2. Foster High School 1 of 3 High Schools in Lamar CISD Four-year public high school Enrollment: 2113 &rapidly growing Grades 9-12 Ethnic breakdown: 52.6% White 28.8% Hispanic 15% African American 3.5% Asian 0.1 American Indian
3. Campus Leadership Gene Tomas Opened the school in 2002 Old school approach Very supportive of staff and students Interested in PLCs Professional staff: 6 administrators, 123 teachers, & 15 support staff
4. TEA Ratings 2008 – Academically Acceptable Predicted 2009 – Recognized (Yeah!!) District & Campus Goal – Exemplary by 2010
5. Current State of Instruction Teachers teaching the same subject matter work in isolation Different tests, instruction, and labs for the same subject matter Caveman syndrome Small pockets of collaboration (almost none)
6. TAKS Challenge 2008 10th Grade Science TAKS scores… 82% passed Goal 90% to become exemplary Problems are in our sub. pops. White – 91% Asian – 93% African American – 73% Hispanic – 65% Econ. Disad. – 60%
7. PLC - IPC Team Four IPC teachers (9th grade) 2 coaches, 1 near retirement and myself Subject assigned administrator to oversee the science department
8. My Vision Using the National Staff Development standards for PLCs. Foster HS will have… “Staff development that improves the learning of all students organizes adults into learning communities whose goals are aligned with those of the school and district.”
9. LCISD’s Graduate Profile We want all our graduates to be: Effective Communicators Effective Users of Technology Self-directed Learners Quality Producers Responsible Citizens Celebrants of Diversity Competent, Creative Problem-Solvers
10. Vision My Vision is to establish a PLC which will become a collaborative group that will improvestudent learning through more effective instruction, curriculum, and assessment
18. PLC Layout PLC will meet Tuesdays & Thursdays during set conference period (1stperiod) PLC will follow social contract agreed on by members at start of year and hold each member to the contract PLC will meet with dept. once a week led by dept. head to discuss dept. issues and understand “Big Picture”
19. Weekly Agenda Questions What are our curriculum goals? How will we assess our students? How will we instruct our students? What does our data suggest?(examine student work-data based on pre-test/post-test) What problems need to be solved?
20. Rotating Leadership Each team member will be assigned specific dutyor topic in order to help foster improved leadership qualities Ex. lesson plans, assessments, engagement activities, demos & labs, video clips & warm-ups
21. Curriculum- Graphing The team will begin the year teaching graphing Timeframe: 3 weeks Major topics include: Types of graphs Labeling, units, scale, & title Calculating slope& area under the curve Making predictions based on trends: Interpolation & Extrapolation
22. Differentiated Instruction Graphing Notes – DRY/MIX acronym Graphing Worksheets (homework) Graphing Labs – bouncy balls & motorized cars labs Digital video labs – Revisit bouncy balls & motorized car labs with video cameras and computer software Lab Practicums – class and individual
23. Evaluating Student Learning ofGraphing Pre- & post-test Graphing Labs Digital Video Analysis with Logger Pro Class Practicum Individual Practicum Formative assessment
24. Individual Student Evaluation Progress reportsare sent home every 3 week marking period regardless of grade; Report cards every 6 weeks. PLC will meet for a failure evaluation assessed every two weeks parents of students failing will be contacted at this time and made aware of their child’s personal failure plan all failures will be re-taught objectives not mastered during tutorials, Monday night library sessions, &/or advisory
25. Failure Plan - SMART Goal Ex. A students struggling with finding a slope Specific Goal - To calculate slope on a graph Measureable- Be able to find slope on a given graph (ie. Work sample problems.) Achievable – You can do it! Relevant - You will better understand speed and acceleration once you are able to find the slope Time bound – 1 tutoring session (30 min.)
26. Results of the PLC (After 1 Year) Teachers are working together. No more Cast Aways! Much less teacher stress having to do it all on their own Equal playing field for all students grades Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment are all aligned Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment are constantly improving through collaboration to improve student learning
27. Results of the PLC (After 1 Year) Impact on Students Improved Instruction Less falling through the cracks All IPC teachers using the same teaching tools
28. Future Goals of PLC Continue to collaborate and grow, improving curriculum, instruction, & assessment Reach district and campus goal of becoming an Exemplary Campus = 90% passing Science TAKS
Hinweis der Redaktion
We need to implement programs to help our minority students and econ disad students catch up. I think we need to really increase parent communication and involvement
Problems to solve….Group dynamics!Coaches are unavailable after school and are often out of the classroom. The best for us to meet is on Tues. & Thurs. because Fridays are typically game/tournament days.The other member of our team is retiring after this year and has been on cruise control for the past few years.All three members have relied heavily on worksheets and end-of-the-chapter questions. Assessment have been on a low level using the text-book’s test generator
(assessment-huge issue for us, we must change our current status) Teachers make their own test and are testing students at multiple levels….big problem (they test what they like to teach)
(assessment-huge issue for us, we must change our current status)
Pre- & post-test – identify previous knowledge & areas to emphasize Graphing Labs – student scores, identify missing linksDigital Video Analysis with Logger Pro – check for correlation between speed and slope using technologyClass Practicum – Can the students work together as a team? (whole class)Individual Practicum – Can the student do it on their own?Formative assessment – reading graphs from standardized test
Child’s personal failure plan will use smart goals.
Much less teacher stress having to do it all on their own*reduces teacher burn out and everyone brings their resources to the tableCurriculum, Instruction, & Assessment are all aligned*Students are doing the same activities in all IPC classes *Students are all receiving the SAME assessment – big problem before since each teacher made their own testEqual playing field for all students grades*an A is one class should required the same amount of work in the others (this was a big problem before…the coaches classes typically did less work and still got A’s)
Improved Instruction – pre-post test to identify individual needs, collaboration to use engaging labs & activities/youtube clips etc…Less falling through the cracks – failure evaluation identifies struggling students, parent notificationAll IPC teachers using the same teaching tools – before their were cool teachers that did fun labs, showed video clips, etc… now everyone should be doing the same thing everyday – students don’t feel left out
Improvement in CIA = look at AEIS report & CIP for slow & steady growth in TAKS results
