Curricula Activities/Narrative 10/13-21

The following were curricula related activities that took place during the week of October 13-21, 2007.

Meetings
• Thursday: Lunch meeting with Ricki Goldman (NYU), Susan Imotoz (tech consultant) and Superintendent. Roughly 1 hour with discussions centering on the school system and possibilities of supporting some efforts to that end within the District.
• Meeting with Jennifer Lopez (NCLB) on technology training
• Meeting with Wiley Associates on Wednesday at their world coporate offices in Hoboken. Very positive meeting, professional. Optimistic of a productive long term relationship with Wiley in terms of their Reading program and their intern commitment.

School Visits
• Thursday: Visited Conners School with Dr. Ricki Goldman and Dr Susan Imotz getting sense of technology and classes for possible research and/or work within the district.
• Thursday: Visited Calabro School with Dr. Ricki Goldman and Dr Susan Imotz getting sense of technology and classes for possible research and/or work within the district.
• Wednesday: Extensive visit at the High School visiting classes in science, mathematics, IB, French, and English including a visit with the librarian. Very encouraging.

Other Visits
• Visited Jersey City Board of Education and met with 1) , 2), and 3) Paula Spagnoletti/Christian. Topics included data, technology, QSAC, Table of Organization and general Jersey City/Hoboken chatter. Very professional and informative meeting. I was very pleased with the materials I was given, the information I obtained and the contacts that I feel we have established. Jersey City is interested in developing an IB program and so we may be able to assist them in some aspects of that process.


NARRATIVE
One of the highlights of the week was the visit to Conners and Calabro by Ricki Goldman and Susan Imotz. They were really impressed with Conner’s School. It was both eye opening and inspiring to see the school through their eyes. They were impressed with the energy of the teachers, with the organization of the classrooms, with the pictures that were created by the students. Calabro was equally impressive with visits to the new facilities as well as nice conversations with Principal Palumbo and numerous faculty members. Afterward we discussed possible means of collaboration. It’ll be interesting to see if we can set something up in the district.

Curricula Related Activities/Narrative (October 8-12)

School Visits
• Brief visits (<1 hour) at Hoboken High School, Wallace and Conner’s school. Mostly pass through visits but getting a sense of what is needed for beginning the more formal process of classroom observations. Feel as if I’m at a good point to begin in earnest with some ideas.


Activities

• On Tuesday October 9 I spoke at Harvard’s College of Education. I was the guest of Dr. Barry Fishman and spoke about technology and math and science education. Also made special note of my activities with the Hoboken School District and there was great interest by the faculty and students. Perhaps a follow-up visit later in the semester.

• On Saturday night (October 6) I went to Rutgers to visit with Dr. Rick Duschl. Rick is a Rutgers faculty member in science education and has recently finished a report by the National Research Council entitled “Taking Science to School”. This looks at k-8 science education curriculum. Rick expressed interest in coming to Hoboken for a visit and possibly talking to our faculty/staff. This may be very important as curriculum issues begin in full stride after QSAC. Rick also talked about the Liberty Science Center and how the district might partner with them. He was interested in how their professional development is working.

• On the same night I also met up with Dr. Drew Gitomer. Drew is with ETS and I have known Drew for over a decade. He is very interested in the involvement with Hoboken School District as well and I believe he may be a great resource for us. He is a learning scientist researcher, colleague of Rick Duschl and Jim Pellegrino and served on the Board of Education in his home town for 2 full terms. He has a very interesting perspective about reform and student high stake testing..

• Meeting with Susan Imlolz (MIT/National Geographic) concerning technology in the district. "S. Imholz"

NARRATIVE

This week was spent on QSAC in a meaningful way. I think we’re making some excellent progress on that front. It was also spent setting up some possibilities for the near future.. Feeling like I’m making some conceptual progress with curriculum efforts. This includes issues of representation/charts; frameworks, and how to make the process consistent with QSAC criteria which we will no doubt need to do follow-ups with for a couple of 6 month cycles. Also made some progress on getting official certification with the State of New Jersey.


Some frustration is setting which I can’t put an exact finger on but I think it’s related to a general inefficiency in many aspects of the operations side of the district. Part of it is working within a system that I personally still don’t know well yet so in fact, I may be the one working inefficiently.

We are now building up some potential experts in and around the district that can be of use to us for advice, consultation both formal and informal. We need to figure out some sort of mechanism to do this if we choose to utilize them. There’s Jay Pfaffman with technology/open source at the University of Tennessee; Rick Duschl with museum learning and science K-8 at Rutgers; Ricki Goldman with video technology at NYU; Drew Gitomer with high stakes testing/ETS and Barry Fishman at Harvard with his connection with the Union City reform effort and systemic reform.

Curricula related Activities (Oct 8-12)

School Visits
• Brief visits (<1 hour) at Hoboken High School, Wallace and Conner’s school. Mostly pass through visits but getting a sense of what is needed for beginning the more formal process of classroom observations. Feel as if I’m at a good point to begin in earnest with some ideas.


Activities
• Attended Columbus Day activities at Columbus Park- this was a nice turnout and the weather, while windy, at least wasn’t rainy as it was earlier in the AM. Columbus and his role in US/World history has been a source of interesting curriculum discourse.

• On Tuesday October 9 I spoke at Harvard’s college of Education. I was the guest of Dr. Barry Fishman and spoke about technology and math and science education. Also made special note of my activities with the Hoboken School District and there was great interest by the faculty and students. Perhaps a follow-up visit later in the semester.

