Initiatives for 2010-11 School Year

Building Professional Development Plans 2010-11:

The high school will continue to implement and align instruction and assessments with standards and benchmarks.  All teachers will integrate technology into their classroom instruction.  Focus of professional development will emphasize improving student achievement and the ultimate goal to increase high school graduation rate.  Staff will be working to instigate renewed efforts that aim to reach, engage and motivate students-as-learners, particularly those in the middle of the performance range through research based strategies involving AVID programming.  Staff will continue recent curriculum mapping work by linking it with Iowa Core Curriculum. Work in teams will continue to focus on literacy, high standards, relevant coursework and climate of high expectations.  Professional Learning Communities (PLC) format will utilized to focus on integration of Marzano’s nine categories of instructional strategies and other strategies effective for use with English Language Learners (ELL) and implementation of Iowa Core Curriculum.  PLCs will also focus efforts on developing for effective strategies to communicate and work with parents at high school level.

The middle school will continue to implement and align instruction and assessments with standards and benchmarks. All teachers will integrate technology into their classroom instruction and appropriate professional development provided based on teacher needs.  The middle school literacy and math Professional Learning Communities(PLCs) will collaborate with all middle school staff to facilitate collaboration and implementation of strategies to teach reading and math concepts across curricular areas.  Math strategies applied to mathematics content, including a problem-centered approach to mathematics instruction and instruction in the use of mathematics representations and distributed practice will continue to be supported.  Concept Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) techniques will continue to be supported in grades 5-8  and continue to have coaching regarding class implementation of techniques by CORI coach.  These instructional strategies will be continued with CORI lessons documenting classroom integration. Balanced Reading Framework will be implemented in grades 5-6 and supported by professional development in those strategies.  Specific teachers will continue to get training and work to differentiate their instructional practices for learners who are ELL or low achieving.  Professional Learning Communities (PLC) format will utilized to focus on integration of Marzano’s nine categories of instructional strategies and other strategies effective for use with English Language Learners (ELL). 

The elementary will continue to implement and align instruction and assessments with standards and benchmarks.  All teachers will integrate technology into their classroom instruction and receive appropriate professional development based on determined needs.  Focus in reading will be on comprehension and vocabulary building techniques.  The elementary leadership team will meet with all elementary school staff to facilitate collaboration and implementation of strategies to teach reading and math across curricular areas. These instructional strategies will be continued with implementation logs documenting classroom use.  Further work with Picture Word Induction Model (PWIM), Tier II and III Interventions and addition of integrated writing into the curriculum will be supported.   Teachers will also continue training in process based math strategies utilizing work with Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI).