Monthly Archives: November 2018

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11/27/18 World Language Meeting Notes

This meeting was one of our best. We met over on Bleecker and the full group was present which really helped move the work and discussion forward. This was our time to divide up into smaller groups by department which oddly enough we haven’t done in the past. The goal was to share resources, student work, and talk about curriculum.. We started out in one large space, but then some of us went off to into assigned classroom space where we could get a better idea of the technology and program. There was an apparent enthusiasm and excitement evident in all of the groups and I think it is fair to say that we all felt energized by talking about our best practice, what we do, and how we do it.

We did not  have enough time to all share and when we met back as a full group, I had to bring the conversations to a close which was a first for us. We will continue these discussions next time at th HS where HS teachers will have  more time and an opportunity to share.

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11/27/18 Visual Arts Meeting Notes

The Department met at and visited the Lower and Middle School art spaces. Ann, Peggy, Rohan and Jeremiah shared the work that their students have done and thus far and covered what projects they will be moving into during the rest of the year. We charted the overlap in material use and conceptual content and discussed the ways in which we assess and provide feedback. We also set a timeline for our observations and everyone left with a sense of who and what they hoped to observe.

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11/27/18 Science Meeting Notes

Science and Math met together. Daniel shared a lesson from 9th grade chemistry (determining the relationship between pressure and volume), Debra shared a 3rd grade lesson on odd and even numbers and counting steps, and Michelle shared a 7th grade lesson on gym locker shapes/design. We reflected on similarities between each and skills that we were building in common across the subjects, then we met in high school and middle/lower school groups to discuss more specific connections and reflections.

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11/27/18 Math Meeting Notes

Science and Math met together. Daniel shared a lesson from 9th grade chemistry (determining the relationship between pressure and volume), Debra shared a 3rd grade lesson on odd and even numbers and counting steps, and Michelle shared a 7th grade lesson on gym locker shapes/design and redesign of Dunkin’ Donuts boxes. We reflected on similarities between each and skills that we were building in common across the subjects, then we met in high school and middle/lower school groups to discuss more specific connections and reflections.

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11/27/2018 History Meeting Notes

The high school history team met to discuss writing and the third trimester Democracy in Action class.

Tom met with the middle school team in the middle school. We continued our discussion of what would be the format for PD for the group. After some discussion they came up with a plan for a two stage PD program.

First the middle school history team would meet for a half day (12 -3) discussion that would focus on the following:

        • They would share an overview of their curriculum, followed by a deeper discussion of the themes of their programs. This would help new get a clearer sense of the middle school program.  
        • They would also discuss how they teach writing in the different grades. Each of theme would examples of student to see how they build on each other’s work and I would give them a sense of how this fits in with what is done at athe high school.

Finally, we discussed how this first half day meeting might be the incubator for ideas for a full day retreat for all the middle school core teachers. We hoped to schedule the first half day sometime in Jan, and the full day workshop in the spring.

The high school will continue to meet each Friday and may ask for a another PD day in the second trimester. 

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11/13/18 World Language Meeting Notes

On Tuesday the department met in order to review our goals and share the different kinds of reading we are currently doing in our classes and how that reading reinforces communication skills across the curricula and intra-divisionally.

We also discussed the schedule of meetings and agreed that we would like to convene on the scheduled Tuesday times along with the option to meet for a  bigger block of time further on down the road to work on documenting and recording our study. Many of us seemed to like the idea of photographing student work and even filming our students engaged in their projects.

At the next meeting we will be meeting together, but by language at the MS to address issues of continuity and transitional years. Time permitting we will come together to begin to share student work.

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11/13/18 Visual Arts Meeting Notes

We discussed what our critical friends group would look like (expectations, schedule/how we will provide feedback) and shared what our courses for each grade would look like this year. The hope was to find points of interest within different classes across different divisions that would inform our own lessons and classrooms. Ideally the teacher being observed will receive feedback on their practice and the observer will take away things that they can use in their rooms. We will follow up with this during our next meeting and will create a structure by which everyone will see classes and be seen in an equitable distribution.