal | ||
When Lincoln Elementary, an African American low socioeconomic school applied to participate in 12 Under 12, it submitted a "commitment form" that pledged to follow certain expected practices. They have a "critical friend" who will informally access whether and to what extent the school is living up to these commitments.
Eight Cylinder Reform: To a muscle car enthusiast there is nothing quite like the sound and power of a well tuned high performance V-8 engine hitting on all cylinders. Conversely, to the professional educator there is nothing quiet like the aurora of an educational program hitting on all cylinders, a program where all children are leaning. This concept was the original analogy behind The Eight Cylinder Reform Program at Lincoln Heights…a school improvement program based on eight tenets that when working efficiently in tandem produces accelerated achievement especially in schools with a high percentage of at-risk students. In our next two issues (March and May 2006) Principal Tyrone Olverson will update you on the progress of these eight tenets: 1) Develop and adopt CIP (Focus) 2) Prioritize Curriculum (Schedule) 3) Schedule Schoolwide Intervention 4) Grade level intervention plan 5) Create intervention notebook 6) Create a new majority (Collaborate) 7) Implement year long program
(Adopt / Make Change) 8) Measure Results (Reflective) |
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| Melva Grant, Project GRAD Math Consultant |
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Coaching has been touted as the new frontier for teacher professional development capable of accomplishing real change within the classroom. Anyone involved with facilitating change understands that changing a teacher's classroom is a very complex proposition. Even so, I believe that coaching may be a viable option for schools in search of changing instructional practice and that recognize change will most likely occur one teacher at a time. Coaching has many definitions and configurations based upon different methodologies. My coaching philosophy has been built upon the foundation espoused by West and Staub (2003) that focuses on student understanding. In this content-focused coaching model, the coach is not the expert and nor is the teacher a subordinate, but coach and teacher are peers who work collaboratively to increase each other's content-pedagogical knowledge (West & Staub, 2003). This peer relationship relinquishes the coach from the responsibility of identifying what the teacher is doing right or wrong and places the coach's attention on the result, student understanding. The teacher is freed from being scrutinized by the coach and can focus on teaching children with a renewed focus on the result, student understanding. Change will begin when the teacher recognizes that he or she is not effectively helping children to learn. Once this happens, the coach and teacher can work collaboratively to determine what instructional changes are needed to increase the student's understanding. In this model of coaching, the teacher has the final say about what happens in the classroom.
It has been my experience that helping coaches to reach this level of support is not easy. Many coaches enter coaching because they believe or are perceived to be master teachers. Some school leaders believe that the role of the coach is to go into the classroom as the expert and tell, show, or otherwise communicate how to be an effective teacher. The result of this type of coaching is that coaches believe that their role is to create clones of themselves. One problem with this approach is that most teachers do not want to be someone else; in fact, most teachers do not see the need to change at all. Attempting to train a coach to be an expert is a far greater task than training a coach to position themselves as a peer and a fellow learner. An expert coach may appear to a teacher as a supervisor, which may lead to union issues or strong resistance from teachers. A peer, on the other hand, is more likely to find acceptance among the teaching staff within the building. New coaches who are trained in building strong peer relationships, understanding change, and developing strong content-pedagogical knowledge will be well prepared to begin the transition from teacher to coach. From my experience, this transition may take in excess of an entire school year before seeing significant changes in multiple classrooms as a result of coaching. Selecting coaches can be challenging. The question about whether to select a teacher from within the school versus bringing in a coach from the outside should be considered before selecting a building coach. I have seen positives and negatives for both scenarios. A positive about selecting a coach from within the building is that the person has relationships; however, this may also be a negative. Will the new coach focus on his or her friends and neglect teachers who they do not know? Will friends freely admit to their coach that they need help? A coach who has not taught in the building will have to develop relationships before the real work can begin. What if the new coach does not fit into the existing building culture? Sometimes selecting the coach is not left to the building leadership. Independent of who is selected, one thing that I have observed is that the building leadership has the ability to establish a rich coaching environment by setting expectations for teachers' learning. Additionally, principals should see the building coach as an added resource for them to learn more about content and pedagogy. Coaches typically have access to regular professional development that building personnel do not, so their knowledge and skills should be shared freely during staff meetings. Principals who do not take time to meet regularly with their building coaches may not benefit from all aspects of coaching. I am not an advocate of coach as snitch; however, coaches may have suggestions about staff development topics or comments that would positively support the school leadership.
