New Principal Cohort Starting in Naperville

Please see the flyer below for information regarding a admin prep cohort that will be starting soon in Naperville. This is through NIU.

Admin Cohort Information

K-5 Curriculum Review Process

Today, the K-5 Curriculum Review team met for their first meeting of the year. This year the focus areas for review are:  Cursive Writing/Grammar, Word Study, and Social Emotional Learning.  The team determined to work in 3 subgroups respectively and each subgroup has determined to use a continuum map template for their work instead of grade-level units of study.  This continuum map will provide staff with the ability to see the progression of learning in these areas over time and allow for customizing and learning to take place based on proficiency of skill. Our overall timeline is to draft the continuum maps prior to December in order to then use our maps to determine tools and resources that best match our needs for learning, then gain Board of Education approval for tools and maps in March. New resources for these content areas will be funded by the new adoption funds, but will be for 2020 or 2021, depending on approved funding.  Over the course of the next few months, we will be asking all of you for critical-friend feedback on the maps and tools.  We look forward to this exciting process. If you would like to hear more detailed updates on any subgroup area, please contact any of the following staff members:

Grammar Mapping and Cursive Unit	Cindy Babka - KME Anne Olsen - KBK/KME Julia Cloat - KME Rob Gardner - KME Rachael Walker - KSS/KST Lissy Bradford - KME
SEL Mapping	Morgan P.- KSS ⅘ Tracy Maz - KST CT Jessica Dixon - KSS CT Terra Pyfer - KST Natalie Smith - KST/KBK Nicole Pryor - KSS Kathryn Gabrielson - KST
Word Study	Linda Z - KST  Suzanne Billman - KBK Kelly Johnson - KSS Jenelle Mance - KME Ashleigh Sterkel - KST Nicole Full - KST Nancy Meisenger - KSS/KME Liz Schulz - KME

   

6-12 Math Curriculum Review Joint Statement

Joint Statement:


Today, our 6-12 math curriculum team met for our Review Kickoff. The following information was shared during the meeting:

• We started the day sharing our experiences, through a math lens, that have impacted us at some point in our lives. It was interesting to note a common theme of perseverance and problem-solvers amongst the team 6-12

• The team identified that we represent a larger community of educators in Kaneland and part of our work is going to consist of sharing out our learning and progress as we meet and move along
• We worked on identifying our preferred future for our Kaneland students in terms of mathematics. After some great discussions, the team crafted the following as our preferred future:
• We want to foster well-reasoned, logical thinking, and persistent problem-solvers that advocate for their own learning
• We will spend the year structuring our curriculum, assessment, and resources necessary to achieve this preferred future.
• The afternoon was spent breaking down into grade spans and looking at the standards that are covered in the course (ex: Algebra will cover X, Y, Z….)
• The team will work to identify a common understanding of rigor as it pertains to this work, and we will craft I Can learning targets based on the standards identified for each course
• Once we have our I Can statement ID’ed, we will begin to look at learning structures, assessments, resources, etc. needed
• Our next meeting is set for October 21st, with the focus of the day being on our standards by course.

1:1- What It Is vs. What It Isn't

Education is an environment in which we often use technical jargon and assume that everyone is on the same page. Over the last few years, we have pushed for the opportunity for our students to have devices for each of our students, grades 4-12. We researched best practice in 1:1 and this year is the first year that we are a 1:1 school district. As we provide professional development around this, we will be sharing often about these opportunities. We wanted to take a minute to share what the differences are between what 1:1 is and what it is not.

1:1 Is:
-Students using a device (in our case, a Chromebook) to access learning opportunities that would not be available otherwise
-Students having increased access to collaboration tools such as Google docs, sheets, forms, etc.
-Teachers having the opportunity to further personalize the content that they share with students
-Continued instruction in the classroom from the teacher (the device DOES NOT take the place of the teacher)
-Deep conversations around given topics, with the ability for on the spot research tools


1:1 Is Not:
-A replacement for a teacher
-A transition to strictly online courses
-Is not an environment in which students are only interacting with a device

Interested in an ELL endorsement?

Over the course of the past month we have been exploring the options for hosting an ELL cohort on Kaneland campuses.  We are looking to collaborate with NIU in order to utilize some benefits from tuition waivers.  NIU has shared two options for this type of programming with us.  If you are interested to learn more and have a preference for the options listed below, please contact Sarah Mumm or Patrick Raleigh by October 15th.  In order to run on our Kaneland campus we will need around 22 staff to participate.  The sessions are blended or online and would not meet every week in person.  Here are the options to consider:

   Summer Cohort

Term	Year	Credits	Course Number	Course Title
Summer	2020	3	LTIC 501	Multicultural Education: Methods and Materials
Fall	2020	3	EPFE 505 or LTIC 500	Foundations of Language-Minority Education or Introduction to Teaching English Language Learners
Spring	2021	3	LTIC 545	Applied Linguistics for Teachers in Multilingual Classrooms
Summer	2021	3	LTIC 520	Methods and Materials for Teaching English as a Second Language in Content Areas
Summer	2021	3	LTIC 547	Assessment of Language-Minority Students
Fall	2021	3	LTIC 535	Teaching Language-Minority Students in Bilingual Programs: Methods and Materials

