The Redesign Team would like to meet with teachers...

They have proposed Tuesday March 8 3:15-4 in the cafeteria.

Here are the Notes from Friday's Meeting after school.

Notes on Teacher Meeting 2/18/11

Questions:

• Is there a way to ask people not to email brainstorms, but something that is discussed and agreed to? Ex: PTSO
• How are they dividing the school?
• How can we keep arts intact?
• If we are getting PLA money, can we save some teachers?
• What will the scheduling be like? 90 min blocks?
• What about traditional scheduling?
• “the parents” don’t represent all of the parents. Who speaks up for those other kids whose parents don’t show up to these meetings?
• Survey: No programs in place to address bullying, mental health etc?  Really? What about Health? Programs help SOME students, Curriculum helps ALL students. 
• Why are SU people pulling us out of class for “grad class” stuff?
• Why are SU people telling us how to do our jobs?  Will they be here next year?
• Could you say that we want staff development by and for teachers?
• Where are the SayYes resources going?
• How much influence does SayYes have?
• Why is the IT dept. HIRING?
• Who balances and checks the IT dept.
• What’s up with 360 teacher review?
• Are Father figure hall monitors what we need?
• What data are you looking at?
• Are they watching us?
• What about ESL and Special ed kids?
• Where are the carrots and sticks?
• How can we evaluate parents?
• How can we improve the quality of students we receive?
• Smaller learning communities: ½ kids make it through 9^th grade because of us.  Why no teams on upper levels?
• Why are neediest kids kicked out of all these special programs? 
• Why are advanced kids getting the special prograpms
• What is up with discipline?
• How much we will be looking at meeting NYS future requirements, but at college readiness?
• How is the possibility of HW Smith coming here going to work into these plans?
• Don’t IEP and ESL students get 6 years?
• Do students have to take Regents until they pass or can they take RCT after one try?
• Is there any validation for the 4 year requirement when kids have  6 years?
• If I’m teaching full inclusion taking a regents, is this for socialization or to kill our numbers?
• Where are the job coaches?  Vocational?
• How can you base evaluation on student growth with a minimum grade of 50?
• How do we keep ELL students desirable to teachers who are evaluated on results?
• Where are peer tutors?
• Where is peer mediation?

Ideas:

• Smaller learning communities could be set up in houses for kids who are not literate
• Traditional scheduling
• Put the money into teachers, not programs
• Staff dev. By and for teachers
• Put some cameras in the stairwells (where all the babies are made)
• We are losing kids because they come to us low skilled
• Spend money on lower levels to teach reading, etc.
• 10^th grade teams 11, 12
• OLC!
• Students with low skills who need some guidance need qualifying school.
• Talk to Clemente Lopes at IS10 in Queens
• Professional environment
• Teachers are role models, set examples
• Teacher dress code
• No jeans and sneaker while teachings
• More lights in hallways
• Less likely to hang out without mood lighting
• New lockers that look nice and work
• Air conditioning
• Announcements important with principal on it. 
• They should be special
•  
• Rotating teacher, admin, divers and representative parent teams for intervention and home visits.
• Truancy duty
• Every dept included in team meetings

Needs:

• 50 min a day, tops
• Health Class
• Staff development by and for teachers
• We need more than just Spanish language classes
• OLC!
• Support for students transitioning from VINTA
• No education happens without discipline! Like IS10 in Queens
• Be proactive on future state mandates
• Better ELL data
• Show growth in reading, designed by Kelly Malone
• SRI’s
• Base point to show growth in math, not regents or even regular ESL testing
• How do extra curricular activities affect student success?
• Which extras improve performance?
• Need to look out for untenured teachers.  EVEN BEFORE REDESIGN.
• Get rid of deadbeats, we know there are some bad ones.  That is administrative work. No Untenured teacher witch hunts. 
• ELLs And Special Ed students on heterogeneous teams all the way up.
• The Corcoran Model of Upstairs/ downstairs good kids/bad kids is bad model
• Remember all of our populations, no climate of have and have-nots.  Research is against it. 
• No ELL and Special Ed GHETTOS!
• Augment instruction with academic intervention programs not replace it. 
• Address Absenteeism : other than robo-calls to nonexistent numbers.
• Every dept (special ed) in team meetings. 
• Common time with special ED
• Common time among depts., cross curricular, etc.  Use our building
• “Get rid of Goddamn prescriptive programs that replace English class”
• We don’t value what we are being judged on.  We want the child to be ready, not sit in a gym and do okay on something for three hours. 
• Accountability
• Teach citizenship and values
• Flexible hybrid schedule to meet needs of different learners in different circumstances.

Why are YOU a GOOD, or dare we exclaim, GREAT teacher?!

Let's gather our spirits together and remember why we are good teachers in this environment of blame the teacher...No need to be defensive...just think about all that we do in this school.   Folks who don't spend the whole class observing, or for that matter, several classes observing, may not see what really is happening between us and the students. 

MEETING TODAY at 3:11 in the cafeteria!

Here's a copy of the e-mail we all received.  Please plan to attend!

 

Thank you for making yourselves heard verbally, via email and whatever other methods you could muster.  We need that. 

The entire staff is invited to meet with the Unit 1 members of the Redesign Team this Friday at 3:11 in the cafeteria.  Staff needs, questions and ideas will be scribed anonymously (by me) and passed back to the redesign team.  We are only bringing the Unit 1 members of the team so staff feel they have a safe environment in which to speak.

There will be a meeting with the ENTIRE Redesign Team the week after break.  

FYI, the criteria for the STATE REDESIGN RUBRIC is broken into four categories:
A) Comprehensive Instructional Strategies
B) Developing and Increasing Teacher and School Leadership Effectiveness
C) Increasing Learning Time and Creating Community Oriented Schools
D) Providing Operational Flexibility and Sustained Support

While these categories are dense and nebulous; we will try to explain more of what they mean at the meeting. 

Once again, thank you for making yourselves heard.  We need your input so we can represent you better at the team. 

See you Friday,

Mark Austin
Tracy Wiles
Therese Como
Tom Azzolino
Tom Little
Nigh Stamoulacatos

The State Redesign Rubric--Providing Operational Flexibility and Sustainable Support

The State Redesign Rubric--Increasing Learning Time and Creating Community Oriented Schools

The State Redesign Rubric--Developing and Increasing Teacher and School Leadership Effectiveness

Please comment.

The State Redesign Rubric--Comprehensive Instructional Strategies

Please comment!

Meeting with Redesign Team

We requested a meeting with the redesign team before February break, similar to the meeting held for parents on Thursday 2/10.  We should have a response by Wednesday morning.  Let's start formulating our questions and comments now.

Welcome Post

Welcome Nottingham teachers and staff!
 This blog is for you.  As our school goes through the redesign process, communication is key.  Our goal is to keep you informed of the redesign process as it evolves.  This blog is a space where teachers and staff can express their opinions, ideas, comments, and questions related to the redesign.  Please comment professionally and constructively.
We are all major stakeholders in this process and are hoping to increase staff input.
Right now, we are calling ourselves the Nottingham Teachers' Working group.  All are welcome to join.
Zoe Kinney and Jim McGinty