Minutes+Curriculum+Coordinator+Meetings+2009+2010

Curriculum Coordinator Meeting Notes November 13, 2009 The 2nd Curriculum Coordinator Meeting of the 2009-2010 school year began at 9:00 am. Sixteen School Districts were represented - Allegany-Limestone, Bolivar-Richburg, CA BOCES ISS, CA BOCES Special Education, Cattaraugus-Little Valley, Cuba-Rushford, Fillmore, Franklinville, Friendship, Genesee Valley, Hinsdale, Olean, Pioneer, Portville, Scio, The Teacher Center, Wellsville, West Valley and Whitesville.

Barb VanWicklin began the meeting with an overview of the agenda and introductions around the room. The group welcomed Michelle McDowell from Bolivar-Richburg as our newest Coordinator. Tim Cox handed out a DVD of the Social Studies Grade 5 Assessment Question PDF’s by Standard Area from 2006-2009 that Mary Morris had put together. He said there are teacher ones with the answers and they can also be used by the teacher for the student.

Rick Weinberg showed the group the CA BOCES ISS wiki. You can find it on the web at http://cabocescc.wikispaces.com/. This wiki is designed for curriculum coordinators to use. You can add or find information. Today’s minutes will also be posted on the wiki. To use the site paste the above link into the web address bar on your computer. Then click on edit on the right hand upper corner. Rick mentioned a widget which is something from one website put into another site. You will see a box that has “Other Widget” in the Edit mode. If you cannot see the box you might need to ask to have Wix.com unblocked. Wix.com is used to create an interactive website. A suggestion was made to add an Ellin Keene folder with tips and links. Barb VanWicklin also said school districts can store their own information in individual district folders. Put on the wiki whatever you would like to share. The tech tip for today was also presented by Rick Weinberg. It is a software called Wordle and can be found at www.wordle.net. It takes normal text and converts it into different forms. The most used words are in a larger text format while the least used words are in smaller text. It can make text interesting.

Next on the agenda was our guest teacher feature. Nancy Walters, a 1st and 2nd grade teacher from Fillmore. Nancy has learned some 21st century skills and put them to work in the classroom. Her class took on a project called “Pennies for Peace”. Nancy and her student teacher worked with Rick Weinberg and created podcasts that are on their class website. We were privileged to hear some of the podcasts. To get to their website go to [|www.fillmorecsd.org] and click on the Pre-K- 4th grade link. Look under the #1 and scroll to the bottom of the list and click on 1st Grade, Mrs. Walters. Here are the different things the class did. They had a balloon launch with attached stamped post cards. So far the farthest post card returned has been from Massachusetts. The kids did a lesson on geography and also tried to guess where the balloons would land. Their photo gallery shows all the fun the students had in this project. There is a form on their website if someone would like to sponsor a writer or reader in their classroom. Thank you Nancy.

Michelle Okal from WNYRIC came and discussed the options of RtI software and the process for purchasing software that is not on the state list. Michelle explained the process the WNYRIC uses to evaluate software. She also provided a list of already approved RtI software with a brief description of what each can do. Dibels can be put into AIMSweb if you want to look at data. Pearson can be either online or paper and pencil. WNYRIC is hosting a forum on December 14, 2009 at the 355 Harlem Road, West Seneca, NY location. Current software that WNYRIC is trying to get on the state list is Voyager Learning, AutoSkill (math and reading), Accuity (online assessment), NWEA (declined), NovaNet and AIMSweb. Discussion was held regarding what schools districts are currently using what software. Schools already know their weak area(s) and try to purchase software that will address the issues. If there are questions contact Michelle Okal by email at mokal@e1b.org or by phone at 716-821-7200. You can also contact Julianna Sciolino at jsciolino@e1b.org.

Tim Houseknect from the Teacher Center spoke briefly. Currently Tim is looking for teacher leaders for after school instruction. The teacher comes up with the idea of what to teach from grant apps. The teacher center can pay $35 an hour with some planning time included to present a workshop. Mini grants are always available. The Teacher Center events are listed on the webpage. A question was raised if schools could get sub reimbursement for the Teacher Center workshops. Barb VanWicklin explained the Teacher Center and ISS work together. Yes you can reimbursement. Tim mentioned currently Pioneer and Randolph are not part of the Teacher Center so they are limited as to what services they can receive.

Tim Cox took the floor next. He reminded everyone of the Giselle Martin-Kniep workshop on November 17th at the Premier Banquet Center. The Innovative Teaching (IT) formerly HSNF is looking for presenters. If you know someone who is willing please have them contact Tim. The tentative dates are July 27-30, 2010 with each day broken into different groups. Discussion was then turned to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Tim discussed the purpose of the STEM. Context is one of the most important things. STEM is a great way to combine context with education. Discussion among the group was held regarding the amount of time the science and social studies have compared to the time spent on ELA and Math.

We connected with Will Jacks from the NYSED at 11:00 via DL. Will’s area of expertise is Science. He explained how the NCRC is primarily a K-8 group. NYS wanted a K-12 group. So NYS had 4 professional development opportunities over a year. The 1st was a leadership conference to build awareness. The 2nd was a curriculum showcase broken down into groups of K-4, 5-8, 9-12. They discussed what teaching and learning good science looks like. The 3rd was a strategic planning workshop that was 5 days long. They worked on how to get science more into curriculum or reform. The 4th workshop was a leadership conference on building capacity, how to create this new idea.

The department talks about what they have learned and what they currently have and the results leaking over into other areas of study. NYS is trying to grow in another way than what has happened in the past. The STEM grant has been posted on the NYSED website. The email address is listed with the announcement.

Will asked if we would like to see a per grade curriculum. The group said it would make it easier for them. It was mentioned that coordinators would like to see more STEM integrated into classroom instruction. Bill wasn’t so sure that could be done at this point with the budget freezes. A question was asked if there is any plan to have teachers fresh from college have more integration with science and math. Bill answered that currently it is hard to do that because of the content requirements. They have looked into K-6 and the idea of a content area specialist. The curriculum coordinators had a half hour session with Bill. It was very informative. Discussion was held regarding the DL session.

Mike Doyle went over some more STEM items. He showed the U. S. President and others talking about STEM. Mike will put the link on the listserve. Mike also handed out information regarding a pcast on Bruce Alberts. Fab Labs is a creative environment for engineers. The purpose is to spread economic development, design and construct using tools, a problem solving environment using technology. Currently there is one Fab Lab in NYS and that is in the Bronx. CA BOCES is trying to get one in our area.

Tim Clarke talked about shared decision making. He went to the state website to find information and did not find much. Tim talked about how some schools are using strategic planning or CDEP as shared decision making. Tim is still waiting for an answer from state ed regarding shared decision making.

Barb VanWicklin asked coordinators to contact Laurie Sledge with information on how to contact someone from the school after hours to cancel a workshop. The Ellin Keene workshop was a good example of why this information is needed. Lesa Dionne and Laurie were looking up phone numbers of people to contact in local telephone books. Please send your information to Laurie.

This was overlooked at the meeting. Capturing Kids Hearts is scheduled for March 9-11, 2009. Seats are limited to 50 participants. Also would a Teen Leadership workshop work better for school districts in August?

The next Curriculum Coordinator meeting is January 8, 2010. The meeting was adjourned at 12:10 pm