Notes+3.25.08

Norms for our work: 2. Decide on notetaker (1 min)** Claire Plea from Liz and Suzanne to keep kids out of library during class. Tom asked the timing of summer work and course assignments in order to coordinate those. Pretty close to finishing up the course numbers.Can still start the conversation with LA about course assignments. From Melissa-Study hall seems to be completely wasted for 90 minutes. Getting there. Remind staff that special notes on registration about special requests cannot usually be accomodated and can make things challenging. Margaret reported that there was overwhelmingly positive response to the day. Energy in some of the book group was better because of the time spent working before. Trying to balance time in LA and book groups and whole school because they are things to learn from others outside the LA. One benefit is to get to know other staff members that you don't see regularly. A number of people appreciated time to share at the end. Used a protocol to examine the data of summer course assignments. Data is separated by grade level and by learning area. We surfaced assumptions first. Made observations about the data. Inferences: Surprised at how much summer work has grown to other disciplines. Years ago it was only English and it was a big assignment and English has scaled down but other LA have added. Surprise at the amount of work. Disconnect with our no HW over vacation policy. Students were surveyed in the past and high percentage do the HW during the last week and a high number do it the weekend before. As a freshman you are reading 1 or 2 books. By sophomore year you have 90% doing 3 assignments. By senior year a significant number of students have 4 assignments. Seems like most students are doing the assignments. Teachers seem willing to improve or question their summer work. Students have little choice in the summer assignments. Several cases where students were given an out as to when they could complete the assignment.
 * 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)
 * 3. Review notes from last meeting (5 min)**
 * 4. Items brought by staff members for the leadership team to consider (10 min)**
 * 5. Update on schedule and registration information (10 min)**
 * 6. Inservice Day agenda feedback (10min)**
 * 7. Summer Assignments data review and discussion (remainder of time)**

Conclude that students that have stressful or disfunctional homes come in with assignments not completed. There is also a level of anxiety for some students. Implications: Do we have some real student data to the effectiveness of the summer work? How do we get these assignments so that kids can be supported before the summer. Needs to be some check and balance between assignments at each grade level. CP students in History do more work than the honors. Tom noted that history is moving towards less. What is the purpose? Is it to jump start the beginning the year or to encourage exploration. Start the year with success. Where is the vacation part? Overall we are in good shape but we can improve. We don't need to add more.