Transforming Education: The New York City Story

Keynote: Transforming Education - The New York City Story
Presented by Dennis Walcott
Deputy Mayor, New York City

This morning we attended the keynote given by Mr. Dennis Walcott, Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development in New York City. NYC has adopted the America’s Choice program as one approved intervention. Walcott mentioned that Duval County was the most improved county in Florida after adopting the America’s Choice program! The focus of his keynote was "Transforming Education: The New York City Story."

Walcott dedicates his life to his 3rd grade teacher – Mrs. Long. She was someone who made that difference in his life as he struggled with reading.

When he began his position he found that the system had many deficiencies. It was dysfunctional, there wasn’t any system-wide curriculum for any subject, funding was based on politics, there were stagnant test scores, no parent input, and no accountability. The first order of business was to gain control over the schools. There were 32 separate district boards without any connections. On top of that NYC PUblic Schools was one of the largest school systems:
• 1.1 million students
• 20 billion budget
• 1450 schools
• 140,000 staff
• 80,000 teachers
• Over 170 languages
• Over 8000 buses

Changes had to be made and it began as they combined all the schools into 10 districts. Phase 1 included the New Governance Structure and with a citywide core curriculum – they worked on the focus in teaching and learning. They created a coherent professional development program which would support classroom instruction across the district. They began the NYC Leadership Academyto provide support for professional development. They also provided the support for the teachers mentoring program and increased teacher salaries. They implemented a Parent Coordinator project where each parent coordinator has a public cell phone to provide information for their students. With this program they downsized the systems structure to become more efficient.

Phase 2 was about elevating good to outstanding. The focus of this phase was on accountability. The major components included empowerment, fair student funding, accountability, teacher tenure reform which gives principals new tools to help determine success, Teacher Performance Pay Program. Policy innovations were put in place such as conflict resolution and anti-bullying workshops. Schools were made into safer places for students and teachers because order was restored. Schools were added to an impact initiative and crime was decreased by over 50%. New promotion policies were put into place (3rd , 5th , 7th , 8th grades) because these were considered “critical years.” Additional support was provided for students who do not reach these goals. Office of Multiple Pathways to graduation was created in 2005. Students were given more meaningful options to meet them where they were. Transfer schools were created as an alternative to traditional high schools. Young Adult Borough Center (YABC) were created for students who could not go to school during the day due to a work load. (Over 5,000 students have graduated to date.) Learning to work programs were created. New, smaller schools were created. Since 2002 over 230 schools were created by splitting large, failing high schools into several smaller ones. The Average graduation rate when from 35% to 72%. What made the biggest difference? Leadership, trying something new, focusing on the students.

In closing he discussed the hallmarks of the approach which included partnerships, options, and challenging the status quo. This program has brought nothing but success for New York City public schools. They were the winner of the Broad Prize for Top Urban School District in the U.S. in 2007.

Using CPS for a Balanced Math Lesson

Technology and the Balanced Mathematics Lesson
Presentors: Michael Dantona and Victoria Moscatelli
Queens, NY

Michael is a vice principal at IS 5 Elmhurst. Victoria is a classroom teacher at Elmhurst that uses CPS in her classroom.

I was very excited to go to this session. The session focused on using the CPS clickers in math instruction. I personally own a set of these “clickers” and they have quickly become an essential tool in my classroom. I am presenting a science/technology session tomorrow in which I will take a little different spin on the clickers and use them for an actual lesson with participants.

What is CPS?

CPS is a Classroom Performance System, a package of software and hardware developed by eInstruction Corporation. The hardware consists of a receiver unit and 16, 24, or 32 response pads. The software and hardware work together to create and deliver course-relevant questions. The software reports student performance data.

The CPS system consists of a response pad and coordinating receiver unit. Each uniquely numbered pad transmits responses that the receiver unit records, and that the CPS software automatically attributes to the corresponding response pad number listed in the class. You must have a computer and LCD projector in order to use this system.

