April+19,+2010

=**ISB Coaches Team Meeting Agenda **= Participants: **Teresa, Jeff, Dennis, Troy, Kim Regrets:**
 * < Date: **Mon., April, 2010** ||< Time: **9:00-11:00** ||< Place: **MS Skybox** ||
 * < Timekeeper: **Troy** ||< Recorder: **Kim** ||= Facilitator: **Various** ||
 * **Task** || **Guiding Question** || **Background/ Process** || **Person / Time** ||
 * **Warm-up** || //How's life been?//
 * Updates on any Professional learning (i.e. Troy's two gigs in US)
 * Parent April 7th ???
 * Planning for May Parent Learning session (structure, foci)
 * Maggie's labsites ([|schedule])

Troy:
 * Vietnam conference was more appropriate for classroom teachers
 * Investigations conference for coaches: Investigations trainers do full day training, Troy has a handbook for suggested training
 * School visit: focused on looking at student work, our teachers are doing well in this area - next step is to do something with what we learn from looking at student work, need to look for ways to see student growth over time

April 7:
 * Only 2 parents came to tech b/c Kim forgot to put announcement in bulletin the week before. Sent those 2 parents to Troy. We will try to run this at a different time in May specifically for grade 5 parents.
 * Communication to MS parents didn't happen b/c they didn't know that there was an MS session

Planning for May Parent Learning: 2. Organizational items || All (30 min) || Notes from last time:
 * Rotating 1/2 blocks: Summer Time Fun - each subject area will run a half hour session specific to grade levels, and parents will rotate through || 1. General catch-up, sharing
 * **Coaching** **Team 2010-2011** || //How can we be consistent in our communication about coaching to our collegial partners?//
 * Communicate with Curriculum Partners regularly: Miguel & Chrissy w/Jeff, Tammy w/Teresa, Science w/Troy
 * By the end of March, share: Coaching Roles & Responsibilities, this wiki, our PLC process (we meet weekly, reading the Coaching book), details specific to each curricular area, teacher level of understanding, daily expectations from teachers, level of admin support, etc.
 * Potentially Skype in new coaches to one of our meetings (make sure we have Chrissy here for this meeting too) - should be a 7:30 am meeting slot so Chrissy can make it

First Skype meeting will be May 4 at 7:30 am. Miguel has been invited already. || 1. Update 2. Skype date || Teresa (30 min) ||
 * **Book Club** || //What can we learn from Chapter 5?//

(30 min) || Google Doc Action Plan Steps:
 * "Clear need for training in classroom management" - in all areas?
 * Teresa does not like the section on praise - goes against all research she's seen
 * Do we have a clear vision of what the school prioritizes?
 * Administrative 3-5 minute walk through - is this a possibility at ISB? Better to get a more holistic view of the teacher and the classroom. To implement we need training for both admin and teachers.
 * // After-Action Review (AAR): after a collaborative coaching experience, reflect on the progress using these 4 questions: What was supposed to happen? // What really happened? What accounts for the difference? What will I do differently next time?
 * This chapter could be helpful in terms of managing materials and resources (as opposed to behavior management). Might be useful to compare these types of strategies as a team to help increase student learning time.
 * Some strategies for behavior management may be useful on occasion for specific teachers or situations. ||  || Kim
 * **Coaches' Standards**** || //What are our hypotheses and how does the learning evidence correlate?//
 * 1) Hypothesis: at a gut level, what learning do we think is not as good as we think it should be
 * 2) Student Learning Evidence Examined - Issue confirmed or debunked
 * 3) Date: Collaborative Action Plan Created
 * 4) Date: Action Plan Implemented
 * 5) Date: Student Learning Evidence Collected
 * 6) Date: Reflection Based on Evidence (rinse & repeat as needed)

Notes from last time: Hypothesis:
 * Teresa: Are students clear about what, why, and to what degree their learning during their independent reading? Are they making the transfer from the mini-lesson and modeling? Working with grade 3 on reading.
 * Jeff: Are students aware of the importance of audience? Working with grade 5 creating PSAs.
 * Troy: Are we really pushing kids to the limit of their ZPD? Are all students engaging in high cognitive and metacognitive thinking skills?
 * Kim: Does creating and sharing digital stories help deepen student understanding in a meaningful way? Does sharing online help students reflect on their learning?

Student Learning Evidence:
 * Teresa: seeing an improvement with most students, but not as much with higher level - maybe they are too confident that they are already "good readers." Teresa will continue this with the mini-cohort of Vu, Tracy, Jen, Sheena at different grade levels, and then go to full literacy council to see if they can do it in their own classrooms.
 * Jeff: slow going, not sure if it's the time of the year or other events just keep getting in the way. Not sure if the project is actually going to be completed. How do you set a strict timeline when things like this come up?
 * Troy: Revised question: How is community being used to develop students conceptual understanding to push students to the limit of their ZPD? Currently looking at research articles about ZPD to refine hypothesis. (We stress to teachers that they should be using groups, but do we know that it's working?) Will start looking for evidence after trip to US.
 * Kim: Students did not express that there would be a difference between sharing online and sharing just within the class - their project would the same either way (I wonder if this is because they never really thought about it - would be great to do the same kind of project again and not share online and see if there was a difference in their reflection). Students did feel that watching each other's work and taking the time to create something about an experience helped them deepen their understanding: " Doing the video helped me understand the educational aspects of the trip. When I was there I was concerned with fun, not facts."

Student Learning Evidence Take II:

2. Challenges. 3. Next steps || Jeff (30 min) || Parking Lot – Items on our plate for future meetings:
 * Jeff: only some classes are showing an understanding of audience.
 * Teresa: visited every grade level during looking for learning visits, found it to be hit and miss with the kids.
 * Kim: focus on 2nd question: Does sharing online help students reflect on their learning? Is this helping students understand content better? Is their reflective ability improving with practice?
 * Troy: nothing to update || 1. Updates and sharing.