3/24/2010 Meeting Minutes

3/24/2010 Action Team Meeting MinutesPresentation of Research Information
Attendance was taken at the beginning of the meeting. Committee watched "Did You Know?" Youtube video to get inspired and motivated :-) Group 1, Professional Development, presented first.
Professional Development:Professional development needs to go beyond training and rather into more implications of learning skills, developing skills, applications in the classroom, practicality, and growth with campus future objectives. Some ideas researched are:-move away from past models of professional development (where it took place only on in-service days, weekends, or during the summer) to new models that embed professional development into daily lives of teachers.-restructure teschers' work to create the mental space necessary for ongoing professional development.-assess how current professional development resources are being used and design strategies for seccuring additional resources as needed or for reallocating them.-Develop strategies for informing and convincing the public and policymakers that professional development not only is critical but also is as much a part of teachers' work as instruction.Group 1 suggested Ruby Payne as a diversity expert whose ideas would be beneficial to oiur campus.Their research determined that although bringing a professional trainer or company in for staff development would be ideal, it may not be feasible. There are many reliable resources and texts that could be utilized as staff book studies.Further consideration: Other than book studies, how can we make professional development more meaningful and powerful for us? What do we need in way of professional development? On what should the goals of the PD at Slaughter be focused?
The technology group presented next. Though they presented action plan ideas based on the research they did, there were some great ideas suggested:Group 2: TechnologyLaptops: more per grade level per studentGrant writingSuccess Maker by PearsonCompass LearningMandatory Computer class (specials?)www.especialneeds.com/special-needs-software.html for special education programs-Pearson Longman English Language TeachingFurther consideration: These are wonderful software suggestions, however, are there things we currently use or have subscriptions of on campus that could be eliminated or used more effectively? Are any of these suggested programs significantly more effective in reaching our campus goals than another? How can we use 21st century technology and continue with the times in our classrooms? What activities and use of technology could we use to enhance the learning for our students? How can we get our students more involved in the technology available to them currently?
The Global Curriculum Group presented last.Group 3: Global CurriculumEric Jensen's book Arts with the Brain in Mind and Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind were books that were highly suggested as reads for this topic. Essentially, this group's research found that as we move into new territory with our way of thinking and teaching, the "old way" just seems to fall short. Basing a curriculum around the arts, multiage classrooms, and inquiry-based teaching is a successful and strong way to bring Slaughter to the forefront. THe Waldorf School is an excellent model to demonstrate this pedegogy. Another suggestion is to incorporate or offer an extracurricular activity program that offers our students who typically would not find themselves with the opportunity to join team sports or clubs to do so. This would involve the community and parents and thus bring a sense of unity to the campus.
Further Consideration: What would this look like? Since this is radically different from what we currently do, how can we implement these ideas over the next 3 years? Could we get some more information or contact someone from the Waldorf School for more in depth information? Are there other opportunities for this kind of thinking and teaching that were not presented but would be benefical to our campus?
Homework: Think about the research presented, do a little more if you need to get a better idea of what was presented, and think of 5 GENERAL activities that we could present as an action plan to implement our passions based on the research presented. Bring those to the next meeting so we can begin writing our plans! We are almost finished everyone! I am proud of our team. This next meeting is going to be a lengthy one and we may want to do a lot of our "writing" on this blog and come together to finalize next meeting...we will discuss this later.
Thank you all for all you are doing. Your hard work, passion, and dedication to this charge is going to truly revolutionize our campus for the best for our kids.
A job well done, EVERYONE!
Joli