Wilson Ranger Post
February 13, 2017
Valentine's Breakfast (or Lunch) Sign-Up
Online Learning Session for Learners After School
We will be hosting online learning sessions for learners after school Monday - Thursday here at Wilson. We would like to offer learners the opportunity to work on the online programs designed to help them be successful. We know often there are so many opportunities and just not enough hours in the day, so we are hoping this might be a good solution!
The programs learners may work on, at your discretion, are as follows:
Istation
Imagine Learning
Think Through Math (3rd-5th)
Reflex (2nd-5th)
Prodigy
Based on the learners’ tutoring schedules and availability, you will select the days they attend.
Please add learners and the program(s) they need to work on to the google sheet here. You may add them to more than one day. As space is limited, please add your learners who aren’t getting their allotted time on these programs.
The session will last from 3:20-3:50 pm and Ms. Gomez and Ms. Hamilton will be moderating the time. They will take attendance. A cart of iPads will be available, but we would appreciate if one-to-one learners bring their iPads. Each learner will need to bring earbuds. Location is TBD based on the number of learners we have enrolled.
Please communicate with your parents the day(s) the learners will stay after school. We will begin Wednesday, February 22nd if we have learners signed up by that date.
Questions? Just ask :)
World Read Aloud Day from Debra
World Read Aloud Day February 16, 2017
Celebrated by millions of people in 100 countries, each year World Read Aloud Day calls global attention to the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories. For the second year, CISD elementary libraries will be participating in this global event by hosting guest readers in our schools. We've invited our Red Jackets to come back and read to our learners, and have some community members coming as well. Please consider coming to the elementary campus of your choice and reading to a class.
If you are interested in participating, contact Debra Marshall with your campus and time preferred so that your name can be added to the schedule. You can bring your own book, or choose from a selection in the campus library.
Follow our tweets about the events using the hashtag #wrad17.
Read Aloud. Change the world.
To Do: Small Group/Intervention Plans
Thanks!
Blending from the Wilson Coaches
February 27th Professional Learning
Please enroll in a course below:
Depth and Complexity/Questioning
Audience: All
Instructor: Carol Koslowski
Integrating the Garden: Spring Forward
Audience: All
Instructor: Rhonda Pickrell (guest garden instructor)
Audience: All
Instructor: Andi Feille
Audience: All
Instructors: Jennifer Hubble and Debra Marshall
Audience: All (3rd-5th emphasis)
Instructors: Sarah Yancey and Yolanda Williams
Audience: 3rd - 5th
Instructor: Mary Pruitt
Managing Writer’s Workshop and Write from the Beginning
Audience: All
Instructor: Chris Nester
Custodial Concerns?
The night custodial staff has turned over again. Please let Mr. Nester know if you have any custodial concerns.
Some Valentine's Candy for ya...
Summer Science Opportunities from Linda Cook
Linda Cook passed along these summer professional learning opportunities. If there's a workshop with a fee that you're interested in, please contact Mr. Nester.
Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History Face-to-Face Teacher Workshops
Teaching Science Through Inquiry for Elementary Teachers
June 12th – 15th
Registration Fee - $300.00
Teaching Science Through Inquiry for Secondary Science Teachers
June 19th – 22nd
Registration Fee - $300.00
Region 10 Summer Face-to-Face Workshops
Learning Across New Dimensions of Science (LANDS) Outreach Teacher Workshop by Texas Parks and Wildlife
Region 10 Spring Valley – Houston Room
June 19th – 8:30 am – 3:30 pm
Framework for Understanding Poverty – Ten Actions to Understand and Educate Students Living in Poverty
Region 10 Abrams Building – Pecan Room
June 20th – 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Larry Bell Presenting – Engage, Excite and Empower Students With Disabilities
Region 10 Abrams Building – Bluebonnet Room
June 20th – 9:00 am – 2:30 pm
Pathways to Culturally Responsive Classrooms 2017
Region 10 Abrams Building – Pecan Room
June 21st – 9:00 am – 3:30 pm
Designing Instruction for Diverse Learners – 2017
Region 10 – Abrams Building – Pecan Room
July 11th – 9:00 am – 3:30 pm
Region 10 Online Science Workshops
Journaling the Next Chapter: Interactive Notebooks
Credit Hours: 3.0 CPE
SCIENCE: Formative Assessment Vol 2
Credit Hours: 8.0 CPE
In this training, you will be reviewing strategies from our book study on Paige Keely's…
Teaching Science in a Diverse Classroom
Credit Hours: 3.0 CPE
Research suggests that the expectations of the classroom teacher are a large predictor of student…
Transforming Science Instruction with Interactive Whiteboard Systems
Credit Hours: 45 CPEs
Cost: $350
This course will introduce you to the transformative possibilities that interactive whiteboard systems can have…
Dallas Zoo Science Teacher Workshops
SUMMER SCIENCE INSTITUTE
Recommended Grades: K – 12th
Dates: June 19-23, 2017
Time: 9 a.m. – 3:30 pm
Cost: $150/Non-Member; $135/Zoo Member
Transform your classroom into a science resource center through participating in the Summer Science Institute at the Dallas Zoo! This five-day collaborative workshop will give you the tools to incorporate hands-on and engaging learning experiences into your science curriculum while earning 30 CPE credits. Along with these tools, you will expect to get a closer look at our animals behind the scenes and animal demonstrations/feedings.
