- problem solving across content and grade levels 

- use of common core to implement and plan lessons 

- professional development

We have worked in school teams to create lesson plans related to the Common Core. Additionally, as a school we have reviewed the standards and several faculty members have attended STEM workshops. IEP goals are currently being written to address the Core learning standards. Also, check out the Common Core app in the App Store...very useful and free!

All parts of our Transition plan were completed

Helpful resources have been:

School based math coach that provided job based staff development

- 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  

     + 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

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.

The use of problem solving & technology in Math & Science

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.

-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

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

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

 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.  

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. 

- 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.  

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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. 

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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,

-helping teachers feel confident with inquiry based lessons

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

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. 

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.

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

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

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 .

Characteristics: risk taking

Buying in (teachers)

Flexible time (planning and implementation)

Graying up of subject area times

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.

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

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.   

-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

- 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

-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.

-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.

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

-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

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

-teachers as facilitators

-student solving problems

- real world problems

#3

STEM nights

Career days

PTA meetings

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

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.

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

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

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

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 8^th 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