Supporting Student Success – NH Extended Learning Opportunities
All Site Meeting
January 8, 2009
Location: NH DOE, Walker Building, Room 100 Time: 9:00 – 12:00
In attendance:
ELO Teams:
Manchester Central,
Laconia,
Franklin,
Newfound Regional,
Monadnock Regional,
Farmington
Raymond
Mascenic
ELO Partnership:
NMEF: Jessica Spohn, Delia Arellano-Weddleton
NH DOE: Mariane Gfroerer, Paul Leather, Suzanne Birdsall
PlusTime NH: Janice Hastings, Melissa Gallagher,
CACES: Rose Colby, Rob Lukasiak
CSSR: (Center for Secondary School Redesign) Joe DiMartino
Antioch NE: Tom Julius, Laura Thomas
Announcements:
The next all site meeting will be held on Thursday, February 12th, with a snow date of Tuesday, February 17th.
The snow date for our March 5th all site meeting is Tuesday, March 10th.
An Electronic Portfolio expo will be held at the NH DOE 101 Pleasant St, Room 15, on Thursday, February 5 from 9 – 1. This is a “drop-in” event. All are welcome to examine a variety of electronic portfolio options and speak with the developers.
An announcement and flyer was distributed about the “Below Zero” training being offered by PlusTime NH and NH Fish and Game on January 22. This is a possible ELO connection.
An Americorps VISTA bidders conference is being held at PlusTime NH on January 13th and 21st.
Tom
Julius and Laura Thomas from Antioch NE University were introduced.
Tom, Director of the Experienced
Educator Program
and Laura, Director of the Antioch
Center for School Renewal,
will be assisting in the spring Teacher-to-Teacher Exposition.
At this Expo, teachers and students in the ELO initiative can
demonstrate what they are doing with ELO’s in dialogue with
teachers and staff from other schools and districts. This will be an
incredibly rich learning experience. Tom will be contacting ELO
coordinators and working directly with interested teachers to help
them develop demonstrations for the Expo. Graduate Credit from
Antioch NE is available for presenters at low cost by registering
for this experience with Laura Thomas at 603.283.2302
or
lthomas@antioch.edu.
Leadership Support:
Joe DiMartino, Founding Director of the Center for Secondary School Redesign and author of the book that was provided at last year's summer institute, Personalizing The High School Experience for Each Student, has joined the ELO initiative for 2009. His role will support leadership in examining practice and policy changes. Joe brings vast experience in high school redesign and support, student voice, and personalizing education.
Joe led a discussion on engaging stakeholders in the ELO initiative and identifying stakeholders’ influence & support (attached). In addition, the beginning discussion on personalizing learning is attached.
Listening Protocol & Assessment Discussion:
The article, “Refocusing Accountability" from The Forum for Education and Democracy was the focus of discussion. (can be found online at: http://www.forumforeducation.org/node/377) The Final Word protocol was presented as a way to encourage full group participation and keep the discussion focused on the topic at hand. (This protocol can be found at: http://www.nsrfharmony.org/protocol/doc/final_word.pdf)
The ELO Rubric Set and Minimum Expectations for Assessment Components documents were reviewed and discussed relative to the assessment article. Some comments from this review include:
If the article is the why, then the “Minimum Expectations” are the what. The How is where most folks get hung up.
Minimum Expectations are essentials for all. How school wide rubrics tie into these minimum expectations is something we must actively pursue.
Tools for assessment provide variety and eliminate potential bias
How do we prepare parents to be assessors?
What about the formative assessment so some students don’t fall through the cracks?
Tie these back to the benchmarking rubric we worked on.
Student Engagement Discussion:
The group discussed continued student engagement in ELOs (notes attached). This was a follow up to the discussion around student recruitment held at the December all site meeting.
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