2.16.17

PiE February Parent Planning Meeting Notes

In attendance:  Suzan Locke, Jeff O’Hara, Jim Goldsmith, Carla Wuthrich, Tanya Jones, Amanda Pacilli, Aimee Frost

Penguin Plunge

• Over 1/3 of the 5th grade participated in the Penguin Plunge--- We raised more money per student than any other school participating in the event---$298 per plunger! Thank you to Paul Lasher for organizing this wonderful event.
• Take a look at the authentic Go Pro footage from the event

Champ Visits HCS on Valentine’s Day

• We had a wonderful visit from the one and only Champ from the Vermont Lake Monsters. The Kindergarten through 2nd Graders all had a personal valentine selfie with the big guy in our homemade photo booth. Thank you to Alyssa Lasher for organizing this wonderful event. Go team Lasher!

Retirement

• Paul Rocheleau recently let the staff of HCS know that the 2016-17 school year will be his final year teaching. When we think of Paul, we think of the amazing connections he is able to make with each and every student. He thoroughly enjoys being around students and his smiling and caring ways will be missed. We wish him a great end of the school year and all he could dream for and more in his well-deserved retirement.

New Hires

• Miri Scarpino joins HCS as a para-specialist in the 3rd and 4th grade wing. Miri is a licensed teacher who most recently has been working in the New School of Montpelier as a behavior interventionists. Her skills as a teacher and with behavior management will be a perfect fit for our existing needs.
• Lindsay Jones joins HCS as a long-term substitute for our 2nd-8th grade art teacher, Katie O’Brien. Lindsay has a Master of Education in Art Education and did her student teaching in Williston Central School. We are lucky to have her join our team.

Food drive

• Many thanks to the members of Student Council for once again organizing the annual HCS food drive. They have taken care of all of the details with this event- talking to Hinesburg Food Shelf representatives to get a sense of what was really needed, communicating to grade level teams about the mission and the prizes associated with participation, and purposefully timing the event so that it came during one of the slower times for the Food Shelf. Very proud of their efforts.

Ski and Ride- Cochran’s and Bolton

• The snow gods have been kind to us already this year. Last year was a particularly bad year for skiing and riding, but this year our numbers of students participating are still incredible and we’ve had some great days at our local ski centers. Many thanks to Lisa Ayer for organizing the Cochran’s program and Matt Kihm for organizing the Bolton program. Our students are lucky to have such dedicated individuals to provide opportunities such as these each year.

YRBS and NAEP

• We’re just priming the assessment pump in February. We are going to giving our older students two assessments this month, before getting them ready to take SBAC’s in the coming months. This month we will be giving two assessments:
• YRBS (Youth Risk Behavior Survey)- Given every two years to our students (and the students at the high school), this survey gives information to the district and to the State level on risky behaviors that we need to be aware so we can plan accordingly. It is helpful information and doesn’t impact instructional time too significantly.
• NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress)- Also given every two years, this assessment is given to our 4th and 8th grade students. CSSU gets “chosen” to participate in this national assessment. Before SBAC, this was a good assessment to see how HCS was doing nationally. Spoiler alert, we’re doing quite well.

4/5 Musical in Full Swing Nightingale

• Hans Christian-Andersen’s timeless story of love, freedom, and the healing power of music comes to life with this musical written for young artists.  Set in distant China, The Nightingale features roles for speaking, singing, and dancing.  Costumes, set, and music are sure to transport everyone involved to a magical culture.
• 45 fourth and fifth grade students are involved
• Director: Stacy Chadwell
• Performance: March 24th at 7:00pm

• Number of Students:
• Pre-K- 11
• K- 48 (3)
• 1st- 64 (3)
• 2nd- 49 (3)
• 3rd- 66 (4)
• 4th- 54(3)
• 5th- 65 (3)
• 6th- 64 (3)
• 7th- 50 (2)
• 8th- 58 (2)

Total- 529

• There were a lot of questions around classroom size and what is the size when a teacher is added;  The 1st grade is growing and the  admin is actively watching class size
• Education Quality standards is guide for classroom size; there is no statute to what class size should be
• Class size is recommended, not mandated except for pre-K and kindergarten
• Given the number of questions, it was suggested that this topic be explored further with parents either at Parent Learning or in the Viking

Vacation Food Bags for Feb & April school breaks

• The Hinesburg Resource Center supplies food bags to free/reduced lunch families who opt-in to receive them
• PiE approved contributing a gallon of milk and box of granola bars to the bags (15 bags for each break)
• PiE contributed to winter vacation food bags
• Estimated cost:   $200, total annual cost is $300
• Aimee will work with Rachel to secure the items

