Minutes from the intial meeting

Team Members:
Chris Thompson; Aarthi Dawson; Jason Hicks; Andrea Morris; Jennifer Brunson; Joel Suganth; Stefina Sem; Gita Rao

October 5, 2012

Norms:
-not dwell in details and wordsmithing.  find clarity and understanding.
-understand other perspectives.  
-everyone is doing their best and bringing their best to the table.
-not personal comments, looking at issues and ideas.
-take all roles away (teacher/parent/admin).  all members of the team.  all peers.

What are we doing?

• take the learning objectives and mesh into the school culture and school day.
• sharing good practices/best practices.  define these key concepts.
• designing teaching/learning and assessment that fits best practice
• aligning outcomes
• create an action plan going forward: a multi year plan of action for change.
• 5 Cs are what we are trying to develop: how you teach these values and promote learning.
• learning has student, parent, teacher/staff.  clarity and shared responsibility
• look where we are and where we are going.  
• give ourselves credit for what we are doing.
• then look to see what else we can.
• ?

Plan of action:
What is happening?  where is there need?  are we missing something?
how can we bring the rubric alive using the language of the objective?  
what programs or practices will support this?  
what tools do we need?  
create the steps of the ladder.

What is happening in the school?

• ?

Creative Play.  creative is in proficient level.  how does this connect to action?
-we should review for key words or actions within the rubric?

Create a common understanding of the rubric.

• -this is more of a continuum.  about the growth
• -perhaps focus on something specific
• -student reflection.  where am i strong?  where do i need to work?
• -evaluate program and teachers.  where is the school strong?  where does the school need to work?

Notes from Teresa
Understanding and writing research quessitons
What according to the literature are the conditions necessary for the ???? to exist?
What obstacles did organizations face?

examples:

• what is best practice relative to curricular alignment?
• what instructional practices are most appropriate for developing curiosity?
• what are the cutting edge thinkers saying about skills our students need for success in the future?

**focus not on the answer but on the phenonenon
**distill down to 3-5 questions.