Very good very good. Now change everything.

In attendance: Jay S, Sarah Z, Sarah D

New Kelly Gallagher book on writing:

• need to make the writing real-world
• need to lead as a writer

Sarah D filled us in on the collaborative decision making training and what she learned

Friday, 22 March 2013, 4th hour, library

At the table: Jay S, Jim Lewis, Sarah D, Sarah Z, Susan W (for a few minutes)

We are Fairview Day today

• the kids kind of love it--they get to choose what they get to do with their time in school today
• we give up some control today and yet they still want to learn
• Jay and Jared ended up running a session this morning on "Your Digital Life" because the speaker didn't show up.
• what about more of this kind of thing? where WE, the teachers, do some sessions about things that we know/do/enjoy
• Once a month? then have the kids respond to what they learned and teach US something
• Jay's experiences in the MOOCs he's taking--a concept a week, teach it back to the rest of the students at the end of the week.
• And then Jay told us his vision for a different FHS...

What happens when high school students design their own school?

Story and video here. (Brought to us by Jay)

Seems like a powerful model for engagement.

I love the simplicity:

• Monday: weekly question
• Friday: present what you learned 
• Individual endeavor
• Collective endeavor

Friday, 4th hour, Library conference table

Sarah D, Sarah Z, Jay S, Paul B, Jim L, Jack

reflections on parent/teacher conferences--

• why do we do them the way we do them? 
• why don't we require students to attend? 
• "while it's not required, we encourage you to attend conferences with your student."
• what about running through the schedule again later in the year--opportunities to check in with the whole group of parents again
• and then individual meetings after
• skype parent/teacher conferences?
• have appointments for conferences

if we really DO get wireless, could we get rid of some of our computer labs?

deadlines

• as a part of character development, not as a part of curriculum
• if there isn't a late grade, so it's not about the grade, the reasons to get the work in on time are more genuine
• only genuine in the context of having a genuine and real concern for what you're doing.
• wouldn't have forced leverage to make students do stuff--the teaching/content itself would need to be the engaging motivator.
• grades are about compliance, not engagement
• engagement is difficult to measure, but you do know it when you see it
• a big part of education IS compliance--we train people to be compliant
• how much DOES our world really want free thinkers?
• what we want to do and what we're told to do is not what we actually do? 
• tension between need for compliance and need for freedom
• can manage this by thinking about curriculum as a scaffold that requires students to make choices to fill it out
• some maybe don't work as hard because you take out the carrot and stick
• but they lose out on things that really matter
• schooling: starts with a compliance act. You MUST go to school.
• who's talking in the classroom? who has the most air time? 

Friday, 4th hour, library

Sarah D, Sarah Z, Paul B, Jay S, Jack C.:

• on how we're using google forms right now to collect meaningful data about our students' learning
• on language/vocabulary and how when students don't have the words to identify the thinking they are doing and how that trips them up sometimes
• e.g., students can easily DO the thinking of literary analysis but once you ask them to put in the literary vocabulary, they think they don't know what they're doing
• if students read and write MORE in class, they'll get better at these things
• and this may mean teachers have to give up some sorts of control that we are really comfortable with
• every student reading the same book, writing the same paper, etc. --easier for teachers to feel 
• jellyfish model, tentacles that stretch back into all four years. All teachers agree to those tentacles, and then we operate freely around those depending on the needs of our students for that year
• portfolios portfolios portfolios in google docs! 
• radical literary education example
• one poem for the entire semester
• common spine to organize a course with different diversions off of it, student-driven
• how to help our colleagues to let go of control in places where it would best serve our students
• there's a common thing (text, concept, etc.) that everyone does and then give students chances to make choice with their work to connect back to that
• the thinking we're doing here is tearing down the lang arts boundaries (the ones we assume that are there that don't need to be?) 
• what are they in math? 

Friday, 15 February 2013, 4th hour, library

Jay S, Sarah Z, Angela H

Our model for making change:
Rather than arguing about the specifics about what we should/shouldn't be doing, we need to instead build a community that engages in conversation about meaningful change.

As soon as we commodify learning with grades, it changes everything. The goal is not about learning, then. Then it becomes about performance.

How do we make it not about the grade at FHS. This is the million dollar question. The entire culture, all the assumptions about what we do hinge on grades. How do we shift this? How do we shift it virally?

Friday, 2/8, 4th hour, library

Jay S, Paul B, Sarah Z, Leigh C-H, Sarah D

Thoughts on teacher evaluation and SB 191

We would like teacher evaluation that resulted in narrative comments, not check boxes.

On reading and reading test scores--if students do well on reading tests, are they actually becoming life long readers?

If we work to make them life long readers, they will do well on the reading tests, right?

How is any of this (testing) helping our students, especially our struggling kids? The tests don't help our students to learn more.

Where are these teachers who don't want their students to learn?