Black History Month is Here!

It is that time of the year again SDW, Black History Month will be starting next week.  Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by Blacks in America and a time for recognizing their central role in United States history.  Author, journalist and historian, Carter G. Woodson (the brainchild of Black History month) and other prominent Black Americans selected the second week in February in 1926 to celebrate “Negro History Week.” The week was symbolic in that it was the same week of the birthdays of former President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and prominent abolitionist movement activist.  In the late 1960s, the week evolved into an entire month, thanks in large part to the civil rights movement.

Since 1976, every United States president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating Black history.  As President Gerald Ford said in 1976 when he officially recognized Black History Month, we need to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”Including in the workplace. Below are a few ways to celebrate Black History Month. 

Ways to celebrate Black History Month

• Support a black owned business
• Visit a Black History or Civil Rights Museum in your local area
• Donate to a Black organization
• Host a Black film marathon 
• Trace your family history
• Read a book by a Black author
• Cook a soul food meal
• Donate to an HBCU (Historically Black College and University)
• Attend or host a Black culture event in your community
• Explore Black music
• Learn about an unsung hero of Black history
• Become a member of a Black organization
• Call out racism or prejudice when you see it
• Learn the lyrics to Lift Every Voice and Sing

Each week for the month of February, you will receive 5 Black History facts to share and discuss with your students.  This will open up opportunities for more in depth conversations and facts.

All facts can be found HERE in both English and Spanish.

Making collaboration a priority! #StrongerTogether

When you read the three big ideas of a PLC, where do you fit in as an active contributor?

1. We accept learning as the fundamental purpose of our school and therefore are willing to examine all practices in light of their impact on learning.

2.  We are committed to working together to achieve our collective purpose.  We cultivate culture through development of high-performing teams.

3. We assess our effectiveness on the basis of results rather than intentions. Individuals, teams, and schools seek relevant data and information and use that information to promote continuous improvement.


How are you actively working towards these core tenants with a team?

Thank you for making this a priority for success!    

Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, this memo serves as a reminder of the road it took for this day to be recognized as a federal holiday.  The day was created as a day of service for us to get out and do something to better our community in honor of Dr. King’s life and legacy.  It’s an entire world dedicated to honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

On the third Monday of January every year, the federal government closes up shop for a day to honor civil rights hero Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968.  But the road to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was fraught. It didn't become a federal holiday until 1986, nearly 20 years after it was introduced to Congress, per the King Center. Even then, it faced an upward battle for all states to recognize the holiday, only getting nationally recognized in 2000.

To this day, it collides in Alabama and Mississippi with Robert E. Lee Day, which honors the Confederate general, in Alabama and Mississippi.  While the nation recognizes King as an "icon for democracy" today, in the 1960s and 1970s, he was still a controversial figure according to Michael Honey, an American historian and professor of humanities at University of Washington, Tacoma.

“This was the first holiday around a national figure who is not a president, and who is African American,” Honey said. “Many in Congress did not want to recognize an African-American that was thought of as a troublemaker by some in his day.” 

Becoming a Federal Holiday

On April 8, 1968, Representative. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced legislation for a federal holiday, according to The King Center.  The next year, on January 15, 1969, annual ceremonies commemorating King's birthday were launched by The King Center in Atlanta. It called for nationwide ceremonies and began working to gain support for the holiday. 

In the 1970's, support for a national Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday grew. Several states, including Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut, become the first states to enact statewide King holidays, but Congress failed to act on a national level, according to The King Center. 

It Becomes Official 

On November 3, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill marking the third Monday of January, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, according to The King Center. The holiday was to begin in 1986.   In January 1986, the first national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed as it continues today.

Elementary Social Studies Update

 

The District Social Studies Team is now in year three of the curriculum design process for the 2018 Wisconsin Social Studies Standards.  In 2019-2020, this K-12 team developed a Vision for Social Studies teaching and learning linked here to guide our work.  Small groups dedicated time to preview the standards and the Inquiry Design Model of instruction that offers the opportunity to become the guiding framework for our instruction and student learning K-12.  A focused Elementary Team linked here will be points of leadership in each building.

