Overview:
26 Middle School and High School Teachers of Math,
Science, and Technology, from Juan Diego, St. John
the Baptist, Blessed Sacrament, and St. Francis gathered to review the
9th Grade EXPLORE data and ACT research, and to discuss educational
methods within science, math, and technology.
- Response to the data:
- The
teachers were very interested to see the EXPLORE test booklet and spent
a lot of time analyzing the content and format of the test questions.
Many middle school teachers commented on how different the style of the
exam is from their everyday teaching and assessing.
- The
science section of the exam also caught a lot of attention. The
consensus was that this section is predominantly a reading
comprehension section. And, there are many questions that require
chart and/or graph skills that our middle school students aren't
previously exposed to in the classroom.
- The middle school teachers were pleased to see that the current 9th
graders performed above the national average in all subject categories
- There
is an interest from Nancy Essary to meet annually to review this data
and discuss this data with us. Galey and Michelle talked about following up
with her, and with the other feeder school principals to set up meeting time to review testing data on an annual basis.
- Response to the research:
- The
teachers were engaged in conversation about the research findings that
show that students who enter high school lacking prerequisite skills
rarely ever catch up
- The
teachers were also engaged in conversation about the research
supporting flexible pedagogical styles (offering more opportunities for
activities, labs, competitions, etc. . .).
- Discussion
Prompt: Do our lesson plans allow for a balance of text book learning
AND experiential learning (projects, labs, activities, time to connect
the content to the "real wold", other topics, and subjects?
- Group #1's responses:
Members from this group are committed to planning and implementing a
Catholic School's Science Olympiad this spring. The interested
teachers will set up planning meetings this week with the goal of
implementing the Olympiad this spring after Easter break.
- Group #2's responses:
This group used the "The Magic Wand Test" to generate ideas on how they
could do more with their lesson plans. They talked about some of the
barriers being a lack of lab supplies, a lack of adequate space to
conduct labs, and isolation within their teaching and planning that
made it difficult to come up with the labs/activities.
- Other teachers suggested sharing websites such as "math forum" and "math minutes" to find prepared activities
- The group discussed creating a blog for all of us to use and have access to that would highlight "best practices"
- We also discussed having a "Best Practices" symposium in late January as a follow up to this symposium
- Group #3's responses:
This group discussed the amount of time spent on lesson planning and
the lack of time to research and try new activities/labs.
- One
suggestion was to explore the possibility of hiring a part-time Lab
Coordinator for the middle school and high school (this person would
identify specific "labs" that correspond with specific curriculum and
provide the "lab lesson plans" to the teachers.
- Group #4's responses:
This group discussed the amount of time spent remediating low level
math skills. Their feeling is that too much time is being spend on
remediation and it's not currently effective. Some teachers felt that
we could use remediation programs during the school year and some felt
that it would be better during the summer.
- We
discussed doing both. Finding more tutoring assistance for before
and/or after school was discussed. ACT research shows that schools
that offer ongoing tutoring resources (both formally, and informally)
better prepare their students for life after high school.
- We
discussed an "experiential" summer "camp" program that would be open to
all students (with the belief being that both remedial and accelerated
students need experiential learning opportunities).
- Where do we go from here? Commitment so the follow were made:
- Plan and implement Science Olympiad
- Create a blog for middle school and high school teachers
Visit annually with the elementary schools to share with them the data that we are collecting on their students
- Plan and host a "Best Practices" workshop in January
- Share more information about opportunities, camps, workshops, etc. . with parents
- Explore the possibility for additional positions (Lab/Enrichment Coordinator)
- Add formal tutoring opportunities
- Enhance professional development opportunities for teachers
Science Math Tech Forum
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