Price includes: behind-the-scenes tours, materials, lunch, and parking
Project WILD
Recommended Grades: 3- 12
Dates: June 3, 2017
Cost: $45/Non-member; $42/Zoo member
Become a WILD One to assist learners of all ages and experiences to learn how to make informed decisions, responsible behavior, and constructive actions concerning wildlife and the environment upon which all life depends. Additionally, you will receive a Project WILD curriculum and guidebook to use in your classroom or community activities.
Science Teacher Workshops at the Perot Museum
Kosmos Energy STEM Teacher Institute
Free Professional Development for Educators
Registration is open for 2017–2018!
Please see “How to Apply” below.
Participating Teachers
Since 2010, the Perot Museum has operated this teacher professional development program, impacting hundreds of teachers since its inception and introducing them to various informal education institutions, such as the Trinity River Audubon Center, Dallas Arboretum, Dogwood Canyon Audubon Center, Dallas Zoo, Dallas Children’s Aquarium, and the Dallas Museum of Art. Participating teachers credit the Perot Museum workshops and summer institutes with showing them how to make science fun and exciting for their students.
The Perot Museum has transformed its professional development offerings for educators by launching the new Kosmos Energy STEM Teacher Institute. The Museum’s expert educator development team has designed the Kosmos Energy STEM Teacher Institute to expand development opportunities for a wider audience, now spanning grades K-12. The Institute includes highly interactive TEKS-aligned activities that can be easily reproduced in the classroom. This new program will equip teachers with the tools and skills to ignite student enthusiasm for science.
Through generous support from our sponsors and a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, this new program is offered completely free to teachers.
Contact teacherworkshops@perotmuseum.org with questions.
Science Teacher Workshops at the Dallas Arboretum
Project Learning TreeMay 13 | June 10
Teachers of grades K-12th
6 hours of CPE and TEEAC credit
9:00am-3:00pm
$35 per person
Registration opens March 1
Teachers of PK-8 grade6 hours of CPE and TEEAC creditMinimum of 15 teachers required
Project Learning Tree (PLT) teaches students how to think, not what to think, about complex environmental issues. Recognized as a leader in environmental education for 40 years, PLT enhances critical thinking, problem solving and effective decision-making skills. PLT’s professional development is carefully designed to create effective learning experiences. PLT’s award-winning, multi-disciplinary curriculum materials are hands-on and fun, and aligned with state and national education standards. More than half of all PLT activities can be conducted outdoors. PLT focuses on five domains: diversity, interrelationships, systems, structure and scale and patterns of change.
In this workshop, our highly trained staff provides participants with active learning for a number of lessons that can be immediately implemented into their science classroom. Participants receive a 474 page guide containing 96 lessons. Workshop includes free admission to garden for the remainder of the day, as well as parking.
Leopold Education ProjectMay 13 | June 10Teachers of grades K-12th
6 hours of CPE and TEEAC credit9:00am-3:00pm$35 per person
Registration opens March 1
Teachers of K-12 grade6 hours of CPE and TEEAC creditMinimum of 15 teachers required
The Leopold Education Project (LEP) is an innovative, interdisciplinary conservation and environmental education curriculum based on the essays in A Sand County Almanac. There are currently five different educator resources containing 20 individual lessons within the LEP curriculum.
The objectives of the Leopold Education Project (LEP) are:
In this workshop, our highly trained staff provides participants with active learning for a number of lessons that can be immediately implemented into their science classrooms. Participants receive a complete set of LEP resources. Workshop includes free admission to
garden for the remainder of the day, as well as parking.
Project WILD AquaticJuly 15
Teachers of grades K-12th
6 hours of CPE and TEEAC credit
9:00am-3:00pm
$45 per person
Registration opens March 1
Teachers of K-12 grade6 hours of CPE and TEEAC creditMinimum of 15 teachers required
Project WILD Aquatic is a K-12 environmental and conservation education program emphasizing awareness, appreciation and understanding of aquatic wildlife and natural resources, while meeting state science standards (TEKS). It can be used by classroom teachers, environmental educators, park and nature center personnel and youth group leaders. It focuses on three major areas: ecological knowledge, social and political knowledge and sustaining fish and wildlife resources. This newly revised curriculum also includes field experiences, STEM and career connections and detailed reference information.
