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The vision of a Common Core, STEM-centric school shifts our focus from preparing students to graduate from high school preparing them to be successful in college and careers.

1.  How is your school vision aligned with that of the Common Core, Stem-centric school?

Nothing with STEM language.

+ Forward focus

Common Core= increasing rigor

Increase visibility to staff and students for constant reminders

2.  What are you doing to promote our school as a Maryland Common Core, STEM-Centric school?

Share magnet program information earlier than 8th grade

Common Core handouts distributed at parent night and PTA meetings

3.  Capacity building

Math has things in hand more so than other content areas

ELA plans to have more hands on this summer. Current on hold during transition process. Holding back on information has made teachers more anxious.

Social Studies has met with supervisor and had discussions. Summer work includes reviewing current unit assessment for usability and efficiency pairing with CCSC.

Science work in progress. One teacher has been able to network with former colleague from another district and get tangibles.

Provide grade level opportunities for departments to meet to discuss where each content is currently and the then jigsaw back into teams at middle school level.

Stages of Change

·  Know it-Awareness

·  Try it-Application & Experimentation

·  Own it, Believe it-Ownership

·  Spread it, Make it better-Advocacy/Innovation

Strategies to use to move colleagues forward

·  Meet with content supervisors to receive update of where current curriculum guides are and plans for moving forward

·  Teacher exemplar lessons brought forward to staff to display possibilities of lessons

·  More individualized professional development for teachers

·  Expose teachers to technology/resources that allow teachers to delve deeper into CC by having it more accessible

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Bainbridge Elementary School (Cecil Country)

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Bainbridge Elementary School (Cecil Country)

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Accomplishments:

Full implementation of the CCSC

Learning how to navigate CCSC documents

Deconstructing Standards

Staff very open to change

Pacing of the roll out

Teacher leaders presenting

Job embedded PD

Collaboration with other schools

Fundemantals of Sentence Writing

Writing new curriculum

County listening to feedback

PD has changed to meet our needs

Instructional Strategies have changed

Successfully Competed Transition Plan Tasks:

Use of County Curriculum documents

PD focused on COmmon Core

Teachers made example lessons

Sentence Fundamentals

Unpacking the Common Core

Math Practices

STEM standards of practices and frameworks

Helpful Resources:

Van de Walle book

KuDo

Clements book

on line math journal

county documents

Shanahan's myth article

5 Tips for Teaching w/ Close Reading

QER

MSDE site

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Accomplishments: learning to navigate Common Core documents, deconstructing standards, full implementation of CC, school based teacher leaders, collaboration with other schools, county changes based on feedback from teachers as explore CC, PD changing to meet needs, change of instructional strategies

Completed Tasks of Transition Plan: county curriculum documents, focused PD, teacher made lessons, unpacking the CC, math practices, STEM standards of practice and frameworks

Helpful Resources: Van de Walle, KUDo Framework, Clements book, on-line math journals, county documents, QER, 5 Tips for Teaching Close Reading, Shanahan Myth article, MSDE site and links

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Cecil County Public Schools Middle Schools - Elkton, Cherry Hill, North East, Rising Sun, Bohemia Manor, Perryville

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Cecil County Public Schools Middle Schools - Elkton, Cherry Hill, North East, Rising Sun, Bohemia Manor, Perryville

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Accomplishments:

Shifts in ELA

Communications with parents and stakeholders about curricular changes.

Teachers using data to guide instruction

Increased rigor

STEM activities in more than one content area

Professional Development sessions with capacities and practices

Increased focus on Argumentative Writing in multiple content areas

Completed Tasks:

Fully implement CCSS in ELA and Mathematics

Professional Development structures in place

Resources:

Support for Instructional Coordinators

Digital Databases

Support from colleagues

Use of Learning Strategies(Course organizer, unit organizer,etc.) to better access the new curriculum

Curriculum documents with curriculum tips for each unit

Scoring of pre- and post-assessments within Inform

Variety of Professional Development

Digital resources shared among colleagues

New and contemporary trade books for ELA

Technology

Continue to update curriculum

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Discussion Board #2

Our vision and mission statements will be revisited by School Improvement Team for breadth and depth.  We are proud of our Green School status, and STEM fair. We are hoping to host a Reading Night, Math Night, STEM Night, or the like, to communicate with parents and the community about the implementation of this new initiative.

