IIRC Data

I found the IIRC activities to be very worthwhile learning experiences. I remember a couple of years ago when IIRC came about. To see how it has changed and evolved is quite remarkable. The capabilities it has now compared to then is amazing. It is surprising how many principals and school districts don't use the website or even know it exists. What a great tool for comparing how your school measures up against other schools in the state. Since my job revolves around attendance, I really enjoy looking at the attendance data for each school and district. I will continue to use IIRC and will spread the word to the principals in my school district.
Thank you, Dr. Closen!

Saturday November 8th

My aha moment for Saturday was when Dr. Closen showed us the Christmas card he was given from a former parent with the photocopy of the enormous check he donated to the school district. Dr. Closen reminded us about treating everyone with respect because you never know what might happen. I've had that philosophy for a long time as well. I try my best to treat everyone with respect. Kids, parents, staff because you never know what could happen. You may get a generous donation or your life could be in their hands and if they remember you as someone who always treated them with respect then hopefully they will return the favor. I will be honest and say that it is hard at times to show everyone respect when the are cussing you up and down, but I always try to end the conservations with, "Thank you maam, and you have a good day."

post-dated comment for 10/28

I think that hiring minority teachers is a very important issue. My school has a large minority population, and it is sometimes difficult for teachers to grasp the special cultural differences that impact minority students. Having a fresh and insiteful perspective on the unique concerns of the students can only enhance the educational climate.

Tim O'Neill

Great Class

One of the great things I enjoyed about class is the information we discuss that you could not learn by simply reading a book about human resource management. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing real-life situations, and discussing what we learn from them. It's great having instructors that have immense experience, and enjoy sharing their stories. I feel that I am quite efficient at deciphering pertinent information on individual IIRC reports, and understand what data administrators need to look at when evaluating efficiency and establishing goals. I am also excited about the fact I am nearing the end of this program, and looking forward to interviewing for administrative positions. It is also nice working with such dedicated professionals as i did in this class.

Edl 522

This class was very informative. I wanted to thank everyone in the class for all of the great discussions. I took several items of information away from the presentations that have helped me in my current job. I hope to continue to stay in contact with all of you. Good Luck with all of your future endeavours.

IIrd data

I felt that analyzing the data from the schools was very informative. Though I have done this before in other classes, I felt the repetition helped me retain the process of collecting school data. I think reviewing my own schools data will be one of the most important tasks I perform as a principal. The information my school data gives me will tell our school what direction we will need to go.

Weekend Two Presentation

Two teachers from Pekin had a presentation about schools that did not take a traditional approach too school. They discussed a shorter summer and three breaks of three weeks each throughout the year. This sounds like a great idea for a students' retainment of matreial. I do feel it would be difficult to sell this in certain areas because of tradition. I feel this would be most difficult in rural areas.

Motivation Discussion Wkd. 2

During the class we had a discussion about overall motivation. I found it insightful as I listened to the rest of our class discuss this issue. Several students spoke about the direction of their schools. Some stated they had a plan in place for professional development, but other schools did not. It would be hard to motivate our schools if we did not what our needs were. From the discussion I felt the best way to motivate staff is by studying our data and then creating a plan from the results. At this point we should create a plan that will involve the staff and benefit students

IIRC data

I got sick of analyzing data, but I did learn soo much from the flood of data we looked through. The financial side of the data was very interesting to me to hear the brainstorming of the "what ifs." I also found that looking at the data in groups was more effective than myself alone, because I would get caught up in one particular area (usually reading/math scores). The set of questions kept direction and motivation (to get done).

This class

The best piece of advice I think we received was to treat people respectfully (because it can burn bridges if you don't). I think that many people get done with master's and doctorate programs thinking that this makes you a better person. It does not make us better people only better educated. I've seen it happen in all walks of life. I have been the person that many people have underestimated and I have been the one on the high horse. I think it is always necessary to evaluate ourselves in terms of our own expectations and the expectations of the community, teachers, and staff. We need to take the time to listen to complaints about ourselves just as we would the compliments because many times.........we learn more about ourselves from the complaints.

