Department Chair and Other Necessary Evils

Here is an update from the department chair meeting today.

• All staff members are encouraged to take a look at the Course of Studies that students are currently using for scheduling.  (Click here to view the document.)  Courses are now identified in "career clusters" to aid students in determining their own career paths.  Take a look, it is pretty interesting.
• Students are currently in the process of selecting their courses for next year.  They are going to turn their green scheduling sheets into their I/E teachers by Friday, February 1.  I am hopeful that we will have preliminary enrollment numbers by the end of the month.  We should all be encouraging students to enroll in the music courses and keep them full! :-)  I will get the materials to work on our department schedule and need to complete that before spring break.  I will keep you all posted as we move through this process.
• Dr. Nichols has removed the credit requirement to pass from grade to grade.  So, you will no longer need to earn 5 1/2 credits to be considered a sophomore.  It is unclear what impact this will have on our students.
• There is great concern over where we are at with PBIS at this point in time.  Please remember that if you are going to give someone an office referral, you need to have documentation of your previous interventions with the student (i.e. parent phone call, detention in your room, etc).  Of course there are circumstances requiring immediate attention from an administrator (i.e. cutting class, insubordination, etc).  Please remember to use the Tiger Stripes to recognize positive behavior or improvement.
• During OGT week, only the sophomore class will come in for testing.  In the past, there had been a pre OGT assessment given to the ninth graders.  However, since the OGT is going away, we will not be administering a test to the freshmen.  Our staff meeting in February will focus on OGT process and procedures.
• Early Release Wednesday will be group meetings for the next two weeks.  January 31 will feature a presentation about OTES and February 6 will focus on Student Learning Objectives (SLOs).  We will meet as best we can as time allows.  We MUST continue to make progress on our assessments.

There was oh so very much more, but that is what I believe to be most pressing to us at this moment.

Please take a moment to look at the Google docs calendar.  I have updated that with all of the information that we discussed this past Wednesday.  There are many, MANY things coming up and I am hopeful that this document can be used to help alleviate some of the congestion that February and March bring.

Questions?  You know where to find me! :-)
 

Exam Materials

I have uploaded two items on to Google docs.  The first is an essay rubric.  I am hoping this will work as we grade the essay portion of our exams.  I found the rubric on the internet and modified it to fit our needs.  The second item is a performance rubric to use for the scale assessments.  This is basically from our band audition materials.    Jesse, this will more than likely need revisions to better fit your needs.

Since this is the first time that we are doing this, I am assuming that we will need to edit both of these items after exams.  Please consider any revisions and share them after exams, as these documents will most likely become part of the assessment and evaluation materials that we ultimately submit to the administration.

Please let me know if you have any problems accessing the documents.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a restful and enjoyable break after a crazy month of holiday concerts!

I am going to apologize in advance for the length of this post.  There are numerous 'irons in the fire' right now and I am going to try and put some issues out there that need attention.

1. First of all, we will not be meeting as a department tomorrow (1/9/13) during Early Release Wednesday.  We are meeting as a full staff in the library to discuss safety issues in our building in coordination with the police department.
2. There is ongoing discussion as to whether or not we will meet next week for Early Release Wednesday because of the exam schedule.  I will let you know when I learn of the final decision on this.
3. Because we are not meeting for the next couple of weeks, please take a moment to check your performance calendars.  Has anything changed or been rescheduled?  Please, please, please share this crucial information with your colleagues so that we can all be on the same page as we head into the next couple of months.
4. The information regarding web-based projects is due in the Google docs by the end of the semester.  (I do not have a specific date for this.)  If you have taken care of this already, many thanks!  If you still need to complete this, please do so as soon as you can.  We are required to complete one web-based lesson each semester, so the next time that we will need to submit this information will be at the end of the school year.
5. I must submit a report to Anne for our department no later than January 22, 2013.  In that report, I must include our collective thoughts on the following issues:
• Goal setting feedback:  The second quarter was our first attempt at this.  What worked?  What didn't?  What needs to be changed/improved?  (Please know that we will more than likely need to input information about this work into a Google doc at the end of the school year.  The administration is working to make this as simple and basic as possible.)
• PBIS:  What is working?  What isn't?  Are we all utilizing the Tiger Stripes?  Are we seeing an improvement in student behavior with the Tiger Stripes?
• Curriculum Mapping and Assessments:  Where are we at?  Where are we going?  Do we need anything from Anne to get our jobs done?  Anne is requesting copies of all the work that we have completed thus far to review and provide feedback on.
6. Hopefully, you have read the email from Deb McNair and Amy Hayward regarding our meeting on February 13, 2013 from 2:00 - 3:00.  This meeting is happening over two weeks later than previously scheduled.  We will need to keep moving forward so that we can stay on track to complete everything necessary for this school year.  According to T&L, we will be discussing where we are at with mapping and assessments and where we are going for second semester. I am hoping we will have prepared and ready to share:
• Curriculum maps for all performing ensembles
• Rubrics to use as part of assessment process for these courses
• Outline of end of course exam

So, what should you be doing right now?  I am glad that you asked!

1. Web-based projects into Google docs
2. Jesse, I need the choral curriculum maps typed and ready to go before January 22.  Can we shoot to get everything done and to me by next Wednesday, 1/16/13?  I need time to put everything together and still meet my deadline.
3. Everyone needs to work to create a quality assessment for the midterm based on our revised curriculum.  All of the maps are posted on Google docs and shared with everyone.  Spending time on this assessment now will definitely help us in the long run, as we are going to need to submit this midterm assessment as one of our items to be included in OTES.  
4. Put T&L meeting on your calendars.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to read all of this! :-)