Essential shifts in Social Studies learning include the following key points:

The Elementary Social Studies Team 2020-2021 has been meeting to continue to deepen their learning around the Inquiry Design Model and the shifts in standards.  A elementary team will be piloting a curriculum resource this February from TCI.  Representatives from 5K-5th grade, Special education and English Language Development are all actively involved in this work.  This robust team of 5K-5th grade educators will be providing key feedback on the potential of the resource to help us deliver instruction that leads to student mastery for all learners.   Each month, updates on our progress will be shared in the Connect.  The Spring of 2022, the Forward Test will include Social Studies evaluation based upon Wisconsin Standards.  We look forward to creating a robust learning opportunity that ensure teacher support and student proficiency. 

AVMR Learning Opportunities for Spring Semester

With the start of a new calendar year, we will be offering AVMR courses this spring for anyone who would like to join.  Due to the pandemic, all things will be a bit different, but I am excited to share with you the following information.

All AVMR courses will be completed virtually from 4:15 - 6:45.  The virtual set up for all of the AVMR classes is both synchronous and asynchronous.  

• For AVMR Course 1 and Course 2, we will be meeting from 4:15 - 6:45 twice a week with much of that time for group learning, but also some time to work on the asynchronous part of the course.  

• For AVMR Fractions, we will be meeting once a week over the course of a few months (see the course dates below.)   

Since we will not be having any classes during the day with subs filling your positions, we will be able to offer a stipend for any teacher who participates in the courses.  Please see the courses listed below and sign up on this Google Form.

 

AVMR Trainings:

AVMR Course 1 involves teachers learning about Add+VantageMR assessments and focusing on a continuum of learning in relationship to the Learning Framework in Number.  Teachers learn to use a series of three assessments to develop a profile of number knowledge for children: number words and numerals, structuring, and addition and subtraction.  The profile then assists teachers in making informed instructional decisions to advance students' knowledge and skills.

   

AVMR Course 1 4:15 - 6:45
Monday, March 1st
Thursday, March 4th
Monday, March 8th
Thursday, March 11th
Monday, March 15th
Thursday, March 18th
Monday, March 22nd
Thursday, March 25th

AMVR Course 2 is a continuation of numeracy continuum of learning in regards to the Learning Framework in Number.  You will learn about place value and multiplication/division assessments that can be administered to your neediest students to know exactly where they are in their numeracy development so you can make instructional decisions that will help to move the students along in their learning. To sign up for this course, you need to have completed AVMR Course 1.

AVMR Course 2 4:15 - 6:45
Monday, March 1st
Thursday, March 4th
Monday, March 8th
Thursday, March 11th
Monday, March 15th
Thursday, March 18th
Monday, March 22nd
Thursday, March 25th

AVMR Fractions Course is the newest AVMR Course!  

Developing Fractions Knowledge by Amy Hackenberg, Anderson Norton, and Robert Wright serves as the course text and provides a detailed and comprehensive guide to classroom and intervention teaching of fractions.  This course combines online learning with team meetings. The teaching approach for this course relies heavily on working with students and then observing and documenting students' mathematical activity and thinking.  Instructional sequences take into account detailed information about students' current levels of knowledge, as well as how students reorganize their ways of working with whole numbers in order to meaningfully work with fractions. It is highly recommended that you have completed AVMR Course 1 and 2 before signing up for this course, but not required.

AVMR Fractions 4:15 - 6:45
Wednesday, February 3rd
Wednesday, February 10th
Wednesday, February 17th
Wednesday, February 24th
Wednesday, March 3rd
Wednesday, March 17th
Wednesday, March 24th
Wednesday, April 14th
Wednesday, April 28th
Wednesday, May 12th

TDP Courses:

The following TDP courses will be offered second semester of our 2020-2021 school year. 