Year round schedule

You two had a great presentation about year round schooling. I have one question for you and that is Would your high school district schedule affect the elementary schedule? What I mean by that is what would happen if you had a student in high school and middle school and you are on two totally different schedules. I know that there are schools out there that work like that, but it is something to think about.

Minority Teaching presentation

Kudos to you guys. What a great presentation. I would like to know more about the minorities in coaching. We don't have many minorities in the coaching positions around Oregon. The only school district close to us that has minorities as coaches in Rockford. I feel that more minority coaches are needed not only in urban districts but rural districts also.

Last Saturday Class

The presentations this weekend were very informative. I agree that student led conferences would be a great way to have the students tell their parents/guardians what they have accomplished and what they need to work on. I love the idea that the teacher just facilitates it and the student leads. More schools need to do this type of conferencing. This would be a way to get high school parents to our school. We have a very low turnout for P/T Conferences. It is only the parents of the students that we don't need to see.

Last class

I feel that the case studies are very helpful to prepare us to be future administrators. This class was one of the most relevant classes that I have taken. Thank you Dr. Closen for making me think like a administrator. I also feel that we should all have a good idea of what IIRC is all about. The exercises you gave us makes us analyze what is going on in the schools in Illinois.

Last class meeting

I think out of all the classes I have taken so far,  the most valuable information and skills have come from this one. I learned more about the IIRC than I have ever known before. To be honest, I didn't even know what it was before the beginning of class. I also learned that I have a lot more to learn about analyzing  data for schools. Its completely different from the Test of Adult Basic Education which is given to the offenders. I also learned that I really need to keep up on trends in elementary and high schools. I really need to keep up on these trends even when I am not taking classes which require it. 

Thoughts on creating Productive work environments

On Saturday we discussed creating productive work environments, and for the first time I realized that I had a more productive work environment in the prison system than the middle school I taught at. More of my needs of classroom space, safety and security are being met in a prison than a middle school. This was an odd realization. I discussed this with a few of my coworkers. They had never thought of this before I brought it up, and they realized the same thing as I did. Maybe we all made poor choices in choosing our previous employment. Maybe the administration was not the most supportive and that created stressful working environments that we all fled from. I don't know, but I do know that it was a strange thought to have.

IIRC

I truly appreciate the amount of time that we spent analyzing data from various schools and districts. I recently attended a workshop that focused on putting the school improvement plans online. The first couple of hours at this workshop were spent teaching current administrators the ins and outs of the site. I felt pretty confident in that I already knew a great deal of what was being taught. I especially appreciate the extra time spent on the financial part of it as well. So to that I say, thank you Dr. Closen and keep doing this in future classes.

Presentations

I think that the presentations in this class were among some of the best that I have seen throughout the entire program. I especially enjoyed the one on student led conferences. The data from Dunlap Middle School that was presented was very convincing. I think this type of a conference will help unite and create a true partnership between the school and the home. Most schools around our area are facing the same types of statistics and lack of involvement at the high school level, so it seems like the way to go. I plan to share this information with my administration.

My Final Comments for this Class

I really enjoyed working with all of you and sharing experiences, discussing ideas, and even analyzing data. I think you all have the potential to become good administrators. Just keep in mind that nothing is black and white. Every situation is different and you have to deal with each person individually.

Also remember that it pays to treat your fellow teachers/administrators/students or even parents with respect! It could pay off in the future :)

Good luck to all of you who have finished your coursework.


PS Marilyn, in response to your comment on Tim's post.... I use the term Union Goon affectionately :) It does not refer to building or district reps, just to the state or regional ones :)

Blog post #2 for 3rd weekend / Final class for me!!

I am excited to be finished with all of my classes. I'm almost amazed that I'm finally done. The highlight for me from this class was all of the IIRC information that we went over. I know some of the other students felt that it was a repeat from 571, but I didn't have Sandra Watkins for 571 so I was not exposed to this information to the extent as those of you who had her. This was the first time in the program that I had to analyze the data and I'm glad that we covered it. I look forward to seeing all of you again in the future in classes as I continue my education and maybe even working with some of you!