My favorite component of the system is the report generator. You can immediately generate data through a variety of reports that you can use to evaluate your students’ performance on a given assessment. Reports can be printed as an entire class, by question, by student, etc. You can review the report assessment, print your assessment, or export the assessments to the following file types: plain text, HTML, Excel, or PDF.

The clickers can be used during any part of the workshop. The most common time to use it, however, is the opening or closing session. The immediate feedback can be used to diagnose students strengths and weaknesses as well as any misconceptions students have.

Participants were shown how to insert questions into the system. Questions can also be used through PowerPoint.

Making Sense Out of The Current State of Mathematics in U.S. Schools

Making Sense Out of the Current State of Mathematics in US Schools
Presented by Zal Usiskin
University of Chicago

Zal Usiskin from the University of Chicago related his drive from the airport using his navigation system (blindly following a given set of directions through an unfamiliar maze of streets) as similiar to the students' faith in their teacher as they guide them through mathematics. Just like us, students like to see and explore what is along the way. He also noted that there are several roads and no one road is the best for everyone.

Some key points made by Mr. Usiskin:

• Technology can help students learn - not learn first and then use technology.
• There are many different standards out there, how do we decide which to use?
• We need to have a benchmark or starting point to judge our progress - 96% success does seem as good if 97% was achieved the year before.
• With more students taking higher levels of math, (24% of 8th graders were taking Algebra or Pre-Algebra in 1981 while 71% are doing the same in 2007) some key challenges face math teachers. We have to motivate students who are not self-motivated by: keeping them engaged, making connections to earlier learning, providing practice with test situations, giving quick feedback, and using technology.

Some positives:

• National Scores are increasing.
• 4th grade students today know 2 years more worth of math than 4th graders in 1973.
• SAT and ACT scores in Math are increasing although Verbal scores are declining.
• There is a greater variety of math materials available.

Some Negatives:

• The performance gap between ethnic groups is still at the same level as 15 years ago.
• There is a gap in what is offered at various schools based on demographics.
• Teaching has become more difficult due to conflicting expectations.
• Economic status is still a major issue.

Some irrational:

• All children cannot be average or above average. Grade level is the average level of all children in a certain grade. Therefore, all children cannot be at grade level or above grade level.
• Moving students to different schools will increase performance by raising average scores.
• Continued growth indefinitely.

Some Imaginary:

• Comparing our scores to different cultures and expecting the same results.
• Calling our cirriculum a mile wide and an inch deep can be viewed in different ways.

Vocabulary in a PLC

The Real Work of a Professional Learning Community
Presented by Debbie Harbour
Chets Creek Elementary, Jacksonville, FL

Debbie Harbour presented a session today on how a kindergarten professional learning community can recognize a need and then meet together to develop a way to fill it! Six teachers at Chets Creek Elementary came together around their need to develop better vocabulary strategies and wrote a complete vocabulary unit based on the research of Beck and McKeown. See Debbie's PowerPoint below.

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The original PowerPoint also included several short video examples of teachers Maria Mallon and Haley Alvarado teaching from the vocabulary unit. Most exciting was that the vocabulary activities around 12 Kindergarten read-alouds are available free as a download from Debbie's blog! Check it out!

Connecting Math and Literacy

Connecting Math and Literacy in a Standards-Based Classroom
Presented by: Tracy VanWormer, K-1 teacher and Julie Coulter 2-3 teacher
Prospect, OR

As I walked into the presentation room, I noticed right away the great math literature books in the front of the room. It immediately made me excited. Many of the books I already have in my classroom such as The Greedy Triangle, Math Potatoes, Counting on Frank, Just Enough Carrots, and many others.

Also while waiting for the break-out session to begin I spoke with Christine Denmark who is the senior associate and math specialist from America’s Choice. In her hand she had a new book called Comprehending Math: Adapting Reading Strategies to Teach Mathematics written by Authur Hyde. I currently have this book sitting in my office at school but I haven’t had time to read it yet. I asked her about the book. She said it was wonderful. If you teach K -6, she said you need to read this book. I can’t wait to get home to begin reading it. Looking through the Table of Contents I noticed it was broken into Chapters like Asking Questions, Synthesizing, and Inferencing.