Discussion Board #3

We would like additional opportunities for staff collaboration: standards and units, sharing topics school-wide, peer planning and observations, and time to browse resources online.

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Blackboard Discussion Board #2

College & Career Readiness, AP, Homeland Security (GIS Cert), Pro Serve, College Sociology, HCC Math, Childcare, Career to Work.

Mentors/Guest Speakers; Internships HSEP

Curriculum Night, AP Night, HSEP Night

Post on Edline

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Activity 2 #1

-teachers as facilitators

-student solving problems

- real world problems

#3

STEM nights

Career days

PTA meetings

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Blackboard Discussion Board #1

Independent thinkers, self-eficacy, perseverance, life long goals for success in the 21st century

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Activity 2 #1 - Brainstorm ...

-life-long learners

-data analysis

-student growth

-school-related professional development

-collaboration

-student success

-challenging instructional focus/standards

-reflective teaching

-a focus on college and career readiness

-high-quality instruction in all disciplines

Activity 2 #3 - What are we doing to help promote...?

-school-based PD

-individual departmental discussion & activities

-review of curricular materials for alignment

-progress monitoring

-intentional course sequence

-instructional strategies that support CCR in all subjects

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Aligning STEM-centric

Vision and mission is being rewritten however prelimintary common beliefs are indicative of alignment with STEM centric school identified by common core.

To promote PMES as a MD common core stem-centric school we have:

extension activities for GT

after school MD engineering challenge

AG lab

Aviation presentation

Lego league

EArly bird club - field trip

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Activity 2 Question #1

-student centered

-hands-on approach

-multiple solutions

-engagement

-student interaction

-multi-disciplinary

-connections

-rigor

-technology

-collaboration

-inquiry based

Question #2

We have the expectation that all students will achieve at high levels to create life long learners that are prepared for careers and college readiness.

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Team Activity #2, pt. II:

-We are preparing students to be successful when returning to their home schools by teaching them the skills necessary to "keep-up" with the CCSS.

-Stronger disciplinary focus on educators implementing the incoming county curricular standards so students are better prepared for success when returning to their home schools.

-We understand the need to further engage all educational stakeholders, including equipping parents with the skills necessary to ensure future student success.

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Activity 1

- As we serve students across Maryland, we have become grounded in curriculum resources produced by the Baltimore County Public School System.

- developed a scope and sequence for grades 1-12 for ELA, math, social studies, science and technology

- look forward to developing a transition plan this year and identifying resources

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3. at our school...

-more focus on STEM nights (at least 3 per school year)

- SIP Science goal focuses on getting students to use the engineering design process of making improvements and changes to units outside of EIE

-Kindergarten will look at the first grade EIE units to see launching points for science lessons

-getting grade levels to incorporate the EIE principles into other content areas and other science lessons

-using the reading roadmap to find areas where we can incorporate STEM

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Activity #1

This change in philosophy will make a huge impact on enrolling students in classes/pathways that best prepare them for their post-high school academic/professional careers.  Concerns were raised on how these will be best implemented in a timely fashion to benefit the students currently enrolled in BAHS.

Activity #2

We feel confident that we can expand on the academic/career pathways currently in place to successfuly prepare students for success in either college or professional world.  This will take a total collaborative effort between administration, teachers, and guidance.  The registration process will have to be totally revamped to ensure that students are taking the best courses to prepare them for their chosen future endeavors.

Activity #3

We are in the process of working with  SIT and guidance to clearly define our version of a "Common Core, STEM-centric school" at BAHS.  Once we build our own clear vision of how this shift will effect our school, we will begin to plan how the vision is shared to the community/stakeholders.  Obviously, representatives from these groups will play an active role in creating our vision.  At this time, we find it counterproductive to roll out a comprehensive campaign to notify the community as a whole, until we are completely clear of the direction we are heading as a school.

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Activity #2

o Problem Solving

o Critical Thinking Skills

o Complex Text

o Constructivist

o Rigor

o Plethora of Text

o Multiple Strategies/Creativity

o Rich Discussions

o Student Centered

o Inquiry Based

o Transdisciplinary

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Activity #2

1. Transdisciplinary instruction. Career connections. Project based learning. Disciplinary literacy. Research based best practicies. External resources.

