Ideas on Your Professional Growth

Sarah and I met today with Dr. Terry Borg and Dr. Kay Caster who oversee the External and Global Programs at NIU. Essentially they are in charge of creating and offering cohorts for teachers in a variety of different areas. Some of these are pre-determined routes but many have the ability to be customized to our district based on interest. There are several opportunities for online courses and graduate studies available to you. We have a tremendous partnership with Northern Illinois University, a respected institution that offers our district tuition waivers and the ability to customize your learning and professional growth. We would love to continue to support NIU based on the high-quality levels of courses offered.

If you are interested in pursuing professional growth at the graduate level please email Sarah and me what areas you would be interested in. Topics might include an ESL endorsement, teacher leadership courses, social justice cohorts, or a variety of other options. Once we hear back from you, we will work with Dr. Borg and Dr. Caster to develop a tailored program for our district. If there are courses that you are interested in but we have not thought of, please don't hesitate to share as well.

Many of these cohorts and individual courses are building blocks towards other degrees that the university offers. For example, the ESL endorsement has the ability to grow to a Master of Ed. in Literacy by taking a few more courses. After taking some 1-hour credit classes, you can work towards a Certificate of Graduate Studies that can open the door for some possible coaching roles.

Again, if interested or you have an idea you would like to pursue, please email us and we will work with NIU.

Educator Advisory Committee

Today EAC (Educator Advisory Committee) met for the first time.  We were excited to have 32 members present. The following were topics discussed:

• The structures of the committee were reviewed.  The committee is open for guests to come as well as members.  The intent of the meeting is a time for debate, discussion, and engagement.  We look forward to the first year of this new format.  Please be sure to check out the membership for this year. (Sarah will cut and paste the chart below in the statement when posted)
• The committee is using a feedback form for preparing for the meetings each month.  The committee will ask key questions for discussion and members are expected to collect feedback and share during the meeting time.  Please be sure to get your feedback to members.
• The committee took time to discuss the progress of the math continuum progress.  The team problem solved ways to collaborate and share among all those piloting.  We will send out information encouraging others to take time to visit and see it in action this year.  We will plan that process and share it in the Curriculum Connection blog.  The ideas of sharing vertically was discussed, we will plan that process with Admin at their meeting this week and get back to the committee.  The team is also looking into a common location for materials to be housed that can be shared with anyone.  We will work on a possible revision of the continuum later this Spring. 
• The committee also discussed the process of PBP tables and the next steps in the process.  We are looking forward to the October sub day for the next step in progress.  We will need to continue to get vertical, and RTI feedback for content area maps.  The timeline for completion is truly dependent on the work of the group each sub day.  This is not a task that has an end completion date set.  Be sure to come prepared and ready for a great day of work! 
• The committee also discussed the implementation of new tasks.  There was a lot of discussion on the process of Canvas.  Be sure to access Faye Lacari for assistance.  Please note that the expectation is a slow to grow process.  A module can consist of just one announcement with a link to your google classroom.  You can access and use all the Canvas tools, but do not overwhelm yourself or your students with putting too much in a module.  Start slow.  The first expectation is to create a homepage that simply introduces you and has your class name by October.  Please note there is a parent course set for them to ask questions (sop you do not need to field them), encourage parents to check it out:  https://kaneland.instructure.com/register and use the following join code: 7PADDK.

Have a super month!

SIP Data Collection Starts This Week

Just one last reminder that the school SIP team members will begin the data collection process for Proficiency Based Progress this week.  Please note that staff will be coming to your classrooms to collect pre-data until September 20th.  The data they are collecting through these students interviews is based on the following rubric:

0- no idea yet, 1- able to share the I can statement that is the focus of the lesson 2- able to share how they’ve gotten feedback tied to an I can statement 3- able to share the I can statement and describe the type of feedback they were given tied to that I can statement and how that impacts their future learning

Thank you for opening your classroom to your peers to visit.

Curriculum Review Kickoff

This is just a reminder that the kickoff to our Curriculum Review Cycle is going to get underway on September 30th at Meredith. We will meet from 7:30 (6-12) and 8:05 EC-5 will be joining us. Please plan on meeting for the full day. Lunch will be on your own. Our EC-5 team will be reviewing cursive handwriting and SEL, word study, and grammar. 6-12 will be reviewing Math. Once confirmed with your building administrator, please make sure you have your sub arranged for the day. We look forward to a collaborative year of conversation and work towards updating our content!

Institute for Personalized Learning is Visiting

The Institute for Personalized Learning will be here on Friday, September 20th to visit Harter, John Shields, John Stewart, and Kaneland High School.The purpose of the visit is to see everything we have done with personalized learning, observe it in action, and provide any feedback they may have for us.  We have definitely caught the attention, in a positive way, of numerous members of the Institute for Personalized Learning and they really want to see what we're doing.   

As always, if you are doing something on that day where a classroom visit would be disruptive (test, etc.), please put a sign on the door so they do not enter.   We are very excited to share our progress and get great next step feedback.  Thank you in advance for opening up your classroom.