We began the session by listening to the story How Big Is a Foot?by Rolf Myller. It was a Book of a Month at their school last year. After reading the story we worked in groups and had to trace one person’s foot. Then we had to make a bed that was three feet wide and six feet long. We also had to make a queen to lie in the bed. After everyone was finished we compared each group’s bed. We talked about the varying sizes and discussed where to take this lesson next (non-standard unit to a real ruler).

Julie talked about a math series of books she uses in her classroom. The series is Math Smart. She read the story called The Great Graph Contest by Loreen Leedy. This story was about graphs, survey’s, pie charts and venn diagrams. After listening to the story they put a bag of cookies that were mixed flavors. We had to come up with a question and then graph our results. Our question: What are the flavors of cookies in our bag and how many of each will we have. Next my group made a graph and counted the results. Some were concerned that this activity would only work for 2nd and 3rd grade. I think they are wrong. We begin asking survey questions and collecting data in Kindergarten. We also don’t stop there. We also explore what we do with the information we have learned.

At the end of the session, we looked through children literature to gain ideas of how to use them in our classroom. I looked through the story Anno’s Magic Seeds by Mitsumasa Anno. It would be a great book to teach multiplication, division, inferencing, and problem solving.

Students with Disabilities Meeting State Standards

Helping Students with Disabilities Meet State Standards, Too!
Presented by Pam Musick, Pearson

Pam Musick, a teacher from Hawaii that is now working in Indiana for Pearson, opened her session by having the participants discuss their major Special Education issues including:

• time that is taken away from general education children in inclusion because of needier students
• scores that count in self-contained classes causing schools not to meet AYP (interesting idea: the state test scores of students in self-contained classes counting back to the home school)
• the gap of about 5 years in a single class
• how to provide supplemental intervention that does not supplant the general education curriculum - how do you provide supplemental intervention without missing some of the general eduaction curriculum?

Sound familiar?

If it’s about our expectations, think about this study that Pam presented: Only 26% of teachers who taught Special Education believed that “all or “most” children with disabilities would be able to meet their state standards. 72% of general education teachers believed that “all” or “most” could meet the standards. If 80% of students with disabilities have average or above average IQs, what does that say about our expectations?

An accommodation levels the playing field. (examples in life might be a GPS for directionally impaired, glasses, dishwasher instead of washing by hand, step stool for reaching). It doesn’t give the child an extra advantage. An adaptation (or modification as we call it in Florida) changes the parameters to meet the needs of the student. It makes the task different than the original one. Most of the time students only need an accommodation to be able to meet their swtate standards.

"One instructinal minute lost can never be recaptured." Enjoy Pam's "A Dozen 'Downtime' Activities" (added with permission) so that you can use every single day of instruction.

A Dozen “Downtime” Activities

1. Students play a quick game of “hangman” using spelling, vocabulary or content area words.
2. Play classification games. (Ex: mammals/reptiles or countries that border an ocean, etc.)
3. Play thinking skills games. (I’m thinking for a person, place, thing.)
4. Chain a story. Each student adds one sentence as it moves around the classroom. The story can’t end until each student has added a sentence.
a. Student 1: It was a snowy day.
b. Student 2: The bus was late.
c. Student 3: My friends and I started to play.
5. Brainstorm a list and write it on the board. (provides good visual feedback)
6. Practice reviewing basic facts. (multiplication, spelling, abbreviations, elements on the periodic chart)
7. Play word/vocabulary games. Think of the synonym, antonym, etc.
8. Play round robin jeopardy. One student gives the answer for something learned this week in school and another student answers it with the right question. The student who is correct goes next.
9. List the pros and cons of an issue or topic at school, in the community or from the curriculum.
10. Start a number sequence and keep it going. (Ex: 1,3,4,7…)
11. Take a cause/effect challenge. One student makes a statement and two other students provide the cause and the effect. Example: It was a snowy day.
Cause: The car slid off the road.
Effect: The car will have to be repaired.
12. Find the misspelled word. Ask a student to write two words on the board – one spelled correctly and the other incorrectly. He selects another student to identify the correctly spelled word. If correct, it is the next student’s turn. If not, the first student gets another chance at it.