• Differentiation of Add+VantageMR (AVMR) Games and Activities (February)  How do you meet the needs of all students?  One way is to take a game or activity and consider how it can be tweaked for the different levels and constructs.  That is exactly what we will do in this course! We will look at several games across the various AVMR areas and discuss how they could be differentiated for our students.

• AVMR Course 1 Revisited (February)   Did you complete Add+VantageMR Course 1 and end up with more questions once you got back to your classroom?  This course will review the information learned in AVMR and provide the time to further develop your understanding.  We will take time to ask questions, share ideas with each other, and look at resources with activities to do with students.  We will focus on Number Words and Numerals, Structuring, and Addition/Subtraction. 

• AVMR Course 2 Revisited (March) When learning something new, it is often hard to remember all of the key concepts.  This course will review the information learned in AVMR Course 2 and provide the time to further develop your understanding.  We will take time to ask questions, share ideas with each other, and look at resources with activities to do with students.  We will focus on Place Value and Multiplication/Division, as well as information in the red book. 

If you are interested in participating in any of these learning opportunities, please fill out
this Google Form and indicate your choices. Since only a limited number of spots are available for some of the trainings, sign up early to guarantee a spot. You must attend all of the dates/times for each particular course.

Math Curriculum Update

 Over the course of the last year, the district math team has developed and begun the  implementation process of a new math vision (linked here), along with a new scope and sequence (see below), to better support access and equity, the development of a mathematical identity in each student, and overall college and career readiness in all of our learners. 

Last spring and into this fall, a team of high school math teachers piloted three math resources to support an Integrated approach to mathematics instruction. This team solicited teacher feedback, student feedback, and community feedback in the process. Moving the resources through a research-based rubric, the team recommended to the Board of Education the adoption of Agile Minds and CPM (for Dual Language classes only) as the curricular resources to support Integrated Math. This week at the Teaching and Learning Board meeting, this recommendation was approved. This is a huge testament to the thorough and complete work of the math team!  

Our next step is to begin to develop the scope and sequence aligned to individual courses. On January 18th, all teachers who will be teaching or are interested in teaching Integrated Math I or Integrated Math II are invited to attend the Winter Institute sessions to design these courses.  Future work dates will be set and shared out with the team. We’ve also put together a math implementation team at the secondary level composed of both teachers and leaders with representatives from each building. Because the scope of this work is so vast, it’s essential that we build capacity amongst many team members in order to keep our momentum going. 

There is big work ahead as we continue to shift the way in which we “do” math. Thank you to all the teachers, coaches, and building leaders for being a part of this work that will have a lasting impact on all of our students.

Blackboard Shell Celebration

It’s hard to believe that just a few short months ago, we were onboarding our entire system around the use of Blackboard as our primary learning management system. As part of this work, we identified a need to create Blackboard shells for all of our secondary courses. A shell is a course that would house curricular materials and resources and model the tools and features within Blackboard keeping the student as the end-user in mind. 

I’m excited to say that we’ve successfully completed our first round of shells! We’ve built the middle school Math, Science, Literacy, and Art courses. A HUGE thank you to the teachers and coaches who helped to facilitate the development of these classes. It was an incredibly collaborative effort, and as a result of each school’s focus on Blackboard, building out the courses was not as overwhelming as we thought it would be at the beginning of the year. 

Over the course of the next three months, we’ll be focusing on creating the high school Science, English, Math, Art, Music, and Physical Education course shells. 

All of our teachers are working tirelessly to develop their Blackboard skills and pages. Thank you. Shells are not designed to replace the courses you’ve worked so hard to create. Rather, they will serve to assist our new teachers or teachers who are new to teaching a specific course, and they’ll also aid us in our curriculum revision process as we go to update courses. Whatever is created in the shell can be easily layered into any existing Blackboard course, so no need to worry that you’ll have to start from scratch when the shells are complete. 

We look forward to this continued work!