3. STEM fair. Reading night, Math night, STEM night. Common Core presentation for parents connected to night events. Completed all activities on our transition plan. Career fair was a major success. College week.

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Riverside believes in aligning stem centric practices as identified below

Characteristics: risk taking

Buying in (teachers)

Flexible time (planning and implementation)

Graying up of subject area times

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STEM Centric Learning Environment Grades K-5 ~ Instruction ~ School Improvement in Maryland

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STEM education is active and focuses on a student-centered learning environment. Students engage in questioning, problem solving, collaboration, and hands-on activities while they address real life issues. In STEM education, teachers function as classroom facilitators. They guide students through the problem-solving process and plan projects that lead to mastery of content and STEM proficiency.

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NHMS

Activity 2, Number 1

A STEM-centric school has STEM imbedded in instruction, not in isolation. All students are included. It may include problem based projects and cross-curricular activities. Appropriate professional development and resources are available for implementation.

Number 2

Offer parent nights showcasing what students are doing or should be doing, revise Back To School Night .

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Activity #2, Number 1:

1. Gateway to Technology Program, introducing Magnet Program, STEM night, AVID- promotes taking more challenging classes to students, resulting in larger numbers of students in higher level classes

2. Magnet Night to inform parents, Jump Start to introduce programs to parents and students, Meet and Greet Nights with parents, PTSA meeting to introduce parents to programs

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Activity #2

1. Collaborative, Cross-Curricular, Content (& Technology) Literacy, Inquiry-Based, Reading & Writing, Problem/Project-Based Learning, Persistence, Data Driven, On-going PD, Real World Applications.

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Activity 2

1. using data to drive instruction, collaboration, link to career readiness, ongoing professional development, thematic teaching across curriculum, project based problem solving, student led lessons, rigor, student engagement, technology integration, evaluation

2. We are first getting the faculty more aware of the Core curriculum in preparation to implement it. Parents have been made aware of some changes that are coming in the curriculum, for example fractions, performance based and online assessments. Students will be further exposed to computer based assessment.

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Activity 2, Number 1:

student collaboration, rigorous instruction, inquiry-based classrooms, transdisciplinary, real-world applications (relevance), student achievement

Activity 2, Number 2:

working together reflects student collaboration/ownership

excellence reflects rigorous/high standards for student achievement

inspiring excellence includes goals for students and teachers

aspire reflects students leading the learning/inquiry-based approach

Activity 2, Number 3:

Structuring our professional development around transition plans that directly connect to the School Improvement Plan goals.  Building teacher leaders within the school to lead the professional development and growth for ELA, Math and STEM.  Presentations to the PTA to communicate timelines.  STEM day (HCC and APG partners) and Math Night as additional means to keep the community stakeholders informed.

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Inquiry based instruction, integrated across the curriculum, student centered, discussions, collaboration and teamwork

-helping teachers feel confident with inquiry based lessons

-anticipation is key to teachers setting their students up for success

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A STEM-centric school should utilize methods of technology in the lesson, imbedded in the lesson, not as a separate piece in the lesson.  The use of technology should be seamless in the lesson and should compliment the lesson and critical thinking.  Utilizing technology effectively engages students.

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Holly Hall Elementary School/Cecil County 

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Holly Hall Elementary School/Cecil County 

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Exploration of Curriculum Tool Kit Documents, CCSS Documents, CCSS Progressions, Math, Literacy and STEM Standards of Practice, Problem based learning, Close Analytic Reading, and Text Complexity.

Planning through deconstructing the CCSS, creating lessons utilizing CCSS, integrating content areas(interdisciplinary lesson planning), and creating countywide CCSS lesson banks (ELA, Math, STEM).

Full Implementation of CCSS and math standards of practice into daily instruction.

Community Outreach included morning and evening workshops in the areas of Math, ELA, and STEM,

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ELA and Mathematics have been fully implemented as part of our daily practice. We are working to infuse STEM into all content areas where it can be meaningfully incorporated. In Social Studies we began to pilot the new outcomes and work with ELA to evaluate argumentative writing.

During professional development we examined Universal Design for Learning and sought to understand the differences and similarities between UDL and Differentiation.

To better support the families, math teachers have developed websites that highlight the common core and provide online resources for parents. Math teachers have hosted several parent nights to teach parents how to do the math and to help them navigate through resources.