Town Meeting Childcare- Monday, 3/6- Aimee (5 min)

• Aimee shared that a parent had asked if the school or town supplied childcare for Town Meeting which is held in the evening (this year’s meeting is Monday, 3/6)
• Currently there are no childcare options and PiE decided that this is something best supported by the town
• Aimee will share idea with town/select board to be considered for future town meetings

Family Dance Update - Friday, 3/10

• “Fun in the Sun” theme
• Fliers have been published-please spread the word!
• Ticket pre-sale March 6 - March 10 from 7:30a-8:00a or contact Elisabeth Garvey elisabeth_garvey@gmavt.net (still ironing out the logistics with the office, etc)
• The Bank of Middlebury has donated tickets for 5 families to attend the dance 
• Sign up Genius has been sent!  Please sign up and spread the word!
• Teachers have been great about collecting auction items from students for the baskets (last day to bring in items-Feb 24).  
• We need baskets or containers for the basket auction!!!  If you have any to donate contact Alex Koncewicz at alexandrakoncewicz@hotmail.com or Jen Morton at jenniferldalton@hotmail.com

PiE Spring Grant Distribution

• There were two grant submission for the Spring Grant cycle:

1. Paul Rocheleau: $800 for Social Studies/Art/Literacy Cranky project (note: grant was approved at Fall Grant meeting and was decided it would come out of this cycle's funds. Project will take place Mar/April '17.)
2. 2. Jessica Wilson $420 for a set of 25 USB headphones with microphones for better sound transfer via chromebooks. Students in grades 2-8 will benefit. These will be available for check-out in the library.
• Admin decided to fund this purchase so it will not be funded from the Spring grant cycle

• The Fundraising team will go back and look at un/under-funded grants from the Fall cycle and decide if they will be funded with the remaining Spring cycle funds and report back at March meeting
• There was discussion as to why there are less grant applications in Spring v. the Fall
• Teachers are a lot busier in Feb than early Fall
• Someone raised the question if there should be a single grant cycle in the Fall
• Jeff raised that the discussion around grant requests uncovers needs/desires of which the school is unaware, like in the Fall
• PiE worked together to find creative solutions
• In the spirt of creative solving, it was suggested that PiE lead a brainstorm at a staff meeting to discuss wants/needs that could be funded from PiE grants or funded from other resources
• Kristin Miskavage will be stepping down as PiE Grant Coordinator- THANK YOU KRISTIN!
• And Melissa Levy will be stepping up!  THANK YOU, MELISSA!

Fundraising Update

• Have raised $10,200 towards $20,000 goal
• The team projects they will be shy of goal and raise between $17-$18K
• The number of fundraisers were scaled back plus fundraisers shifted to more community events vs. sales
• Hinesburg Night at the Lake Monsters (June) has been planned and will be led again by Erin Walker- THANK YOU ERIN!
• Champ will be visiting the school to kick off ticket sales
• Ticket sale window will be April 14-May 19th
• The fundraising team is exploring several new ideas:
• (Men’s) Night Out at Gonzo’s
• Buy tickets to attend, light food and games
• Vermont Comedy Diva’s
• By tickets to attend, enjoy the show
• Kid’s Night Out – with support from Mr. Shackett who successfully leads a similar event in Richmond
• Student Council also has a Kids Night Out fundraiser
• Imagine also hosts Kids Night Out for Imagine families only (not a fundraiser)

Garden Update

• The HCS garden has become a valued resource at HCS
• Longstanding garden leaders, Susan Lepple and Heidi Simkins, have stepped down this year- THANK YOU BOTH for your contributions over the years!
• Suzan supports the garden and will help appropriate secure staff/school support
• PiE is looking for new leadership and would like to establish a garden vision and goals for the future with a new team
• The first step will be to learn more about how the garden has been used
• Aimee will coordinate a meeting with Suzan, Heidi and Susan, and Amanda
• Amanda volunteered to help lead efforts moving forward

School Directory

• Jeff reached out to fellow CVSD principals to find out who they gather family information for directories
• Shelburne Community School shared that they include a directory opt- out on registration permissions
• It was decided that HCS would create a directory opt-out form to be included in the summer packet
• The form will allow parents to decide what info they want to share (address, phone, and/or email)
• Prior to pulling info, HCS will send a message via Connect 5 to remind parents that they can opt of directory; this creates a double opt-out
• Jim will ask Kate Dodge if she will create the form
• Aimee to check with front office as to when forms are due for summer packet
• The goal is for the directory to be distributed in early Fall

