Curriculum and Instruction News
January 5, 2016
“You know what I love most about my job? All the committee meetings I get to go after I have already put in a full day of teaching,” said nobody ever. There’s nothing worse than being committed to participating in a dysfunctional committee. However, when groups of teachers are working efficiently to solve real problems, we make better decisions that benefit everyone. When decisions need to be made that will affect students and teachers all across the district, input and competing ideas from a wide array of people ensure that we consider all sides and discover the best ideas.
Teachers across grade levels and subject areas are engaging in important committee work to move the district forward. Connecting in groups that represent perspectives from across a district as large as ours is essential to build the momentum necessary to coordinate our complex work. The most visible effort is the Fox C-6 comprehensive school improvement planning process. The theme “Fox Focus: Our Children, Our Community, Our Tomorrow,” communicates the priorities and values the subcommittees will be digging into this spring. This month’s C&I bulletin highlights many of the opportunities for teachers, parents, students and community members to engage with groups that are providing insights, coordinating communications, and managing important functions of the district. From the District Professional Development Committee, to the EdTech Committee, to the PLC committee, the calendar committee, to curriculum committees and the PTO Presidents’ Forum, people in Fox are engaged!
Chromecamp is Coming to Fox C-6!
Move Email Contacts to Gmail
Need Gradebook Help?
Curriculum
Elementary Building Representatives and Secondary Department Chairs
During the spring semester, elementary Building Representatives, secondary Department Chairs, and some elementary specials teachers will be meeting to develop and communicate draft power-standards for each subject area. Teachers will be building from the “Safety-net Standards” developed for ELA and mathematics last year. Power-standards are important way to prioritize what students will think, do, and get better at each year. They are useful when teachers write Units of Instruction, when vertically aligning curriculum, and in developing report cards that communicate student achievement.
This representative group will also plan for elementary grade level and secondary subject area back to school curriculum meetings before the 2016-17 school year.Curriculum Committees: K-5 Literacy and 6-9 Math
The Fox C-6 Curriculum Committees have been formed to represent the voices of educators across our district. Each committee, consisting of 28 educators per group, will review research, examine current curriculum resources, dig into achievement data, and study our existing curriculum. Committee members will collaborate with teachers across the district in order to cultivate their shared beliefs and collective visions.
Our dedicated work will produce a high quality, power-standards based curriculum documents which includes a scope and sequence of units as well as common unit performance assessments.
Professional Development
PLC Committee Upldate
The district PLC committee has met three times over the last month to look for ways to increase PLC time for all teachers across the district. The goal is to create a minimum of 50 minutes of PLC time each week. The purpose of PLC time is to help increase student achievement by allowing teachers time to collaborate around curriculum, assessment and best practices to meet students needs. We have teachers and administrators from a variety of grade level and content areas serving on the committee. We also have several parents working to help us find a creative solution. Please know that any recommendations made by the committee will be presented to Cabinet and brought to teachers for additional feedback before implementation.
CSIP Update
PD Reminders
The next district PD day is on January 19th. Each building PDC is in charge of selecting a topic that meets the needs of the individual building. Please contact your District PD rep or a building PDC member with questions regarding the day.
Please remember that once you have received approval for your PD requests, it is your responsibility to call in your sub and register for the conference.
Instructional Technology
Fox C6 Edtech Advisory Team
- the vision for instructional technology in the Fox School District
- what technology should be considered standard for classrooms in the Fox School District
- the specifications and uses of a 24/7 teacher device (laptop/tablet)
If you have questions or comments about the Fox C6 Edtech Advisory Team, contact JP Prezzavento.
College and Career Readiness
District Assessment Committee
The District is currently in the process of assembling a District Assessment Committee to assist and support the establishment of the district’s assessment plan as one indication of success and quality of the total education provided by the district.
The District’s Coordinator of College and Career Readiness, Maria Scopino, is currently looking for educators across the district in all grade levels and content areas to assist in the creation of the district assessment plan. The committee will meet 2-4 times each school year to create and review the assessment plan. Click here to sign up for the District Assessment Committee. Feel free to contact Maria Scopino if you have any questions about this committee.
Federal Programs
Title 1 Annual Parent Meetings
Many parents joined Title I teachers and principals at the annual Title I meeting in all seven of the current Title I schools recently. At these meetings parents and teachers discussed what it means to be a Title I school and what resources are being used to better support our students. Parents were able to voice areas that they would like to see more resources available to use at home to better support students’ academic growth. Many parents filled-out a Title I survey where they were able to give input in decisions regarding future parent involvement endeavors and resources that will be provided through federal program grants. Making the home-school connection is very important to the Title I staff and we were happy to collaborate with so many caring and supportive parents!
Contact C&I
- Declan FitzPatrick, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction: fitzpatrickd@fox.k12.mo.us
- Luke Heitert, Director of Data and Information: heitertl@fox.k12.mo.us
- Amy Zielinski, Director of Professional Development: zielinskia@fox.k12.mo.us
- Angie Baker, Federal Programs Coordinator: bakera@fox.k12.mo.us
- JP Prezzavento, Coordinator of Instructional Technology: prezzavento@fox.k12.mo.us
- Tina Risse, Coordinator of Literacy: risset@fox.k12.mo.us
- Maria Scopino, Coordinator of CCR: scopino@fox.k12.mo.us