Instructional Videos Demonstrate Strong Classroom Instruction

By now, you've had at least one classroom observation and received feedback from your school leader or observer. A new resource is available to support you as you apply that feedback in your classroom. A series of instructional spotlight videos, aligned to LEAP indicators, have been produced to illustrate practical classroom examples of effective instruction. We want you to have a clear idea of what great teaching looks like and how applying the LEAP Framework for Effective Teaching can help drive student achievement. In these short videos, you will see how teachers in various content areas and grade-level classrooms demonstrate best practices related to:

• Providing high-quality instruction focused on content language objectives
• Creating positive learning environments

Check out more instructional videos online and let us know what you think.

Principal Baruti Kafele Will Lead Dec. 8 ED Talk on Culturally Responsive Education 

Don't miss the Culture, Equity and Leadership Team's (CELT) next ED Talk, featuring Principal Baruti Kafele, a teacher and principal who led urban school turnarounds before

	Principal Baruti Kafele will speak at the next ED Talk.

becoming a nationally-known speaker, writer and consultant.

Kafele, who was a public school educator in New Jersey for more than 20 years, will speak on Culturally Responsive Education from 5 to 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 8 at Manual High School. Read his bio and register for the event.

CELT's ED Talks are designed to bring educators and community together to discuss issues affecting our schools and to help us learn from each other in pursuit of our district vision, Every Child Succeeds. The series was created following the recent report by Dr. Sharon Bailey documenting race and equity issues in our schools.

CollaboRATE Today!

There are only two days left to take the CollaboRATE survey! Every year, we hear stories from team members and leaders about how they use their CollaboRATE results to make positive changes within their departments or schools. Here is one example of how CollaboRATE results were used to improve culture at Fairview Elementary.

"Building culture has been a strong focus at Fairview Elementary. 

Our principal,  Antoinette Hudson, recognizes the importance of making decisions based on feedback from our CollaboRATE results. We have built an environment at our school that allows administration and teachers to have collaborative  conversations based on walkthroughs, observations and lesson plan feedback. We use LEAP to have productive and reflective conversations that focus on teachers' strengths. The culture that we have built at Fairview makes it easier to be transparent and honest with teachers when providing feedback. In turn, this allows our teachers to take risks, make mistakes and grow in their profession."

 

~Assistant Principal TJ Layne, Fairview Elementary

Reminder: Jan. 6 Changed from Blue Day to Green Day

Jan. 6 is now a Green Day. Please attend professional learning sessions that day. Session and registration information was announced Dec. 5 and is available in the Professional Learning Catalog .These professional learning opportunities will provide ongoing support in instructional best practices.

As a reminder, teachers' manuals for third grade ELA-S Module 3 Paired Literacy will arrive in schools that have opted into Expeditionary Learning between Dec. 14 and Dec. 16. Please be advised that Module 3 is scheduled to begin on Jan. 9 and all materials are currently available digitally on Schoolnet via the Scope and Sequence. This is the final shipment of Paired Literacy materials as all other resources were delivered to schools in April, May and September. If you have questions, please contact Sara Wortinger.

Grades 6 through 8 Social Studies Design Team Application Open

As a part of the 2017-18 social studies curriculum adoption, we are creating teams of teachers from each grade level to serve as a design team for new scope and sequence creation. Please apply by Dec. 16. The commitment will be two full days (one in January and one in March) along with six, two-hour after-school meetings. Teachers will be paid at the curriculum writing rate. We are looking forward to providing high-quality, standards-aligned scope and sequence documents. If you have any questions, please contact Bethany Smith.

Review READ Act Assessment Update for K-3 ELA-S Teachers

K-3 ELA-S teachers should be sure to assess their students in English as per the new READ Act requirement if you have not yet done so. December may be a helpful month to assess; please keep this information in mind:

Please contact your READ Act Site Assessment Leader (SAL) if you have any questions or concerns.

Preparing for CMAS: Resources Available

Review Changes to READ Act Assessment End-of-Year Targets

To ensure teachers are supported in monitoring student progress in literacy in alignment with CMAS: English Language Arts (PARCC), the end-of-year targets for READ Act assessments have been reviewed for potential adjustments. This review identified that only Istation Early Reader (ER) and Advanced Reader (AR) targets must be adjusted to be aligned with CMAS: English Language Arts. The other platforms (DIBELS Next, Istation Español, i-Ready, STAR) will use vendor-provided end-of-year targets. Teachers can find resources outlining the end of-year-targets for students at- or above-grade level in reading under "End-of-Year Targets." This information will help teachers understand whether a student is prepared to meet or exceed expectations on CMAS and monitor whether a student is on-track to achieve grade-level proficiency. If you have questions, please contact Katherine Beck.

Student Learning Objectives Student Work Collection

Teachers are invited to submit any current student work that you believe would be a good resource for your colleagues who are looking for standardized Student Learning Objectives (SLO) resources. Please submit work via this Google form or scan work to [email protected] by Jan. 10. Student work will be reviewed by the assessment specialist team, calibrated for end-of-course expectation levels and posted to the SLO Wiki Student Sample Work columns for reference. For questions, please contact [email protected].