HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-10-09-DIAMOND-min
William Diamond Middle School
99 Hancock Street
Lexington, Massachusetts, 02420-3484
Ms. A. Carothers, Principal Office: (781) 861-2460
Mr. B. Klimasmith, Assistant Principal Fax: (781) 274-0174
Ms. E. Sharp, Assistant Principal
Diamond School Council
Meeting: 10/9/14 6:30 – 8:00PM
Location: Principal’s office
Members Present:
Anne Carothers, Ed Dube, Jane Kalinski, Linda Boardman Liu, Heidi Pasternak, Johanna
Rodrigues,
Agenda & Minutes
1.Official List of participants
a.Participants in attendance signed official list for town
2.Voting for co-chair
a.Tabled for next meeting, more parents present to discuss.
3.Set meeting dates
a.Tabled for next meeting or via a doodle online
4.Taking notes
a.LBL volunteer for this meeting.
5.Update from School Council Roundtable meetings
a.Tabled till next meeting
6.Questions about School Improvement Plan
a.Discussion of how used, more a framework than a work list of things
to do. Heidi identified communication as an area for improvement,
related to technology use and deployment. Mr. Dube identified
technology as a continuing area needingimprovement…
b.Opening “gradebook” was discussed as a possible solution for
communication of progress notes and other information relative to
students and performance. “Obaworld” might be coming as an
LMS, which could improve the platform for sharing information,
resources, and so on. Technology should not a barrier to
communication and information for students.
c.Johanna raised the idea of possibly having a survey or study done
with parents to understand expectations, areas to be engaged in, and
give the site council some data to work with to focus thinking on
particular areas.
d.Departments have been focusing on crystallizing thinking about the
key standards for learning, and the work is well underway
e.Discussion of how assessed: admin reviews, provides feedback, but
is not a big driver of performance on a day-to-day or regular basis.
f.School improvement plans being standardized to a certain degree
cross the town, with members of the school committee bringing in
‘experts’ at the monthly roundtable to help people understand what
the goals are and what they mean.
7.Updates:
a.Teaching All Kinds of Minds
i.Still looking at if and how this can be useful to the Diamond
faculty and students. Teachers being trained on using the
techniques to guide analysis of a student, from interviews to
data review. Once faculty have triangulated on a particular
learning profile, teachers can access the AKOM resources to
help identify strategies and tools to help a child engage and
learn more effectively. Can help all kids, but in particular
children who are not necessarily receiving services thru IEP
or other resources. Using this framework to see if the
learning team (Apollo, Everest, etc) can serve as the child
study team. Although the process is time-consuming, and our
understanding is growing slowly, does seem to be helping
identify resources and approaches. With more experience,
believe the teams will move along the learning curve and
become more efficient and capable in executing quickly. Next
steps are for both trained groups to revisit with consultant,
and consider where they have been, where they are going, and
2 new groups receiving initial training.
b.Supervision & Evaluation
i.All teachers are now involved with the new evaluation system.
Evaluators visit classes to observe and then provide feedback
and coaching. Rather than hanging on format (SMART) are
focusing on innovative areas (such as focus on 2 kids, how can
we help them get over the bar). Some departments are
agreeing on a particular goal. Goal is then to measure
success in reaching articulated goals. Student improvement
and professional practice are the two key areas to focus on.
ii.Coming is a survey (for parents and students) addition to
evaluation system, but is farther down the road.
c.ICE
i.Reintroduced this year, lots of interesting and exciting classes
that kids are enjoying. 6 week program, Thursday 2 – 3 PM.
Some kids running ICE blocks, considering how to support
them in doing that well.
d.Faculty Conversations
i.Running faculty conversations on 4 key topics, that will be
revisited for several sessions in order to get deeply into the
topic.
ii.Lengthy conversation about scheduling: possible longer days,
need for more time to engage in more hands-on work, or work
that has students working collaboratively and/or
independently. Longer blocks could enable this kind of
learning, but can be difficult to schedule with current model;
some questions about different needs for different subject
areas, and for different types of learners.