11/12/18

YES, THAT IS CHUCK WHEN HE WAS ABOUT 2 YEARS OLD!

Not much for this week... 

• Team meetings are on Thursday, November 15th.  I will arrange coverages for you if needed. Any suggested agenda items will be sent in the next day or so, otherwise, please check in with your team-mates regarding benchmarks and SGO spreadsheets.  Your pre-assessments and benchmarks should be posted in PowerSchool, although you may opt to leave the pre-assessment "unpublished."  

• Textbook barcodes - Please make sure you are keeping the barcodes on file for any books you distribute to the students.  They should be posted in PowerSchool.

• We have a faculty meeting scheduled for today - 3:00 in the auditorium...

Week 11/5

Mandatory Department Meeting - Tomorrow - November 6th. 

• FX Media Center - please be punctual 
• Our department meeting on November 6th is mandatory.  We will have a presentation by the district HIB specialists Mr. Frederick and/or Mr. O'Brien will provide a presentation at department meetings to help staff better understand what constitutes HIB as opposed to disciplinary issues.
• Coaches are to make arrangements with assistants to cover your practices for approx. 45 minutes on that day and tutoring and after-school activities should be canceled ahead of time or arrange for someone to cover you.  
• If you are not attending, please email me with details. 

Team Meetings

• Our next team meetings are scheduled for November 15th. The schedule is posted on the Department Page...

https://sites.google.com/pcti.mobi/ela-dept/grade-level-teams?authuser=0

Class Coverage Requests - please copy me on any coverage request you enter into coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us.

*IF YOU ARE REQUESTING COVERAGE FOR MORE THAN 3 CLASSES, WE HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO ENTER THAT REQUEST INTO AESOP...

The following processes will be implemented when requesting class coverages:

• Faculty who will need a class/period coverage for reasons other than IEP meetings or PLC meetings will need to email the request for coverage to coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us. I will arrange coverages for your team meetings.
• Child Study Team Secretaries arranging IEP meetings will send the needed faculty coverages to coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us. A listing of all coverages for a particular week should be included in the email.

3. Last-minute coverages (i.e. for illness, requested presence during a crisis or critical meeting) should be phoned into Ms. Scott. Do not use coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us for same-day or last-minute coverage needs.

My suggestion is to always check with Judith in the main office in the morning to confirm that coverages were arranged.

Coverage attendance advice:  (this is courtesy of our own Christian McFarland...) 

"On the sub attendance website, you must choose the name of the teacher you are covering for and not your own! I made this mistake at first and then realized I needed to log back in under her name."  

1. Go to the special substitute link: https://ps.pcti.tec.nj.us/subs

2. Select Passaic County Technical Institute
3. Select the teacher you’re covering for
4. The password is the numerical day of the month followed by “Bulldog” with a capital B
5.  EG.  The password for 9/27/18 would be: 27Bulldog
6.  The following day, the password would be 28Bulldog – and so on…
7. Take attendance as normal

Wonderful things...  Please submit pics of the wonderful things in your life!  If no one submits, I may have to creep around and sneak attack you! Just sayin...

Bobby, Stephanie, and Dave took their AP Lit and Honors IV students to see Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera House!  (Don't they look happy? And how long will it take for one of them to come to my office and complain about posting this?)

Our Boys Varsity Soccer Won the County Tournament!  Did Klein bleach his hair?  We cannot know - Only the hat knows...

10/26/18

This Halloween week began with an interesting Monday!

Our Sunday night was spent carving this!  "Nevermore!"   Too much work...

Mandatory Department Meeting - November 6th. 

• Our department meeting on November 6th is mandatory.  We will have a presentation by the district HIB specialists Mr. Frederick and/or Mr. O'Brien will provide a presentation at department meetings to help staff better understand what constitutes HIB as opposed to disciplinary issues.
• Coaches are to make arrangements with assistants to cover your practices for approx 45 minutes on that day and tutoring and after-school activities should be canceled ahead of time or arrange for someone to cover you.  

