001Sorry about the lightness of the meeting folks. Um so welcome to the uh evening and the curriculum meeting. Um today is June 10th. It is 6 after 6 and uh let's start. We're going to have present we have Dr. layman Carmen Alvarez Kate Ratner see Amanda Heek Dr. Jim Sans, Sanski, Sugasco, Nest, Patrick Elliselle, Jen Roen, Zach Marada, Salvatore Enga, Yale Snider, and Charles. The agenda this evening pertains to accounting, the um 1D curriculum followed by four textbooks of documenting in trigonometry, Spanish one, Spanish two honors, and chemistry honors. Uh so who would like to begin first? >> Here we go. >> Thank you. Uh and if I'm not mistaken, this is our final curriculum document of the suit. Uh and if with all due respect to uh my colleague in the business department, probably
002the least exciting accounting um uh we just it's a it's a traditional redesign. This was up for cycle. Um and really the driver and the purpose of the redesign was to make sure that the most updated 21st century career standards are integrated. Um and also that include the life literacy and key skill standards 9.4. And um as mentioned in uh last month when we talked about computerated design and drafting, the state has done uh a nice job over the last four or five years of really designing standards that are nuanced within well-defined career paths and the accounting uh cluster within the state state department of uh education offers a very natural path towards uh uh college credits, career connections and it's a there are a significant amount of career practical student organizations associated with accounting.
003But most importantly, uh it is an entry- levelvel elective that is accessible to all students and it serves almost as a as a fork towards uh directing them into potential career paths within the business program that they may be interested in. Uh after accounting one uh there's advanced accounting which we uh I think we brought that to committee about a year ago maybe a little over a year ago uh which is uh would be the second level of this class but also accountant one serves as a nice uh pathway towards our advanced placement economics programs maybe our honors finance program or even maybe more of our traditional business courses. Uh this class was designed or I'm sorry this curriculum was designed by Miss Dana Beon who's been teaching accounting in the district for uh as
004long as uh uh you're across the street. I'm not going to date her but um she's former C or she is CPA but uh this is her second career. So she brings that professional expertise uh to the program and the nice thing about accounting is that it's driven by general accounting uh practices you know the gap practices that are well adopted you know throughout humanity and uh but it also we do a nice job in this course introducing students to accounting software uh simulations we do have them do old-fashioned ledger entries uh literally on oldfashioned carbon paper that's one of the earliest units as we introduce them to the foundational practices of accounting uh but we end up with them on software with a practical approach and at the end of the course there's an
005assessment which gauges the students propensate for success in advanced accounting. Uh so we can make pretty well informed decisions when students if they want to go into advanced accounting. Some other things that we do uh in this class is we talk a lot about ethics. Most recently we touch on some recent litigations um that are associated in the public and private sector with accounting uh which also helps inform students potentially in a career that they may want to pursue. We find a lot of students peak their interest in law after exposure to an accounting one class. We do have a business law complement to this class. So, it's a nice way not just to learn a pretty important u uh practice. Any business major is going to take accounting as an undergraduate class. So, if
006that's a path that students want to go to, it certainly helps getting some exposure to it school. And if they're really something passionate about, they can take advanced accounting and then be prepared uh for or really be prepared for another graduate uh experience. We talk about ethics uh responsible decision-making which is a state standard but it integrates nicely into accounting and u mission did a nice job of naturally using uh these these methods for assessing student performance into each unit. Um six units you can see it's kind of small on the back but it starts out with foundations and it ends up with simulation and career applications. So at the end of the school year, right about now, they're preparing for their final, but the last unit of the year, they uh get on some
007software. They simulate some outcomes and they also try to find potential careers. And when we take careers, we also talk about electives. So as they're exploring this portion of the course, they're also simultaneously having conversations with their counselors about what potentially next business course they want to take. So we really like it for freshman and sophomore. That's not to say we don't have plenty of upper classmen in that class as well. So it's 9 through 12. um and uh one of the oldest longest running electives in the business department our business program. >> Thank you very much. Question. >> Um thank you Ralda. Um the course I see one of the learning standards addressed is financial literacy. Is this something that completes the financial lit requirement? It does not. >> No. Uh that's because 50%
008of the class um would have to we' have to be able to deliver with fidelity two and a half credits of the financial literacy standards which doesn't occur in this class. >> Okay. >> Um and in fact uh one of the uh if you may remember long back in the fall there was uh some proposed legislation which didn't come to fruition right and it was addressing that exact situation. So um the thought would be probaring personal financial literacy into accounting class might not be what the we initially intended when trying to teach financial literacy. Now that's not to say we don't discuss several of the topics in personal finance in this list. However, it's not done through the intent or the lens of personal financial literacy. So we wouldn't feel comfortable as a high school