2017/2018 Planning

• PiE discussed having a planning off-site meeting to discuss schedules, events, and new ideas for 2017/2018 school year.  The consensus was we need to plan as early as possible.
• Discussion topics might include:
• Open houses vs. curriculum nights and supporting PiE events (timing will not be determined to summer when teachers are back in school)
• Summer/early Fall coordinated parent communication (like directory opt-out form)
• A New Family Welcome packet- New idea
• Establishing a calendar with known events
• At the March meeting, we’ll revisit scheduling this meeting

Communication Check-In

• There was conversation as to how information from PiE meetings flows to teachers
• Jeff and Suzan said that they will forward information if sent to them
• Important information can be re-enforced at weekly staff meetings

Parent Learning Events

• The goal is to have at least one more Parent Learning Event this year (have held three events with a goal of five)
• Two topics/speakers include:
• Cindy Pierce, a sex educator and comedian (suggested by Sarah Friend)
• Friendships and navigating the social lives of our children (suggested by Kristin Miskavage)
• Aimee will follow up and report back with more details at March meeting

Upcoming Events:

• End of Box Top Collection (DUE Fr, 2/20/17)
• Family Dance (Fr, 3/10/17)
• PiE March Meeting (Th, 3/16/17)
• 4th/5th grade musical (Fr, 3/24 @ 7pm)
• Kindergarten registration (tentatively scheduled for 4/13 & 4/14)
• Staff Appreciation Week (May)
• Book donation to HCS library in honor of retiring teachers (June)
• Hinesburg Night at the Lake Monsters (June)

PiE Meeting Minutes 1-19-17

PiE Meeting Minutes 1-19-17
Proficiency Based Learning (PBL)

Location: Flex Space

Attending: 19 parents

Presenters: Suzan Locke (HCS Co-Principal), Monica Carter (CVU math teacher and PBL coach) and Jeff Evans (Director of Learning & Innovation for CVSD)

All materials shared during the presentation will be available on the HCS PiE Page. A slide show of the presentation will be available on the HCS PiE page

Jeff Evans led the group in an activity to examine the way the job world is changing and will likely be different for our children

·         One of the biggest takeaways is that education needs to be flexible

·         Right now, the biggest companies are innovators – Uber doesn’t own cars, Air B&B doesn’t own real estate, Facebook doesn’t develop content

·         Students don’t need teachers to teach them facts, they are readily available on the internet

·         Many jobs our kids will get haven’t even been invented yet

This is the first year that all students in the district are having their achievement communicated in terms of PBL

·         A lot of new learning for teachers, which is happening on Tuesday afternoons at HCS

o   Teachers practice being the student in some exercises and then apply the information to their own classrooms and receive coaching

·         For grades 5-12 across CVSD, JumpRope is the technology platform

Parents participated in a learning exercise with an “energy stick” to demonstrate and drive discussion about learning targets

·         An energy stick is an enclosed tube which is used at school for learning about circuits

·         Parents had to draw conclusions about how it works and create a model of how electricity flows through and electrical circuit

o   Some parents were wondering why terms were not defined before the exercise

§  Some teachers may use as a strategy to see what kids already know

§  Children are being asked “how to you know…” and “explain your thinking”

§  Students may compare work they did before with what they know now

§  Important to develop the culture of the classroom to be able to provide PBL

·         Questions spurred by the exercise were:

o   Why are we trying to just “meet” targets?

§  Targets are the learning goal, and students can meet or exceed

o   Is the framework of the classroom changing now? Are there still AP classes offered?

§  AP classes still exist, and PBL is used in those as well

·         Is there criteria to evaluate educators on how well they are teaching using PBL?

o   Yes, teachers are evaluated on implementing PBL

o   Teachers are working together to form learning targets for grades/content area;  there is a lot of peer learning and support

o   PBL coaches are regularly in the classroom to support teachers

o   In the teacher hiring process, there’s an emphasis on PBL across the SU

o   For teachers one of the biggest shifts and challenge, is being able to differentiate learning in the classroom

Why PBL?

