Plan for April Big Eleven Trip

 - w/current 9 & 10 graders

 - Goal - 10th grades act as mini-ecology leaders

 - 9th graders introduced to Big Eleven as a continuation of the Global Integration Project

Invite 8th Graders

-      if already know communities – pull global community kids through invite to preview Global Integration Project

-       Pull some 7^th graders from a math & science class to introduce the ideas

Begin introducing Engineering Elements 

 -       Helicopters/submarine - Hotz orders

 -   Make boat w/naturally occurring stuff - competition across the lake? - Pearla 

Create English/Social Studies - Reading/Reflection - maybe Urban Landscapes

Math & Science activities determined

Invite - Julie Leach, Audrey Fryer, Simons, Bruggar, McWilliams ect.

Global Engineering Expo

Preliminary plans
  - 9th & 10th grade begin planning expo activities for elementary kids post KU Engineering day

Big 11 PLC Meeting January 30th

This week (January 30th) we discussed what we wanted to do next in our progress toward integrating our students' learning in a multi-disciplinary way, centered around one project.

We talked about all of the things we could do to promote some type of improvement to Big 11 lake.
We weren't sure exactly how to do it, and discussed various possibilities until it came to us that we shouldn't be the ones to make this decision -the students were.

So we set about a plan to first determine what needed to be done at Big 11 (an assessment phase), then move the responsibility of coming up with a plan to student groups.

Each group would have to design a plan and outline how it was to be accomplished. They are to come up with an overall concluding vision and then describe in sequence what they would do to get to this vision. In creating their plans they would have to develop and utilize skills from many domains. They will need an understanding of government and the practical skills of communicating with professionals in policy making. This will involve how to address people in a professional manner and to communicate clearly and accurately. They will have have sound scientific analysis of the present situation and the changes they will be making; especially important, they will have to know what effect those changes will pose for the future of Big 11 lake. And in doing this they must be able to create clean cogent arguments in writing. They will have to be able to make calculations of the geometry of the area and things like the weight and volume of things that have to dealt with, so to speak, like soil or water.

Finally, we decided that that student groups would compete for the honor of making their presentation to the city.

And that's where we left off.

PLC Showcase

I was very impressed with the professionalism of all my fellow faculty. They have put great effort in studying their subject, collaborating on their subject, and projecting their ideas into the future. Everyone I met with had real-world, thoughtfully conceived plans for approaching their subjects. There was nothing that was theoretical for theory's sake, and their plans could be implemented by any teacher in this school.

In our PLC we learned how to adjust to our new situations. There has to be a first time for everything. And we now know what activities work best, how to start them, and more importantly, what to tell the kids and how to group them. In other words, we have a model for how to activate and moderate our trips.

Questions one and two contribute to my professional work by maintaining a professional, scholarly atmosphere where I can work with the pride of professionalism with other professionals. I guess I'm trying to say we as teachers need our own school spirit, our own professional guild, our own pride.

What thoughts, ideas and learnings did you take away from the PLC Showcase? 
 - Flipped classroom ideas and to record class discussions and have students grade themselves/reflect on how they did.

 

Thinking back over your PLC work this semester, what were some of the lessons 

you have learned? 

- Paired curriculum planning is very time-intensive 

- We must be more planned/organized for paired curriculum to work effectively

- Students enjoy the opportunity to use knowledge across many classes 

 

How might the information gained in questions 1 and 2 impact our professional work?  

 - The opportunity to try new ideas out with students and continue planning and building w/the plc

No supplies needed?????

I do not see that you have indicated a need for any supplies for the Showcase.  If you are needing something, please see Mr Rivera by Nov 30th, so we can try to accommodate your needs.

Global Engineering and Technology PLC November 7th

Meeting November 7th 2012

These are the items covered:

• Lesley discussed how the business kids on the Robotics team, work on the business work everyday.

• Mike discussed Friday's meeting with the Environmental Sustainability meeting at 1:15 on Friday, November 9th.  He will have a note-sheet (produced by the visitors) for this meeting and the people putting it in will want to do leadership development afterwards.
• Wednesday, November 14th -10th graders in Mike's room 
• Friday, November 16th Lesley and Mike will be gone for KU engineering meeting
• Changed the due date for the article questions to Monday, 19th November-- Need copies of all articles for the planning meeting on November 14th--after advisory for planning data sets
• Discussed where  to send students 3B on November 14th--
• Discussed on what we need to do for showcase, and created our response to Dr. Wright's PLC questions. Discussed what we wanted to present for our showcase.

Global Engineering and Technology PLC meeting

Subjects for discussion:

November 14th, we will be visited by a landscape architect during advisory for all sophomore advocates, and then take the rest of the day for extended PLC planning.

Mike said that three freshmen girls did not get their articles for the study, so he sent them to Mary McGinty to get briefed on how to access the data systems, but it looks like they will not be prepared for the first review tomorrow, November 1st.

On Monday, November 5th students will receive their question sheets for article analysis, which gives them a full week to compose their responses. Students will be notified that they should, by all means, seek clarification from their teachers. Monday, November 12th their responses are due, and on that Wednesday (November 14th), we will get together to grade articles and plan the next lessons, and identify areas where we need to re-teach. Willard will further his attempts to contact Jessica Miller, intern English teacher for Spring semester, to ascertain if she will be able to join us on the Wednesday meeting (November 14th).

We discussed how various teachers will address the reading aspect of this project, so that students will be producing a piece of writing once a week as they progress.

Mike suggested an assembly for the "Alliance for Climate Education" for next Friday, November 9th or Monday, November 12th, second block or fourth block.

This would happen in the recital hall or the auditorium. It seems that the Friday date will be the better day.

Mike said this assembly fits well with our community and the grants that Mike is working on.

We decided to table our PLC show case presentation planning until the next PLC meeting when we can have everyone here.