Mentoring New Teachers

Viewing all the presentations was an excellent idea. They were all very informing and brought to light present-day issues that can impact on all of us as educators. Everyone did an excellent job. I was especially impressed with all the new teacher mentoring programs. My district is just getting started with a mentoring program to address the concerns of newly hired teachers. Staff, for the first time, attended classes on mentoring this summer. This was our first crop of newly hired teachers to participate in an actual program instead of having a teacher in their department asked to watch over them during their first year. It will be interesting to see if and how this program improves to the level of some of the programs presented this weekend.

Feedback and Evaluation...for coaches

Amidst the discussion of managing school personnel, I was pleased to see the two presentations on the importance of evaluating coaches and officials. Having a chat with my father, a former English teacher of 34 years, after class Sunday, we both noted how important the opportunity athletics provides is for many students who may not shine at academics, but learn about character, teamwork, and becoming self-motivated from their coaches. Having taught in a European school for a year that had no extra-curriculars, it is obvious to me that we seek to educate the whole person and not just the academic side of people. Coaches have an extremely vital role in that process--and the notion that we need to evaluate them and provide them feedback is as necessary as evaluating teachers. For many students, sports push them to higher achievement, which is the underlying purpose of what we do with school. Hearing about the problems in recruiting good coaches and the issues, such as foul language and good adult modeling that sometimes doesn't happen, I think it is important to really view what coaches are doing--and let them know where they can improve as well.

Sunday November 9th

Sunday's class proved to be very interesting. I was intrigued by the difference in the amount of sick days other districts have as well. I have always worked at several districts with 10 sick days and 2 personal days. I could not believe the amount that some people have. I also found the coaching evaluation reports very interesting. It is something that is very needed, but definitely overlooked in a lot of districts. In this day in age where coaches are challenged everyday the more documentation that you have on coaches the better off that you will be. Thanks to everyone for all of the sharing and making the class a great experience.

Sunday's class

The discussion on the sick days and professional was interesting. In our district, if we don't take any sicks days throughout the year,then the last two teacher work days at the end of the year, the teacher has an option to work them and then get extra pay or the teacher doesn't have to work them. If a teacher has 1-2 sick days then it is one day where they must work and then the other day is extra pay. Over 2 sick days, both days must be worked w/o extra pay. I like this b/c it is great incentive for teachers not to take sick leave, at least for me anyway. In 8 years of teaching, I have missed one day due to sickness and that was actually not being sick, but getting kicked in the head by a horse and was forced to stay home for a day.
We have had teachers in the past milk sick days. I would not be able to live with myself if I milked the system.

What am I doing?

Okay this is Rick, but I am sure I am in as Dr. Closen again. Dr. Closen what in the heck am I doing wrong?
About the past weekend classes. I didn't enjoy much on Saturday b/c I had the flu and left early. I must say the presentations overall were good. Everyone put a lot of thought and effort into them and I felt I did learn something from them. Thank you for sharing. The mentoring presentation I enjoyed b/c it was a subject area I knew least about. Jay had some great info. that he picked up from Harry Wong and the seminar in Florida. I feel the mentoring program is a must and teachers who are mentors should receive extensive training b/c they can make a huge difference in a young teacher's life.

Post for Sun. I thought it was a great comment Dr. Clossen made a signing a one year contract as a principal. It would be a little assuring to know that you could still have your tenure if things did not work out the way you thought they would. I know this is only if you became a principal in the district you are teaching in presently. Good advice on dismissing non tenured teachers. No reason given no headaches later. However, this is hard for most of us because we feel it our duty to teach them how they could do better. I feel I have learned alot about the legal side of education from this classs as well as others. Most teachers I feel know very little of their rights or the postion administration is in. Whether I become a administrator or not this program has made me a better teacher and abroader minded employee. I have met alot of very nice people in this program both students and teachers and I wish all of you the best in your professional lives but more importantly in your personal lives. Good Luck from the Leprechaun!

