SIT Meeting January 17, 2012

In attendance:
Davis-King
Downs
Gentry
Graham
Hedgecock
Horn
Lakey
Maxcy
Neal
Prince
Thorne
Turner
Worrell

Reduction in Paper Progress Reports: 

• We have definitely publicized it:
• Every team mailing, alert now phone and email, School newsletters, etc.,
• will continue to remind parents
• Right now, Admins are working on expectation for teachers
• The fine details are:
• Do teachers still have to contact parents when students fall to a D or an F?
• What is the time frame? 
• Suggested:  Parents should be notified between midterm progress report and the end of the quarter if a student falls to a D or an F
• We are not trying to add more to teachers’ plates, but we do need to remind folks that they are the ones who put out the grades, and we need to continue to communicate with students about grades
• What about printing a missing task list for students?  
• Can admins print these reports from NCWISE? Do they have rights to do that? 
• Do we need to show teachers how they can print missing task list at a staff meeting? (in main "reports" screen in NCWISE) 
• Maxcy:  a change in conversation needs to take place to direct parents to parent assist in general.
• Cindy Wilkes:  has had an extreme influx of parents to sign up for parent assist
• Admins are as a general rule first asking parents: “Have you talked to the teacher, and next have you looked on parent assist?”
• It was suggested that perhaps a list of reminders might be provided for teachers:
• For example, it was suggested that teachers should have major projects due well before end of quarter, and wherever possible grade large projects that span over a long period in “chunks/stages” so that students/parents have an idea of how they are doing along the way
• Incidentally, the overall vote by teachers in favor of going to the new paper progress report schedule was 41-3

PROCESS FOR THE BOOK FAIR:

• Twice a year…is this efficient?
• Can be a positive thing for the school and PTSA
• Kids seem to enjoy it
• Promotes literacy
• Wish we could not push all the “toys”
• The Book Fair has not been scheduled yet, until we get fund raising dates confirmed, but the Fair will be in the spring sometime, and we want to limit instructional time lost
• It is a waste to have every single child come down twice during one week--eats up entire period of class time

Proposal:

• Let kids come down for a preview, then the second time students come down with book fair passes and money to buy something
• Funnel through one or two subject areas in the school.

Other Comments:

• Overall the fair is run efficiently—we don’t have students down in the Media center goofing around—the people running it are firm about that
• We should keep a “literacy focus”
• 2^nd time should be designed for only people with money.
• Input?  Will this work?  What subject area to run it through? Social Studies? Language Arts?
• Perhaps LA teachers because they are the ones teaching reading/books?
• Put a number of the toys away?
• Show the Video that promotes the book fair—it is ~20 minutes
• Thorne:  Is there a flyer that goes home too?
• Let’s plan on starting the promotional video at 7:05 two consecutive days before the book fair
• Lakey:  She favors the LA teachers taking them
• 1^st preview day done through Language Arts?

Let Ms. Gentry know of any input you get over the next couple of weeks

Wiki: for Single School Culture Meetings/John Downs

• 6th grade Math asked Mr. Downs to come out to their single school culture meeting to discuss some ways to integrate technology into Math.
• Downs spoke to them about some ideas, and afterwards I spoke with The Single School Culture Coach (Ms. Beam) 
• Ms Beam was talking about how Kimmel Farm Elem (Sam Walker),  keeps a Wiki of all their single school culture meetings.  
• The Wiki is collaborative in that any teacher can go on there, and add content (such as files, pictures, text, etc.) Downs is suggesting it might be a good idea to do something like that here at SE.

Downs created this Wiki:

 https://semsssc.wikispaces.com

 
So, why would a wiki be better than say keeping notes in a word document and saving on the staff shared drive?
 
1)  Anyone from the meetings could add content to the wiki from any computer with internet access (so you don't have to be at school to edit the notes that maybe are currently saved on a staff share drive, etc)
2)  Wikis have the ability to link to websites, add files, pictures, and even audio and video, so it's a repository for saving stuff as well.
3)  If all the different groups wrote up their notes in this one place, then everyone could see each other's discussions and perhaps read and learn from each other.
4)  Since the Wiki is meant to be collaborative, those editing could pose questions, (let's say it was a technology question)  Downs could come behind and add the response right there on the wiki
5) The wiki would provide a history for documentation purposes, and reference for folks who recalled something said at a meeting (perhaps a resource)

This is not something we "have to do"...but can offer it to anyone who would like to try it even just as a place to save meeting notes—no user name and pw is required to edit the Wiki during this time of experimentation/

Maxcy—teachers would probably need some training on the Wiki

Hedgecock:  used a Wiki in a class and it was very easy to use and efficient

Laura Horn:  Asked for staff input/issues to be brought to SIT and the following are some of the emails she received today:

From an Encore teacher: 

• Need for a review of hallway procedures
• Please ask core teachers to communicate with encore before randomly telling students information about what to bring to encore classes (there was some confusion about this the day of “Worth the Wait” --When in doubt core should call the encore teacher. 

Other Grumblings... 

7^th Grade: 

• General feeling that some teachers are “slacking off” on duties/dress code
• Has the rule changed on jeans only on Fridays?
• Lack of communication issues
• Do we need to review hallway procedures during a staff meeting?
• PM dismissal seems to be a particular issue

Encore/other grade levels has been discussing this too:

• As SIT rep Dedria King has been working with encore teachers and discussing duty issues
• We might need to review/reinforce what rules are to be followed before and after school
• Morale issues? 

Gentry: There are some commonalities here

• Duty assignments and Hallway Procedures
• Some covered in Principal's blog—jeans stuff for example
• Admins might need more specifics to address the specific concerns
• Hallway Procedure—seems to be mostly PM concerns
• Admins may need to go back and look at it 
• Who’s going out front and who is going out to buses?

Other comments:

• Some People maybe unaware of their duties
• Hedgeock—we might need one more person on duty in 600 hall
• Issue:  What if nothing happens when a teacher reprimands a child in the hall?
• There are students ignoring teachers…
• Lakey:  two girls on 8^th grade hall inappropriately dressed—was not not dealt with when girls were sent to the office—We need to all back each other up!
• Bottles coming out of cafeteria:
• Beverage bottles around could lead to issues with alcohol?
  

How do we regroup?

• Perhaps we should have a 3^rd quarter/2^nd semester expectations refocus:
• “Single School cultures it”:  Go back to the rules and what are the consequences going to be.
• A letter to the Parents:  Reminding them to revisit the student handbook.
• Where are the gaps?
• Issues with adults in building can be as challenging as students
• We also don’t want to make the issues bigger than they really are
• We are all professionals and we need to do what we are supposed to do.  

Suggestions:

• At Single School Culture Meetings discuss these issues and come up with a “check list of buckle down/reminders about hall way procedures/teacher duties/professionalism and food and drink in classroom
• Teachers will then have something concrete to go back with students and discuss
• Also, from these suggestions made by the Single School Culture Groups, Gentry can make a  script to say to students, and follow up with a letter to families
• This will take some stepping up by everyone!

Ms Gentry added this after talking with several SIT members after the meeting:

"I will forward the learning team facilitators a checklist of reminders for the second semester, including things like reviewing some specific rules with students, being on supervision duty spots, etc.  Then I will go ahead and work on a summary sheet for teachers to review with students next week as well as a parent letter for Wednesday folders." Ms. Gentry

Final Discussion Point:

• Career center trip:  needs some coordinating—two options: 
• Send four teachers at a time, and (We said no to this) it ends up wasting too much  instructional time.
• Alternative, teachers stay and let other adults go. A schedule should be determined by the end of this week