Colloquium
SUHSD Curriculum, Instruction & Professional Development
March 2015
Revisiting the Curriculum & Professional Development Plan for 2014-15 in planning for 2015-16
District-wide Goal:
Empower all students to achieve college and career readiness!
District-wide Approach:
Alignment of Written, Taught and Tested dimensions of curriculum
Professional Development Essential Questions:
1. What role does the teacher play in implementing the Common Core Standards?
- Teachers must make informed decisions that are responsive to demonstrated student needs. They are empowered to creatively select and use resources they need to help students succeed.
- Teachers are collaborators: with peers, administrators and content experts. Cohort, zone and PLC experiences are based on this principle.
- Academic literacy and productive collaboration are fundamental considerations when planning instruction. Site PD plans focus on these goals.
2. How do challenging tasks affect teacher expectations, practice and student learning?
- SUHSD Internal Assessments (final exams and performance tasks) and PLC common formative assessments require students to demonstrate mastery of complex skills.
- Tasks are embedded in ongoing instruction and inform teacher decision-making by generating a variety of formative data.
- Teachers are transforming existing tasks to better align with CCSS and NGSS.
3. How is subject matter embedded in a larger context? How can we explore complexity and depth of understanding?
- Application of knowledge across content areas supports content integration.
- Complex skills (labs, writing, inquiry, research) are valued by colleges and employers. Instructional guides emphasize these outcomes.
- Relationships among SUHSD teachers, administrators and regional experts (UCSD, SDCOE, feeder school districts, Qualcomm, others) support collaborative planning.
English & Math teachers represented
History/Social Sciences and Science
Classroom teacher voices
Compared to professional development you received last year, how would you rate the value of COHORT and ZONE workshops this year?
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics!
STEAMConnect Conference 2015: March 5, 2015 at Qualcomm
Qualcomm's Thinkabit lab offers encouragement to aspiring innovators
SUHSD students participate in STEM outreach!
Pharmacy Day at UCSD
Expanding Your Horizons at USD
Envision at UCSD
Castle Park High School STEM efforts connect students and teachers to university researchers!
Also see this related March story
Thanks to Tricia Mendoza and Darci Kimball for sharing these features!
City of Chula Vista engages students in real-world, project-based inquiry!
See the Project-based Learning ideas below for more ways to locate content-area knowledge and skills in real-world contexts.
Encourage students to apply for summer internships through the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD!
Taught Curriculum
Teacher Leadership & Promising Practices
English/Language Arts Cohort 3
History/Social Sciences Cohort 3
Zone workshops will showcase "taught curriculum" exemplars from among our district's classrooms.
Written Curriculum
Semester 2 Instructional Guides drive planning by PLCs
Tested Curriculum
Internal Assessments and Performance Tasks Guide Planning and Generate Data
Proposed testing window (May 22 - June 4, 2015) for Semester 2 Finals will expand from one to two weeks to allow for more flexility in scheduling exams; seniors will participate in course-level Finals.
Each core content-area course will offer students an opportunity to participate in a district-wide Performance Task this semester. Performance Tasks should be available via Research & Evaluation Canvas Course by the end of February, 2015. Teachers should plan to meet in PLCs to participate in calibrated scoring to maximize the value of these tools for formative purposes.
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) publishes information on achievement levels
Administrators and Teachers
District and Site Curriculum Specialists
Core Content Colleagues across Sites
Explore Content-area Monthly Newsletters!
SUHSD Office of Curriculum, Instruction & Professional Development
Roman Del Rosario, Executive Director of Curriculum & Instruction
Katrine Czajkowski, Lead Curriculum Specialist
Daniel Cohen & Mimi Williams, Math Curriculum Specialists
Gina Vattuone & Rhea Faeldonea-Walker, ELA Curriculum Specialists
Ana Garcia & Melanie Brown, Science Curriculum Specialists
Kelly Leon & Olga Loya-Estrada, History/Social Science Curriculum Specialists
Email: katrine.czajkowski@sweetwaterschools.org
Website: www.sweetwaterschools.org
Location: 1130 Fifth Ave Chula Vista CA 91911
Phone: 619-691-5586