Saratoga Union School District
Educational Services Newsletter
October 2014
October 6, 2014 - In This Issue:
Professional Development Opportunities for SUSD Educators

Free Webinar: ELA Performance Tasks on Smarter Balanced Assessments and Implications for Classroom Instruction  

Smarter Balanced English language arts performance tasks require students to apply their knowledge and skills in comprehension, research, analysis, and written expression to respond to real-world problems. Join this free webinar where presenters will review sample tasks and scoring rubrics, and discuss ways to design classroom instruction and assessment that supports and challenges students, as well as discuss perspectives on implementing instruction and assessment. Wed. Oct 22nd 3:30 - 5. Click here for more info. 




Tools for Launching a Common Core Academic Vocabulary Campaign (Grades 5-12)

Dr. Kate Kinsella will provide research-based instructional principles and routines to prepare mixed-ability classes for the vocabulary demands of complex text analysis, discussion and response. She will explicate and model a productive process for introducing focal lesson concepts at the beginning of a unit or text using a customized graphic organizer. Dr. Kinsella will also provide a detailed protocol for assisting students in analyzing context to understand an author's word choice or identify sentence-level clues to word meaning.

Sat. Oct. 18th 8:00 - 3:30 at SCCOE

Click here for more information! 

 

San Jose Area Writing Project Fall Saturday Seminars

 

Nov 8: Narrative Writing

Click here for more information! 

 

California Reading Association

47th Annual Professional Development Institute

The "one stop" conference for everything you need to know about implementing CCSS! Come to the CRA Professional Development Institute where your grade level and your needs/interests are met with OVER 70 Speakers and Experts in Literacy, including our own Laurie Brandt, addressing the Common Core!  

Fri and Sat Oct 17 and 18

Sacramento

Click here for more information!  

 

 

Krause Center for Innovation MERIT Summer Institute

The MERIT Program seeks to show through qualitative and quantitative measures that engaging technology in the hands of a well-trained teacher can improve student learning.  Participants have the opportunity to learn to use and contribute to a variety of resources f

or collaboration, and are required to design projects not simply to provide dynamic learning experiences for their students, but also create open educational resources that will be of value to other teachers and students near and far. Click here for more information and application. 

 


 

 
Educational Services Meetings
& Trainings
all meetings are in the District Office Large Conference Room unless specified
Oct 2 1/2 day DRA training for new teachers (Saratoga) 

Oct 2 Report Card Meeting

Oct 3 and 14 Suicide Prevention (SCCOE)

Tues Oct 7 and Tues Oct 21 8:30 - 3:30
SCCOE Engage NY Math Training (Argonaut)

Thurs Oct 9 8:30 - 3:30 Lucy Calkins Units of Study training for 5th grade teachers (opt-in)

Thurs Oct 93:30 - 5 
Emergency Preparedness Meeting

Mon Oct 13 DLT 

Tues Oct 14 8:30 - 3:30  Lucy Calkins Units of Study training for 4th grade teachers (opt-in)

Thurs Oct 16 8:30- 3:30 Rosetta Stone Training (Saratoga)

Thurs Oct 16 8:30 - 3:30 Khan Academy Coding Training (Khan)

Tues Oct 21 3:30 - 5 GATE Meeting (Argonaut)

Tues Oct 238:30 - 3:30 
Khan Academy Training (TBD)

Tues Oct 28 8:30 - 3:30 Lucy Calkins Units of Study Training for 3rd grade teachers (opt - in)

Thurs Oct 30 3:30 - 5 
District Wellness Meeting

Fri Oct 31 RMS PD; Elementary Work Day
SUSD Links for Teachers
Tech Support
 
   
Need Technical Support?

Send an email to helpdesk@saratogausd.org

Update on Elementary Progress Updates (Report Cards)

 

The Elementary Report Card Committee has been working hard  for the past year to develop Common Core aligned report cards for TK-5th grade.   The new progress updates have many great features, including:

  • alignment to the CCSS 
  • much more information about student progress and performance than previous report cards
  • student and parent friendly language
  • Math Practice Standards listed for reference
  • Successful Learning Behaviors and other academic areas

Teachers will learn about the new Progress Updates on Wed 10/8 at Argonaut (principal will share schedule). The discussion about calibration and assessments will continue on 10/15 (sites TBD). Teachers will have the SLCT day on 10/29 and the Work Day on 10/31 for Conference and Report Card preparation.  