Fall Cohort

Fall	2020	3	EPFE 505 or LTIC 500	Foundations of Language-Minority Education or Introduction to Teaching English Language Learners
Spring	2021	3	LTIC 545	Applied Linguistics for Teachers in Multilingual Classrooms
Summer	2021	3	LTIC 501	Multicultural Education: Methods and Materials
Summer	2021	3	LTIC 520	Methods and Materials for Teaching English as a Second Language in Content Areas
Fall	2022	3	LTIC 547	Assessment of Language-Minority Students
Spring	2022	3	LTIC 535	Teaching Language-Minority Students in Bilingual Programs: Methods and Materials

Calling All IgKnight Presenters

We are excited to continue the planning of our annual IgKnight Conference on November 25th.  At this time we are wanting to begin to draft and confirm the session options for staff.  Many staff members are doing amazing things in their classrooms and the IgKnight Conference is a great way to share your journey and ideas with each other.  We have some many wonderful learning practices happening in our schools, we really want this opportunity to learn from each other.  If you have an interest in doing a 50 minute session on the IgKnight conference day, please complete the call for proposals link:  https://forms.gle/dh1qpqmRCnCnq5H8A .  The first 6 staff members to submit a proposal to present will receive a sweet treat!  Thank you in advance for taking risks and presenting!  The IgKnight Conference registration will be opening mid-October. Please have these submitted by Tuesday, October 8th by 3:30. We're looking forward to all the great staff members willing to present!

MTSS EC-5 Members...In case you missed it

This article was posted late last week so we wanted to run it again just in case you missed it.

At the annual initiatives meeting it was requested to share the MTSS Steering committee team members.  This team will be meeting over the course of this year to determine the shift for EC-5 to MTSS from RTI.  Please feel free to contact any of these staff members with updates or questions.

Staff Member	Staff Category Represented	School
Vikki Moeller	Social Worker	KBK
Natalie Warne	Social Worker	KME
Nichole Kenyon	Psychologist	KSS
Kathy Ronzio	Psychologist	KME
Nicole Full	SPED Staff	KST
JoAnn Hartman	SPED Staff	KBK
Jimmy Boyle	SPED Staff	KSS
Britt Mattern	SPED Staff	KME
Jenelle Mance	RTI Staff	KME
Julia Cloat	RTI Staff	KME
Kelly Johnson	RTI Staff	KSS
Rachael Wilson	RTI Staff	KSS
Stacey Gacek	RTI Staff	KBK
	RTI Staff	KBK
David Argabright	RTI Staff	KST
Chris Sears	RTI Staff	KST
Anne Olsen and Rachael Walker	Instructional Coach	Intermediate
Nancy Meisenger/Natalie Smith	Instructional Coach	Primary
Kristi Purnell	Primary Teacher	KST
Tiffany Reuter	Primary Teacher	KME
Terra Pyfer	Intermediate Teacher	KST
Katie Reilley	Intermediate Teacher	KBK
Erin Eickman	Intermediate Teacher	KME
Cathy Curtain	Intermediate Teacher	KSS
Jake Countryman	Administration	KSS
Jake Countryman	Administration	KME
Martne McCoy/Sam Aversa	Administration	KBK
Laura Garland/Sam Aversa	Administration	KST
Laurie Villalobos	6-8 Rep	HMS
Kristin Faber	9-12 Rep	KHS
Sarah Mumm	District Office Administration	Educational Service
Fran Eggleston	District Office Administration	Educational Service

Census 2020 Activities for Learning

In 2020 there will be a census nationally.  In preparation for the census the government has created resources and activities for students of all ages.  Please feel free to check out these great resources and see how they may connect to your learning opportunities.

Link

Math Conference Near Kaneland

District 300 is hosting a first every Math Conference in our area.  The conference is meant for K-8 educators who want to meet and share ideas and updates in math practices and learning.  If interested this might be a great opportunity to network around math and share ideas for best practices in math. The conference is being hosted on November 6th (parent conference night), but a possibility if interested. 

Conference Link 

And the Winner is....

After intensive judging of all the one pager submissions, the winner has been determined.  Kudos to Christy Kukovec!  Congrats for an amazing one pager that is a great model of the proficiency table process.  She is the proud winner of a Spirit wear gift card!  Well done.  Here is her one pager!

Canvas for Non-classroom Teachers

Hi All,

I wanted to offer some clarification for Canvas expectations for the year. This is mainly for those of you that do not have a typical classroom roster (i.e. Social Workers, Speech Pathologists, Counselors, Coaches, etc.) You still need to meet the Canvas expectations, they will just look a little different than traditional classes. For the modules, these do not need to be a module that a student competes for part of a course. It could be information for parents (they do not need an account, you can set it up where they can still access it), it might be a module sharing pertinent information- maybe that is healthy study habits, relationships, mental health awareness, etc. For our high school staff that do not have a traditional class, you do not need to have the grade book component of the course running as it is not applicable to your work.

Please remember Faye Licari is our 1:1 TOSA and is in all of our buildings at one time or another. She is able to help with these expectations and she is a valuable resource to our teams.