Chris Neville - Ah-Ha for Sunday 11/9

Student-led conferences seem like such a good idea. I am concerned about the time frame involved in implementing this at the high school level. I have over 120 students, if each student only gets 10 minutes with me, that is still 20 hours. Currently, my HS gives 6.5 hours for conferences over two days. Even with just 5-minutes conference (which is totally too short), we are talking about 10 hours. In any case, I think the idea of student led conferences are great and I hope we can begin something like this out our school at least on a limited basis. Well done presentation, too :) I enjoyed the class veery much - best of luck to all of you!

Chris Neville - Ah-HA for Saturday 11/8

After the presentation on motivation, I was struck with the comment that we can only do so much with motivation. That is why extrinsic motivation (money, status) only go so far. This ties into how important it is to hire great people in the first place. Because we as administrators can only do so much to motivate our teachers and support staff. There are no magic words or videos or conferences out there for us to pull out of our you know what to inspire your people.

Blog comment for Sat. Will pointing out the difference between how high achievement was at the elementary level compared to how low it was at the high school level. A comparision on the IIRC web site between elemenatry feeder districts and high school districts would make for some good discussion. I think we all know we lose alot of kids beginning in jr. high although it may not be the greatest thing for athletics, band and a few others maybe we need to go back to K-6 or maybe even k-8 buildings it use to work.

Sick Days

I really enjoyed the conversation regarding sick leave today. As Dr. Closen pointed out, it cost his school district an average of $600 a month per person for leaves of absence. Then when a member of the class pointed out that it might be more cost effective to offer bonuses every quarter for perfect attendance I thought that was a good idea. However, I would worry that teachers would be more likely to come to work sick and pass their germs on to students and then the students would end up missing school because of illness. Right now I have the philosophy that if you hire good people, they will make the right decisions regarding whether or not to miss a day of school. It would be interesting to learn and read about district incentive plans regarding leaves of absence.

Sunday, November 9 - Salary

I find the talk of salary interesting. I never complain about my salary. Currently, I’m at Master’s plus 30 hours with 12 years of experience. I get fourteen weeks off a year. If I went to work in corporate work, I would need to make up those fourteen weeks. There is no way that I could make that in the corporate world with degrees in English or library science. I have also seen teachers quit to go work in corporate and come back. It seems as if you are English teacher, there isn’t a lot of job openings at CAT, etc that need those qualifications. It was also noted that the retirement is better than some in the corporate world! However, if you don’t like teaching, then I suggest you get out by the tenth year. If not, you become too invested in TRS that it’s costly to get out. I enjoy being a teacher, I enjoy being off the same time as my kids, and I do feel that my pay is adequate.

Cynthia

9 November 2008

I really liked the presentation today on student led conferences. While my district has been utilizing conferences of this type for about 10 years now, I took away some good ideas that I may try to implement as part of my internship work, namely exit surveys for suggestions. Survey Monkey is calling! :)

Our student led conferences run fairly smoothly. Students rehearse for multiple days during their Advisory Time (A.T.) with their A.T. teacher (who the conference is with). The students compile work from each class and attach a sheet to each piece of work that lists what the assignment was about, what the student did well, what the student would do differently if given the chance, and how to improve the following grading term. 2 days prior to conferences, A.T. teachers give the students a checklist on how to lead their conference and then the students practice. I can say from the teacher's perspective that I really feel that this type of conference is more beneficial to all parties involved.

8 November 2008

I wanted to comment on the bus driver video because until viewing that, I never thought of the importance of properly training bus drivers to deal with extreme circumstances. I watched the video when I got home Saturday afternoon and not believe how calm and the amount of restraint the bus driver used in dealing with that young lady. I thought back to an incident my interdisciplinary team had early this year on a field trip with a bus driver and realized just how important relevant training is. According to the bus driver of one of our buses, the students were too loud so she pulled over and was screaming. Fortunately 3 adult chaperones (one guidance counselor and two classroom teachers) were on board to witness. The situation is still unfolding but the superintendent is investigating it very seriously. I plan on discussing with my principal the amount of training that non-certified staff receive in terms of dealing with students...based on what I have witnessed I am assuming not much.

Jason McLaughlin Final Blog Entry

I really enjoyed hearing about how different sick days and personal days are in other districts.  I have been part of 3 school districts in my 8 years and each have been different as well.  It is something that is tied to motivation of a school and believe that a principal and superintendent could use the number of teachers gone in a year as a litmus test to how their managing is going.  I believe there are other forms of data that you could use that could tell you a little more about what is going on with your staff, but an unusually large amount of sick time being used (without an epidemic of West Nile or something hitting your area) is probably a good signal that you should look at what your building's climate is like.  Sometimes I think administrators get into their own worlds and forget to keep an eye out for morale until it is too late for them.  

Great presentations and discussions

All of the presenters did a very nice job today. Before today's class I had never really thought about coaching evaluations, I am going to check into our school policy this week and see how we handle them. I enjoyed the student led conference model. I think that is a great way to make the student's establish more ownership of their learning and work. Our school district does not implement student led conferences, but I wish they would. As a parent, I would really appreciate it if my son led the conference and built a portfolio. It would deepen his understanding and communications skills about his learning.

Final Sunday of Master's Program

I would just like to say that I learned a lot from this class as well as the EDL 518 class that you taught.  I can't stress enough as to how important class discussions of our own experiences as well as your multitude of experiences are.  I really have learned alot from your expertise and my classmates at all levels.

Sunday's class 11/9

I truly enjoyed the presentations today. I really enjoyed the mentoring presentation and how many new teachers really don't get the support needed to make the first year a success. I also enjoyed the slam poetry video. Great job on the professional development presentation. I can't stand professional development because it seems very worthless. There really wasn't a focus and I always felt that it was planned at the last minute and since they were getting money for the speaker, teachers had to go. Professional development is like a boring preacher at the pulpit. You want something to take home to inspire but usually you don't. Will

Sunday November 9th

I liked the talk about sick days and how different districts deal with rolling days over, etc. It is great to hear about other districts and how they deal with things. I always feel that I learn more when we simply share real life examples and simply talk about different issues. Many of my professors here have talked about how important it really is to have a network of people to learn from, trouble shoot, bounce ideas off of, and get advice from. I truly believe that one of the best things I am getting out of this program is a group of people I can talk to later in my administrative career.

Record Keeping...

The one thing that I did not learn in law was the rules regarding private notes and records. I have learned that it is essential to document all information concerning incidents and meetings with staff. Since I use the computer for everything, I would have kept them all on my work computer. That would have been a BIG mistake. I’m assuming it would be appropriate to put them on my personal laptop which I keep at home. Other than that, I will be putting all of notes on paper and taking them home!

Cynthia

Richmond Sunday Nov. 9 blog

I had so much fun discussing contract issues like leaves of absences that I wish I had done my research paper on that topic!  I think it would be really interesting just to take an example of all the teacher contracts in the quad cities and just analyze what the different districts give their teachers, what incentives, if any, are in place to discourage using sick days, and what the policies are on accumulation.  I am wondering if any nation-wide studies have been done and if any districts have found the "secret" to spending less money on subs.  -- Jennifer Richmond

Thought on 11/9

Very interesting coaching evaluation presentation. We had a head football coach released last fall because of this. He received a negative evaluation because he was not following the state rule about having non-certified coaches on staff. Now, he was not having a lot of success with the program, but, probably would not have been forced to resign or it would have been a lot more difficult to get rid of him had this situation not occured. Bottom line is coaches have to be up to date on all rules be it conference, district, or state because as a professional, you cannot plead ignorance.

jrichmond Saturday Nov.8 past vs. present

In class we briefly touched on whether kids were worse today than in the past or not.  I started my teaching career as a substitute and teacher's aide in 1994.  Are the parents worse?  I think they are a little because parents in 2008 do not respect teachers and principals as much as they did in 1994.  I am not sure the kids are that much worse.  Some problems are different.  (In 1994 for example, no one had cell phones in class.)    However, maybe I think kids are not worse because I have gotten better over the years at discipline.  As a beginning teacher, from say 1994-1998, I was not as good at discipline.  As we said in class, discipline is generally not covered in undergraduate teacher preparation programs.  You have to learn as you go along.  So from 1998-2008 have I just gotten really good at managing student discipline, or is it that the students are just as "good" or "bad" as they were in 1994?  Hm, food for thought. -- Jennifer Richmond

IIRC

I found the IIRC data to be relevant in knowing about your district as a principal better, or as a principal applicant to know when researching for a job.  I really liked that the last few were schools within our county, it made it seem more realistic because I was more familiar with these schools and the lurking variables that were behind the numbers.  I had no clue as to what some of the variables would of been for the other districts outside of the immediate area where I live.

