The 53
FALL 2017 Edition of the Academic Services Newsletter
Inspire Invest Innovate
The focus of "The 53" is to highlight monthly updates from the Academic Services Team. Please visit Inside Liberty or Liberty for Staff for additional document links throughout the month, and give the team a call as questions, comments or concerns arise. Our goal is to serve the LPS staff through improvements and innovations!
LPS Fine Arts
Congratulations to Mick Turpin for receiving the STAM Govenor's New Educator Award!
@the53DAS
Pineapple PD
Thank you to everyone who participated in an awesome day of professional development at LPS!
MLP Procedures
This is a friendly reminder regarding MLP.
MLP classes/events have a closing date for enrollment seven days prior to the event date so that MLP and AESOP can secure subs for each in-district PD event. If staff have prearranged for a sub and try to enroll after the deadline, they must contact Melanie Bowlin at x7097 to be enrolled.
Elementary and Secondary Education
As a district, we are in our third year of PBL implementation. This has been a district initiative because of the power PBL brings to student learning. We appreciate the teachers who took time out of their summer or away from their students to learn about PBL and the value it brings to the classroom. For those who have not had a chance to attend training, there will be more opportunities to participate. Below is information from Buck Institute about how PBL improves learning. Here is a link for more information.
Project Based Learning’s time has come. The experience of thousands of teachers across all grade levels and subject areas, backed by research, confirms that PBL is an effective and enjoyable way to learn - and develop deeper learning competencies required for success in college, career, and civic life. Why are so many educators across the United States and around the world interested in this teaching method? The answer is a combination of timeless reasons and recent developments.
- PBL makes school more engaging for students. Today’s students, more than ever, often find school to be boring and meaningless. In PBL, students are active, not passive; a project engages their hearts and minds, and provides real-world relevance for learning.
- PBL improves learning. After completing a project, students understand content more deeply, remember what they learn and retain it longer than is often the case with traditional instruction. Because of this, students who gain content knowledge with PBL are better able to apply what they know and can do to new situations.
- PBL builds success skills for college, career, and life. In the 21st century workplace and in college, success requires more than basic knowledge and skills. In a project, students learn how to take initiative and responsibility, build their confidence, solve problems, work in teams, communicate ideas, and manage themselves more effectively.
- PBL helps address standards. The Common Core and other present-day standards emphasize real-world application of knowledge and skills, and the development of success skills such as critical thinking/problem solving, collaboration, communication in a variety of media, and speaking and presentation skills. PBL is an effective way to meet these goals.
- PBL provides opportunities for students to use technology. Students are familiar with and enjoy using a variety of tech tools that are a perfect fit with PBL. With technology, teachers and students can not only find resources and information and create products, but also collaborate more effectively, and connect with experts, partners, and audiences around the world.
- PBL makes teaching more enjoyable and rewarding. Projects allow teachers to work more closely with active, engaged students doing high-quality, meaningful work, and in many cases to rediscover the joy of learning alongside their students.
- PBL connects students and schools with communities and the real world. Projects enable students to solve problems and address issues important to them, their communities, and the world. Students learn how to interact with adults and organizations, are exposed to workplaces and adult jobs, and can develop career interests. Parents and community members can be involved in projects.
- PBL promotes educational equity. All students deserve PBL, since a great project can have a powerful effect and help them reach their potential, and even be transformative for young people. A project that makes a real-world impact can give students a sense of agency and purpose; they see that they can make a difference in their community and the world beyond it.
Special Programs
ELL Program
Special Education - Progress Monitoring Made Easy
Monitoring student progress just got easier for the special education staff in Liberty Public Schools with the introduction of a new data management system called Progress Track.
Progress Track by PCG, enables staff to have an objective and consistent means of collecting data and reporting progress based on a student’s output. The program allows users to see trends and create an individual progress document with a graph and print out of all aspects of data collection. Teachers will have clear, objective feedback to assist them in determining the effectiveness of a teaching strategy, gauge student progress toward IEP goals, and share with parents. The LPS special education department is at the forefront in the country for the implementation of this web-based data management system.
Curriculum, Instruction and Staff Development
Curriculum Council
The district Elementary and Secondary Curriculum Councils met on August 23 & 24 to continue their learning around Common Formative Assessment 2.0 (Corwin/Visible Learning), and presented their learning at the district Heads of State meetings in September. District Heads of State teams met to continue work on updating or creating grade level and course level curriculum to meet the district curriculum requirements. Curriculum to be updated and presented to the Board of Education for approval in 2017-2018 includes, K-12 PE/Health, 8-12 International Languages, 6-12 Business, 6-12 Industrial Technology/PLTW, 6-12 Family and Consumer Sciences, as well as all remaining core classes not approved in July 2017.
