Reflection from PCSC PD

On Friday February 15th we were able to come together to learn as a corporation   It was great to have others share their expertise with us in a format that allowed us to choose what we wanted to learn.  I would like to thank those teachers that moved out of their comfort zones to share with all of PCSC.  Special cudos to TJ McNally, Katie Kappler, Josh Winrotte, Paula Neidlinger, Phil Scott, and Chelsea Bramfeld.  I heard great things about your sessions.  Our tech integration coaches are taking proposals for this summers eQuip conference.  I woud love for Team LJH to be well represented again.  Everyone has a lot to offer to others.  We are leaders.

Our keynote speaker, Kevin Baird, laid out a vision of what is ahead for educators with the CCSS coming.  At LJH we are well on our way to preparing students for the CCSS.  We know that we need to keep a FOCUSED emphasis on abundant amounts of reading, writing, and discussing to prepare our students.  A couple of takeaways from what he shared.  VOCAB:  We must directly teach vocabulary across all subject areas.  Academic vocabulary can be split into 3 distinct tiers.  Tier 1, 2, and 3 words.  Tiers 2 and 3 being the most important for our students.  Tier 2 words are those that are universal to all content areas and tier 3 are those specific to a content area.  Students will need to be able to make meaning of more difficult words than ever before.  We will visit our approach to teaching vocabulary in the near future.  WRITING:  Baird stated that the only way to reach the levels 3 and 4 of DOK students must write.  We must increase the amounts of writing that we do in all classes.  LEXILE Levels and informational texts: We know that the recommendations of the amounts of informational text is increasing with the CCSS.  This increase must happen in all classes especially in places other than Language Arts.  Lexile levels are increased when students read information texts in abundant amounts.  The authentic literacy template described in Schmoker's book FOCUS must be happening in all classes weekly.  Students have to be reading for information everywhere.

Together we can prepare our students for their futures and help Team LJH become the Best We can BE.