Faculty Meeting Notes, 5/18/16
Announcements:
Ø Please complete the registration form for the First Aid class on June 13th if you plan to attend. Registration forms are in Jen’s office.
Ø Monday, 23rd Mindfulness at 6:30-7:30 at UNCA. Teachers who attend can come in on Friday, 5/27 at 10AM for the teacher workday. See the original e-mail from Megan for details.
Ø For a Class Pool Party, please send Cory an e-mail with preferred day and time. Recognize that we will do our best to accommodate, and we may not be able to!
· End of Year Conferences and Reports
Ø In the upper grades, grades are due by Friday May 27th by the end of the day (4:00). Please tell the admin team in advance if you cannot turn in your grades by then. Grades will be sent out from the office.
Ø In the younger grades, if you have parent conferences, hand them a copy of their report at that time (and submit one to the office for student files).
Ø Please give two copies of each student’s report to the office. The office will mail out grades and reports at the end of the year.
Ø The template for narratives has not changed from last year.
Ø Admin. team needs to know about any grade retentions or families that need a conference.
Ø If you want Megan to attend; please use Megan’s link to her live schedule. www.doodle.com/mccarter.
Ø A suggestion was made to put the link in the faculty handbook.
· Honoring ceremony:
Ø In prior years, the elementary grades have included one of the following: Reflections related to student treasures, haikus, a recognized a quality in each student, etc.
Ø K/1 has typically included a slideshow as a visual that shows images of the kids.
Ø Each class should plan to be on stage for about 8 minutes max, with middle school at ~10 minutes.
Ø The experience of parents is that they appreciate the small way that their child is being showcased.
Ø There will be a rehearsal with River on Wednesday at 10:00. (There will not be any music classes that day.)
Ø The admin team will honor staff who are moving on to new adventures.
Ø Classes usually honor class parents with a card and a gift (ex: plant).
· Orientation training list:
Ø This schedule will be somewhat different for various grade levels.
Ø According to some teachers, there was an appreciation for the offerings of Steve Torma. The recommendation was that his workshops may need to be more directed for our increasing mastery.
Ø CC is foundational to what we are doing as a school community, and we will continue deepening our understanding.
Ø A suggestion was made to refresh CC skills with a book study this summer.
Ø A recommendation was that the workshop be teacher/student-focused. One suggestion was that teachers read the book and act out various scenarios and practice the CC techniques in real-life situations.
Ø Teacher professional homework or study skills could involve questions such as: How did you use this practice this week. Using the CC practice in real life outside the classroom.
Ø MV will share the Non-Violent Communication (Marshall Rosenburg) CDs with Megan
Ø We could perhaps explore CC through other people in the field.
Ø Faculty generated a list of training ideas, captured by Megan. If you have more ideas to add to the list, please email her directly.
Ø Could we have an option for teachers to attend ongoing training for C.C.
· Possible orientation/training possibilities include:
Ø Unstructured time for teams to work on curriculum/Open-ended collaboration
Ø Was last year a good balance of unstructured time and planned workshops? Yes.
Ø Classroom management for 6-12
Ø Design Thinking and Integral lesson planning
Ø Basil’s sense of integral (It was useful, although it was less applicable)
Ø Folks might not take things that were optional and still interesting.
Ø Subject specific spectrum across the grade levels (ex: Math Instruction)
Ø Orienting lateral entry students.
Ø Neuroscience of learning
Ø Revisit homework policy
Ø Art-based fun and creative training
Ø STEM
· Faculty Members completed a survey regarding how we fulfill Odyssey’s mission.
· Megan then led a workshop modeling group-work practices, inviting teachers to celebrate successes and brainstorm goals for next year.