Attendance Log-in Directions for substitutes and coverages:  

• I implore you to print the instructions I sent you in an email the other day and affix them to the desk in your classrooms.  I am working on some ideas to fix the problems we have been having, but in the meantime, I would like everyone to oblige me and do this. 

• If you receive notification that your attendance was not done, and you were not in class, I would suggest printing it out and marking on it that you were not in on the day in question.  Keep a file for your own reference.  You do not HAVE to do this, it is only a suggestion.  I am printing the bulk reports I get and I am sending them to the main office for correction but it would behoove you to keep your own records as well.   

Attendance

• We received a reminder from the HR department that a doctor's note is required for all absences of 3 days or more.  You can give them to me and I can forward them to HR if you wish. 

SES Program 

• We currently have spots open in the SES program for ELA 9, 10, and 11 and we even have some for SN.  If you have students who are struggling or that you think will benefit from our Supplemental Educational Services program, guide them towards signing up.  The permission slip is located on our website  - follow this link  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tvi4kjM_a1mMbOrfiWBHrLhiB12J-1raql9IUxTG70s/edit.  You can also email the parents and forward them the information directly.  

• I suggest that you print some permission slips out and hand them to the students directly.  The program runs every Monday and Thursday from 3-4:30 and will be available until April 11.   

SGO statements and PGSs

• All teachers are required to submit their draft SGOs by October 31. Please make sure they are submitted along with PGPs.  Hit "save/notify."   

• Testing Concerns for upcoming assessments:

• There is a school-wide practice ACT exam on Nov 21st, which is a dress rehearsal for the PARCC and SCIENCE test in the spring. If you are assigned as a proctor, This is what admin walk-throughs will be looking for…

Proctor expectations and guidelines

1. Proctors may only use the internet to communicate to test-coordinators about test progress.
2. Proctors must actively monitor students as they are taking exams. When paired up, at least one of the proctors must be standing and walking around to ensure students are actively engaged in the assessment. Both proctors sitting down is unacceptable.
3. Proctors may not use cell phones at test sites.  If there are emergencies where cell phones are required, proctors must excuse themselves from the room and use the phone in the teacher’s lounge.
4. Proctors may only monitor tests, no other work shall be done during testing.
5. No students shall be facing each other during exams, proctors may use the assistance of students to rearrange the rooms in rows.
6. When there is space in the room, students shall be seated with maximum space between them.

 

Wonderful Things!

The Carey Twins turned one 
(and transformed into tiny dragons)!

The Wall House has apparently adopted a penguin!

10/22/18

I hope this week brings you good karma.  

I will try to put some out there for you!

A few (relative term I know...) things for this week...

Dr. Parent is inviting all faculty and staff to a special School Security Information Session today at 

3:10 PM so that you will be better informed about our security practices and protocols, meet our School Resource Officers, and meet the security guards who will be armed while on campus.

Class Coverage Requests: the following processes will be implemented when requesting class coverages:

1. Faculty who will need a class/period coverage for reasons other than IEP meetings or PLC meetings will need to email the request for coverage to coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us. I will arrange coverages for your team meetings.

2. Child Study Team Secretaries arranging IEP meetings will send the needed faculty coverages to coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us. A listing of all coverages for a particular week should be included in the email.

3. Last-minute coverages (i.e. for illness, requested presence during a crisis or critical meeting) should be phoned into Ms. Scott. Do not use coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us for same-day or last-minute coverage needs.

Please do not utilize the Absence Management System for class coverage needs. My suggestion is to always check with Judith in the main office in the morning to confirm that coverages were arranged.

School Security Information Sessions have been arranged for students and parents/guardians:

October 22 (Grade 11 and 12 Parents/Guardians)

7:00 pm in the Auditorium

October 23 (Student Meetings)

8:30 am               Grade 12             in the Auditorium

1:15 pm               Grade 11             in the Auditorium

October 24 (Student Meetings)

8:30 am               Grade 10             in the Auditorium

1:15 pm               Grade 9               in the Auditorium

October 25 (Grade 9 and 10 Parents/Guardians)

7:00 pm in the Auditorium

Important Dates:

• Our Next department meeting is (tomorrow) Tuesday, October 23

• Our department meeting on November 6th will feature a HIB presentation by Mark Frederick and/or Michael O'Brien

• Team meetings start on October 25th.  The schedule is on the Department site and coverages were requested for those who need them.  I will send a few agenda items to select groups.  Please select a scribe and upload the minutes using the template in Google Classroom. 

