Professional Learning for 2018-2019

Professional Learning for 2018-19

DL Assessment Meeting Notes

The goal of this session is to build consensus around a purpose of assessment,

and robustly develop our problem of practice.

Summary of Meeting:

The meeting was well attended by 2nd-6th grade Teachers. We broke off into two teams to discuss the following guiding questions:

How do we know our students are on track towards academic Spanish and English Proficiency grades 2-5? What questions do we have?

Which tools and practices help us  learn how to make adjustments to our instruction and resources to ensure our students are accessing the curriculum grades 2-5? What questions do we have?

Which areas of Bi-Literacy are we confident that we have current tools for data collection grades 2-5? What questions do we have?

Which areas of Bi-Literacy are we concerned that we lack tools for data collection grades 2-5? What questions do we have?

Does what we measure and what we need to measure change over the continuum of biliteracy reading development?  If so, how? What questions do we have?

Teams then communicated out their BIG Ideas and questions to help narrow our purpose for meeting and problem of practice. Our problems of practice from this meeting on DL Assessment are:

1. Validity. Assessments currently in place have questionable validity. Both teams raised concerns about Rigby for the limited and translated, often confusing text, raising questions about whether Rigby is a valid measure of reading processing and comprehension. We recognize the tremendous subjectivity in comprehension depending upon the teachers point of view. We also recognized that our current assessment tools are not tied to any standard in particular, making it more difficult to align to continuums etc. Comments were made about assessment cultural bias as well. Additionally, we recognized the need for balanced assessment for formative and instructional purposes, as well as summative assessment for accountability and program monitoring.

2. Monolingual Paradigms in Assessment. The team recognizes that current systems of assessment do not consider the students holistic biliteracy but in fact measures them as either Spanish or English Readers. Both teams felt very strongly that this should be a priority in our future work. We had discussions around the phenemena of languages in contact and the lack of resources that support our dispositions around the normalcy of the Bilingual phenomena in the US.

3. Oral Academic Language. The Language development of our students and their reading comprehension and processing are tightly aligned; however, we have lacked the tools and resources to understand that link. Teams mentioned assessing reading comprehension in one language with students retelling in the other. We recognize that tools that are available to us, need further discovery and professional development so that our expertise as teachers of language, literacy and content and yield maximum benefit to our learners.

4. Goals of Assessment. For further discussion, we felt the goals of assessment need more attention. The concept of Mastery was brought up and whether Mastery of micro-skills is a desired endpoint. We were all very clear that assessment for decoding and fluency in Spanish are often empty sets of data for us. We recognize a continued need for professional development on Biliteracy and Language Acquisition.

Next Steps:

This initial meeting is part of coalition building around these and additional topics that will arise. The plan is to bring a team together regularly over the next year to develop our inquiry around these Big Ideas and Problems of practice. In doing so, we will make clearer our goals for assessment in DL classrooms, and if needed, make decisions for how we'll achieve them.

Access for ALL families through Translation and Interpretation: A GUIDE

As of July 1st, our School District of Waukesha will offer all of our staff and families expanded opportunities to access one another and our community.

Natalia Bonilla, our District Translator/Interpreter will be part of our full time staff.  She is available to ensure that our district is accessible to ALL families.  She shares this role with your site based teachers and staff, as well as Leticia Campos and Maria Pieters.  Their roles; however, are unique, and I am asking you to be aware and take notice.


Please share with office and department staff Link.

Application Deadline Extended for discounted UW-Whitewater Programs

Application Deadline Extended! Apply now! Below you will find information describing two fantastic opportunities for Waukesha Teachers to participate in a partnership between SDW and UW-Whitewater. These programs provide our teachers with the chance to earn a Master of Science in Education Degree in Professional Development, or an English as a Second Language License, both at greatly reduced cost and accommodating their full-time work schedules. This is a last chance message - the window to apply for both programs has been extended but only for a limited time. If you know of someone who might be interested, please share this information. We want to make sure that everyone who might be interested is aware of these opportunities.

The "Skinny" on Leading and Judgement

I thought I would take today's SAIL blog to branch off of the direction Dan Keyser took us in last week regard to "the skinny" on change as it relates to Michael Fullan's Motion Leadership text. I see all of you as leaders, regardless of title, position, or experience. You are educators. You are all leading the change day-by-day, week-by-week, and year-by-year. This occurs in your classrooms, in your numerous weekly meetings, in your attitudes, your actions, and in nearly every aspect of your work. I have learned in my 10 years in education that it is easy to pass judgement on those who may be operating in a different manner than ourselves. It is also easy to judge a system or an individual for not pursuing something, for doing something different than what WE want and believe, or for focusing direction in one area over another. It is something I am constantly checking myself against as I grow into my own leadership. Since I can't articulate myself quite as well as Michael Fullan, I'll quote it directly from the text:

"Leaders who want to become savvier about change have to practice being nonjudgemental because it does not come naturally. This is hard to do, especially if you have a strong sense of moral purpose and urgency. ...It is possible to know that something is terribly ineffective and still have empathy respect for people who have not had the opportunity to develop the capacity to become effective" 

This paragraph resonated with me and I have since reread it several times over. I truly believe if we could all take this to heart and practice this type of thinking, we could avoid numerous assumptions and associated conflicts while setting an open stage for change. We have all operated in an antiquated or ineffective manner at some moment in our careers, likely because we didn't know any better at the time. If we are able to suspend our judgment and start working towards understanding and mutual respect, we will be primed for building capacity in others as well as ourselves.  Thanks for listening to the "skinny" of my thoughts on this today and good luck with the last 3 weeks!

What is the skinny on Change?

Today, I had the opportunity to discuss the book Motion Leadership by Fullan. As we approach the middle of May and begin to think about the end of the 2017-2018 school year, we also start to think about the work moving into next year. What do we want to change? How can we improve so that next year is better than this year? What were the successes this year and how do I recreate that next year?

Motion Leadership shares one simple concept: "What is the skinny on Change?" This short read helps to distill many aspects of change theory into simple and clear concepts. But like the game of blackjack, the concept may be easy, become a skilled practitioner takes time and effort. Following the reflective questions throughout the chapters help guide your thoughts and make you reflect. For example in chapter two, Fullan shares a story about Ontario's Schools on the Move (Schools who have demonstrated repeated improvement in Literacy and Numeracy). In the example he poses the question, "If you were the principal in one of these schools, could you explain to others what you did to create repeated results?" 

Wait, what!?

As teachers and principals, we often are busy in moving through our process to improve our results that sometimes we forget to take a step back and look at the process itself. Motion Leadership is a good book with examples across different areas, which helps you to be metacognitive.

Congratulations Seal of Biliteracy and Global Scholars

Come join in celebrating our graduates!
WEST May 29 7pm
NORTH May 30 7pm
SOUTH June 5th 6pm

Congratulations Seniors Awarded the
Wisconsin State Seal of Biliteracy

SOUTH Madison Akstrom Miriam Navarrete Lupita Gonzalez Liz Villareal Sofia Rodriguez Giselle Rocha Elisabeth Allen Niko Meyer Jessica Dable Davison Krajcick Berenice Meraz Amber Smith Gabrielle Olson Carter Wilhelmson Lesli Chavez Karla Reyes Alyssa Cruz Kylie Zajdel Ernesto Castro Bryce Waggoner

North Megan Warchol Valeria Rubi Arenas Nancy Gonzalez Jeanette Quinonez Daniela Coronado Angelica Chavez Hiranmayi Vangipuram

West Sara Ahmad Salman Anthony Bomberg Milo Bonell Mason Ellsworth Marin Hein Clay Koehler Isabelle Lombera Brieanna Oremus Rachel redmann Chloe Ricciardelli Jordan Rodrigues Carla Rodriguez M. Anna Spaulding Angela Stepanski Chloe Watson

Congratulations Seniors Awarded the

Wisconsin State Global Education Achievement
Scholars Award

SOUTH Madison Akstrom Alyssa Cruz Elisabeth Allen Niko Meyer Jessica Dable Davison Krajcick Aedon Mauer Kylie Zajdel Mathew Held

North Megan Warchol

West Anthony Bomberg Milo Bonell Mason Ellsworth Marin Hein Clay Koehler Isabelle Lombera Brieanna Oremus Rachel redmann Chloe Ricciardelli Jordan Rodrigues Anna Spaulding Angela Stepanski Chloe Watson Janaka Subotnik

Trust to reach our goals

I just re-read, The Speed of Trust, by Covey. The line that resonates with me most from this book is, "what you DO has far greater impact than anything you say."

A big part of my role is to help establish clear goals for our system, provide clarity around what is expected, and help support accountability to those goals.

I am so proud to work in Waukesha and feel blessed to be in a role of servant leadership. As we reflect on our year, we have much to celebrate! I value our commitment to each other as we all work towards the same goals. I also want to share the board of education and district's

achievement goals below. As you set sail with these goals in mind, think about what you need in order to feel successful in reaching these for our students. In an effort to live out my purpose of serving others, please let me know how I can support you in our efforts to collectively bring this mission to life here in the School District of Waukesha.

Informational Meeting about Discounted Masters with UW-Whitewater

Join us at our informational meeting regarding this cohort. Hear from a current student and instructor. UW-Whitewater staff will be on hand to answer any enrollment and financial questions. Bring a friend! We need 15 to run the cohort!