009saying that that we delivered what the state wanted us to deliver in. >> Okay. Just to clarify, it does do remember it does complete satisfy one of their graduation requirements. I just >> uh most likely your your your like your career is technology practical artsy. What do we call it now? >> We call it practical arts. But your your career standard which all students have to have but yes it would fulfill that. However, it would not fulfill personal financial stat and you can't kill stuff. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Anyone else? Thank you so much. >> Thank you. And I do have to uh run to take care of a uh pick up my phone, but uh so I apologize, but if there's a gender further question that comes. >> Absolutely. Thank
010you. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Okay. So, next thing is high school dynamics of trig. >> Yeah. So, it's textbook adoption. So um dynamics of trick is a course that is considered to be a fourth year math for students that um potentially struggle in math or need a more of a concrete background going through. Um the course itself is designed to be an extension of algebra 2 and then going into trigonometry. Um not a full course of pre-calculus but pre-calculus part of it has triggered as well as that going through. Um, six years ago, we were on the search to look for a textbook for it because prior to that, we didn't have a textbook because we couldn't find anything that really combined what we had. Um, we did get one. It was okay, but
011it was actually the teachers have struggled with it considering it a little bit too part of a level form. And so, there wasn't a lot that they could use from it and they were creating a lot of their own things. So, with the adoption coming up, there was a little bit more for us to look at going through. And the one that we found right now is also a Pearson textbook as the first one was and it is actually called algebra and trigonometry. So will there be some problems that might be of a higher level? Absolutely. But the idea is that there's a combination of things they can use. So they they think that this is really definitely worth using going through um it has the the my math lab um situation with it where
012that's where you get the book from Pearson to be an electronic book. So it's set up with with other things that we've had. Um if you don't remember Pearson and Savas used to go hand inand so it's kind of one is the extension of the other. Um just recently they have separated the two to be two different companies but they still work well together. Um my calculus book comes from Pearson. I've even been told until there's a new edition of it I will deal with SAS in terms of being able to get it. Um so this used to be considered their higher ed in terms of going through it. So to give you an idea of some of the things that are in this because it is updated. It is actually a 2027 edition. It
013is the eighth edition of it. It will be available midsummer. So it'll be the perfect time. Um it is absolutely not worth ordering something and getting it a half a month or a month before just to be able to get a seventh edition because the teachers can start working with the intro to the al uh the extended algebra 2 at that point. Anyway, um things that they do and this is what they liked about the book is that there's connections to real world applications. Um they get can improve the engagement and retention um stepby-step worked out examples. Um the guided practice are incremented in terms of difficulty. So they obviously won't be able to get to the top but they go through these type of textbooks are also written for college level in terms of
014entry level of a student who might need additional algebra 2 trigonometry before they would get to a course of pre-calculus because not every student that goes to calculus can jump right into pre-cal or into calculus. Um, so one of the things and I I kind of like laugh at this is that one of their big things is voice balloons on my math lab. But what it does is they're little because it's electronic, it's little balloons that basically will then um translate that concept of the the pre the algebra topic into a more step-by-step type of procedure. So it does give them different types of avenues to go with this. Um, it's designed to combine the two. It's considered an algebra 2 extension along with the trigonometry. If you wanted it to go farther, you could
015go farther into to pre-op, but that's kind of the plan of where we are. Um books that we looked at were basically um we looked at the book that we had in the past. All right. And in terms of I'm just going to try to see if I can find that page right there. Um because we do like to have, you know, just to see what all of our options are. Um we took took a look at the um algebra and trigonometry for college readiness. Sounds like the same title, but it's a different different author in a different book. That is the one we currently have. And the teachers, hands down, over the last couple years, I've had a combination of five different teachers teaching it. Um, usually about three each year, but sometimes they've
016had it, sometimes not. And I have all five of them look at it because whether they're teaching it now or they've taught it in the past, they have an experience with it. And hands down, every one of them said it's too abstract, it's too rigorous, it was not helpful at all. it actually um frustrated the students as opposed to helping them. We also looked at our current algebra 2 book because we actually don't do every topic in there and to see if we can extend it and it had everything we needed but it did not and we obviously can't have two textbooks for the class. So there will be some things they create on their own because it's a hand created course to help students at that level. Um, but we did go through and
017and I felt like it was a better choice that we had this time than we did six years ago. And I felt like we really only had one option or nothing. Um, so the textbook companies of and with the electronic now it's kind of popped up a little bit. Um, does anybody have any questions on the book? There wasn't a lot for us to choose from, but they do seem that this is definitely worth trying. >> Anyone? Yeah. >> Mrs. Gasco, thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Very thorough presentation. Appreciate it. Uh Dr. Bound. >> All right. So um we are looking at a textbook adoption for Spanish one, Spanish 2, and honor Spanish 2 at the high school. Um but it is all the same programs um just different levels of those