 

Teachers will have an opportunity to share feedback about the new progress updates all year long so that the committee can take all input into account for revisions for next year.

 

We will provide a parent guide to inform parents about the changes, as well as, the PTA Parent Guide to Student Success link for information about grade level standards. Parents will be given an opportunity to take a survey to share their feedback about the new progress updates.  

 

Thank you to the Report Card Committee for their commitment to improving this valuable communication tool for our students, families, and teachers in SUSD! 
CURRICULUM RESOURCES
Khan Academy Training Opportunity - only 2 spaces left!!!

Are you interested in personalizing math instruction for your students and helping them master the Common Core standards? Khan Academy is a free resource used by thousands of educators to achieve these goals. This session will explore how to get started with Khan Academy and incorporate it into your classroom.

When: Thursday, October 23
Time:   8:30 - 3:30
Location: TBD
Register by sending email to Roberta
Are you interested in Rosetta Stone training to support your English Learners?

Did you know that SUSD has 50 Rosetta Stone licenses to provide support for our English Language Learners?  Rosetta Stone provides an online interactive environment to build language naturally at home or school.

If you are interested in learning about Rosetta Stone for your ELs, please come to the Rosetta Stone training on Thursday, October 16th from 8:30 - 3:30 at the Saratoga Computer Lab. The session will cover:
  • Overview of method and structure (hands on teacher participation)
  • Onboarding of learners and review of onboarding tools and how to register learners
  • Benchmarking and reporting-review expected outcomes for the school year
  • Review support materials for student success
Email Roberta if you are interested. Spaces are limited!

iPad Corner 

 
Join the 38 Saratoga educators who have joined the iPad Schoology group to share innovative ways to use your iPad in your classroom. Click here to join today!
Google for Education Newsletter
Do you want to learn about tools, ideas, and training to inspire your students?

In this issue...
  • Made with Code
  • 15 Ways to Change the World
  • Timer
  • Google Cultural Institute
and much more! Click here for the current newsletter.
Project Cornerstone Ideas for Educators 

Positive Family Communication
The kind of communication students experience at home is always reflected in how they communicate at school. When the communication model at home is ineffective, you are not  responsible for changing that-but you can be responsible for modeling good communication in your interactions with students. So what does that look like? Read more.
Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners: Resource Guides for English Language Arts and Mathematics

The new Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners Resource Guides for ELA and Mathematics provide guidance to educators on how to take the curriculum materials on EngageNY and provide additional scaffolds for ELL students according to their level of English language proficiency. The resource guides are aligned to the levels in New Language Arts Progressions and provide examples of how to apply the Progressions to the EngageNY curriculum. Click here for the guides.  
Next Generation Science Standards
Get the latest information on the Conceptual Framework and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards. Click here!
Schoology News

Visit the Schoology blog to learn 4 quick tips for busy educators:
  • Creating Standards-Aligned Assessments
  • Weaving Vocabulary into Lessons with Tooltips
  • Sharing Cross-Disciplinary Discussions
  • Creating and Organizing New Content on the Fly
Click here for the Schoology User Guides and FAQs.

Educators 4 Excellence Release CCSS Video Series

 

Educators 4 Excellence (E4E), a national group of over 12,000 educators dedicated to including the voices of classroom teachers in the decisions that affect their profession and students, has made available a video series featuring teachers from across the country sharing their perspectives on the CCSS and how they are using the standards in their classrooms. You can view the videos and other CCSS resources on the E4E Common Core

Web page.Click here. 

 
Digital Citizenship 

Click here for Common Sense Media's
K-12 Digital Literacy & Citizenship Curriculum, available online as downloadable lessons or as interactive iBook Textbooks. The curriculum includes easy-to-use lessons, student videos, engaging activities, assessments, and parent resources, and is adaptable to low-tech and high-tech classrooms.
Roberta Zarea
Director of Educational Services 
rzarea@saratogausd.org
408.867.3424 x 206


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