Pam's session ended with a discussion of Marilyn Friend's models for team teaching including co- teaching, station teaching, alternative teaching, one teach-one support, parallel teaching.

*Pam will be in Duval county on Feb. 11, 2008 to do some work with DRA.

Collegiality

As we have been writing these blogs, I have realized how collegiality has become so entrenched in our culture… that we do it without even thinking. Right now Debbie Harbour is blogging the keynote, but she easily passes her computer to Melissa Ross to read and without a blink, Melissa edits and revises and then just hands the computer back so Debbie can continue. Later today someone will take the work and try to summarize, just focusing on the main ideas. Someone else will take the picture and make sure it all gets added. None will worry about hurting the others feelings by changing or suggesting, but all realize that the feedback and joining of several minds together will make the final blog entry the best for our readers.

This is the same partner work that we want our children to use every day. We want them to have the ability to work with a partner and add to their writing, to accept suggestions from a classroom of listeners as their authentic audience, to revise and edit to make things better. How exciting it is to see it modeled in this leadership group!

Hanging Over the Balcony

The Democratic debate between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton was held in the Kodak Theatre (the same theatre that hosts the Oscars!) last night. The environment outside the debate was electric with groups chanting and signs of support bobbing up and down. Extra policemen, private Security and Secret Service were everywhere! Anchors from the various networks staked out roped off areas with bright lights blaring in the night. Outside the Theatre supporters… and America’s Choice convention participants… hung over the balconies soaking in the exciting atmosphere. How appropriate is it that an education convention should be held in the same area as a Presidential Debate!

However, like most of you, we went back to our hotel and watched the debate on television (it was “invitation only” inside the Theatre), but outside our hotel, the red carpet was rolled out for the after party. As we went up to our rooms, the paparazzi were out in mass as so many stars partied downstairs (once again “invitation only”). We did see some stars, but it was just a reminder of the high stakes political climate that we are in right now.

As I watched the debate, I noticed that not a single world was spoken about public education? That is NOT acceptable! I wonder what it would be like if the political conversations at the highest levels weren’t “invitation only”. What would it be like to be a real part of that conversation instead of just hanging over the balcony? Wonder what it would be like if teachers, those actually in the trenches, were invited to the political leadership table? Is it the politicians’ responsibility to invite us or is it our responsibility to demand our seat at the table?

If you had the opportunity to sit at that table, what would you say?

The Show Must Go On!

As you know, ten members of our Leadership Team are here in Hollywood. That leaves our Assistant Principal, Moena Perry, at school to keep the day-to-day operations going on (and we hear she’s doing a great job on this solo run!) However, there are still some things that Susan Phillips, our Principal, takes care of, even though she is here in Hollywood.

At the break of dawn, Susan popped out her computer (okay, so maybe she dragged it out with a long sigh!) to make sure that the Memo was available to teachers by day’s end. At Chets Creek the Memo is our planning Bible. It is our weekly lifeline of all that will be happening the next week. These management announcements keep us from having any faculty meetings to disseminate information. So…. Teachers, read your Memo today and know that, even though we are so far away, YOU are not far from our thoughts!