The practices for each content area was printed by CCPS and has been a valuable reference for teachers so that the whole staff an communicate with the same language. Using Inform to help guide instruction allows for quick data analysis to inform instruction and provide direction for department discussions.

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Accomplishments: We felt the strongest accomplishments in math practices. Our staff was very open and willing to transition to the CCSS. Our staff did an excellent job aligning the ELA CCSS to lessons delivered in the classroom.

Successes: We have successfully used Inform to analyze our school’s data. We’ve deconstructed CCSC standards with great success as well.
Resources: The county planned PD in the schools and the GALA courses offered have aligned well with our transition plan. Books and other resource materials were purchased to support the transition plan also.

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Our biggest accomplishment was nailing down a process to plan using the CCSS.  We still need more time to explore in order to gain a deeper understanding.

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Instruction has shifted from teacher centered to student centered - Empowering students
Teachers demonstrate a deeper understanding of the standards.
Unit organizers, Van De Walle, county PD, andteam approach to instruction have all played a vital role in our transition to common core.

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Our faculty has demonstrated a positive attitude towards the challenges of implementing the Common Core. We have gained a better understanding of the curriculum through collaboration, professional development, and identifying and utilizing resources.

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Cecilton Elementary School (Cecil County)

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Cecilton Elementary School (Cecil County)

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Accomplishments: With appropriate PD, our staff now has a better understanding of the standards and how to develop lesson plans that start with the standards.

Successes: Used and analyzed data to plan instruction and PD. Teams have had several opportunities to plan using STEM/ELA/Math standards and practices.

Helpful Resources: Blackboard, CCPS online resources (podcasts, etc.), CCPS follow-up PD provided by EEA team members, CCSS placemats and progressions available online.

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1.  Working in cross-curricular groups in our PLCs, we worked towards gaining understanding of the Common Core.  We have gained a greater understanding of English. Math, and STEM practices.

2.  After examining our transition plan, we determined that we have successfully completed our outcomes for 2011-2012.  However, due to a lack of access to toolkits and information concerning PARCC and Science and Social Studies Standards, little progress towards accomplishing the outcomes for 2012-2013 were made.

3.  The most helpful resource we have had is simply the time to work within our school towards a transition to Common Core.

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1. Instruction has shifted from teacher centered to student centered instruction.

2. Teachers demonstrate a deeper understanding of the standards.

3. Unit organizers, Van De Walle, Common Core (LA book), team approach to instruction have all played a vital role in our transition to MD CCSC and STEM.

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1. There is a greater awareness of MD Common Core and STEM Education at Rising Sun High School. Teachers are very familiar with the Common Core Practices.

2. We have completed the first transition plan with the goal of increasing awareness. The second plan was dependent upon state resources that were not released as planned; however, professional development has addressed topics such as STEM, text complexity, close reading, Concept-Comparison Routine, etc.

3. County-developed resources have been the most helpful during our transition: model units, unit/course organizer. Also, the Literacy Design Collaborative has been great for writing.

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Accomplishments:

Math practices, text complexity and close reading successes (staff has begun to implement)

Growing body of resources for teaching the standards and skills necessary for students

Opportunities for Growth:

Writing is an opportunity to grow (professional development); specifically strategies to embed writing instruction within the content area

Writing time is an opportunity to teach skills (application within separate content area)

Identification of PARCC assessment features and how they apply to classroom practice

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Accomplishments:  We hit ELA really well, specifically on text complexity and close reading.  In math, we focused on problem-based learning and Number Talks.

Completed Parts of the Plan:  Professional development, concrete, evident shifts in instructional practice

Helpful Resources:  Planning days, resource teachers, funds for substitutes and materials, Van de Walle text, Number Talks text

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Accomplishments/Helpful Resources: County training including EIE, North Bay, PTD, Unpacking the standards PD, Positive approach from teachers, Making the best of the available resources

Completed Parts of the Plan: Focused on CCSS, Math Practices, Intro to NGSS, created lesson plans from CCSS, Unpacking the standards, Intro to PARCC – Did everything we could with what is available

Helpful Resources: VanDeWalle, Portions of the webinars, Beth Kobett, Principal funded planning time, county Blackboard site, EIE materials, Media/Challenge collaboration, Fine arts integration

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Conowingo Elementary

The accomplishments we have had are structured team planning around the common core. Teachers work collaboratively with administrators. We were given 1/2 day or full day planning times during the school day. Our most valuable resources were our administrators and each other. The parts of the transition plan was the PD and lesson planning, unpacking the standards, math practices. Utilizing community partnerships to help us specifically with STEM. We worked very closely with North Bay to help us plan science activities.

