Curriculum Committee Meeting- November 20

Approximately 20 members of the Hoboken Curriculum Committee met today at the Brandt Professional Development Center from 3pm-4:30pm. Dr. Petrosino met with each group individually and surveyed the progress that has been made using a color coded rubric he developed for quick overall assessment of progress. Progress was made by the Mathematics, Science, Early Literature, and the World Languages Group--and discussions were undertaken for addressing meeting needs of the Physical Education Group who has had some difficulty in meeting this semester. Additionally, part of today was spent backing up all electronic data files onto portable "gig" hard drives. The group will reconvene this coming Saturday for a full day session.

Fall Recess- Curriculum Committee Meeting 4

The Curriculum Committee met for a fourth time this week and consisted of members from the Primary Language, Arts, and World Language Groups. The committee is off for the next week as they take a well deserved break from their activities. Meetings will resume next Thursday afternoon.

Primary Language: Today we are continuing to reformat Grade 4 into the Primary Unit Planners. We finished Unit 1-3. Our group still has to complete the rest of Grade 4. We have printed them and put them in the binder. We completed the Hoboken Curriculum Committee Update form to show our progress.

World Language:Today the MYP planners for grade 9 and grade 9 honors were completed as well as UBD's for those grades. We typed those units and started grade 10 MYP planners. So far, unit 1 for grade 10 has been completed and Unit 2 in under way.

Art: Continuation of articulation of Arts curriculum with early grades and inputing into digital form the lesson planners from earlier this week.

Fall Recess- Hoboken Curriculum Committee Meeting 1

The Hoboken Curriculum Committee met today at the Brandt Professional Development Center from 9AM to 3PM. This was the first day of the district's fall recess. Nonetheless, over 20 teachers attended the curriculum writing meeting today.

Theatre: Completed course mapping development of IB Theatre Arts (Grades 11 and 12). Aims, objectives, assessments and course requirements for these diploma level classes differ greatly from those of the MYP and needed to be articulated prior to developing units. (See attachment "1" for a map of the course components and how they relate to the objectives; see attachment "2" for details on assessment) The next step is taking this map and creating the units around its components.

Visual Arts: Began research for 9-10 grade material to be incorporated into the MYP unit plans. The information collected will better equip the team in creating meaningful units.

Primary Language: The Primary Language Arts group finished the Big Idea for Unit 11-13 for First Grade, Unit 3-5 for Third Grade. We will complete Units 6-7 including the Big Idea. We will start to check standards for all Units to make sure it satisfies state standards completely. We are working diligently to make sure that the Units coincide with the Big Ideas.

World Languages: With our district French teacher present, we were able to revise and broaden our high school World Language Curriculum mapping. Vicky Chodos found the Scope and Sequence for the French texts online to assure alignment within the discipline. The hand copied high school mapping was typed up and added onto the L drive by Tania Trinidad. We allotted space in the mapping for IB exams both external and internal so that teachers following it would not have to squeeze instruction around the testing.

Social Studies: It was a relatively quite day in the Social Studies camp, although Kevin and DeBenedetto managed to get some important things accomplished. We finished typing the last unit of the 11th grade into the MYP planner, thus completing high school (barring any future revisions). We also checked over the middle school years (which we concluded were good), revised a 5th grade unit, and brainstormed a major unit for the fourth grade. Overall, it was a day of tying some loose ends and planning a strategy with which to approach the 1st through 4th grades.

Mathematics: Today was a very productive day for the mathematics group. We completed the Drafting for a Big Idea from the understand by design for Intro to Calculus grade 12. Also, we have complete two thirds of the Drafting for a Big Idea for IB Mathematics SL. Our goal for tomorrow is to complete the IB Mathematics SL and complete IB Math Studies SL.