Opening Keynote

Opening Keynote

Eastman Elementary School
Success by Design, the 2008 America’s Choice conference, officially opened with a presentation by Eastman Elementary School’s (California) 5th grade students. The students presented a strong musical representation of the book, Anasi, the Spider, one of the school’s Books of the Month. The production included dance, costumes, props and inspirational music. It reminded me of how retelling and reenactments have become such an important part of retelling favorite stories in Kindergarten. This was a representation of how important arts infusion is, not only for our youngest learners, but for all of our students.
Dr. Judy Codding
After a standing ovation, the mike was turned over to Dr. Judy Codding, one of the founders and current President of America’s Choice. Welcoming delegations from across the country, she commented on the outstanding student work that is posted throughout the halls of the convention center and the “standing room only” virtual tours from the morning. It was easy for her to connect public education with politics as the Democratic political supporters for tonight’s debate were cheering right outside the door. She reminded us of the global society that is connecting us so quickly and how this is affecting the workforce and education’s mission. If we cannot deliver in public education, we face a financial and ethical dilemma. We owe it to our children to make a difference with every single child. Dr. Codding reminded us of our high drop out rates and its consequences. We are breaking our commitment to our children by not making quality education available to every single child and will continue the cycle of poverty. Only a fraction of our kids are getting a high quality education and that is the America’s Choice mission– to make a difference with every child. Every child should be able to achieve. Failure is not and cannot be an option. We must NEVER GIVE UP. Education is the great equalizer. We know that the more educated you are, the more likely you are to support your family. Currently that dream is out of reach for 50% of many of our minority students. We must not underestimate the power of our teachers for it is teachers that are at the heart of education. The work has a moral purpose – no one has a more important calling!

Dr. Marc Tucker
Dr. Tucker introduced the keynote speaker, William “Bill” Wiggenhorn, an acknowledged expert in the fields of training and development, leadership development, e-learning, marketing, and global business strategy and one of his co-authors of “Tough Choices in Tough Times.”


Bill Wiggenhorn, Keynote Speaker
Dr. Wiggenhorn who has worked in 60 countries in the last 30 years brings a global perspective to education. He reminded us of the urgency of education because work will go to the best prepared in the global market.

Technology was one of Bill’s many focuses. He suggested that if you didn’t have an 11 year old- you should rent one to keep up with the technology! Bill told a story about Skyping and how it was used to connect a teacher with students - for pennies. He also talked about using technology within the cultures of different people who want to be engaged, regardless of poverty.

Some of the learning projects that he talked about on the global front were low income housing in India, water filtration in China, organic cosmetics in Brazil, coating and sealers in Russia, personal care projects for the elderly in Japan and Korea, etc. We must prepare a generation of students who are adaptable and problem solvers in this global market who can think through problems, like the ones above - students who can think outside of the box – students who know how to play the global game!

Time for change!

• Change the organizational model in the educational system.


• Recruit and develop talent.


• Provide benefit plans.


• Reward performance in difficult environments.


• Use assessment to implement a speed based model for passage through the grades.


• Assess for success.


• Competencies in English, mathematics, technology, Science.


• Support creativity, innovation and self-dsiscipline.

What is the future for 2020? Is it going to be bright or depressing? Are we willing to make the changes and take the pain to move forward?

Introducing Literacy Navigator

This first session ended with America's Choice's unveiling of their new Literacy Navigator product. This is the intervention that is currently being piloted by Chets Creek and Twin Lakes Academy along with several of the other model schools. The film that was made just last week was shown on the jumbotron to the 8,000+ participants. Melanie Holtsman and many of our children from Chets were featured in this film. This is certainly a project to watch!

Standard-Based Bulletin Boards

Virtual Tour - Chets Creek Elementary
Standard-Based Bulletin Boards

WOW! What a busy day. We began this morning by watching the virtual tour of our school. What a great job Melanie and Susan did with this project. It was so rewarding to sit in the audience and hear the postive reactions. I also loved watching Maria in Jacksonville teach her lesson live. The students were so precious.

After a short break it was Debby and my turn. We presented on taking Standard-Based Bulletin Boards to the next level. We shared our struggle and process we went through to get to where we are. It's all about think outside of the box and knowing who your audience is. Will it just be the students learning from your board, your fellow teachers, or your parents. Our best boards include all three purposes. We also try to present our boards in a new way. We use recordings to let our audience hear the students. We sometimes use just pictures along with our commentary to show the student's results. The most important idea is not to settle for the same old board. Produce a board you are proud of and want to share with everyone!

After our presentation Susan shared her excellent work with Book of the Month. Followed by Suzanne and Melanie sharing about this great blog site. For all of you out there scared to start your own blog, Debby and I just started one. It is not great yet, but the ideas are there and we can't wait to learn as we go. Again, don't be afraid, just jump in and try. Isn't that what we tell our children to do every day?

