November+12

TJ's group is creating a 'Alumni Hall of Fame" where they will research and post information about where our alumni are and what they are up to.

Brad Cyr reported for the Freshmen PLG They are looking at ways to communicate in a better way about students at risk

Heather This group has been talking a lot about SAT to look at why our students are not doing well and discussing how we may help. We will be connecting with another team working on SAT

Rick There is a lot of frustration in his group where they are not seeing enough being accomplished. The team was feeling their time could be better spent doing more for kids.

Two reasons for PLGs was to break down barriers and have more cross curricular discussion and another to discuss best practice methods and ideas

The team really felt they do not know why they are here. One of the reasons could be because many teams are taking the safe route and only looking at global issues. His team started taking individual lessons and to have those discussed. We need to start taking what we are struggling with and ask for support in that area.

It is important to find the balance between the school wide stuff and individual struggles.

Monica Day Period 3/4 Paul Deagle talked about the PowerStandards and how we grade them and how it ties in with what we are doing. They will be talking about the Climate Survey next week. People want to talk about the Climate Survey, this is a dilemma, they want to discuss this. If there are school wide issues and we never discuss them it is not good.

Barbara Toner Per3/4 This team is made up of many long timers and ex-facilitators. There are many school wide issues to be discussed but where do these discussions go. No real answer to this so they will look at more individual issues.

Donna This group is looking at ways to improve SAT courses. We need a course to help with this. Narrow down to strategies that can be taught to improve student test taking skills.

Process of how we meet is important Last year all teams kept minutes. Preferably with the wiki. School wide issues were brought to Rick to be sure it was workable. Rick stated, "My place can be that groups can come to me and be sure that what they want to work with fits in the bigger picture." Is there another group doing the same thing? School Climate survey was a district thing and we need to be aware of this as we discuss. There needs to be a feedback loop.

It was questioned why Rick was in a group. Rick shared that this group was having a hard time to get going so Rick joined to help this group get going. Rick is temporarily modeling to help this group.

Julie, The plan is to have as many of staff as possible to facilitate and have facilitator training. The goal is to have these type of discussions all over the building. We are seeing groups that do not know how to use protocol.

Rick had originally said every other meeting could be school wide issues, but if we did not talk about school wide issues at all it would be ok.

SAT can be a good balance

Freshmen group is so big that they need to look at the schedule of meetings and how they can be more affective. Right now their dilemma is with the workings of the Freshmen team. Maybe soon we can get to specific issues for example "Parents and communicating/working with them to help their child."

We need to work with documenting our discussions. Please use the wiki to record minutes. We should have a 'report out' at faculty meetings.

Facilitator Trainings

Julie shared one tool, "Work to Share" It really is the prep work that can make the sharing of student work successful. As a facilitator you should touch base with the presenter to be sure you know what it is they are asking for and what protocol to use.

Julie uses the Facilitator book for ideas like 'Four Corners" Julie will send us this material electronically.

Since we have protocols for specific meeting types the Facilitator chooses the protocol and reviews the protocol before the presentation. Choose, follow, modify as needed. TJ stated they created a Decision Making protocol in his group last year. We can share all these protocols online for easy access and use.

It is important to recognize your group and how they work and go with strengths. When asked to rate our PLG culture with the exception of one group being a 5 (now) most felt they were at the level 3 where groups are still working at why are they there and will things get done?

If there are any resources you need be sure to connect with Julie and Rick.