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Thomson Estates Elementary (Cecil County)

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Thomson Estates Elementary (Cecil County)

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Our teachers have embraced the transition to the Common Core this year, taking major strides towards allowing students to learn through problem solving and open-ended exploration. Teacher planning sessions have likewise focused more on deep explorations of concepts and topics rather than completing day to day plans. Cross-curricular connections are much more evident at all grade levels, and we have developed a fundamental understanding of the philosophies underpinning STEM instruction and experimented with STEM lessons in the classroom. We feel that we have completed most parts of the transition plan thus far (with the exception of the goals related to PARCC assessments and disciplinary literacy). In working on this transition, we leaned heavily on the curricular materials developed by the county (unit organizers, course organizers, standards deconstruction, etc.). We have also referred to online resources from the Departments of Education in New York, North Carolina and Georgia helpful as well as printed resources by John Van de Walle, Paul Clements, Paul Bambrick, Doug Lemov and Eric Jensen.

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We feel that we have had success in the area of professional development. Our teachers received training in RELA, Mathematics and STEM. Using the content provided within these trainings, our teachers were able to create and share model lessons using the CCSS. The Discipline Literacy Standards were a helpful tool for us to use as we worked through the new standards.

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We feel that we have successfully implemented many pieces of the 2012 Transition Plan and are ready to build upon what we have done to more fully implement some of the components of the the 2013 Plan. This year we focused a lot on the Standards and not as much on the Practices. The Practices were built into the lessons, but we didn't necessarily use the language with the students. This will be more of a focus for us next year. We feel like were definitely on the right path to implement many pieces of the Transition Plan, especially in the areas of Math and RELA.

We found the Van de Walle and Common Resources planning book very helpful in unpacking the standards and in planning our lessons. Cooperative learning resources were also helpful (Kagan) in planning engaging tasks and lessons for the students. We found ourselves looking a lot at other teachers' lessons and resources to get ideas for our own lessons and students.

We had three PLC presentations in our school during the year that were helpful in presenting Content Enhancement Routines, Cooperative Learning ideas and other resources that teachers could take and use in the classrooms right away. We plan on doing these PLC presentations again this year.

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At Elk Neck we have successfully moved to concept base instruction using common core standards. As an EEA team, we were able to bring ideas from the summer academy to help teachers unpack standards and make sense of concepts.Teachers have embraced utilization of the Unit Organizers, Unit Planners and KUDos lesson planning tools to create student centered lessons.

Resources that have been most helpful have been county curriculum documents, Van de Walle, Math Progressions, county level professional development sessions

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We have full implementation of ELA and math and we have spent a lot of time deconstructing the standards. Teachers are using more nonfiction texts. Teachers are using the vocabulary. Lessons have become more student-centered. Focus on Patient Problem Solving as students have more time to explore and explain problems.

Resources that were helpful to us included Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics, Number Talks, The Common Core Lesson Plan Book and Roads to Reasoning. Cecil County curriculum documents (Unit Organizer and CCPS assessments) were helpful. Viewing sample assessment questions allowed us to understand how students will be tested. We purchased nonfiction text for whole group and guided reading group instruction.

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We are proud that we completed all of the outcomes in our transition plans over the past two years (except introducing the toolkits). Our accomplishments include successful implementation of STEM night, content presentations and PD, and teacher leadership discussions and opportunities. Teachers are beginning to try suggested strategies in their classrooms across all content areas.

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Some of our accomplishments include:

Professional Development in three content areas:  ILA, Math and STEM practices.  Teachers have planned lessons focusing on rigor in mathematics and reading.  Teachers have reflected on the implementation of these lessons in grade level and vertical teams.  ILA teachers focused on using multiple sources including media sources and asking text dependent questions when teaching skills and strategies.

Parent & Student Nights- STEM Night, parent reading and math academies and a Math Night.

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Main content areas have become familiar with Common Core and STEM standards and worked in departments to create lessons that implement the new standards.  We are working to familiarize all teachers in the new standards and implement them fully.