• On Saturday night (October 6) I went to Rutgers to visit with Dr. Rick Duschl. Rick is a Rutgers faculty member in science education and has recently finished a report by the National Research Council entitled “Taking Science to School”. This looks at k-8 science education curriculum. Rick expressed interest in coming to Hoboken for a visit and possibly talking to our faculty/staff. This may be very important as curriculum issues begin in full stride after QSAC. Rick also talked about the Liberty Science Center and how the district might partner with them. He was interested in how their professional development is working.

• On the same night I also met up with Dr. Drew Gitomer. Drew is with ETS and I have known Drew for over a decade. He is very interested in the involvement with Hoboken School District as well and I believe he may be a great resource for us. He is a learning scientist researcher, colleague of Rick Duschl and Jim Pellegrino and served on the Board of Education in his home town for 2 full terms. He has a very interesting perspective about reform and student high stake testing.

• Meeting with Susan Imlolz (MIT/National Geographic) concerning technology in the district. "S. Imholz"

NARRATIVE

This week was spent on QSAC in a meaningful way. I think we’re making some excellent progress on that front. It was also spent setting up some possibilities for the near future.. Feeling like I’m making some conceptual progress with curriculum efforts. This includes issues of representation/charts; frameworks, and how to make the process consistent with QSAC criteria.


Some frustration is setting which I can’t put an exact finger on but I think it’s related to a general inefficiency in many aspects of the operations side of the district. Part of it is working within a system that I personally still don’t know well yet so in fact, I may be the one working inefficiently.

NARRATIVE (October 1-5)

This week was spent on QSAC in a meaningful way. I think we’re making some excellent progress on that front. It was also spent setting up some possibilities for the near future. This includes some associations with faculty at Stevens, NYU and possibly University of Tennessee. Need to discuss how this might occur. Feeling like I’m making some conceptual progress with curriculum efforts. This includes issues of representation/charts; frameworks, and how to make the process consistent with QSAC criteria which we will no doubt need to do follow.

Weekly Curricula Activities (Oct 1-5)

The following is a list of curricula related activities for the first week of October

• Curriculum meeting with IB/MYP
• Principal Tortorella follow-up with case concerning a student fight on a bus
• Jennifer Lopez- this meeting revolved around issues of workshops for Reading First as well as Learning.com in fulfillment of some NCLB matters.
• Meeting with Mary Tremididi concerning LEARNING.COM
•Meeting with Principal Cella concerning curriculum issues that some high school teachers seem to have with what is being taught at the K-8 level. Discussion also included the issue of Department Chairs and their related responsibilities with curriculum development. Encouraging meeting.

School Visits
• Brief visits (<1 hour) at Hoboken High School, Wallace and Conner’s school. Mostly pass through visits but getting a sense of what is needed for beginning the more formal process of classroom observations. Feel as if we are at a good point to begin in earnest with some ideas.

Other Visits
• Scheduled (CANCELLED) meeting with Jersey City Schools concerning issues of curriculum, data, and organization charts. This has been rescheduled for Friday October 12 (Paula Christian aka Spangnoletti)


Activities
• Attended opening ceremonies at Calabro School
• Attended OPEN NIGHT at Wallace, Calabro and Conner’s School
• Contacted Dr. Pavel Duborski at Stevens concerning the “Math Circles Program”-

Reflection on the First Month

As September comes to and end I feel that some progress has been made and getting an overall “gist” for much of the district in terms of basic operations of each physical campus. In general, I have found all the schools to be functioning well. The next few weeks will involve more classroom observations and discussions around issues particular to curriculum and instruction. I intend to talk to teachers, supervisors and administrators as I get a sense of the “enacted” curriculum. While no curriculum is formally written in the district, there indeed is SOMETHING that teachers are teaching. My job over the next 2-3 weeks is to get a good handle on this. The goal is to be able to then start having some serious discussions on curriculum development within the district.

Curricula Related Activities (Sept 24-30)

The following activities were related to curriculum development efforts in the district this past week.

Meetings
• QSAC Meeting on Monday Sept 24 to review strategy of obtaining information
• IB meeting with Beth Brock (Head of Research) and Jessica Arnold (Project Manager) along with Kate Dominique, and Superintendent (Tuesday Sept 25)-candid and productive meeting with the national IB staff from NYC.
• Meeting with Jennifer Lopez (Thursday) about NCLB- good meeting which rekindled the need to have a better understanding of what data is due and when in the district.


School Visits
• Visited Demarest High School- (Monday AM, Thursday evening and Friday afternoon)
3 trips to Demarest this week. On Thursday night I was there to attend the opening of the Industrial Arts classroom and on Friday I was in there to represent the Superintendent at the picnic. Both events were successful at providing “community building” activities at the school. The administration at Demarest seems very committed to doing whatever is necessary to build a strong community at the school.

• Visited Wallace School (at dismissal on Thursday)
Informal visit with Principal Tortorella outside school during dismissal. Things seem to be running smoothly and spoke of a more formal visit in the next week.

• Visited Conner’s School- (Friday AM)
Met with administration and a number of teachers including Cathy (IT teacher), J. DiGennaro, Reading First teachers, librarian and Kate Dominque. Meeting with Kate centered on curriculum issues and was productive. Conner’s continues to be an enjoyable visit and there seems to be very good things going on there. My next visit will include more classroom observations.

Other Visits
• Stopped by HHS to visit with Principal

Activities
• QSAC organization and preparation
• Issues of curriculum alignment and organization