018programs. I'm going to give you an overview of that program and our process. Um before I do that, just a little bit of background. Um we've had several retirements in the world language department in the past. um couple of years. Um so beginning last year uh you know we're we're kind of in a rebuilding stage. Um we have done a lot of professional development, some departmental mission and vision setting. Um and coming out of that the teachers really felt that to anchor multiple teachers of a level um to the curriculum having a textbook would be beneficial. um some of the resources they were using are from iterations of the standards um several cycles ago. So it it really was time. Um we began at department meetings by brainstorming what are the non-negotiables and what would
019be the nice to have. Um so schooly integration was a non-negotiable. Um the ability to differentiate for multiple levels of learners was a non-negotiable. um something that could be used for multiple levels. Again, a non-negotiable. Um also the making sure that the program is aligned to our current philosophies of language learning um comprehensible input and really um promoting uh communication and culture. Um we're also non-negotiables. Um, so Spanish one is going to do level one A. Um, Spanish 2 will do level 1B and honor Spanish who is going to do level two. That was decided um by all of the Spanish teachers from level one through four. Um, so we began the process with only the teachers of level one and level two and two honors. But in order to make our final decision, we
020wanted everyone who teaches Spanish to come together and have input um and really map out a three-year implementation process. What is professional learning look like? Um what is our curriculum mapping going to look like? Um and what are the significant changes we may need to make with the implementation of of these textbooks? Um so we we did settle on those levels and just to give you an idea um the publisher for this program it's called inquentro um pardon my accent um is this the higher learning this is a publisher that specializes in language learning programs um for both ESL classes bilingual classes and world language classrooms um so right off the bat they are going to have an edge over some of the other publishers ublishers, but we did look at two other publishers and
021two other Vista higher learning programs um and compared those as well. Um and Quentros is the most updated, had the most comprehensible input, was most aligned to our vision and our standards. Um what we really liked about it is that it also begins immersing students in those EP themes. So, our students who are in honor Spanish 2, the goal is for them to complete um their four years of language with AP Spanish. Um and they would begin to be immersed into those six themes starting as early as the honor Spanish too. Um it does integrate with schooly uh and there are a host of ways for students to um receive extra support. There are pronunciation guides. There are um digital flashcards, there's extra practice, um really a myriad of ways for students um to either
022accelerate their learning or to have extra scaffolding as needed. Um so we're really excited about it. Um Vista has been an incredible company to work with. Um you know, I I just had a call with our rep this afternoon. Um she's putting together, you know, pending um approval this evening. uh working with our curriculum writers over the summer to guide them through certain things um as well. So, we're looking forward to it. >> Any questions? >> I just wanted to know if you could share a little bit more about the Schooly integration like if like does it put more of the lessons and learning into Schooly itself or is it instead of going to a different website? Um just because I've had my first experiences with Schooly now, so I was curious how that works
023with a textbook. >> Okay. Um, so I don't know um everything yet because we have this is a new publisher for us. Um, so what it's going the actual interface of what it's going to look like I have not seen firsthand yet. Um, but the way it works is instead of them going to the Vista Higher Learning site to access the book to log in separately. students and teachers will access through schooly. Teachers will also have the ability to push out assignments, assessments, um slide decks and things like that from the book directly through schooly as well. Okay. So, it makes it more efficient. >> Yes, it just it it cuts out, you know, the need to go anywhere outside. Everything is in schooly. And that was one of the non-negotiables. And also the the
024portal needed to be user friendly. Um we looked at another program where very highlevel programming met a lot of our needs but the online portal was so clunky and it it wasn't intuitive and and that just eliminated it from one of the options. You know that sounds wonderful. >> Great. Anyone else? >> Anybody else? Yeah. Thank you so much. We're good. >> Okay. Uh stress. >> Hi. How are you everyone? Um I am um presenting a new honors chemistry textbook um for adoption. Um the textbook that we have been using the last several years. um the honors chemistry teachers really felt that um while it was good, we wanted um some more depth on some of the topics that we're covering. And um so we did some research and um we're going with the same
025paper which is Sgage, but we're just using a different um chemistry book. It's called General Chemistry and the main publisher writer is Ebing. Um what is new for this is while our current textbook has a schoolage integration this will as well. Um what is new for this is that it will also have the web assign component which is something we already use um with our physics program. And what web assign does is it gives students additional practice with homework and um other tools that they can use which for chemistry are extremely important due to the heavy math nature of the um subject. So this book um really aligns well to our curriculum um and the state standards. Um it is the newest edition. It's the 12th edition and they just made it um this year.
