25September2008
Posted by mjhasley under: High School; Middle School; Social Studies; Staff Development.
Click on the PDF below to determine where you want to go on Oct. 9.
Clicking on the document will enlarge it. If you would rather download the PDF, click here..
After you decide where you want to go, please fill out the form below.
22September2008
Posted by jganzert under: Social Studies.
Good Afternoon Friends. I have had a full morning of therapy and feel like an old lady. It’s not pretty! I am very grateful to Kourtney and Doug for leading this meeting today. He is going to share with you several new sites that the ITRTs have developed this summer and their plans to assist social studies teachers this year. I hope all of you have had a good start to the school year. You have done a great job letting me know of your textbook needs and a few other issues. Keep those coming! Below are three topics I need to address today. As you read, please post your thoughts on each.
1) Disregard.
2) Also, you have received information from me last week regarding the plans for Oct. 9. I have asked all of the presenters to have their information to me by the end of this week. Hopefully, early next week I will have the information for each workshop ready to share with teachers. Once the teachers have this information, each teacher will choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice workshop to attend. Once I have received the information from everyone, I will provide rosters to the presenters, you, and the teachers will get their specific directions for the day. I will NEED to have your master schedules in order to double check my work. Please be sure you have submitted yours by the end of this week, if you have not previously done so. The template is on the Chairman’s Corner. Please let me know any concerns or suggestions that would make this better. I know we have talked about the transportation issue…Hopefully the price of gas will go back down by the 9th, and please encourage car pooling.
3) What comments are you getting from your teachers about the new pacing guides and the work done by the curriculum writers this summer. All text banks are posted in my share folder and will be in my LOR soon. The banks for the 1st nine weeks should be in my LOR by the end of Sept. These banks will definitely be available as each school creates the 1st Nine-weeks assessment. The lessons are also in both places. Remind teachers that these are new or revised lessons and only the work done this summer is posted in the 08/09 folder. The old lessons are still in the share folder in the 07/08 folder.
Lastly, what issues do you have? Please share … you can post here or just have a discussion there among yourselves.
Hope you enjoy this different type of meeting. I look forward to seeing everyone soon! I’ll know more when I see the doctor on the 2nd.
15September2008
Posted by jganzert under: High School.
Good Afternoon Friends. I have had a full morning of therapy and feel like an old lady. It’s not pretty! I am very grateful to Mike for leading this meeting today. He is going to share with you several new sites that the ITRTs have developed this summer and their plans to assist social studies teachers this year. I hope all of you have had a good start to the school year. You have done a great job letting me know of your textbook needs and a few other issues. Keep those coming! Below are three topics I need to address today. As you read, please post your thoughts on each.
1) This afternoon in your e-mail you should have found a note from me regarding the plans for Voter Registration in the Schools. Please be sure you read it carefully and let me know your thoughts as soon as possible. Barbara and Judy have worked hard to make this a meaningful program.
2) Also, you have received information from me last week regarding the plans for Oct. 9. I have asked all of the presenters to have their information to me by the end of this week. Hopefully, early next week I will have the information for each workshop ready to share with teachers. Once the teachers have this information, each teacher will choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice workshop to attend. Once I have received the information from everyone, I will provide rosters to the presenters, you, and the teachers will get their specific directions for the day. I will NEED to have your master schedules in order to double check my work. Please be sure you have submitted yours by the end of this week, if you have not previously done so. The template is on the Chairman’s Corner. Please let me know any concerns or suggestions that would make this better. I know we have talked about the transportation issue…Hopefully the price of gas will go back down by the 9th, and please encourage car pooling.
3) What comments are you getting from your teachers about the new pacing guides and the work done by the curriculum writers this summer. All text banks are posted in my share folder and will be in my LOR soon. The banks for the 1st nine weeks should be in my LOR by the end of Sept. These banks will definitely be available as each school creates the 1st Nine-weeks assessment. The lessons are also in both places. Remind teachers that these are new or revised lessons and only the work done this summer is posted in the 08/09 folder. The old lessons are still in the share folder in the 07/08 folder.
Lastly, what issues do you have? Please share … you can post here or just have a discussion there among yourselves.
Hope you enjoy this different type of meeting. I look forward to seeing everyone soon! I’ll know more when I see the doctor on the 2nd.
19August2008
Posted by kdbostain under: Social Studies.
What do you most look forward to your first week of school?
18August2008
Posted by kdbostain under: Information.
Welcome New Teachers!
1. Introductions | Social Studies Instructional Technology Resource Teachers
2. Judy’s Social Studies Pages & Resources
3. Specialist Virtual Share
9November2007
Posted by jganzert under: Exam View.
Now that many of you have had the opportunity to use exam view, both as a test generator and a testing site, it would be helpful if you would share your thoughts about the program. I need to hear both the advantages and disadvantages of the program in order to determine if there are ways that it can be improved.
22October2007
Posted by jganzert under: Assessments; Exam View.
How many questions are appropriate for the 18-week common assessment at each middle school grade level? 20- 40 -60???? Should there be time remaining after the common multiple choice section for students to respond to open-ended short answer or discussion questions? What is the amount of time that will be allocated for the 18-week assessment in your school?
7October2007
Posted by jganzert under: Best Practices; PQR.
Whenever administrators come into a social studies classroom they will be looking for evidence of specific Professional Qualities and Responsibilities. Below you will find six categories of these qualities and responsibilities. Each category is defined by a list of examples of evidence they should be present in any social studies classroom. Obviously, it is impossible to see all or even a majority of the items on these lists in a 5 minute walk-through of your classroom or even in a single class period. Walk-throughs and the feedback from walk-throughs are used to develop trend data. The administrator is focusing on what is seen, not what is not seen. The trends should indicate a positive learning environment, based on appropriate planning and pacing of instructions. Failure to see such trends would require formal observation and possible assistance to the teacher.
After reviewing the document, please share your thoughts, concerns, or suggestions about this draft of the observation tool to be used this year.
25September2007
Posted by jganzert under: Assessments; Exam View.
Curriculum teams,
I have had numerous requests to spend part of our time on Oct. 8th allowing teachers to work on Exam View. Would you (the entire team) be willing to lead a session to review your banks and help the teachers learn how to set up their own banks? Each grade level would be in separate sessions. I can spend some time in the am session with an overview of how social studies teachers will incorporate Exam View. Please share your thoughts.
PS — The ITRT’s in the school’s should be “training” the teachers, but we will want to be sure that our teachers follow the same format /preferences that we used as we worked on the banks this summer for CONSISTENCY, especially so that all questions in all banks are set up to provide the data we need.
PPS - This would not replace the sessions by teachers. Those sessions would take place before lunch and Exam View would take place after lunch. . . if it is added.
10September2007
Posted by jganzert under: Assessments; Exam View.
Using the new Exam View 6.0 Test Generator will allow teachers to create tests quickly and easily once test banks are established and teachers are trained. More importantly, teachers will receive data of student achievement that can be used by teachers to determine areas of student strengths and weaknesses, thus allowing teachers to develop appropriate lessons and activites to help students improve their understanding of the content and ultimately test scores.
Social Studies teachers have spent the past three summers developing question banks to help with this process. The banks will continue to grow as teachers share more items that can be added to the Central Banks. Please share your feedback regarding
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