Professional Development Executive Committee

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Group Memory December 12, 2013 Attendees: Co-Chair Debra Pace; Co-Chair Cindy Van Meter, Dori Bisbey, Dawna Bobersky, Joanne Bogle, Jane Cline, Jennifer Cockrell, Lynn Conroy, Mark Elliott, Rick Fleming, Matt Frey, Nancy Vickie Hickey, Elia Lea, Joe Laub (FIT), Barbara Murray (School Board/UCF), Robin Novelli, Jane Respess, Barbara Rodrigues, Janice Scholz, Lynn Spadaccini, Janet Stephenson, Kathy Seeley (UCF), Beth Thedy, Mollie Vega,Teresa Wright

Welcome and Start Ups: Dr. Respess welcomed two of PDEC’s university partners to the December meeting. Cathy Seely from University of Central Florida and Joe Laub from Florida Institute of Technology gave brief overviews of their intern programs.

Cathy Seely gave an overview of UCF’s Early Start Program. This program allows interns to begin with their mentor teachers prior to the start of the school year. It has proven very successful and many Junior Interns return to the same mentor teacher for their Senior Internship in Brevard Public Schools.

Joseph Loeb shared the UTeach Program at Florida Institute of Technology. This STEM program funded through a collaborative grant with the district, allows math and science majors to also become certified math and science teachers at a secondary level. FIT students in the program have an improved retention rate at the college.

Dr. Respess also introduced Joanne Bogle from Professional Learning and Development. She works with intern placements within our district.

Common Core/Professional Practices: Timelines for PDD in August Lynn Conroy shared the approved district calendar for 2014-15. The first Professional Development Day will be on August 14, 2014. All inservice providers will need to have all workshops entered into the new PLMS by Friday, May 23, 2014. This will allow all teachers the ability to register for the first PDD during the last week of school. The registration period will remain open for the summer to allow teachers to make changes to their training sessions if needed. New hires will be registered on the first day of school. Principals will be asked to put the PDD registration on their end-of-year checklist and their Welcome Back letter in August of 2014. The Preplanning PDD day will afford teachers the opportunity to be inserviced prior to the first day for students.

Differentiated Accountability and Standards-Based Instruction: Vickie Hickie shared the Region III DA Walkthrough instrument that includes nine indicators or focus area, an evidence collection text box, and room to place the classroom on a continuum for each category. The Differentiated Accountability (DA) walkthrough is highly focused on Standards Based Instruction emphasizing rigor and the expectation of what students can do as a result of the lesson. The Focus Areas are Indicators 1, 2, 5 and 7. Currently the DA Committee is also supporting schools in the “hold harmless” status. Vickie emphasized that the DA observations should not be looked at as “one more thing,” but a focus on Standards-Based Instruction. In addition, she shared the DA and IPPAS Comparison Chart. The chart shows that the DA Indicators meld together with the IPPAS Indicators. All DA Indicators have a direct link to an IPPAS Dimension and Element. Her observations in schools reveal a lack of understanding of the standards by both teachers and administrators.

Teacher Effectiveness: Teacher Convening: Teacher Convening is scheduled for January 24-25, 2014. The Friday night dinner and program will be held at the Radisson at the Port with Saturday training sessions at Viera High School. The goal is to uplift the profession and inspire the group; it will be a celebration of teaching. Principals will select 2-3 teachers and consider choosing those who are not necessarily the ones always chosen.

Instructional Leadership: Charge Session Speakers Debra Pace asked for suggestions from the group for the two Charge sessions. The first day will be for instructional leaders at Harris with the second day at Viera High School. Suggestions: Standards-Based Instruction, i.e.-Wiggins and McTighe to speak on Understanding by Design that promotes backwards design to design curriculum units, performance assessments, and classroom instruction because planning is the key. Performance Matters and Blackboard, 16 people are attending to Performance Matters training in January. It was suggested that the two days be split with not the same content provided on both training days. A recommendation was made for a motivational speaker on Friday for the administrators with content focus presentations on Day 2 when principals and teacher leaders attend the training as teams. John Chento speak about Gamification. It is the use of games in a non-game context in order to engage users. Eric Jensen was also suggested to speak about change. This presentation was recently made at an ASCD conference. Also, if break-out sessions occur on Day 2 at Viera High School a suggestion was made to have at least one session cover Standards-Based Grading.

Inter-rater Reliability/Instructional Rounds Update: Dori Bisbey stated that the first set of Instructional Rounds have been completed district wide. The team leaders are developing Look-Fors. The Instructional Rounds have received favorable feedback. Most agreed that the conversation among team members was the most valuable. The key is being able to recognize the instructional practice across grade levels and subject areas. Inter-rater Reliability is the focus of the Instructional Rounds. The Professional Learning and Development Office would like to do one more set of rounds during second semester. Dr. Respess encouraged the principals in the group to visit schools outside of their personal experience. Secondary principals were encouraged to visit an elementary school, and elementary principals were encouraged to visit middle and high schools.

Mrs. Bobersky asked if we could have a conversation about how ESE teachers are scored on the IPPAS. Additional professional development is needed with specific “Look-Fors” and “Ask-Fors” targeting behavior. This would include teachers that have students on Behavior Plans and Hearing Impaired students. Clarification or additional training needed to be made on Dimension 2, Element IV. A concern was raised that some teachers may never receive a “Distinguished” score if he/she has to redirect a student during the lesson. Although it was shared that this Element is about the loss of instructional momentum due to discipline, it will be emphasized more clearly in the future.

Department Updates: Title I is working with administrators on the “Developmental Mantra.” All elementary principals have been on trained essential questions. There is still a concern by Kindergarten and Pre-K teachers with Socratic Conversations. There are no examples for them to view. Head Start/Early Childhood is focused on providing teachers and IA's with training in the new curriculum and assessment programs and the CLASS observation instrument.

Elementary Programs will be offering support to all elementary schools for the February Professional Development Day. Sample agendas will be shared with them as they plan their training under Common Core.

Technology has advertised its Educational Technology Grant. The grant will support six schools with technology and has a focus on writing and speaking. The six school winners will be announced soon.

CTE is focused on making sure teachers are updated on the industry certifications that their students are required to pass. Another focus is working with non-degreed teachers to ensure they are meeting the certification requirements. The constant updates required for industry are always a challenge. In addition, they have been offering training on reading data, essential questions and high quality thinking.

ESE has been focused on training for the Varying Exceptionalities teachers. Kelly Dwenger has collaborated with their department and together they have offered evening sessions and follow-up meetings through webinars.

Secondary Programs is working diligently to provide quality training by content area for the February Professional Development Day. In addition, they have become interested in the Literacy Design Framework. Staff member attended the Florida Literary Network Conference and heard from teacher facilitators that content area teachers can create modules and units embedding literacy skills that promotes student learning. This model also increases rigor in content area classrooms. In addition, some secondary schools asked to hold site-based training instead of attending a district sponsored workshop. This request could not be approved because training has already been scheduled for the February Professional Development Day.

Updates from Schools: Principals expressed concern that many teachers may request personal leave for the August Professional Development Day. It was suggested that they ask these teachers if they had already met their PGP training goal and to keep in mind their certificate validity period to encourage their attendance on this district training day.

Upcoming PDEC Meeting January 16, 2014 Conference Room-302B January Facilitator-Dr. Lynn Spadaccini January Recorder-Dr. Beth Thedy