NIU Cooperating Teacher Symposium (ec - 12)

Please see the following from our partners at NIU: Hello District Partners: I hope this message finds you well! I wanted to share an exciting professional development opportunity for your teachers. The Fourth Annual Cooperating Teacher Symposium, hosted by Northern Illinois University, will be held on July 30, 2025, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM at the Barsema Alumni and Visitor Center in DeKalb, IL. This free event offers educators the chance to: Engage in breakout sessions led by fellow Cooperating Teachers and NIU Faculty Earn Professional Development Hours (PDHs) Receive a Digital Micro-Credential Connect and collaborate with other educators We would be grateful if you could pass this information along to your teachers who have served as or are interested in becoming Cooperating Teachers for our teacher candidates. It’s a great way for them to connect, learn, and grow in their mentoring role. The following is a Promo Video for the event: YouTube - NIU CT Symposium Promo Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_UQTKbx6RM&t=3s The NIU Cooperating Teacher Symposium video highlights the event's focus on supporting and celebrating Cooperating Teachers. It offers professional developme... www.youtube.com Here’s the link to register: NIU CT Symposium 2025 Registration Link https://forms.gle/A6eFgWQM7BLzQDz59 Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you in advance for sharing this opportunity with your team! Best, Dr. Rachel Warren, EdD, NBCT, ACUE Director of Teacher Preparation and Development | Pronouns: she, her, hers Office of School Partnerships and Clinical Experiences | CLAS Zulauf 626 | DeKalb, Illinois 60115 815-753-0325 | rwarren1@niu.edu http://niu.edu/clas-educator-licensure/

Coordinator of Curriculum Development

Starting with the 2025 - 2026 school year, the department of Educational Services will be renamed the department of Teaching and Learning. As part of this redesign, we have a new member joining the team. Lauren Vaclavik will be joining us as the Coordinator of Curriculum Development. Lauren currently serves the 6-8 Grade ELA and LIS Department at West Aurora School District 129. Previously, she worked at Kaneland as an Instructional Coach at the high school as well as elementary level. Please join me in welcoming back Lauren to the Kaneland community!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

 

Thank you to all of our fabulous Kaneland teachers. We appreciate all you do!

Math Must Do and May Do (K-5)

 During the math curriculum review cycle, the full committee drafted the Must Do and May Do list for 2025-2026.  Please be sure to review this as a team and prepare for next year.  Please reach out to any math committee member with questions. 

Must Do and May Do Link

K-5 Crosswalks

 Over the past month we have had a very small, but dedicated team, working on developing the ELA and Math crosswalks that were requested through the Curriculum Survey and forums.  The team is still in the drafting process, but wanted to share with staff the drafts for initial sharing.  The purpose of the crosswalks is to assist staff in making connections among all the curriculum tools we have, our PBP tables, and the I can statements.  This tool also will share when teaching the PBP table is required.  Eventually, anchor lessons that are required to be taught will be in bold.  Please access the drafts at this time using the link below.  

In this folder you will find the ELA drafts to review and give feedback on as well as the math that show the timeframe to teach the program scope and sequence.  Please note on the math crosswalks to review the multiple tabs to see the program scope and sequence next to the table connection.

While both of the crosswalk sets are still in the drafting phase, we are excited to hear any feedback from staff.  

If you have any thoughts or questions, please reach out Dr. James Horne or Dr. Sarah Mumm.      

K-5 Crosswalk Link

Congratulations to Ms. Stark and Mr. Zerfas! (EC-12)

Congratulations to Sadie Stark on being selected as the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance 2025 Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year award!  Sadie will be celebrated for this honor at the annual conference in December. If you see Sadie over the next few weeks be sure to celebrate her and this great accomplishment, it is well deserved! 

Congratulations to Brian Zerfas at KME on being names the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (IAHPERD) Administrator of the Year.  Kudos for all the support of Physical Education at McDole and Kaneland.  Very well deserved!  

Kudos to our team at KME!  Be sure to celebrate them as you see them the next few weeks!

Word Study Updates (K-5)

 This past week the Word Study revision teams met to revise our assessment processes based on feedback from teams and EAC.  Thank you to the dedicated staff coming together to review the suggestion and making the necessary changes for next year.  Please see the revisions below for next Fall.

3-5 Updates

K-2 Updates:

The K-2 Word Study Committee met to discuss the 2024-2025 implementation of word study assessments. They began by reviewing the feedback provided by EAC and worked together to address concerns and make improvements for the upcoming school year. Below is a summary of updates. Please reach out to a committee member if you have any questions about the updates. 

For all grade levels, if a student knows 100% of the assessed grade level sight words on the pre, they do not have to take the post in the spring.

Kindergarten: 

The committee agreed to keep the current 60 kindergarten sight words. However, the sight words may be taught in any order throughout the school year. 

A new ESGI assessment with all 60 words was created. (The five separate lists were eliminated.) The new ESGI assessment is called Kaneland Kindergarten 60 Sight Words. 

Fundations Unit 2 should be started by all schools no later than the Monday after Thanksgiving week. (This aligns with the agreed upon 14 week window to teach Jolly Phonics alongside the Fundations key concepts and letter formation being taught in Fundations Unit 1). 

Beginning in the fall of 2025, the word study assessment data will now note the breakdown of beginning, middle, and ending sound along with the total score. 

A set of cut scores was also created to help align assessment scores across the district. The new assessment document has been formatted to reflect the following cut scores. 

CVC Cut Scores

Fall	Spring
0-5 Red	0-12 Red
6-9 Yellow	13-16 Yellow
10-20 Green	17-20 Green

A “notes” column was also added to the cvc kindergarten document.

First and Second Grade:

The committee confirmed that all students should have scores for marking up words on the data sheet. Just like this past year, the score does not count towards proficiency, but the expectation is that the score is recorded. The committee agreed that this data is very valuable in determining student knowledge and gaps. Additionally, there is a notes column added to the Fundations tracking document so teachers can capture any student trends as needed.

Fundations data is to be collected throughout the full school year, even after the EOY data window is closed. (This was discussed because data was collected in early May this year and instruction should continue beyond that date).

No sight word changes were made to first and second grade.

The coaches will be discussing with Dr. Mumm and the coordinators what will be on the data wall and/or data hub for the upcoming school year.