Activity #2 Brainstorm answer #1

Real world application daily by all students.  Job place (student technical area) and academic student centered problem solving.  Student collaboration to achieve authentic outcomes.  Students have choices and can center their education directly to their technical area of interest, they may also enroll in classes to comtinue their education at the Community college or College/Universtiy level.

Activity #2 Discuss and Post Discussion #2

We continually promote our Vision related to STEM and Core State Curriculum through our magnet vidoe and Open House.  We have increased our AP class offerings to 9.  Comparatively speaking to other high schools this is not a lot but with the demanding number of technical classes during their four years, students are locked in to a schedule creating less electives.  The 9 AP classes offered this year will be the most ever offered in the history of Harford Tech HS.  We have busuness partnerships and are required to have a Citizens Advisory Committee on Technical Education

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We have accomplished a Common Core Night for parents, Common Core staff development, Common Core information updates for staff and parents, Instructional leadership updates and strategies during team meetings, developed a Common Core Goal Team (representative from each grade level)

We hace successfully implemented Professional Development for teachers, UDL Modules, ILT Professional Development, EEA Presentations from EEA Team

Helpful resources were the Reading Specialist and websites.

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We have completed UDL with our staff.  We have celebrated what we have done as educators and how UDL can increase rigor and excited for our students.

We have linked the standards and teachers are working to the transdicisplinary approach.

We hosted a very successful STEM Night.

We worked through new writing pieces.

We need to have time to access the toolkit.  Our staff is aware that the toolkit is coming together at this time.

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We have 95% completed all of our transition plan outcomes.

We have focused on rigor professional development across all content areas, as well as, creating multi-leveled thematic units to address Common Core objectives.

We continue to plan to implement a STEM night and Career Day in the future.

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Across all instructional areas we have created Content Area improvement plans that allowed us to focus on best practices as it relates to Common Core. We have instituted cross curricular connections with teams. We have focused our professional development on common core areas of instruction and mathematical best practices.

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Staff has been introduced to all Common Core Standards and SLO's. Teachers have discussed with CIFP teams and administration the methods of improving instruction and aligning instruction with the CCSS.  The standards of the Transition Plan have been covered, in addition to the Teacher Pilot for the new evaluation system.  Department Chairs andCentral Office have been utilized.  The MSDE website and the CCSS website have also been used to aid the transition and to answer questions.

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ILA- Focused instruction around textual evidence.

Math- Focused instruction around the reasoning behind the work, using real-world problems.

STEM- Blending STEM principles in Math, Science, English, Technology, and PLTW.

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ILA: Discussed the 10 literacy standards.  Shared examples within the classroom.  Text dependent questions across texts.

MATH:  Worked to develop lessons to transition to the Common Core Curriculum.  Have been increasing rigor of instruction and informal assessments.

STEM:  Inncluded extra-curricular clubs consentrating on engineering.  Engineering units and lessons have been created and shared.

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All activities planned for the past 2 years were successfully completed.  Resources include presentation materials from MSDE/EEA, articles from the Reading Teacher and Common Core website.

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Accomplishment: STEM night was a huge success with students and the community

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The school initiated the conversation as a whole. Then the Math, English, and STEM departmental reps branched out and spoke to their individual departments, and then spoke to non core departments and the core implimentation there. The individual content areas spent time discussing rigor and lesson plan development.

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Reading curriculum road map was extremely helpful to teachers as a launching point for the upcoming school year

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We have gone over UDL, various CC PD through supervisors, informational text, tech integration. Job embedded PD

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Specialists have been given a wealth of information regarding the shifts at meetings

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The staff has started to blend the Common Core standards/expectations with our current practices.  We are continuing to develop our understanding of the Common Core.  The staff and students have utilized the Department of Defense grant to strengthen our STEM programs and encourage students to explore fields related to STEM.   In addition, staff members are using mdk12.org resources to explore lesson seeds/unit tools.

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Introductory exposure to staff

Department meetings bringing CCSC style lesson plans

Departments sharing best practices

Departments meeting with content supervisor to discus transition

Completed all tasks on transition plan

Samples of best practices have been helpful

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Teacher buy in on the instructional shifts

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Throughout the school year, teachers have been experiementing using a variety of common core strategies across curricular areas.

Teachers from the core subjects visited other departments to share common core strategies.

Resources from the MSDE website and other materials from previous EEAs have been utilized.