Finally, coaching is a form of professional development and there are many different models for implementation. Whichever model you select to improve instructional practice within your environment be sure to remember that change affects teachers. Teachers are people and each will change at different rates based upon their readiness for and understanding about the change. Teachers are adults who have differing levels of expertise and coaches must respect and value their contributions if they want to facilitate change. We all must work together to positively impact students and garner increased academic achievement. References West, L., & Staub, F. C. (2003). Content-focused coaching: Transforming mathematics lessons. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. |
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| Sherri Houghton, SDCO President Elect |
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During the NSDC Summer Conference 2005, a group of teachers from South-Western City Schools presented a 3 hour session titled, Teachers Leadership Led By Teachers. This session was based on what the presenters had learned during the last 15 years since the South-Western Education Association began offering a 15 hour Teacher Leadership Development Course. This course is taught by a cadre of teachers and has become a prerequisite for several district positions. During the 3 hour session participants learned about how teacher leadership can impact a district and developed ideas about what they could start doing in their district to encourage teacher leadership. In 1989 a group of teachers from South-Western City Schools participated in a course about Teacher Leadership taught by Nancy Zimpher and Ken Howey from the Ohio State University. After this class some of the participants worked with Dr. Zimpher and Dr. Howey to develop a course that could be offered to SWCS teachers by SWCS teachers. This course has been very popular and is now offered twice a year. There is a cadre of trainers (all teachers) who plan and deliver this course and train additional trainers. The cost for this course is paid by the teachers association, South-Western Education Association. The course includes information about what leadership is, group process skills, supervision and observation skills, school culture, and other skills. This course has impacted many things in SWCS during the last 15 years. It has become a pre-requisite for several positions including becoming a teacher leader at the intermediate and middle school and becoming a mentor for a new entry year teacher. The number of teachers serving on special assignment has increased as a result of the quality of the teacher leaders during the years since this program started. The three hour presentation at the NSDC Summer Conference included information about the journey SWCS teachers have been on in their efforts to encourage and develop teacher leaders. The Teacher Leadership Development Course was the driving force for the journey, but presenters offered other strategies that districts/sites could take back to encourage teacher leadership in their home districts. One of the outcomes was for each participant to return home with at least a beginning of an outline of an action plan on how to start immediately to encourage teacher leadership. The South-Western teachers where lead by Sherri Houghton. If you are interested in more information about this session or would be interested in hosting this session in your area contact Sherri at sherri_houghton@earthlink.net. |
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| North Ridgeville's Universal Design for Learning | |||||||||||||
| Larry Bowersox, Superintendent | |||||||||||||
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North Ridgeville City Schools has been participating in a project titled "The Universal Design for Learning (UDL)" since April 2002. The UDL approach to teaching and learning helps teachers design the instructional delivery of curriculum to meet the needs of the wide range of learner differences. UDL provides multiple and flexible methods of instruction as well as a variety of alternative assessments to evaluate student learning. Our commitment to UDL promotes a varied and better approach to teaching and learning and it has helped the district to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind and other state and federal mandates. North Ridgeville was the first district
in the state of Ohio to implement UDL in every building. Applying
UDL in the classroom requires teachers to understand the three
brain networks- recognition, strategic, and affective. UDL lessons
are designed to maximize learning in each of these networks through
the use of new media technology, which make all curricular material
more accessible. Recognition Network: Support
diverse abilities to recognize and identify patterns in content. Strategic Network: Support
diverse strategies for processing and applying learning. Affective Networks: Support
increased student engagement and interest in learning. In North Ridgeville City Schools we enhance our curriculum through the increased use of technology and media format. Digital media is the most adaptable and allows instructional and student flexibility in access. The following paragraphs illustrate technologies that North Ridgeville has begun to utilize in this pursuit of UDL. SmartBoards are interactive white boards that project a computerized image and support communication with a simple touch. This visual image allows teachers flexible, engaging, and stimulating ways to present learning content. SmartBoards allow interactive and motivating ways for students to learn.
Interactive Video Distance Learning (IVDL) provides access to people, events, and unique content (including field trips) without leaving the classroom. Examples of IVDL student experiences included: • Networking with NASA. A live interactive video hook-up allowed middle school students to collaborate with an engineer to survive a simulated disaster called Operation Montserrat and E-mission in partnership with NASA. Parents could also observe the entire event in a remote video feed in the school's library. • Courses shared among schools. North Ridgeville High School staff shared lVDL lessons on Shakespeare, creative writing and business with high schools in Columbiana County, Wellington, and Firelands. • Networking.
Primary students partnered weekly with neighboring classrooms
in Avon and Sheffield Lake on special projects including Email
buddies for writing practice. Teachers collaborated to prepare
lessons and virtual field trips via distance learning to widen
students' environment and experiences beyond the classroom without
the additional cost and inconvenience of field trips. Digitized Text: Textbooks, reading books, and other printed materials are the resources teachers have historically depended on for teaching academic content. With new media technology this printed material can be digitized to make the content more flexible and accessible to both learners and teachers. As North Ridgeville Schools purchase new resources digitized materials are now a priority in choosing vendors. Web Based Instruction: Web Based programs have also become important in preparing our students for their future. The Internet contains almost unlimited resources for teacher and student use. Additional resources such as: Study Island, Book Adventure.com, United Video Streaming, Starfall, and even local web sites designed by teachers allow students unlimited technology support for learning at school or at home.