• PGPs - Teachers are required to submit a Professional Growth Plan (PGP) by October 31. Your PGP is listed in your My Learning Plan files.  All teachers should develop three (3) professional growth goals. Samples and information can be found here:  https://sites.google.com/site/pctiprofessionalportal/professional-growth-plans

• SGO Pre-Assessments were to be Completed by September 28, 2018.

• First Draft of SGOs must be entered into MyLearningPlan by October 31, 2018.

• Progress report comments are due Friday 10/26th at 3pm - Comments are required for students who have a C- or below

Book-keeping  (literally...)

Please make sure we are keeping records of barcodes for books issued to students.  Use the option in PowerSchool to do this.  It is especially important for textbooks that you may have issued to students.  

Book-keeping (in regards to grade books)

If you have assignments that are over 3 weeks old and there are grades missing for students or for the entire assignment, it needs to be resolved.  Either a student is exempt, gets a zero, or the assignment should be deleted.  This does not pertain to special circumstances where students may have been given extra time due to a valid reason such as an illness, bedside, schedule/teacher change, etc...

1st Cycle Observations have begun...

Sorry, I love Rick and Morty...

If you receive an email regarding an upcoming observation, please fill out and submit the pre-observation form by noon the day before the observation (on Friday if your observation is on a Monday).  Also, email me any documents, rubrics, student handouts, etc. that may go with your lesson (I will upload them and attach to your observation).

Pre-Assessments:  Please make sure you enter your pre-assessment scores into your Grade Books.  Make sure they are "unpublished" and check the box "do not include in final grade."

Absence Reporting:

Suggestion...  The time to enter your absence into AESOP is technically 7am, however, I would try to enter it (if possible) by 6:30am to ensure that your classes are covered.  We will discuss this more at length at the department meeting tomorrow.  

Reminders:

1.      Phone numbers

▪        311 for any emergency or security need

▪        4260 for suspicion of a student under the influence

2.       Child Abuse Reporting  (Important)

▪        You must call, not an administrator, nurse, SAC counselor or others

▪        Jurisdiction police must be called and notified of the report

▪        Reporting form must be handed to the Principal (form is on the portal)

https://sites.google.com/site/pctiprofessionalportal/emergency-information


"Wonderful things..."  I hope your weekend gave you some joy.   The Wachas had 2 football games and a baseball game - so we are spent, however Chuck had an incredible game on Saturday so the excitement was enough energy to carry us through! 

10/15/18

Good Morning everyone,

I hope you are in good spirits despite the gloomy start to the work week...  Just a few things for this week's blog...

I&RS Referrals
Students who are experiencing learning, behavior, or health difficulties shall be referred to the school’s Intervention and Referral Services (I&RS) Team. The I&RS Team identifies students in need and then plans and provides appropriate interventions.

Prior to making an I&RS referral, teachers are required to have made at lease 2 attempts to intervene. This includes phone calls or meetings with the parent(s) or guardian(s), instructional interventions, or behavioral interventions. If the teacher has not made any attempts to remedy the student's performance or behavior, the I&RS process will not begin.

The referral form can be found on the Professional Portal - here is a link:
https://sites.google.com/site/pctiprofessionalportal/documents/i-rs-referral-form

Gradebooks - It's all about balance...

Gradebooks should be kept up to date. If a month goes by and there are blank colums under your assignments, the assignment either should have been deleted, or grades should have been entered. When grades are missing for individual students, after a reasonable amount of time, a decision needs to be made about whether a student who has not submitted an assignment should receive a zero or be exempt from the assignment - something should be entered in the field.

Also, remember that we are focusing on authentic grading this year, so if 50% or more of your students have an A, or a F, something might be wrong there...

ESL & Reading Lab Referrals
Please continue to refer students who you think may be struggling in reading or in need of ESL assistance. You can refer them to York, Penny and Elizabeth and they will arrange testing.