·         Monica shared that the way she used to teach math was by the book, and only when the test came back was it obvious that a child was struggling

o   Number at the top of the test was not very informative

o   Looking at standards (the term that preceded the today’s use of the term “proficiency”) helped to design instruction that was more relevant and tailored to individual student needs

o   Using PBL, she would know how each student was progressing well before test time and the areas where students needed extra attention

Transferable Skills

·         In Jumprope targets are tied to transferable skills targets that were developed on the state level

Transferable Skills for Creative & Practical Problem Solving (see presentation for all skill targets)

·         A parent asked how Common Core fits in with PBL

o   Content comes from Common Core standards (see page 10 of presentation for all Content Area Standards)

o   While the Common Core could change (and has changed in the past), the PBL approach to learning and teaching would remain in place

·         Parent questioned if curriculum would have to change since students are not “downloading” information/content anymore

o   The curriculum or content is not changing;  what has changed is that learning is not about teachers delivering content only but teaching students how to be learners

·         Parent questioned if students  not covering as much content with the PBL teaching approach

o   PBL may not lead as deeply into the textbook at times, but the skills kids are learning are transferrable to learning new content

·         Learning targets are transferrable across content areas

·         The example was a science learning target about systems

·         The idea of a system is not unique to science but could be applied to social studies as political movements are also considered a system

·         In younger grades where students may not yet read/are learning to read, learning targets may be expressed visually through pictures

JumpRope

All parents will be getting a JumpRope report

·         Middle school gets this for all content areas

·         K-4 will get a JumpRope report for Unified Arts and Physical Education

·         The report is a look at progress to date

o   Since it’s just a snapshot of where the child is at any given time, they would not penalized if they had a bad first semester

o   That first semester might have some low scores since students are just being introduced to content and are just starting to learn

·         In the upper right of the Jumprope report is a link with definitions of terms on the report

o   These terms were handed out at the meeting and will be available on the HCS PiE Page

·         Questions asked included:

·         Why is the .5 used?

o   E.g., if kids are doing both 3 and 4 work and fall somewhere in the middle a .5 is used

·         What can you do if your kid is unsure about how to ask what they need to do to move from a 2 to a 3?

o   Can meet with teacher and child together

o   Questions kids can ask:

§  Is there additional practice I can do?

§  Will I get another opportunity to demonstrate this skill?

·         Can kids be reassessed on the same task or will conversation with the teacher be more about how to do better next time?

o   It will be some combination of the two, depending on what the task was and what practice is needed

·         Parent shared her concern that her child told her that a 2.5 is the best anyone could do on a particular assessment; others echoed similarly that their kids say a 4 isn’t possible

o   Presenters encouraged those parents to communicate with the teacher; could be that the child just misunderstood that the teacher was saying it’s natural not to get a 4 right away when starting a unit or something like that

§  By the end of the unit any score should be possible

o   Another parent shared that it’s confusing that her child got a 1.5, but on the report it wasn’t clear that a new unit had just been started, so the 1.5 wasn’t a bad thing. Talking with the teacher will help parents to understand;  teachers can also comments in JumpRope reports to provide more context

o   So much learning takes place through failure – important to communicate to kids that it’s ok to fail in the process, and that’s part of the scoring for PBL

o   Parent shared that child got one wrong on a test but got the same score as a fellow student who got lots wrong; the student was very discouraged and upset

§  In that case, talking with the teacher would be helpful; teachers are also in a learning process, so Monica wants to hear about times when things don’t seem to be working and parents still have questions after talking with the teacher

o   Kids get to talk about PBL just like parents were doing tonight

§  District coaches are interviewing students to see what they are thinking about changes in the classroom

·         Parent wanted to know, how often are teachers tracking evidence that goes into that report?

o   Teachers are documenting work

o   In the near future, with the JumpRope parent portal parents will be able to see number of  assessments/assignments and  how their student is progressing

Other questions

How does differentiated instruction work?

·         When just two students in a whole class are struggling are all the kids held back?

o   Teachers use flexible groups, based on assessments, and kids who need extra help can work with teacher

o   If you walk into a classroom often kids not all doing the same thing

o   Teacher are doing less lesson from the front of the room  because they need to differentiate instruction based on student progress and target areas that need support

What’s the HCS homework policy?

·         If we’re delving deeper into subjects and not covering as much, why isn’t homework assigned to cover what might be missed?

o   Teachers still covering the content that’s required, according to common core standards, but they may be combining units across subjects to do it

o   If anything is sent home it should be practice and not new learning, as research has proved homework to be less effective than people previously thought

o   Reading should happen every night

Please email co-principals with any other questions!

Upcoming Activities:

·         Feb. 2 – Spring Teacher Grants due

·         Feb. 16 – PiE Planning Meeting @ 6:30 in the Flex Space

o   Agenda will include Spring PiE Grant distribution discussion

·         Feb. 20 – Box Tops Due

o   The class that brings in the most will win a pizza party!

·         Mar. 16 – Family Dance

o   Theme is “Fun in the Sun,” and there will be a live DJ, dancing photo booth, basket raffle, activities and bake sale. We’re looking for volunteers to make it all happen!