Instructional Software: Various software applications allow students multiple ways to represent concepts; strategically make generalizations about content; and engage in understanding concepts. Software applications such as Inspiration Kidspiration, Wiggleworks, Accelerated Reader, Earobics, SmartNotebook, eReader, The Graph Club, and Premier Assistive Technologies to provide our students the best possible access to the general curriculum. In order to support the above initiatives, there needs to be the necessary funding. With a continuation of $1.2 million Cost Reduction Plan in place, our district was faced with the challenge of providing resources on a lean budget. The staff and administrators at each of the seven buildings are committed to providing the children in North Ridgeville with the opportunities they deserve. In 2004-05, a total of $237,874.56 was awarded through competitive grants from the Ohio Department of Education and local foundations that directly contributed to the success of our children. As stated by Donna Palley, a Special Education Coordinator in New Hampshire, "The concept of UDL is the intersection where all our initiatives-integrated units, multi-sensory teaching, multiple intelligences, differentiated instruction, use of computers in schools, performance-based assessment, and others come together. "And we would add, "to benefit the learning of all children." |
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SDCO Showcase Article |
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Sue Showers is the Director of Small Schools for the West Clermont Local School District. Sue was interviewed in October 2005 concerning her personal views on effective professional development. As described in the introductory section of our showcase article, Sue had not seen the reactions to these identical questions…given to Dr. Gary Brooks, her district's superintendent. Dr. Brook's comments are summarized at the conclusion of this article, but were published in detail in our SDCO Fall 2005 newsletter. In our March and May editions you will read Assistant Principal Michele Kennedy's responses and those also of Classroom teacher, Jim Beshalske. Part I…Describe the BEST professional development experience that you ever had as a participant. The best professional development that I have experienced took place over a two-year period. I was part of the NSDC Academy 2 for staff developers. During that time I carried home many binders of good resource material from workshops, interacted with some terrific presenters, built a network of colleagues from around the country and had the support of a mentor. Part II…Listed below are the NSDC Standards for Staff Development. Rank your top 5 with number 1 being the one that you feel is the most important in your opinion. For each of the five that you select, describe why you selected/ranked it. Staff development that improves the learning of all students: 1. Uses disaggregated student data to determine adult learning priorities, monitor progress, and help sustain continuous improvement. PD can no
longer be the flavor of the day. If we are to make improvements
in student learning we must use data to determine what adults
should focus their learning on. Disaggregating student data helps
to guide those decisions. Once the professional development is
in place it is critical to monitor progress because what gets
measured usually has a high priority. With district budget cuts,
being able to supply data that validates the effectiveness of
the learning will hopefully payoff in sustained funds for PD.
Another use of data would be at the classroom level when teachers
look at student work and analyze it to improve their practice. 2. Requires skillful school and district
leaders who guide continuous instructional improvement. Professional development requires a leadership commitment at both the district and school level. The district must allocate the resources to support meaningful professional development along with coaching of principals and teachers who are initiating and implementing the adult learning. The district must also provide the leadership to help keep the focus on the goals of the PD. It is imperative that leaders take the long view and realize that adults need coaching, practice and reflective opportunities. 3. Organizes adults into learning
communities whose goals are aligned with those of the school and
district. Professional development that is embedded is powerful for teachers and administrators. Many authors, such as, Du Four, Lambert, McLaughlin all point to the power of educators working together to take ownership of students and their learning. Educators must be assisted in developing the skills necessary for collaborative work and for deprivatizing their practice. As schools build learning communities it offers an added benefit of building internal capacity to guide adult learning. 4. Prepares educators to understand and appreciate all students, create safe, orderly and supportive learning environments, and hold high expectations for their academic achievement. Knowing our students and building relationships with them is a powerful tool to increase student learning in West Clermont. We are focused on the new 3R's -rigor, relevance and relationships. When we know our students well we are able to provide them differentiated learning opportunities and have high expectations for them. Just as we provide a supportive environment for students I try to provide that same opportunity for our staff as they engage in new learning. 5. Deepens educators' content knowledge, provides them with research-based instructional strategies to assist students in meeting rigorous academic standards, and prepares them to use various types of classroom assessments appropriately. Many teachers at the high school level are content experts. We continue to work on content through standards alignment and assessment. At the high school level teachers need lots of support with instructional strategies that lead to rigorous work. Part III…NSDC's current goal is that "All teachers in all schools will experience high-quality professional learning as part of their daily work by 2007." What would you recommend to others in your professional role to make this goal a reality? As the director of a high school reinvention/small schools project it is my responsibility to help all adults understand the importance of continuing to learn throughout their career. Teachers must be given opportunities to participate in PD that is based on their student data and is aligned with district and building goals. Adults like to walk away with strategies and tools that they can apply to their practice. In my role it is important to expose teachers and administrators to lots of learning opportunities. I hope my legacy will be that I grew a lot of leaders, both teachers and administrators that are able to provide the conditions for all students to be high performers! Part IV…Closing personal commentary. Include anything here that you would like to express, but didn't get an opportunity to do in one of the earlier sections. I captured it in the above - especially my closing sentence. Let's "Keep Score" Our Showcase Article is entitled "Perspectives Across the Profession." So how similar/different are these perspectives? Is effective professional development from a superintendent's perspective identical to how other central office directors, building level principals and classroom teachers see it? As we progress through West Clermont's staff responses, it should be interesting to compare. Listed below are NSDC's 12 Standards for Professional Development and how each West Clermont staff member views them…when asked to pick their TOP 5? Might be interesting for you to participate too. The last column is available for your own ranking of your TOP 5!
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