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We came together as a group and we have experienced the transitioning together.  80% of staff has come together to participate in a Common Core book club over the summer. We have worked a lot with the philosophy behind the common core.  We have worked with the mathematical practices and the shifts in education in preparation for implementing the common core.  We met the goals and completed our transition plan.

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Leadership from Common Core, presentations from academy members that were user friendly and real. In ready we have a master teacher and she has helped in implementing and she keeps us on track. We have a buy in from staff and makes it a comfortable shift. PD has been spread out which is helpful.

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Language Arts: Writing assignments align with Common Core and developing text dependent questions

Math: Shared state outcomes and processes with teachers, informed about curriculum transition

STEM: Focus on inquiry and engineering, incorporate non-fiction science reading and written responses

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UDL, best practice and common core focus (Math, ELA and STEM) during early dismissal professional development completed and 100% of the staff is comfortable with moving forward. We used a variety of resources from MSDE and other professional organizations. We did a cross-walk between current standards and new common standards. We have begun to implement the next phase of implementation by having teams backward map their instructional year this summer to prepare to plan for transdisciplinary units of instruction during the 13-14 school year.

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Provided multiple Common Core lesson examples during PD times.  Teachers modeled interdisciplinary CCSS lessons to entire staff/admin during end of year PD.  Transition to CCSS has been modeled during PD sessions over the past two years.  Resources have been shared by both County and school-based admin.  Common Core transition has been a common theme during evaluation & observation conferences.  All teachers feel prepared to be successful with the CCSS.

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We fufilled our Transition Plans with fidelity and in a timely manner.  Our efforts were well received by staff.  Our presentations consisted of tools from a variety of resources including HCPS and MSDE powerpoints, online resources, and information shared during County PD.

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Universal design; best practice sharing; common core and instructional shift focus during grade level content meetings; framework review at department meetings; developed example lessons using HCPS 5-question template; text-dependent questions; focus on rigor. Information on instructional shifts has been helpful as well as info from EEA and info on universal design

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School-wide professional development for STEM education.

Common Core Math and Reading professional developments.

Used creative scheduling to ensure completion of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 transition plan outcomes

Completed all required PD :-)

Resources from EEA were helpful, and professional articles from the Reading Teacher

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NBES

We have had an overview with all 3 components. We examined and compared Common Core to our current standards to better understand what we currently do that fits into the new curriculum and what we will need to incorporate. We have used MSDE online resources as well as EEA resources.

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Here are our accomplishments for the last two years ...

- Updated the faculty on instructional shifts toward the CC

- Updated the faculty on math, science, and English standards

- In each particular department, we have looked at the content standards, released items, and modeled lessons.

- At the county level, we have developed model lessons for English.

- At the county level, science has looked at inquiry and next gen science standards.

In conclusion, we followed our plan accordingly until new information allowed us to adapt to our specific needs here at Bel Air High School.

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Our transition plan is 100% complete. The PARCC website and the MSDE prepared materials that were distributed last year were helpful In completing our transition plan.

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We have been able to provide monthly grade level specific professional development related to Common Core curricula with planned follow-up application opportunities. We completed 100% of our planned acitvities. Helpful Resources included the links provided at the EEA academies, links to outside county resources, our EEA transition team, and content specific professional development opportunities.

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Exposure to the framework

Beginning incorporation of mathematical practices

Brought in Towson Univ. resource for PD

New math fraction units were helpful

Highlighting of essential skills identified by MD wihtin Common Core was user friendly

Met transition plan goals however not all grade levels had HCPS PD due to cancellation of PD

Exposure to close analytical reading

In summary, off to a positive start however, there is some anxiety in regards to the transition when accompanied with the new evaluation system.

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Our accomplishments over the past two years include teachers feeling more confident with STEM activities and units. Teachers have snapshot resources (bookmarks) explaining how to navigate Commom Core and vocabulary. We have completed our transition plans. The HCPS math office has worked with our intermediate grades to plan units.

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We have had successful PD(online book club)

Teachers have begun implementing ideas in the classroom.

We completed all elements of the transition plan for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013.

Media supported STEM education by purchasing STEM book through a STEM grant. Had STEM open house to advertise STEM materials

All staff did online UDL training and curriculum toolkits.

Teachers planned content and thematic specific lessons.

