Staff Development Council of Ohio

July 2008

sharon President’s Message:
Sharon Jones SDCO President
2007-2008 Farewell
By Sharon Jones
SDCO President

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate,” suggests Oprah Winfrey, and I think the quote is quite applicable to education. As you reflect upon the past year, what is worth celebrating? Are you using Joellen Killion’s The Learning Educator to direct your professional learning? Have you begun to focus your attention on the implementation of the principles? “If professional development decision makers accept the principles, then their decisions and actions will contribute positively to ensure that professional learning will improve leading, teaching and learning,” Hirsch and Killion report. That said, we know what we have to do, and we should celebrate even our smallest steps in getting there.

SDCO Introduces Michelle Kennedy
as SDCO President for 2008-2009

Michelle Kennedy has been a member of NSDC since 2002 and an executive board member of SDCO since 2005. She has been in education for 21 years as a high school mathematics teacher, assistant principal, and curriculum supervisor for West Clermont Local Schools.

Kennedy has presented at national, state, and local conventions and was a teacher leader/department chairperson. She currently represents the district on the Planning Committee for the HIGH AIMS consortium and was elected chairperson for this year.

New President Welcome
By Michelle Kennedy

michelle Welcome to the Staff Development Council of Ohio’s (SDCO’s) newsletter; especially the “new” visitors to our website. The Council looks forward to serving and informing you through professional learning opportunities and experiences. As incoming president, I would like to thank Sharon Jones for her leadership and vision this past year. As an affiliate, we have grown as professional learners through our book study, commitment to service, and follow-up work with teams from our annual conference. As our journey continues over the next year and years to come, please join us in “the new era of professional learning.”

SDCO Board Update
By Rita Glavin

Rita

The SDCO Board met in April. Board members reviewed the evaluations from the January Conference, A New Era in Professional Development, which featured JoellenKillion’s new book, The Learning Educator. The evaluations indicated that participants found the conference to be informative and energizing.

Update from the Ohio Department of Education: Ohio’s State Personnel Development Grant
By Judith Monseur, Ph.D.
Educational Consultant, Ohio Department of Education, Office of Educator Quality

Judith The State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG) is a $9.5 million five-year, federally funded grant designed to promote district-wide improvement of instructional practice and performance of all students through the development of effective leadership team structures (e.g., district leadership team). The grant is being used to test the Ohio Improvement Process (OIP) and is using the work of the Ohio Leadership Advisory Council (OLAC) as a foundation for professional development in essential leadership practices. At the same time, the SPDG is being used to help develop a consistent, coherent process for regional providers across Ohio’s 16 Educational Regional Service System regions to use in working with district teams.

Ohio Middle Grades Schools Recognized for Best Practices
By Deb Tully

deb Ever feel as though your middle school does not get the recognition it deserves? The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform is dedicated to improving the education of all young adolescents and recognizing middle grades schools that are in a state of improving the lives of students. The Forum is a small, distinguished group of educators, researchers, state and regional school leaders, and representatives of national education associations and foundations that came together in 1997 to focus on improving education for students in the middle grades. Through regional forums, national meetings, ongoing networking, and public communications, members of the National Forum promote their collective vision of effective schools for young adolescents. The National Middle Schools Association, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Association of Elementary School Principals, and the National Staff Development Council, along with seventeen partner states in the State Schools to Watch effort are all active members of the National Forum.

Southwest Ohio Follow-up: A New Era in Professional Learning
By Michelle Kennedy

michelle In southwest Ohio, fifteen educators met in June at Holmes Elementary in the Deer Park community to continue the conversation on The Learning Educator by Stephanie Hirsh and JoellenKillion. Newly formed in March, this team of K – 12 teachers and administrators used the principles to work collaboratively in order to create a vision and plan for professional learning through the next academic school year.

Southeast Ohio Follow-up: A new Era in Professional Learning
By Kellie Hayden

hayden Logan-Hocking Middle School Professional Learning Committee continues to use The Learning Educator by Stephanie Hirsh and Joellen Killion in working collaboratively with staff and administrators. After completing surveys to improve professional learning at the middle school, the committee is planning workshops on Differentiation.

book Book Review: The Strategic Teacher by Silver, Strong, and Perini
By Latasha Turner
Assistant Principal, Columbus City Schools

The Strategic Teacher is an excellent research-based resource. It is filled with numerous strategies to help teachers meet instructional goals and extend student learning and comprehension.

Try This: Idea for Your Next Professional Learning Session
By Larry Pfrogner

learners Strong professional learning needs to include opportunities for collegiality and sharing. It’s unlikely you’ll get through any “training” session today without either the presenter having everyone introduce themselves or at least once saying, “OK, turn to your neighbor and talk about…” Here’s a suggestion on how to do both…and more!

Very early on in the session, break up into teams of 2-4 and have the groups solve the following questions. Work on as many as time allows. The questions are simple/not so simple brain twisters that create unique opportunities for discussion. From this experience, team members can’t help but learn how their other team members think and look at the world. Once finished, along with getting the answers, have team members introduce each other and include something that they learned about their team member from the discussion.

Click here for the questions and answers

Wellness is Professional Learning Too…Rate Your M.D.
By Larry Pfrogner

doctor For most of us, it’s hard to know where to begin when looking for a good doctor. A free online tool may help. Click on the link below to visit a website that lists the credentials of more than 720,000 doctors, including their medical school and its ranking, years of experience, number of procedures performed, the type of insurance they take, board certification and awards. After you finish assigning final grades for your students, check out how your doctor measures up. Maybe even look for a new one?

www.vitals.com

Yes to T.O.P. -- No to I.S.S.
By Teresa Fitch
Paraprofessional Educator, Reynoldsburg City Schools

Reynoldsburg Junior High School had a discipline program called T.O.P (Time-out Program), during the 2005-2006 school year. However, it was actually run like I.S.S. (In-school Suspension). In 2006-2007, the administrators made changes to the program, which has been a huge improvement.

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