Collective Bargaining

The discussions on collective bargaining were enlightening. Being a teacher, I have never heard the flip side to a lot of the discussions we had in this weekend's class. Language and specifics seem to play such an important role; rightly so. I especially liked the idea of Last/Final Best offer. It pushes both sides to get to the real meat of the bargaining agreement. My position was always one of trust that no one would intentionally cheat one side or the other. Naive at best. Hearing about other districts and how they pay or compensate their teachers was also intriguing. I have only ever taught for one school district and have not had the experience of what other CBA's are like. My district also does not have incentives for no using sick days; also a very intriguing idea. As a principal and a part of administration, I think it will be beneficial to have the experience of the teacher side but also understand more about the administrative side.

IBB not such a foreign concept?

I was struck by the fact that in discussion of collective bargaining, IBB was not only mentioned, but also the format used by some districts in the state of Illinois. When I went hunting at the beginning of the course for the collective bargaining agreement, I had a nice chat with my principal about differences between Iowa and Illinois--in fact when I went through the IBB training last year with another former Illinois teacher, we were told what a "different landscape" the two states were in terms of bargaining. My principal, herself a graduate of Western graduate, told me that IBB would be bad mouthed and presented as a 'give everything to the faculty approach' to bargaining. That in the back of my head, I was surprised to find the opposite--and the fact that districts in IL such as Pekin were using this system. Personally, I have found that with consistent communication and trust, this format works well, at least in our district

William's Blog post on support

Yesterday's class was very informative. I did like how the type of leadership was divided up into directive, supportive, participative and achievement oriented. I believe that when I become a principal that I will be a combination of a directive and supportive person. I personally like big high schools in which I don't see the principal all of the time. In fact in my position now as Dean, I was told that no news about your performance is good news. I would prefer a little more interaction with some of my Administrative team but I also am aware that people are busy. It also seems now that the sins of past administrations are still being dealt with over the last fifty years and that is why districts have such a tough time with CBA. Will

Thoughts on 11/8

As the group was presenting on handbooks and talking about scenario's that can occur, I was thinking that as a principal, you really have to understand that anything can happen, no matter how ludicrous you may think it is. For instance, we had an incident in the lunchroom a couple weeks ago where the son of a lunch lady was involved in an altercation with another student. The son got knocked to the ground, and his mom, the lunch lady stepped in and smacked the other kid, knocking him to the ground. I could not imagine this in my wildest dreams, yet it happened. Now, as a principal, what a mess to deal with ecause now you may have to fire an employee, deal with the parents, and probably deal with litigation. I understand now that anything can happen.

School Handbooks

My school puts an interesting twist on their teacher handbook.  The handbooks include numerous sections that act as a survival guide for teachers in the building.  Each teacher receives a binder of school procedures, the binders are to remain in the classroom in a spot that is also accessible for support personnel and subs.  The sections cover topics ranging from attendance, grading procedures, substitute information and emergency procedures.  When I started my mentoring program, my mentor and I went through the binder so that I would know where to find school procedures.  That knowledge and resource has helped me tremendously on a weekly basis.  

Teacher Aids

In regards to the school bus incident, I realized that many aids are probably not aware of school district policy. There are handbooks for teachers, but there may not be handbooks specifically for aids. At my school, we have been having the aids attend our professional development meetings in regard to our school's new behavior management system. This way we will have consistency throughout the building. Since we expect aids to handle the same situations that teachers face, I think it's a good idea to have them attend professional development meetings.