026So it is a brand new um version and they are very excited to be able to use this new book. All the resources um of course come with the suite um powerpoints that the teachers can reference um test questions um and as I said that homework component. So, we just feel that this will be a better fit for the level of depth that um we're covering chemistry. >> Any questions? No. >> Thank you so much. >> So, Miss Trust actually has a few other things off agenda to highlight. We've been doing some uh exciting work recognizing Monroe 250 and the 250th anniversary of our country. So, >> um I am sure that it will be shared out by um the principles at when uh the student board representatives um speak at the board meeting, but
027um we wanted to take a moment and I wanted to take a moment to um thank the A3 teachers at the middle school. um eighth grade students um designed and have amazingly executed um various presentations to celebrate um the 250th anniversary. Um we've attended all the schools. Our last school is Woodland Tomorrow. Um the state the students move through various station activities. Um and there seemed to be um as I was moving around the kids really seem to enjoy it. Um, I think partially because they think eighth graders are really cool and uh I think it's been a really great experience as well for our eighth graders who were able to go. Obviously, not every student um was selected. Um, but you know, we looked at their presentations and and what they had designed. They
028completely came up with these projects on their own. Um, but they've done a really great job and I just wanted to thank all the staff because they've done a really tremendous job and um more info I'm sure will come out. >> Yeah, it's an exciting opportunity, you know, >> sounds great. get our students across, you know, between buildings, but also there's a, you know, sharing knowledge and it's a current event that we're engaging in and it's a really it was a really great project and a lot of work by the teachers, a lot of work by the students both at the middle school and also coordination with all the elementary school principles and their teachers and things. So, great. So this is uh we're looking at this K through 12 or we looking at this
029middle school and >> so just focused on um the elementary. >> Okay. >> Um first through 5th kindergarten was also provided activities that they can do in both AM and PM. Um the students were in they went to the elementary schools from around 9:30 to 11:30. Um, one other thing that I thought was really interesting was a lot of the eighth graders were coming home and saying, "I can't believe how hard it is to teach." So, trying to keep, you know, um, I think it gave a lot of, um, appreciation for that as well. So, um, but some of the activities were really >> Yeah. And we're looking at America 250 in in all the classes, but also uh you know the community had a Monroe 250. They have an ongoing theme throughout the throughout
030the summer and through the year and um you know high school students were part participating in those events and things. So um it's definitely something going on throughout the district. >> The enthusiasm for this is wonderful and also the way the enthusiasm everyone shows even in the textbook presentation. I mean the subject is can be somewhat >> but you guys really bring make it live and bring it live. So thank you so much for your efforts. Most appreciated. Yes. >> I just want to say my boys had the opportunity to do it and they came home with like these little passports which I didn't realize was from the eighth graders. They left that part out when they were sharing it with me. Um but yeah, they definitely enjoyed it and and they enjoyed learning. And
031so it's exciting always when we have like the older kids going down to the younger grades like they get they learn I don't want to say they're more attentive but it's a change right and that's always good and helpful I feel. Um and then I know Dr. sort of just highlighted a bit, but I know like for you mentioned about the high school um I know that there are students that are on the mayor's advisory council um and they had done something which I couldn't go to unfortunately over the weekend but um it I believe it was also about America >> was Monro 250. >> Yeah, Monroe 250. And so um I know that they each had their presentations that they did as like sort of their final project. Um I I figured I'd share
032that since you had mentioned high school. So, um, and I, you know, there's a lot of other events that are coming up for each of the commissions in the town, and I know, you know, the schools are partnered in many ways with some of those as well. >> Yeah. Thanks. Appreciate it. >> We're wrapping up concert season. Actually, concert season's just about wrapped up. >> Um, so it was a busy season. >> One more to go. Yep. And, uh, we have, you know, we're still going out and presenting, right, and performing. We went out today. We went to the senior center today. Actually, um the middle school, all three jazz bands played to the uh senior center today. >> We've been doing a lot of community gigs, concert season was phenomenal. Uh every one of
033them was just was just off the charts awesome. Uh I was telling Dr. Peek before the Jamesburg students at the middle school chorus confer were just tremendous. They really came prepared. So, bravo to everyone at Jamesburg and uh Miss Dunk and the two directors uh um for preparing the choir pits fantastically and one more to go which is next Tuesday which is our honors percussion recital which is right outside in the common and we are putting the books on the air. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Yeah, guess we're done. We start a little late and we're finishing our own.