April Department Meetings

Please comment here with your ideas about Professional Development for next year.

EDU Questions

Questions that came in after advisement today.

A lot of people had the same questions, please share the answers with your students.

1. What happens to past SOE hours? Are they converted to EDUs? How do I know what I presently have?
Past SOE hours will he be converted into EDUs. We have not figured out the formula yet, we will be working on it soon; suggestions have been anywhere from 60 to 100 hours equals 1 EDU, let us know what you think.

2. Will programs like Evolutions count? If so, how will they converge to EDUs?
Programs that currently counted for SOE will continue to count towards EDUs, probably using the conversion stated above once we figured out.

3. There seems to be a difference in some of the programs in terms of how often you have to go to earn an EDU. Example, 1 EDU as officer on fishing versus 1 EDU per year in chanteens versus 2.5 EDUs for a week available only to seniors.
Yes there's a difference in program offerings of EDUs, a topic for discussion at the next appendix D meeting.

4. Some students think they can earn all for EDUs in one year.
That is correct, the working group saw that coming. But thought a student that was that active would continue to be active. It does raise the question, if a student does no afterschool Aqua/Ag programs for three years does he/she show “interest” in the program?

5. Do work hours count as EDUs?
Again we are not changing any of the current methods of earning hours, if they have an approved placement the hours will still count, probably using the conversion that we come up with for SOE hours to EDU.

6. How about clubs or homework center?
If you were able to earn SOE's in the past from a club they still qualify. Students do not earn SOE's currently from homework center.

7. Who decides competent?
Each program determines their own outcomes and competencies.

8. Do we still have community service?
Yes, same community service as before.

9. Evolutions programs, Peabody Museum and other general outside programs will count.
We have not changed what counted or didn't count towards SOEs now EDUs.

NCLB revisted

Here's an article from yesterday's NewYork Times about proposed changes to NCLB.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/education/14child.html?pagewanted=2&sq=no%20child%20left%20behind&st=cse&scp=2

On the other hand...

Here's a link to the Newsweek cover story this week about the teaching profession.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/234590

Another interesting article

Here is a link to an article about Diane Ravitch (Charter School and standardized testing proponent) and her recent "about face" on educational policy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/education/03ravitch.html?scp=2&sq=diane%20ravitch&st=cse

New York Times Article

In the New York Times this Sunday, there was an extensive article about teacher training. I have included a link to the article below, if you have a chance to take a look.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?scp=1&sq=building%20a%20better%20teacher&st=cse

Thoughts on Exams

Monday's department meetings were really interesting - thanks everyone for your thoughtful participation. Please post minutes from your meetings so we can learn from eachother's experiences.

What Will You Do Over Vacation?

Like the groundhog, my head will pop out of its vacation hole on 2/22 knowing that there is just one week til CAPT exams. So, in order to best prepare myself for that three-week ordeal, and as a follow-up to the stress that was midterms, here are the Top Five Things I Am Planning to Do Over Vacation...

5) Sleep
4) Drink less coffee and eat less chocolate
3) Beat my personal record of going two and a half days without changing out of my pajamas and into clothes
2) Go to an adult movie. No, not that kind of an adult movie, just something other than "The Chipmunks: The Squeakeal" or anything that involves a princess falling in love!
1) Sleep some more

How 'bout you? What will you be doing to regenerate all those brain cells lost during the first half of the year? How will you mentally built yourself up for the home streeeeeeeetch???

Interesting article about cell phones in schools

This is an interesting article about cell phones in school from MSNBC (Jack sent it to our email) which mentions the suspension of over 100 students at Wilbur Cross last month. It's certainly is an issue we deal with daily.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35063840/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Exam Reflection

My freshmen spent some time yesterday reflecting on their first set of exams. Many of them were at first just focusing on the "exams were hard", "exams were boring", or "why do we have to take exams". Once we got past that, they began to reflect on their own level of preparedness (not very) and on how much time they spent working on study guides. They realized that they didn't prepare enough and will hopefully take that lesson into final exams. Any thoughts?

Extended Day Committee

Working Group Updates and Minutes

Please post your updates and minutes here as comments on this post.

Blog Name Suggestions

Please add comments here with your blog name suggestions.

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