In this workshop, our highly trained staff provides participants with active learning for a number of lessons that can be immediately implemented into their science classroom. Participants receive a 396 page guide containing 48 lessons. Workshop includes free admission to garden for the remainder of the day, as well as parking.
That time Gloria Campos Retweeted Us!
CISD Legislative Talking Points
School Funding
1. As a Chapter 41 school (a property wealthy district), we pay a certain amount of property tax dollars back to the state every year in what is known as recapture. This is what is also known to many as “Robin Hood.” While state legislators would like to us to believe “their” contribution to schools has increased, the reality is that the amount of recapture being collected has increased, giving the state the ability to “increase” their contributions to education. However, the actual state contribution outside of the money collected through recapture has decreased. During the massive budget cuts to state finances following the last recession, education saw a historical drop in funding. While most state agencies have seen their funding increasing since then, the Texas education system has never returned to being fully funded. Because the State still does not fully fund our education system, the District is required to lean on our taxpayers to help us fulfill the State’s responsibility. The state should fully restore funding to the public education system
2. At a minimum, the state should be able to fund education by keeping up with population plus inflation when allocating funds.
Vouchers
1. Vouchers, and the broader issue of school choice, are being touted as the “civil rights issue of the 21st century” because they would provide poor children with an “escape from failing schools.” However, the amount of a voucher would not be enough to cover tuition at most private schools. Only more affluent families with the means to pay the balance of their children’s tuition would truly benefit. This would leave the very children vouchers are supposed to help left behind in schools with even less funding than before.
2. School choice already exists in Texas, with transfers, magnets, and charter schools. In fact, in 2013, the Legislature raised the cap on the number of charter school operators in Texas from 215 to 305 by 2019 — the largest charter school expansion since 2001.
3. Texas public schools have already endured massive funding cuts, and a broken (and unconstitutional) school finance system is yet to be fixed by the Legislature. Texas ranks in the bottom third of states for per-pupil expenditures, despite having one of the healthiest (if not the healthiest) economies in the U.S. and a rich reserve.
4. At a time when the state’s public schools are being held to increasingly rigorous accountability standards, lawmakers should not allow public, taxpayer dollars to be spent at private or religious schools that do not have to meet the same standards — either for students or for teachers.
Assessment
1. While CISD does not “teach to the test,” there is still an emphasis placed on the state examination because of state standards and accountability. CISD believes in students truly learning subject content instead memorizing potential testing material without a true understanding.
2. As Action Item 3 states, nationally Norm Reference Tests provide useful diagnostic data on a student’s learning whereas the states standardized test do not.
A-F Accountability System
1. The A-F System misrepresents a large portion of what happens in schools by reducing an entire school and a district to a single mark. A single mark for an evaluated area cannot fully capture the complexity of schooling, therefore not giving the public useful or accurate information about their schools.
2. The A-F system uses a single indicator for 55% of their grade, the STAAR exam, and does not give a school or district diagnostic information for needed area improvements.
Local Control
1. Coppell ISD would like the legislature to maintain or improve legislation relating to the District of Innovation.
What is a District of Innovation? The District of Innovation concept, passed by the 84th Legislative Session in House Bill 1842, gives traditional Independent School Districts most of the flexibilities available to Texas’ open-enrollment charter schools.
What are the flexibilities? Districts will have the flexibility to implement practices similar to charter schools, including exemptions from mandates such as: school start date, certain student discipline provisions, 90% attendance rule, use of planning and preparation periods, class-size ratios, teacher appraisal requirements, site-based decision-making processes.
State Legislature Contact Information
Texas House of Representatives
Matt Rinaldi
Capitol Address: Room E2 508
Austin, TX 78768
512.463.0468
512.463.1044 FAX
District Address: 12300 Ford Road Suite B348
Farmers Branch, TX 75234
972.247.8994
Texas Senate
Don Huffines
Capitol Address: P.O. Box 12068 Capitol Station
Austin, TX 78711
512.463.0116
District Address: 8222 Douglas Avenue, Suite 675
Dallas, TX 75225
214.239.6131
February Staff Birthdays
Johanna Rivera - 2/2
Leigh Pang (cafe')- 2/19
Jennifer Adams - 2/21
Birthday Buddies!!!
Eric Hanson - 2/25
Heidi Rupley - 2/25
Jennifer Vasquez - 2/28