First Cycle Observations

First cycle observations have begun. If you receive a pre-observation form request from me, please make sure it is submitted at least one day prior to the scheduled observations. Also, email me a copy of the lesson plan for that day and any worksheets or documents you will use in class. I am not scheduled to observe everyone in the department for this cycle, so some of you may be oberserved by another supervisor, assistant principal or Dr. Parent. In any case, be yourselves and "do what you do." Don't worry about things you cannot control, instead, focus on your strengths.

IDs and Lanyards,
Please make sure you are checking to make sure the students are wearing their yellow lanyards and IDs throughout the day. It is really easy to spot the ones that are not in compliance these days. Please do not let students out of your class on a pass without the lanyard and ID - if someone stops them in transit, it comes back to you, so let's avoid dealing with that.

Teacher logs
Please log all coorespondance with students, parents, guidance counselors, CST members, etc. in the "teacher log" section of Power Teacher. This can be helpful when having to deal with difficult situations down the road.

Ok, so if no one is going to send me "wonderful things" pics, I am forced to start bombarding you with pictures of Ned Flanders. This will continue until moral improves...

10/8/18

Department Meeting: Today’s meeting is cancelled – Our next meeting is scheduled for October 23rd in FX 135

Back to School Night – Thursday, October 11th.  Please make sure your classrooms are neat and inviting.  Since only the grade 9 teachers will be returning, please assist them with room prep and decorating.

• ·       Those of us who have grade 9 classes and/or grade 9 students on our rosters must attend.  Dismissal for grade 9 instructors will be at 1:16. You will need to sign in that night by 6:00pm.
• ·         Instructors who DO NOT have grade 9 courses or students will remain on campus until 3:45 pm.

All English I teachers...  ESL referrals - Please refer any students that you think need to be evaluated for possible placement in ESL.  Your referrals can be based on in-class writing samples or observations about their command of the language.  You can contact me or York Lam directly.

Grade-level Teams - Schedules for All grade-level teams are done – Meetings will mostly take place on the last Thursday in the month. The shedule will be posted on the department site today. 

Attendance reminders:  Attendance must be input within the first 10 minutes of class every day, for all classes.  New Procedure – teachers must enter “A” for absent or “P” for present.   We will no longer leave it blank for “present.”

Power Teacher & Gradebook set-up:  If you have not done so already, please be sure weights are aligned with school policy. Kim Prinzo is on PowerTeacher duty during period 7 – contact her to check your gradebook for errors!

IDs and Lanyards – Please make sure your students are wearing their IDs and lanyards when they leave your room on a pass.

Teacher Logs in PowerTeacher – It is a good idea to log any correspondence with students, parents, guidance and CST in the teacher log in PowerTeacher.   This ensures that there is an active record of what has transpired when dealing with issues that may need intervention in the future. 

Wonderful things...  This weekend, Chuck and his friends participated in the 

Bergen Buddy Walk for our friend Colin who has Down Syndrome.  

It is one of our favorite events of the year!  Be well all...

10/1/18

A. Fire Drills

Since we now have four fire alarm areas, we can conduct fire drills in different areas.  There is no need to evacuate every building at once during a drill.  Please review the Policy and schedule for our 2018-19 drills. The routes are outlined in the portal - follow the link below for details (it is a good idea to print your route diagram and post it in your classroom).  

https://sites.google.com/site/pctiprofessionalportal/emergency-exit-routes

BOE Policy #8420

School staff members, upon receiving notice the school needs to be evacuated, will:

• Direct pupils to gather personal belongings in the classroom or within their immediate area;
• Instruct pupils not to use any electronic communication device until instructed otherwise;
• Close the windows and doors of their vacated rooms and turn off any light or electrical switch;
• Take the pupil roster and the day’s attendance;
• Lead their class or the pupils under their supervision upon receiving the evacuation notice to the evacuation area;
• Take attendance when arriving at the evacuation area and report any additional pupils or missing pupils to the Principal or designee;
• Not allow any pupil to re-enter the building, leave the evacuation area, or be dismissed from school unless authorized by the Principal or designee or law enforcement officials

Fire Drills for 2018-2019

All other buildings will go into "Shelter In Place" as the drills are conducted.