Science: For the second grade curriculum, the team completed units 5 and 6 and initiated unit 7. We also revised the curriculum mapping for the third grade and completed units 1 and 2a and initiated 2b. The science team also worked on the ninth grade curriculum and completed the MYP planners for units 1-3 and initiated unit 4. All assessments for the units in grade 9 curriculum were established. The core curriculum content standards were revised for grades 6 and 7.

picture: Brandt auditorium

Hoboken Curriculum Meeting- October 23

Members of the Hoboken Curriculum Committee met today from 3-4:30pm in the Professional Development floor of Brandt School. The committee worked primarily in discipline groups as they completed forms on clarifying the status of each domain area along the vertical K-12 axis. This information will provide a comprehensive view of the progress made to date and will be part of a report given to the Superintendent. In addition to comleting the forms, each domain group worked at developing stragic plans for effective use of this coming Saturday's full day curriculum development meeting.

Curriculum Committee Moves into Brandt

Today the Hoboken Curriculum Committee officially moved into more permanent facilities in Brandt School according to Dr. Petrosino. The committee will utilize four classrooms, a library and two computer labs as they set about the next stage of the curriculum revision process. This dedicated area will also be utilized for other district training and professional development activities. The area will have high speed internet access, a teachers lounge, work desks, computer stations, and the technical specifications to make small group presentations and conduct within district workshops. The Curriculum Committee is excited about having a dedicated location where texbooks, guides, and resources can be housed. The following assignments have been made for the 2008-2009 academic year:

RM 210- Language Arts
RM 300- World Language/Arts
RM 303- Social Studies
RM 307- Technology
RM 308- Science/Mathematics
RM 305- Library/Resource Room
Teachers Lounge

Schedule of Meetings for Hoboken Curriculum Committee: Fall 2008

Today was the first Fall meeting of the Hoboken Curriculum Committee. The meeting was held in the High School library from 3-3:30pm and consistent primarily of organizational issues. Dr. Petrosino and the Committee agreed to the following meeting times with the understanding that this was a fairly aggressive schedule and that modifications would be considered as the semester progresses. Petrosino also spoke about an upcoming meeting with the Deputy of Education in Trenton and updating progress on the curriculum made at the end of the summer.


The meeting schedule:

Thursday Schedule (all meetings are from 3-4:30pm)
October 9
October 23
October 30
November 13
November 20
December 11
December 18

Saturday Schedule (all meetings are from 9am-3pm)
October 11
October 25
November 1
November 15
November 22
December 13

Fall Break Schedule (all meetings are from 9am-3pm)
Monday November 3
Tueesday November 4
Wednesday November 5
Thursday November 6 (if necessary)

2008-2009 Curriculum Committee Approval

The following teachers were recommended and approved for appointment to the Curriculum Committee at a value not to exceed $3330.00 per teacher for the 2008 / 2009 school year. Total not to exceed $125,000.00. Line item# 11-000-221-104-12-1033-000

Jayshree Amin, Tasha Leggard, Jill Littzi, Lea Gualario, Michele McGreivey, Robin Piccapietra, Paul Huggins, Christopher Munoz, Stephanie Safko, Susan Imholz, Jared Ramos, Mark Taraszkiewicz, Ryan Sorafine, Jennifer Suyat, Erin Kraven, Donna Yula, Helen DeRose, Derek England, Louis Taglieri, Patricia Hack, Adriana Coppola, Joanne Ariyan, Martin Shannon, Jenisa Wilson, Frances Cohen, Damien DeBenedetto, Janice Shikham, Kathleen Kelly-Ynoa, Mark Schartner, Mary Sifonios, Cara Killen, Romy Marchesani, Fiona Stephens, Roseangela Perez, Elise Rosenberg, Melanie Alberto-Kolmer, Edward Barfield Isabel Bruno Veronica Ramos, Victoria Chodos, Geidy DeLaRosa, Juliana Addi, Barabara Teller, Meghna Patel, Anabel Gomez, Lynn Fusco, Robert Meyers, Tania Trinidad-Payamps, Tara Donnelly, Patrick Ciriello, Gabriela Taglieri-Garcia, Bess Mitsakos, Marni Rosenblum, Adriana Coppola, Kelly Sogluzzio, Andrea Canonico, Kevin Metcalfe, Beth Tomlinson, Denise Toles, Shawn Kolmer, Amy Casciano, Vincent Cassesa