Notes+4.15.08

**Present:**
Ted Hall Margaret Anderson Brenda Michaelsen Jodi McGuire Suzanne Hamilton Tom McDowell Deborah Johansen Chris Hill Claire Evrard Emily Davison Melissa Noack Julie Hutchinson Lorrie King

Norms:
Engage in clear, open, honest communication among team members. Be open to consideration of others' ideas. Be clear about how we communicate with teams. Communicate the status of 'items brought by staff.' Balance whole-school perspective with advocacy for learning areas. State clearly how decisions will be made.

1. Check in (4 min) Deborah shared that the English department scored a writing prompt. The papers were very strong. Melissa shared that in the back lobby there is some photo work and logo work for the Nutrition Program.
 * Notes:**

2. Decide on notetaker (1 min) - Julie

3. Review notes from last meeting (5 min) After reviewing the notes we had more discussion about the summer assignments. One piece that seems to be an issue is to make sure there is a purpose for the summer assignment. Another point that was made is what impact would there be on courses if we did not have these summer assignments. The thought that this information needs to be shared with the staff. We were all surprised by the amount of work that was being assigned to students. Ted shared that he felt that there should be a discussion at the learning area to have a thorough look at the 4 year sequence for each learning area. By Memorial Day each learning area should have had a discussion about the purpose and four year sequence for their learning area, as well as their assignments. Lorrie is available to work with anyone that would like assistance in assignments. Lorrie and Suzanne have agreed to come up with a list of questions teachers should ask themselves when they are putting a summer assignment together. Keep in mind that if you give a choice to students it adds value.

4. Items brought by staff members for the leadership team to consider (10 min) Ted shared that there are 3 things that are not working: •End of the day is when the bell rings. This does not seem to be getting better. This will be reiterated at Learning Areas. •Library - bubbling over from classes. 2nd lunch has been an issue, as weather gets better hopefully this will improve. •Lunch Duty - needs to be done.

Student Effort to play computer games. There needs to be a thoughtful response to this endeavor. The opens up the issue that we need to help students use their 90 minute study halls productively. This was not the intention for these laptops. At this point we are waiting to hear the students response to the student feedback.

Rick brought up the issue of favoritism on the Coalition of Essential Schools for presenters from the staff. This conference is a worthwhile conference ever year and that is why this one has information forwarded. However if anyone is interested in presenting at a quality conference they can request to do this as well. Like any conference this will be considered and a decision will be made.

5. Update on schedule and registration information (10 min) All learning areas have turned in section work to Ted. Thing look fine and this will be shared with guidance on Thursday. After things are run changes that need to be made will be dealt with. So unless a learning area leader hears from guidance or Ted then what was requested is what will be done. We don't want folks feeling they need to wait for step-up day to know what they are teaching.

6. Learning Area Teams Survey—Ted will have a draft of a learning area team survey for feedback (15 min) Ted handed out a draft survey that would be given to learning areas to look at their work for the year. One concern is that most learning areas are small and this may have some impact. One option is that you could use this survey or the survey that was used last year, which ever fit your learning area's needs. One piece that was discussed was that we did not take the list of roles for learning areas that Deborah and Brenda drafted that we had planned on sharing with the staff, this may need to be looked at for another year. Folks need to get feedback from their group and share their reflection on this when they have a conversation with Ted this spring.

7. Final assessments/final exams/end of year stuff—how do we ensure that we have common assessments across courses and that we keep up the good work we have done in the last two years at this time of year? What is the best way to collect computers from students?(10 min) It needs to remain clear that end of the year assessment and culminating activities need to be a common experience for all students of the same course. As we head into the end of the year we need to make sure that this continues to be our operating procedure and time needs to be available to make sure this happens. Computer Piece - Last year did not work well with having them turned in prior to exams. One idea is to have laptops turned into advisors - this would mean that staff is only responsible for their 10-12 advisees. This will be run by Alice to see if this would be feasible.

8. Summer work—what are the priorities for school-wide work? (15 min) Alice and Suzanne have put out some options for work. Ted has stated that topics that have to do with student engagement will have a priority.