Staff Development
The LPS Professional Development day held on September 22, 2017 across the district was a successful endeavor based on the feedback from the PDC District PD Day survey. Academic Services and the District PDC want to thank the four building hosts, Lewis & Clark, Shoal Creek, Liberty Middle and Liberty High Schools for their hospitality. We want to thank ALL presenters for their willingness to share and host learning. The next LPS Professional Development Day is set for February 16, 2018. More information about this date will be available soon and will include the incorporation of all feedback given from our last event. Additional information about all district PD events can be found on the district website under PD Profile 2017-2018.
Technology App Share of the Month
Have you tried the latest Augmented Reality (AR) apps on your phone? Try one of the free apps available by searching “augmented reality” under your App Store on your phone or device. It would be a great fun to see how you might incorporate these new applications into your instruction.
State Reporting and NOVAtime
State Reporting:
The Administrative Services Dept. works diligently throughout the year with staff in each building to ensure that data is accurate and consistent. We work with counseling staff to provide monthly attendance reporting. We work with Administrative Assistants monthly to ensure that student enrollment data has been entered correctly using the ADA/ADM reports from PowerSchool. The next MOSIS submission is the October Cycle. The October Cycle is the most important data collections of the school year. Information collected during this cycle includes Student Course Assignment, Teacher Assignment, Memberships Counts, and Educator information.
Nova Time:
The NovaTime implementation occurred over the summer, going live on July 30th. All non-exempt (hourly) employees are now using the system. Please call ext 6782 or email kay.cox@lps53.org if you have questions about the system. The link below will take you to the NovaTime system.
Health Services
Health Services - Achieving Success One Student At A Time!
In case you were wondering how students are being supported to learn in the classroom, check out these interesting spot statistics for the 2017-18 school year since the first day of school.
- 7,775 - Number of medications already given by our school nurses. Medications to treat ADHD tops the list at #1 and #2. Acetaminophen (a pain reliever generic for Tylenol) sits steady at #3.
- 1,073 - Visits to the nurse for a headache. Stomachaches come in #2 at 746 visits to the nurse.
- 625 - Blood sugar checks by diabetics in the nurse offices.
- 268 - Tube feedings administered.
Library Media Services
The STEAM Bus grand opening event will be October 12th at Lewis & Clark Elementary at 4:30 p.m. Come by to see what engaging experiences are on the way for LPS students!
College/Career Readiness and Community Partnerships
Do you know of a student who has started their own business, founded a non-profit, created a charity event or given back to the community in an extraordinary way?
The Liberty Area Chamber of Commerce would like to recognize 20 individuals under the age of 20 that have made a positive impact in the Liberty area through exceptional entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation or creative vision.
Please check the application form at:
WE'RE OFF TO A NEW YEAR OF PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUR STUDENTS!
Job Shadowing - Have your students set up a time to shadow a professional (for individual students or for a whole class - contact colleen.jones@lps53.org)
Career Panels - Learn about careers from industry experts.
Health Science Day - Learn about a variety of careers in the medical field - Nov. 9 6:00-8:15.
Job Fairs - Local businesses will provide part time jobs for students. Students are asked to bring a resume!
Oct. 10 at 1:00 at LHS
Nov. 13 at 9:00 at LNHS
Kid's Zone
Kid’s Zone will offer STEM Projects, Literacy and Service Learning Activities as additional choices for children.
The Liberty Public School Kid’s Zone Program has always provided a safe and fun environment for children before and after school. However, during the current year there will be an expansion within the program. Site Directors and counselors will be providing four different STEM projects and activities a month! Kid’s Zone will also be partnering with community groups, like Science Pioneers at Union Station, and Liberty High School students from Project Lead the Way to work with Kid’s Zone students on projects in STEM. Along with STEM, the program will provide literacy activities and periodically throughout the year, offer service learning projects and guest speakers presenting a variety of interests to children.
ACADEMIC SERVICES DEPARTMENT
Assistant Superintendent
Dr. Beth Heide
Executive Directors
Dr. Julie Moore, Secondary Education
Andrea Dixon-Seahorn, Elementary Education
Becky Gossett, Special Programs
Directors
Bob Citro, Administrative Services
Christopher Hand, Assessment, Evaluation and Testing
Dr. Jeanette Westfall, Curriculum, Instruction and Staff Development
Colleen Jones, College/Career Readiness and Community Partnerships
Dr. Kelly Saluri, Data Services
Aaron Money, Fine Arts
Debbie Ervay, Kids Zone
Andrea Sumy, Library Media Services
Kathy Ellermier, Nursing Health Services
Dr. Kris Martin, Special Education
Dr. Jim Hammen, Student Services