We used this time to schedule and plan our PD day on May 6th ( if possible). This will be a time to record and archive our reading practice across divisions.
Monthly Archives: March 2019
3/5/19 Visual Arts Meeting Notes
The dept met and discussed artistic influences that we bring to our classrooms and our personal practices. We furthered that discussion by talking through how we use those artists work to illustrate the formal elements of art / technical skills.
3/5/2019 Performing Arts Meeting Notes
Peggy, Aedin, Susan, Nick, Dimitry Joanne attended (Sara, Meghan, Joan Maria and Damon all part-time and not available)
Continued our work on curriculum recording and discussed complexity of being inclusive to students while creating a “bar” for the bands. Music teachers discussed how we can create options for students who need to start somewhere to learn skills and develop experience before becoming a member of the school’s ensembles.(Nick is planning on giving students access to learning/ developing their skills in an x-block that would allow them to join an ensemble once they have reached a level of proficiency.) Also discussed how classes need to progress in the high school. If an introductory class is offered it could lead to an advanced class. This requires those subject teachers to plan what constitutes advanced learning. ( For example, Meghan and Joan offer a variety of options that they could plan/discuss) Discussed the challenges of the 8th – 9th grades where we gain about 50% of students who have not been in our classes in middle school so 9th grade almost feels like a step back for our LREI students. How can we find solutions to challenge those already skilled at the same time as those not having been in the class before? Dance offerings are available but Peggy expressed a lack of students signing up so the classes don’t go ahead. We are planning to continue to work on supporting the Dance curriculum to give students access to dance beyond 9th grade. Continued with filling in our curriculum for our courses.
3/5/19 and 4/23/19 Math Meeting Notes
Two Tuesday department times were given for members to watch and comment on 5 hours of collected class videos made by Michelle, Debra, Rob, Sergei, Pat and Shafeiq.
3/5/2019 History/Science Department Meeting Notes
Science and History met together. Our focus was on how we teach students to use evidence to support their claims/statements/explanations. Dan shared a lesson from 6th grade where we made repeated observations of a candle burning inside a jar and talked about how we could use that to find evidence for the percentage of oxygen in the air in the room—and then how we could think about any difference between our number and the “expected” value. Tom shared a lesson from 9th grade where we simulated countries just before WWI and passed notes back and forth, trying to establish allies and responding to prompts he gave us. We broke into high school and middle/lower school groups to discuss in more depth. In the HS group, we talked about many areas and skills students find difficult as they work on their writing, noting the similarities or corresponding types of problems that students encounter in science classes.