We are looking forward to relaxing tonight. We are having dinner at the Chart House, it is on the Pacific Coast. It's a great change for us. While at dinner I am going to plan my day for tomorrow. I am going to have a hard time deciding which session to attend. They all look great.

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Book of the Month - Building Professional Book Studies

Virtual Tour - Book of the Month
Chets Creek Elementary School, Jacksonville, FL

Here is the PowerPoint from my mini session on Book of the Month from our second virtual tour this morning.

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Wednesday Night

After our model school meetings we left the Renaissance Hotel to walk back to the Roosevelt and were surprised there were barricades. They had roped off Grauman's Chinese Theatre with red carpets and velvet ropes for a movie premiere! We found out they were hosting the premiere for "Fool's Gold" with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.

We headed out for dinner at the Beverly Wilshire hotel (where Pretty Woman was filmed). We ate dinner at The Blvd. inside the hotel. The food was almost too pretty to eat!

Maria's Lesson

Maria and Haley did an outstanding job. They made proud to be part of our school. As a math coach, I was "thrilled" (vocabulary word) to see the number line include negative numbers in the Kindergarten classroom.

LIVE Lesson from the East Coast

Virtual Tour - LIVE lesson
Chets Creek Elementary, Jacksonville, FL

WOW! Just minutes ago, Chets Creek Elementary presented a LIVE lesson, as part of the school's virtual tour, from their school on the East Coast. It's still hard to believe that we could actually "drop in" on a class 3,000 miles aways and actually ask the teachers questions about the lesson that was taught! The Lesson Plan presented by kindergarten teacher, Maria Mallon, is below.

Unit of Study – Narrative
1-31-08
Writing Standard #2 – Narrative Writing
Title of Mini Lesson: Utilizing a Rubric to Enhance Student Writing

Intention:

• For kindergarten students to be familiar with a rubric as a tool to enhance and revise narrative writing.


• For kindergarten students to be able to recognize a piece of writing that may be a one, two, or three on the class-made rubric.

Mini-lesson

• Connection: We have been creating our rubric for the past week and using it to make our writing better. We talked about the three sections of our rubric: “Ingredients Writing #1” – "Plain Cake Writing #2" - and the “Happy Birthday Cake Writing #3.” If we feel we are a #1 writer, we try to improve to a #2, and #2 writers try to improve to a #3. In this way, we can become the best writers we can be.


• Teaching: Today, I am going to show you some student writing. I’m going to use the rubric to help me decide if the piece is a 1, 2, or 3. In this way, we can help the writer with some suggestions on how to make it better, because, remember, we want to be the best writers we can be. (I’ll show one or two writing samples) and talk about where on the rubric I think the writing should be.)


• Active Engagement: I have another piece of writing to show you. (I will read the piece.) Now, I would like you to turn and talk to discuss what number/numbers on the rubric you think this piece of writing is and why. (Invite writers to share their discussion.)


• Link: Writers, remember that the rubric is a tool that will help to make your good writing even better.

Work session: Conference with individual students, allowing each one to practice using the rubric with their own writing.

Share: Some writers that have utilized the rubric to enhance their narrative pieces will share their writing and discuss where on the rubric they feel their writing is.

While Maria was involved in conferring with her students in the Work Session, Kindergarten teacher, Haley Alvarado did a tour of Maria's room to show the artifacts that support the Writers' Workshop. After the lesson, the participants in Hollywood were able to ask questions of Maria and Halley. We are so proud of these teachers who were willing to take this risk and open their practice to such a large audience! What pros!

These type of live "drop in" lessons are done weekly at Chets Creek in both Literacy and Math. The lessons are sent to the Schultz Center, which is our county's Professional Development sight, so that teachers from all over our county (who are at the Center for professional development)can watch quality lessons and then ask the teacher about some of the choices that were made. We thank the Schultz Center For Teaching and Leadership for this partnership that allowed us to bring a live lesson across the United States today!!

Virtual Tour...Take One

A large audience, about 100 participants, are settled into the Virtual Tour of CCE. Part I of the Virtual Tour is the movie Imagineer Melanie put together where Tink and the Fairy Godmother guide us through the school.

