Updated EC-5 Meeting Dates

Just a reminder for all EC-5 staff of a few meetings coming up in the last two weeks of this month:

September 19th 4:00 at HMS Project KC Coordinators
September 20th 1:00 at HMS EC-4 Initatives Meeting
September 20th 4:15 at HMS School Day Research Team
September 21st 8:05 at KMS First Grade Writing PD
September 22nd 8:05 at KMS Second Grade Writing PD
September 22nd 8:05 at KMS Instructional Coaching Meeting
September 25th 8:05 at KMS Third Grade Writing PD
September 25th 4:15 at HMS 7th team room Teacher Initatives Council
September 26th 8:05 at KMS Fourth Grade Writing PD
September 27th 8:05 at KMS Fifth Grade Writing PD
September 25-30th HOMECOMING WEEK!

NOTE:  HMS- Harter Middle School and KMS- Meredith School

IEIN Number Needed for all Professional Development

Due to new legislation, there is requirement that at all staff development opportunities you will need to sign in with your IEIN number.  For any district or regional entity to award clock hour credits, the sign in must include your IEIN.  Please make sure you familiarize yourself with your number and note it in a convenient place to access while attending conference, SIP days, and Institute days.  We want to make sure you get your clock hours as quickly as possible and this will expedite the process.  

Cooperating Teachers to Host a PDS Needed

It is that time again to begin planning for the PDS process for K-5th grades for Spring 2018 (clinical) and Fall 2018 (student teaching).  We will begin to interview and screen possible candidates this October.  There is a large interest in coming to Kaneland, kudos to all of you!  We may have up to 20 PDS interested in our schools.  Please contact Sarah Mumm at 10358@kaneland.org if you are interested in hosting.  It really can assist in delivering smaller group and personalized instruction.  

Summary of 6-12 AAC-OC on 9/11

The 6-12 AAC-OC group met on Monday, 9/11.  AAC-OC is charged with looking at academic and operational activities 6-12 and considering them through an alignment lens as well as what is best for our students.  We will be doing more to promote our group and ensure we are working to meet our goal in the future, but for now we wanted to ask if there were any more 6-8 teachers interested in joining us for our meetings.  If so, please contact Mike or Brian for more details!

Below are some brief highlights from our first meeting.

• We set our meeting dates for the year
• We established our norms and reviewed the Decision Making Continuum
• We looked at our current membership and are hoping to gain some more members from the Middle School Level.
• We discussed our plan of work for the year.  Currently we know we will focus on planning vertical articulation days and considering the implementation of the Learner Profile.  We will also discuss curriculum changes as they come up and review feedback from in-service days.  We discussed several other options, as well, and will be seeking input regarding what we might examine moving forward.
• Our next meeting will focus on finalizing vertical articulation plans and establishing a mission statement and more concrete plan of work to share with the staff at large.

Joint Statement from Teacher Advisory Council

Today the Teacher Advisory Council met for their monthly meeting.  The topics that were discussed are noted below.  Please get to know your TAC rep this month.  

• The structure for the meeting was discussed.  The dates, times, and chair positions were approved.  There is a need for a few more seats to be filled. Open seats include:  primary and exploratory seats.  The council would love to have more reps from KME.
• The goals for the year were brainstormed.  Please review the following initial list and share thoughts and ideas for approval in October:
• System of recognition for students exemplifying core values --- (December)
• Makerspace planning and implementation --- (October )
• Green screen usage and new technology infusion-- Inter school competition “The Oscars” ---  (October and April)
• Ongoing review of Social science curriculum planning--- (November and January)
• Trimester discussion and calendar structures --- (September, October, and February)
• Proficiency-based assessment in personalized learning? --- (January)
• Using the Honeycomb model as a guide and continuing conversation about starting in the middle and working out --- (January)
• Learning continuum...legacy to personalized --- (January)
• A brief discussion of trimesters was held.   TAC will be collecting data in the following areas to progress this conversation next month:  achievement data research, community con questions, conference structure ideas, and stakeholder feedback from staff.

See you all on October 16th!

EC-5 Initiatives Meeting

Next Wednesday from 1:00-3:00 at Harter Middle School, we will host the annual fall initiatives meeting.  If you are participating in this meeting, please be sure to enter your sub for that afternoon.  The PDSA dashboard has been revised for 2017-18 and sent to KEA Leadership and Administration.  Please take a moment to review the updated goals and indicators of the PDSA process.  We look forward to a wonderful, collaborative session next week.