Meeting Minutes from November 12, 2024

8:30am

Welcome - Paul Godwin opened the meeting by noting that this is the second of three Rockwood Learning Council (RLC) meetings. He encouraged members to fully engage with the information presented and emphasized their role as building representatives is to share the information with their respective teams. He also urged them to have meaningful discussions with their teams and provide valuable input.

Inclusion Activity - Keri Skeeters introduced herself to the members. November is the month of gratitude. What is on your gratitude playlist?  Who and what are your grateful for? Add three song titles to your que and share with others. Talk to someone you don’t know very well and see what’s on their playlist to see if you want to add theirs to your que. The reason we do this activities is to get voices in the room. Some items mentioned were:

• Country Road take me home - moving into her house this weekend on a country road.
• Silent Night - Reminds her of her mother.
• Wonderful Time of the Year - Thankful for time off.

Keri explained the purpose of why we do these types of activities, it is relatively low risk because there is no wrong answer and can tie to all areas of content and instruction. You can use this in the classroom. 

Dr. Paul Godwin, Assistant Superintendent of Supervision of Elementary Education

Dr. Keri Skeeter, Director of Curriculum and Professional Learning

Guiding Framework - Guiding Framework was Introduced to students over the summer and you will see it at every RLC and other places as well.

• The foundation of what we do in all our learning is safe, supportive and collaborative culture, then we have effective teaching in every classroom. After those are completed we then have guaranteed and viable curriculum. We need the first two before we can get to guaranteed and viable curriculum. 
• Keri shared a chart showing the clarity evidence feedback hinge point.
• Engage in brainwork - Keri had members reflect on one of three questions.

Brain Architecture Game - Keri explained the goal of the activity was to build a brain as tall and as sturdy as possible. Members watched a video explaining the activity and how it helps us understand the brain and life.

Profile of a Learner - Glenn Hancock asked the committee to write on post-its the answer to the question: What skills, qualities and mindsets should students acquire while in Rockwood?

• He shared and explained the strategic plan schedule
• Profile of a learner is the skill, mindsets and quality of a learner that we want our students to have. As we look at this, what do we still need to know, where is the overlap and what do we need to say? What does it look like now and what should it look like in the future? Committee was asked to write individual ideas to come up with collective viewpoints.
• Mesquite Promise video was shared.
• A QR code was shared for comments or suggestions on “What do we want to promise our students?”

Dr. Keri Skeeters, Director of Curriculum and Professional Learning

Glenn Hancock, Director of Research, Evaluation and Assessment

Lunch (on your own)

From Ideas to Action: Leveraging Seesaw for Student-Centered Learning - Alison Hancock mentioned Dave Burgess book, Teach Like a Pirate. Two other instructional techs, Amanda Lindemann and Ellen Downs, along with Jen Swarts, Data Analyst, helped explained the advantages of using the program Seesaw - Ideas to action.

Teachers shared in videos how they use Seesaw and how it improved their classroom:

• Caiti Beazley, Counselor at Pond - SEL Lessons: Showing Feelings.  She needed more engagement. They were collecting data, but not doing anything with it. She wanted parents to see the work and students to take ownership on what they were doing. Communication with family is important. Parents can comment and teachers can share this with students. Counselors can be added as a co teacher.

• Kevin Ronecker, Fourth Grade teacher at Pond - Student Creativity using Multimodal Tools. Kids practiced an interview/podcast to show how easy the tech tools are in Seesaw.

• Chloe Gallagher, Fourth Grade Teacher at Wild Horse - Using the District Library. Gives the opportunity to show each other student’s work and where to improve. Seesaw Library - can be edited and create own assessment where it can be graded.

• Amy Beeson, Fourth Grade Teacher at Blevins - Using Templates. Students are more willing to use Seesaw when doing a  summary on the books they are reading.

• Laura Mueller, Fourth Grade Teacher at Green Pines - Math Assessment. Students love showing their work in different ways. PLC collect data which is good for RTI and which kids need intervention. Keeps all in one spot. Organized way to keep track of data.

• Alessandra Pennycuick, First Grade Teacher at Ridge Meadows - PGP (Professional Growth Plans) and SLO (Student Learning Objectives)

Alison shared what it looks like before, during and after. You can make it as simple or as colorful as your like. She showed the committee how to create items in seesaw and some tips and tricks.  There are many elements to Seesaw including goal setting, monitoring progress, accessing lessons, engagement pieces, multimodal tools, communication, creativity, etc. 

The elements that help you might look different from day-to-day, unit to unit or need to need. 

Members were asked What are some ways you see yourself utilizing the different elements of Seesaw?

• Piloting at early childhood - pretend play and interaction. Connecting to PLC. Grow and lead into elementary schools.
• Take notes instead of in their notebook and take a picture of it and add it to SeeSaw. 

Highlight new assessment features: Flex Cards, Fluency Assessment, Read with Me, Focus Mode, Short Answer (auto graded),

Ellen talked about what’s new. 

Nicole Willmann - Shared some information about elementary science

Stefanie Steffan - Shared ELA information.

Committee was asked to send any “orders” they may need  help them with Seesaw to the technology department. 

Alison Hancock, Instructional Tech Specialist

Amanda Lindemann, Instructional Tech Specialist

Ellen Downs, Instructional Tech Specialist

Jen Swarts, Data Analyst

1:30pm

Instructional Fidelity and District Approved Resources - Keri Skeeters discussed Instructional fidelity that it means we are following the district approved curriculum. Then we teach it.

• Instructional practices is workshop teaching.
• Purchased resources are resources selected and purchased that are best and support our curriculum.
• Professional Judgment - Ok to use professional judgement, if it’s inline with everything else. When there are questions or doubts, consult with your principal and/or coordinator. 

Curriculum coordinators and Keri will be sending a anonymous survey asking for feedback about curriculum and documents: how are they working, are they easy to use - we are looking at the curriculum process, how it works, what’s missing, what you don’t like. 

Dr. Keri Skeeters, Director of Curriculum and Professional Learning

2:30pm

Feedback - Glenn Hancock explained that RLC Is a great time for us to do some learning together and get feedback. Please send feedback through the thought exchange “What would you like to support our students.  We will repeat this process with the secondary committee and the community. 

The three things we want for the RLC Committee are :

• Learning
• Feedback 
• Updates

Keri reviewed today’s meeting with the group and asked them to discuss how to get the information back to their schools.