Post date: Jan 7, 2016 2:15:42 AM
Meeting Notes 01-05-2015 4:00-5:30 at JSCEE
In attendance: Michele Anciaux Aoki (International Education Administrator), Tricia Nielsen (Ballard HS, Spanish); Mary Lanza (Mercer Intl MS, Spanish); David Simmons (Washington MS, French), and Eric Caldwell (Director of Technology)
We focused on the recommendations from Tricia's WL Needs Assessment and what could be done soon and what is longer term.
Recommendations.
1. Curriculum recommendations:
Mary felt this was the most important thing, but through our conversation, we saw how we could address some of the curriculum needs/interests in conjunction with expanding PD opportunities.
a. Align Curriculum: Establish district-wide common standards that guide learning targets and curriculum choice.
We do have the Common Course Outcomes defined in 2010, but teachers are not aware of them. (Also, we seem to be missing Level 1. Maybe someone who worked on it could find a copy in their files. I'll also check Karen's paper files.) We need to get these shared during some district PD sessions https://sites.google.com/site/seattleworldlanguages/wl-course-outcomes plus the example units: https://sites.google.com/site/seattleworldlanguages/example-units.
b. Support Common Assessments: Develop or procure district-wide assessments to align what students should learn during the course of a year.
We are working on this in the Dual Language Immersion programs so there may be some helpful overlap for all WL teachers. More on this in the spring.
c. Adopt Up-to-Date Curriculum: Provide current curriculum and access to technology.
We had a lengthy conversation with Eric Caldwell, Director of Technology, about this. A curriculum adoption (of textbooks) can cost about $5,000,000. Spanish is not in the queue at this time. However, Eric encouraged us to research what type of materials (or even up-to-date editions of the current textbook for Spanish) would be of interest to teachers. He also pointed out that a lot of districts around the country are developing curriculum resources through OER (Open Educational Resources see: http://digitallearning.k12.wa.us/oer/ ) -- which is much more affordable. If we could come up with some reasonable (doable) proposals, the central office might be able to help with procurement. Eric would at least like to see the current (old) textbook for Spanish removed from the adoption list because when new schools expand into Spanish, he has to procure the old textbooks in order to give them the district adopted materials.
2. Professional development recommendations:
a. Offer In-district PD Opportunities.
We have scheduled Catherine Ousselin for the March 23 early release day.
We also discussed doing a Schoology training (with WL context and examples from what the French Teachers PLC has done) sooner. More about that below.
b. Support and Promote Out-of-district PD Opportunities.
We can keep an eye on these opportunities. For example, the WAFLT Spring Regional will be held at CWU in Ellensburg on April 2. Maybe the district could pay the registration fee for WL teachers who would like to go. We can also communicate about opportunities through the Spanish Center and Confucius Institute, for example, plus the Academie de Nantes has a representative in the Seattle area now for French support.
3. District-level support recommendation:
a. Hire a District World Languages Curriculum Manager.
This is a longer term effort, but we can continue advocating for it and making clear why it is important. (In the meantime, I will do the best I can to support WL teachers even though I'm not a Curriculum Manager.)
So... the session with Catherine will give us a good introduction to various technologies available to support teachers and/or students in language classrooms (or on their own). If you have not checked out her stuff, it's worth taking a look: http://catherine-ousselin.org/
In preparation for Catherine's workshop, we felt it would be helpful to have a 3-hour Schoology training -- oriented to WL teachers -- in February. Eric can pay for the extra hours for any teachers who have not already attended (and been compensated for) Schoology training. (For teachers who already did Schoology training, I would pay the extra hours out of Shauna's WL funds.) Here's the proposal:
Connecting with World Language Teachers through Schoology
Location: Washington MS (David would host)
Date: Mon or Tue in February...
(we'll send a Doodle to check preferred dates -- could do 2 sessions, if necessary)
Time: 3:30-6:30 pm
Cost: free (plus teachers get extra hours pay for attending
Presenter: Eric will find a Technology Instructor, such as Harvey Wright to coordinate the session, but we would provide the WL content
Following that workshop, we could have the WL Teacher Leaders (you guys) do a conference call with Catherine to get more specific about the goals for the March 23 training. And then we should plan some follow-up sessions in May? (maybe by language or level or region?) to see what teachers are actually willing to share within Schoology and what technology resources they're interested in trying out.
Another idea for a future workshop would be to invite Paris Granville from Bellevue to share with our teachers what they do for PD for WL teachers in Bellevue... and help us prioritize what our teachers would like in the future.
NEXT STEPS:
1. (Michele) Firm up arrangements for Catherine Ousselin on March 23. (Need a location)
2. (Michele & Eric & Leadership Team) Identify some potential Feb dates for the Schoology training.
3. (Michele or Tricia) Send out Doodle to the WL teachers to finalize the date(s).
4. (Michele & Leadership Team) Identify date to do pre-workshop conference call with Catherine.
5. (Tricia) Spend a little time checking out OER. (Here are some WL examples from Georgia:
http://www.gavirtuallearning.org/Resources/SharedSpanish1(WLCopy).aspx
6. (Michele) Check with Eric for Schoology groups for Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, etc. (French already have been using their page.)