Staff Meeting #2: 10/26/2022

Our 2nd staff meeting took place on October 26th.

The agenda is posted below as well as a summary of the information discussed and determined during that meeting.

SUMMARY

Ultimately, teams build the outlines of action plans for all four target areas. The various pieces of the action plans will be organized into one comprehensive planning document by Ms. Saia. She will reach out to relevant people where needed to fill in any gaps and then the plans will be shared out with admin, staff, and the board of education once final details are incorporated. In summary, the four areas being addressed are:

  1. Build upon the cycle of teaching, learning, assessment, and data analysis to improve alignment with NJSLS and student performance by reviewing (and possibly redefining) curriculum scope and sequence and prioritizing skills and standards to maximize student growth and achievement.

  2. Increase student engagement in school, both in class and outside of class, by continuing to develop more engaging classroom learning activities, increasing the number of exciting school and district-wide activities to interest students, and embed more academic challenges and assemblies to improve the overall culture and climate.

  3. Build upon existing academic supports to tailor instruction, interventions, and assessments so they meet our diverse student needs by identifying and addressing learning gaps across grade levels, differentiate learning to meet personalized needs in the classroom, and explore ways to provide more inclusive classroom support for ELL students.

  4. Enhance and build upon the professional culture of the staff by finding ways to make time for the professional work that needs to be done, facilitating that time with purpose, targeting professional growth activities to support our growing ELL population, and utilizing a feedback system from staff for continued improvement.


Meeting Notes:


During our second Blue Ribbon Committee Meeting, our Committee "B" Members broke into four groups to start planning action steps for the four priority areas determined by our Committee "A" members in our initial meeting:

  1. Excellence in practice of how learning standards are addressed, instructional approaches, formative/summative assessment, use of data to analyze and improve student performance

  2. Student Engagement

  3. Academic Supports - Tailoring instruction, interventions, and assessments to diverse, individual needs

  4. Professional Culture



Teams of three teachers and 1-2 administrators cycled through each of the four priority areas in stations, completing one of the four levels of plan development:

  • Station 1- Identify the Who, When, What, How’s of your goal and its 4 subgoals

Groups worked through station activities to first prioritize actions and objectives in each target area.


  • Station 2- Review/Add; Map out the first STEP (in detail) for your goal(s)

From there, new teams started mapping out the action steps, resources, and timelines for the most important objective in each target area.


  • Station 3- Review/Add; Build out any necessary following steps

Once that was done, new teams then repeated that process for the remaining 1 or 2 objectives for the target area.


  • Station 4 - Finalize plan with reasonable resources, point people, and timelines

With limited time, we decided to use this time to get more done in the first three station rotations. Ms. Saia will work to move the work done in shared google slides for the station activities into a comprehensive Action Plan Google Sheet file and communicate with individuals or groups as needed to finalize plans prior to the next meeting.


Our Four Blue Ribbon Target Areas

Excellence in Practice

Build upon the cycle of teaching, learning, assessment, and data analysis to improve alignment with NJSLS and student performance by reviewing (and possibly redefining) curriculum scope and sequence and prioritizing skills and standards to maximize student growth and achievement.

We will work on:

  • Reviewing curriculum scope and sequence, revising as needed, to maximize focus on priority areas

  • Using Benchmark and NJSLA data to identify grade/course areas of weakness and supplement those areas as needed

  • Facilitating vertical articulation to identify gaps, increase common language, refine a natural skill continuum

  • Facilitate horizontal articulation to increase common language, develop common rubrics, and find connections and additional supports.

Academic Supports

Build upon existing academic supports to tailor instruction, interventions, and assessments so they meet our diverse student needs by identifying and addressing learning gaps across grade levels, differentiate learning to meet personalized needs in the classroom, and explore ways to provide more inclusive classroom support for ELL students.

We will work on:

  • Identifying gaps that exist across grade levels and between student groups

  • Research, develop, and implement strategies to address those gaps.

  • Increase formative assessment to enhance differentiation including better use of "as needed" scaffolds and remediation rather than whole group re-teaching

  • Brainstorm ways of increasing supports for struggling students, both individually and for identified groups.

Student Engagement

Increase student engagement in school, both in class and outside of class, by continuing to develop more engaging classroom learning activities, increasing the number of exciting school and district-wide activities to interest students, and embed more academic challenges and assemblies to improve the overall culture and climate.

We will work on:

  • Researching and sharing best practices for engaging students in classroom learning for different subjects and grade levels.

  • Incorporating more academic challenges and assemblies for students and whole grades to engage students in attendance, participation, and positive behavior

  • Finding and implementing available trips, activities, etc. that take learning outside of the classroom to make learning more engaging and relevant.

Professional Culture

Enhance and build upon the professional culture of the staff by finding ways to make time for the professional work that needs to be done, facilitating that time with purpose, targeting professional growth activities to support our growing ELL population, and utilizing a feedback system from staff for continued improvement.

We will work on:

  • Find or make time within our professional day to pull teachers together in small groups or whole group to do the work needed to make change over time.

  • Make sure that professional growth time for teachers is relevant, purposeful, goal-oriented, and organized.

  • Make sure our professional learning activities support our greatest areas of need, including our growing ELL population.

  • Find ways to make our professional learning opportunities fun and engaging and improve our positive professional culture.