Charger News
May 8-May 15, 2016
"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively & to think critically."
Summer Professional Development
Professional development will be selected and aligned with supporting areas of growth identified through spot observations.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What if I want to count an outside conference or training day for my Dallas ISD PD credits?
All PD outside the work calendar can be approved as long as the training is aligned to these three parameters:
- Approved by campus TEI evaluator
- Directly impacts student achievement.
- Aligned to campus and district goals.
Campus TEI evaluators use teachers summative score based on classroom
observations to guide P2LD credits. Please use the following parameters to guide
the number of required credits out of the total 14 credits.
- 3.5 Required: 75-100 Summative Score
- 7 Required: 55-74 Summative Score
- 10.5 Required: 0-54 Summative Score
3. How do I know which sessions to register for during the school?
TEI Evaluators will guide all teachers using their TEI evaluation and the 4 Domains.
Individualized P2LD Planning Doc
Summer Professional Learning & Development Agreement
What Is Your Educational Philosophy?
Over the summer, teachers reflect on the year and often redesign and perfect their teaching strategies and plans. In essence, they get back to the basics of what they believe is the best way to inspire learning in their students -- in other words, they revisit and refine their philosophy of education.
A school district might ask a teacher or principal applying for a job about her or his philosophy of education. In this post, I've decide to share mine, and I am curious to see if any of my beliefs resonate with you. So here they are:
1. Students need to learn.
Students want and need to learn as much as they need food, clothing, and shelter. An educator's primary job is to fill that primal need for learning by creating engaging and relevant learning experiences every day. The greatest gift a teacher can give students is motivating them to experience repeated learning success.
2. Students need to be active participants in learning.
Students learn best by doing, and active teaching encourages active learning. Teachers should treat students as active participants in the learning process, providing them with skills, such as:
- How to study
- How to take notes
- How to memorize
- How to express themselves effectively
These skills will help them be part of a high-performance learning team. Also, students need to be encouraged to explore and research information beyond the confines of the classroom and textbook.
3. Learning is a physiological activity involving the whole body.
The best way to engage a student is to have a solid classroom management plan and a well-planned lesson that is grounded in relevant, purposeful activities designed to enhance that student's knowledge and skills and leave her or him wanting to learn more. Teachers should be strongly aligned with student-centered and student-directed learning that embraces exploration, discovery, experiential learning, and the production of academically rigorous products.
4. Students need timely feedback to improve.
Teachers gather data on student performance to adjust the learning environment and instruction so that they can target students' learning needs. Teachers administer pretests to find a starting point for learning and post-tests to determine the students' increase in performance level as well as the teachers' effectiveness.
5. Students need structure and repetition to learn.
A teacher should be able to organize a standards-based lesson sequence, successfully implement the plan, and then evaluate student learning. A teacher should be able to create an exciting learning environment that makes it difficult for students to not learn. A teacher should know how to include all students in learning at their own level, and a teacher should be able to inspire the students to push themselves to the next level.
6. Students need information, knowledge, and skills.
Having access to knowledge resources is as important to a child's education as the actual curriculum content. Relevant and current information must be at the teachers' and students' fingertips to provide answers when the questions are still fresh. Information "on demand" is more valuable than information "just in case."
7. Students need tools and resources.
Students should know how their taxon and locale memory systems work. Students should have skills and strategies to be able to work effectively in the different levels of the cognitive domain as defined by Benjamin Bloom. Students should be aware of their own learning preferences, and teachers should assist with creating a plan to develop other learning skills. Educational tools are a means to an end. For example, technology used appropriately can greatly magnify the students' capacity to learn and the teachers' capacity to teach, inspire, and motivate.
IDEA is Federal Law...Let's Be Sure and Honor the Needs of Our SPED Students!
Conrad Feeder Pattern Foci
Listed below are items that our entire feeder works to make norms for every class in the Conrad Feeder Pattern.
- Progress Monitoring: Teacher-managed Profiling & Student-managed Profiling
- Differentiated Individualized Professional Development
- Data Driven Decisions and Instruction
- Graphic Organizer Utilization
- Justification of student responses (i.e. How do you know? Why? What does that mean? Explain, etc.)
- Scaffolding Instruction
- Differentiate Instruction, inclusive of Small Group Instruction/Instructional Stations
- No Opt Out, Think-Pair-Share, Cold Call
- Content Specific Writing
- Content Specific Reading
This Week...
Monday, May 9
Tuesday, May 10
Wednesday, May 11
Friday, May 13
6:00pm-10:00pm Band Awards Banquet
Saturday, May 14
Coming Soon...
Announcements & Action Items
- Please post lesson plans in a visible place for visitors to access. (Remember lesson plans should reflect pacing by the minute for components within the lesson plan)
- Please be sure and review Mrs. Esparza's monthly calendar. If you have any events you would like added, see her in the front office.
- Please plan to support Conrad's Senior's by assisting with the graduation
- Pleas uncover all classroom door windows and keep doors unlocked.