The Virtual Tour started in the front office with Mrs. Phillips introducing our vision and mission. Then, the participants Turn and Talked about our school's Data Story while the CCE Imagineers mingling with the participants answering questions.

The front lobby was the next destination where Principal Phillips spoke about our Rituals & Routines. Participants got to Turn and Talk and ask questions about particular Rituals and Routines.

Next, participants got to visit the conference room with a detailed description of our Professional Development including Teacher Meetings and Working on the Work (WOW) Days. Principal Phillips explained the coaching roles the school supports.

Afterward, we got a real treat. Videoconferencing technology allowed us to take the tour LIVE back to Jacksonville for a visit to Maria Mallon's kindergarten writers' workshop. Students were learning to use their classroom rubric to improve their writing. Haley Alvarado gracefully took our visitors on a tour of classroom artifacts while Maria conferenced with students during the work session. The live session wrapped with a debrief between Maria and the conference participants. How incredible it is that technology can support the sharing of live work from across the nation.

A special thanks to Maria and Haley, as well as the technical teams from Jacksonville, Florida and Hollywood, California for making this dream a reality.

Part II is now getting ready to begin... Standards-Based Bulletin Boards, Book of the Month, and Blogging...Take Two.

Start of the Conference

We arrrived last night and had a great dinner at the "Pretty Women" hotel. Ran into a few Steeler fans. L.A. is just like you see on TV. We drove past the oil fields I saw on Shark Sunday night. Of course the ladies knew exactly where Rodeo Drive was but had no clue where Dodger Stadium or the Staples Center might be. Looking forward to a great conference.

Social Networking with Model Schools

Today our Model School meeting closed with a round table discussion on the possibility of social networking among the National Model schools. We are trying to develop a forum online for connecting to be able to easily see: model lessons, student work, professional book recommendations, team building ideas, virtual school tours, new products available, school website and blog links, technology ideas, videoclips of rituals/routines and assessments. We want something that provides a RSS feed to notify us of changes and an easy to navigate, visual platform.
We're hoping to access some new features to Blackboard or develop something new. The main thing being --- let's strike while the iron's hot! We'd love to hear your thoughts about using Blackboard as a social network and what you would like to see accessible on the site.

Live from the Creek

Tomorrow during our Virtual Tour, we will be live videostreaming a Kindergarten lesson from Chets Creek Elementary in Jacksonville, Florida into the America's Choice National Conference in Hollywood, California. This unprecedented live conferencing has taken planning and technical expertise from the The Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership and America's Choice. Tonight, these dedicated individuals are testing the equipment to make sure that this event goes off without a hitch.

Stay tuned as the audience watches a mini-lesson taught by Maria Mallon, gets a tour of a model school kindergarten classroom by Haley Alvarado, and debriefs with the teachers.

Literacy Navigator - Will it work?

Literacy Navigator is an America's Choice intervention program that is meant to work with 4th- 8th grade students who need a little push to meet the standard. The program is meant to be taught for 27 days, 4-5 days a week and is basically a daily guided reading lesson plan for a small group of students who really need to break down and grapple with text. Schools that are piloting the program are using it before and after school and also during the Work Session of the Readers' Workshop. Each session is meant to be about 50 minutes.

Teachers seem to be excited about the lessons that are all based on non-fiction text, which in Florida, is a large portion of our state test. There is no question that the text in this intervention is challenging, but it is meant to be scaffolded. Students should be able to grapple with the text so they have to use their reading strategies to comprehend. The lessons are not the the ones that our general education teachers are teaching which makes the lessons that much more applealing.
This intervention program consisting of Levels A, B, C, D is targeted at students that are almost at grade level. Level A and B are designed for 4th and 5th grade, Level C for 7th or 8th graders, and Level D for 9th and 10th graders, although, this is flexible based on the reading levels of the targeted students.

Literacy Navigator seems to be a preventative intervention, one that will accelerate student learning so these students will not need intervention programs later. This is a program to watch as the research comes in.