Month	Location
September	STEM Building
October	Main Building
November	Rocco and T Building
December	Athletic Center
January	STEM Building
February	Rocco and T Building
March	Main Building
April	Athletic Center
May	STEM Building
June	Rocco and T  Building

B. Timed writing assessments

When issuing writing assessments (RSTs for example) that will be used as pre-assessments or benchmarks, please make sure they are "in-class, timed" writing assessments. These assessments should not be assignments that are completed at home. Ideally, they should be hand-written so that we can ensure their authenticity and be able to gauge their "raw" writing talent.  If you choose to issue these assessments digitally, you must monitor the students as they are taking the exam to ensure they are not surfing the internet for assistance as they write.  Digital assessments also can employ the help of spellcheck and Grammarly, so that would have to be taken into consideration as well.  If the assessments are digital, they should be run through Turnitin or utilize the tools offered in Canvas.  


C. Notes regarding documentation logs and evaluations  (more details will be discussed at our next department meeting, but here are a few things to consider and suggestions...)

• Non-tenured teachers should enter artifacts as they move through the school year.  Tenured teachers can wait until the Spring, however, we all know this practice only causes us to have to rush to load everything at the end.  It is your choice how you handle this, but in the years where I forced myself to do "a little at a time," I was much happier in April.   We reap what we sow, so reap away!

• Only enter 3-4 Artifacts per strand.  These should be things that ARE NOT observable in your observations (this way you cover a range of bases). They should also be "high quality" artifacts.  The STRONGE evaluation rubric does not rate teachers as "highly effective" by the number of artifacts entered.  In the same way, entering artifacts that cover every performance indicator in a strand also does not denote "highly effective" on the rubric. Choose fewer artifacts but ones that pack a "big punch."  Over the summer, Dr. Parent expressed to the newly appointed staff members that we are all striving for an effective rating.  Highly effective is "unusual" and "not the norm."  We will discuss the language in the standards in detail as to what brings the "effective" rating up to a "highly effective" rating at our next department meeting.  

• Strands, performance indicators, artifact suggestions/examples - I will be giving you all of this in the coming weeks.  Most of you probably will not need the resources, however since I have been looking at this from "the other side," there are things that I would like to pass on to you that may be helpful.  

• Student Surveys - not sure how many of you use these, but they are solid artifacts that can be used in your documentation logs. It is suggested that they are issued to students in late Fall and then possibly again in the Spring (however one is sufficient - based on student responses, you can show how you have reacted to the data in future lessons, plans, etc....  It is an easy way to show how you use student data).  I have "ready-made" examples I will pass on, but if you already have your own, you do not have to change what you are doing.  REQUEST - If anyone uses a method for issuing student surveys such as Google Forms, Survey Mondy, etc., please volunteer to give a quick demonstration at our meeting. This is not a presentation, just an informal mini-PD for your colleagues.  As simple as things seem to us sometimes, they may not be as simple to others.  

• Student PIPs - We used to call PGPs by another acronym, but it's all the same really.  Consider instituting this with your students.  It is a good way to show that students are participating in their academic progress and that you are promoting self-assessment as yet another form of 'assessment" in your arsenal of artifacts.  Eg. After another month or so, ask students to identify 3 aspects in their writing that are in need of improvement - things that they repeatedly do and that reflect patterns.  Have them create their own "official" PIP and submit it to you.  Along the way, you can have them reflect on these things and note progress.  In the Spring you can ask them to rate their progress - you can design these documents yourself.  Again, this is a solid artifact and possible a set of artifacts that show that you are involving students in self-evaluation (without making things too complicated).  

D.  I will be out of the office on Monday, October 1st, so if you need immediate assistance, please contact Dr. Sabbath.  I will not have access to email as I will be working at the Golf Outing.

Our "something wonderful" this week is Christian and his bride celebrating their honeymoon in Scotland.

Congratulations and best wishes on your new journey together!