innovative decision making is different

During a conference call staff meeting, Carol mentioned that innovated decision making is a different process. That got me thinking. It really is because decisions should be based on data and research. But when you are in an innovated situation like ours- the data and research simply do not exist.
So how does the process change. Our team finds it useful to use a discussion approach. We talked about decisions long before they will need to be made but we cannot make them in advance. It's a just-in-time situation because the closer you get to the time the more accurate the situation gets. I will not say clearer or more defined. It is just more accurate to the moment that you make the decision.
Our next decision is spring progress reports leading to summer school "plan of work" contracts. We talked about it today. But that decision really need to be made in April because the situation will be different then. The valuable work that can happen now is the definition of considerations. What do we need to consider when we are ready to make that decision. I added that the summer plan of work contracts should be setup in the last two weeks of May. June will be busy with on time finishers. Setting those goals in May allows for them to be achieved in June and heads off late surprises.
So we are talking about what goes into that decision so we are prepped when the time comes to make it.

Decisions we have coming:
After spring break progress reports. What is a "2" what lesson number are they on. The same about 3 and I think the same definition will hold for a 4.
What do we do about 2,3,4? In May we create summer plan of works?
What is promoted?
What if a power subject is below 70%

I think a good conversation to have would be what are the power subjects in each grade level. I know art history, vocabulary, and spelling I would not consider power.
Science and socail studies are ify maybe you must have a 70% on 70% of the lessons
Reading, writing and math are power subjects Those classes should have a higher standard.

If you are on lesson
an A is what it is. A B is what you earned. C is lowest passing. D is modified passing with only the power subjects

technology is not the answer for everything

Today I added skype to the list of tech pieces I have.
Not that impressed. I will use it to IM Vance at work because he does not allow any other methods of communication. But it's not a tool I need. Adobe Connect is better for meetings. The sounds has less delay. You can have more then one web camera. And you can record it.

But Carol wants us to do an evaluation by skype. Another thing I am not excited about. I enjoy the face to face conversation of our last evaluation. I think these critical conversation you cannot have a tech barrier. if you must use tech, they have to add something to the conversation. Not impede it.

My concerns at this point at a program point of view

well I looked at the data for proficiency and progress. The proficiency for my caseload looks really good. I know that Courtney has said she gives them a zero if they have to redo it. That would make her data look worst.

The progress does not look good. I would like to see many more students closer to 60%. I think this may be a two part problem. The demands of the program. This program is demanding as public school. A rigorous pace is a cultural problem for many of our students. The mosque cohort is used to working year round. The homeschoolers are not used to deadlines. Many students have learning, attention or behavior issues that impend progress. That being said there is about 10% that are moving at an accelerated pace.
my next concern is honesty. Seeing work in student hand writing does help assure the work is authenticate. Often times the work is typed and not in student vocabulary. I have had a student turn in one piece of writing that is handwritten and below grade level. Hand was misspelled. The next assignment was typed with graphic, off subject with a high vocabulary. Mrs, C has emailed me twice that her daughter is looking up looking up answers on the internet and printing out the test as she does the lessons. Of course I wonder why the parent allows this.

In order to be a good Learning Guide you need two elements: competency and commitment. Competency can be taught. The program is scripted. I am here as a certified teacher. But commitment cannot be taught it must be there or be inspired. One colleague drew attention to the fact that commitment can be flipped instantly while competency takes more time. Learning Guide must be really committed. Not just in words.

Those are my three concerns.

Where am I?

Currently I feel that I have being on line mentor teacher down. The job is not over but I need to keep up my professional learning. My focus is on the next year already. What can I do to expand my learning? What will my job be? I would really like to be more than just a teacher. and the money is an issue.

I have been toying with the amount of logging I do in my personal spreadsheet. My rule is if the parent blew up what would i need to have documented to accurately record what was going on.

But the basics of running this job, I feel like I have masters. And I am looking for more growth.

Getting my geek on!

So a great thing just happened. My Director called me to talk about data. Yeah I am that geek. We were talking about the seat time waiver and the data the state requires. Since we are a pilot we only get a year at a time seat time waiver.
Based on what Carol said, it's the time of the year when the state starts looking for results on how we are doing.
For the seat time waiver they data showing proficiency. But you have to temper that with progress data. A student could have an 100% on test 20. HOwever that is only 25% done with a year of school in 50% of the year.
Beyond the seat time waiver data, we talked about the Meap data and where we could see the "new" to the system .
I can see that Carol is getting ready to do some pretty big presentations. I hope that I can be a fly on the wall.
I was please Carol called me when she needed someone to use as a sounding board for data. I also liked being part of an administrative conversation. That's where my current interest lies.

take aways from class

Ahhs
textbooks can be jigsawed run classroom reading like book club
principles evaluate differently todd looks at language jennifer looks at the culture so many look at the behavior management
character is what will sort you to rise to the top in your organization
planting seeds to better than mandating

Also Strike you need to redo this to great start here are some pointers to build on this examples

2/4/13

I am just learning about blogging. I thought it would keep the date of my drafts. But I think it might updated date of the post to the publish dates not the create date. Since these are very much in the moment thoughts, I must remember to date these posts.