Saturday November 8

I agree with a good amount of what was said. I agree about the idea of getting unions out of the schools. It really reminds me of one of my earlier posts from this class. The post dealt with incompetent teachers still be allowed to work because of tenure. Well I feel that unions really create a deal of problems within the schools system. It seems that so often unions will back a teacher simply because they are one of their own. This really seems as if they are only hurting themselves in some cases. Also, I enjoyed the talk on collective bargaining agreements, grievances. etc. I understand principals don't have a great deal to do with those, but it is still interesting to me and would like to learn more about it.

Unions

I am in agreement with Dr. C in the fact that unions should be out of the school system. Because in most cases the union puts restriction on the stupid stuff. every school has the one person that questions everything and is in the office saying. "this is not part of the contract" When the school is in a bind for people to work in an other area the Administration hands are tied.

Saturday class

The discussion on working conditions was interesting. I understand the wide variety of working conditions that teachers are exposed to. I have worked at the end of both spectrums. I have worked at an inner-city, large population high school in special education classrooms and now work at a nearly 100% white, with very little low income. Everyday, I appreciate the working conditions I work in, yet am proud that I have worked under tough working conditions. I work with highly motivated teachers, and with good kids, in which our toughest discipline issue is cell phones, not students that are violent to staff. The biggest complaint I have is not having the best technology. My job working conditions allow me to focus on creating better lessons, not on which student may jump another student or me. I do respect the teachers that have to deal with those issues, before they can focus on their lessons. I must be honest, I have not experienced the worst of conditions, and hope I never do.

Sat.Nov.8 Jason McLaughlin aha

The bus incident that was shown in class is a prime example of how communication is so important in a district.  Thinking through how you are going to communicate a staff handbook, policy, professional development, change in discipline, etc... is so vital to a well-run school district and building.  In order to be effective you must first think through how you want to communicate information.  My question is how often do we review the way we communicate information?  Is there any processes or plans that schools use to evaluate their communication efforts or is it just something that a principal or superintendent have to think about making a priority?

Sunday Oct.26 post-dated post

I thought that the presentation on hiring minorities was very insightful last time we met.  I think that hiring minority teachers is something that can be a very positive influence on a staff and the student body.  To have another perspective is always good, especially if there are a large amount of minority students.  Look at the affect Barack Obabma has had on the African community.  Seeing someone in a position of leadership and authority has a huge impact on how kids see themselves, what makes teachers any different?  To me it is even more important because a famous singer, actor, or President of the United States is so far removed from their daily lives that a teacher/coach has a bigger impact on individuals.  I also thought that the statistics on coaches in Davenport was very shocking.  I would have never guessed those stats.  I am glad that you looked into that and I would love to see that be public information somewhere to hopefully inspire some change that is needed.  Good presentation by the group.

PD Plans

My school does not have a building or district PD plan. So I was looking on line to find a PD plan and the plans I came up with were so different. I saw the very detailed plan and the very basic plan. Therefore, I did not know what it should really look like. When I received the email from Dr. Closen of various sample plans, I enjoyed variety. In one of the plans it was interesting to see how detailed this plan was and how nicely everything tied together. I was amazed at how organized this plan was compared to the several plans I looked at online. A PD plan should be more than on this date, at this time, we will have this presenter coming in. Some of the plans I noticed had a form for each individual teacher to fill out to establish their goals of their own individual plan. I like how this gave the teacher some ownership with the plan. This assignment was interesting to me, because I have always believed that all schools need a plan big or small. I was told since we are a small district there is not much of a need. I don't agree, I think it is even more important and a lot easier because you have a smaller group of people to plan for.

No PD for my School district Weekend #2

I am in the same boat as Jeff A. My school does not have a PD plan for the district. We do have a PD committee but not in a formal plan. i think that we need to be more invested in the fact that we need more PD that fits into our area and can be useful.

Responses to your posts

I enjoyed reading the posts once again this week. A couple of points.

The motivation video that Jay posted is indeed a good video. I was able to view it a few months ago and have shown it in some of the schools where I work as a RESPRO coach.

William had inquired about administrators salaries not being public. I don't know about Iowa, but in Illinois both teacher and administrator salaries can be found at

www.thechampion.org.


You may or may not want to go there....you may be surprised.

Keep up the good work.