Centralized location of leveled reading materials through the development of reading resource room.

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Infused transition plan initiatives from last year into SIT plan

Accomplished our goals for PD related to STEM and common core

We look forward to extending our staff's understanding of common core and STEM

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We are proud of the Content integration that we have been working on over the past few years. We have also added STEM initiatives along with STEM nights and school wide assemblies. We have an increase use of data school wide along with an increase in rigor, interventions and data meetings. Teachers have been able to use the ELA standards for at least one year and certain grades levels have been fully integrated for about 4 years. Our self-selected professional developments are job embedded, ongoing and related to CC.

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NHMS

Science has completed several STEM lessons this year. ILA and Math have completed job embedded staff development.

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Our EEA team successfully delivered professional development at pre-school meetings and throughout the school year which fostered departmental follow-up work to fine tune important details.

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We are currently on target and ready to move forward. Teachers are beginning to implement strategies, practices, and become familiar with standards. Parents and families have been exposed to initiatives through STEM Night, Math Night, and Reading Night involving community partners.

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Celebrations:

-faculty mtg and early dismissal PD presentations in ELA, Math, STEM

-STEM, MATH, RDG nights to promote family involvement and awareness of CCSS

-teacher initiated self paced PD

STEM club for students

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1. Collaborated with AMS to create and evaluate lesson plans with CCSS

We've examined CCSS strand-wise to see how the challenge and rigor increases

PD on Rigor and Relevance Framework- Some people used this to evaluate their current lessons

2. Three supervisors met with teachers to discuss the instructional shifts.

3. Groups reviewed literature relating to the Common Core and shared important findings

Our mentor teacher shared a website with resources for common core.

We read articles about collaboration and viewed a streaming video about Rigor and Relevance by Blackburn.

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We have completed all parts of the transition process. We have found the PD sessions, model lessons, and the MDK12 resources to be helpful models. Every teacher in our school has a copy of the Common Core standards and we have started to integrate more inquiry based learning in their classrooms and have been intentionally planning with the standards in mind. Our teachers are ready to dive into the transition and full implementation.

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Our PD has been structured around ELA, Math and STEM standards with an overarching focus on rigorous instruction.  The PD has been planned and delivered by achievement teams that have grade level representatives.  All parts have the Transition Plan have been successfully completed.  The CCSS, Pathways to the Common Core, and Van de Walle math texts have been utilized as resources to support the PD.  Outside consultants have been brought in to support STEM.

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We successfully utilized various central office & school personnel to familiarize the staff with the instructional shifts that will occur with Common Core.

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School wide Reading Initiative with an emphasis on textual evidence based support.

The use of problem solving & technology in Math & Science

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We fully implement UDL into our daily practices and we work together as a staff to discuss the common core and how we can successfully implement it in our school.

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We have accomplished our transition plan. Teachers request more information as we continue on the path to Race to the Top. Resources we have found helpful are the MSDE webite resources, ELA placemats, posters of information, and the development and teaching of a sample STEM lesson by each faculty member. We created a common core notebook to collect documents and brainstorming. Everyone received Math posters with standards of mathematical practices.

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WPOPR

Accomplishments: We broke our outcomes down and accomplished them over time. We had transdiciplinary lesson development meetings across grade levels. We partnered with engineers at APG who presented STEM lessons. We have had numerous PD on instructional shifts and the CCS Math practices.

Resources: Every teacher received a Common Core Lesson book for reading. We had horizontal team meetings Posters of the Mathematical practices were made for every classroom . We are transitioning

to interactive Science notebooks. Some students attended STEM summer camp which integrated the Arts.

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Successes:

+ Completed all required portions of the Professional Development in our Transition Plan

+ Continuity of EEA Academy Team members

+ Reduced staff anxiety with information provided

+ Staff making connections during Professional Development to other information

+ Staff making connections between SC and CCSS during post observation conferences

+ Staff development on CCSS Mathematical Practices

Helpful Resources:

+ MSDE Modules

+ EEA Team sharing modules they had completed during Academy experiences

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- SIT has successfully embedded components of Common Core into the SIP and therefore in meeting the goals of the SIP have been utilizing Common Core

- Our teachers have done a lot individually to build their capacity understanding and implementing Common Core and STEM (this has been seen by administration during observations)

- STEM has become an integral part of our school culture

- Teachers received PD on UDL