001Good morning everybody. It is Thursday, September 18th. This is a special meeting at the Darian Board of Education's curriculum committee. We are excited for our first meeting of this school year and grateful to have all of our fabulous staff around the table that will update us on what um what went on over the summer and what what's looking forward. So, I will turn it right over to Dr. Fedigan. >> Okay. Thank you so much, Mrs. Parent. Good morning, everyone. Um, I want to acknowledge um there's such a great deal of work that happens over the summer. Of course, our most important work happens when we open our school doors to our staff and children to begin a new year, but a lot does happen in the summer to get us ready and to ensure that
002we're improving our teaching practices and strengthening our curriculum um so that we can give our children the best possible experience each school year. So, I am joined today by um almost everyone on our team um from the teaching and learning or the curriculum and instruction department. And it's really important. I know there are a lot of people around the table right now, but I want to make sure that we're honoring their work and their leadership and practice and also um beyond this group at the table, the work and leadership that happens again with all of our staff and our colleagues out in the schools. So, um this this presentation will share highlights from the summer work, but certainly doesn't comprehensively capture every um everything because it's just there's so much, um elbow grease that goes
003into this and we're really proud of the work to share with you this morning. So, we're going to start today by anchoring like we always do into our core values and mission and vision of the school district. Um one of the things that Dr. Burn and I are talking about is how important it is to anchor all of our work whether it's our curriculum efforts, our instructional efforts, our assessment efforts, how we frame professional learning um into the core values, mission and vision and vision of the graduate. This is really how we center our work. Um and really this helps us clarify what should be priority in our work as we move forward. Um we thought today that we would start kind of in a very similar way that we started with our um new
004to Darianne colleagues in August. It seems like forever ago now, but it was really just about just about a month ago when we were welcoming our new to district staff. We asked them to think about our vision of the graduate which we're sure that they when they were studying um and thinking about applying to the district they definitely were doing some research and we wanted to engage a little bit more about what this is and how it's the really the north star for our practice. So we thought this morning a little bit different than what we normally do we would engage um everyone around the table including you our board members in thinking about the same thing we asked our new to Darianne staff. What skills do we think students need to receive instruction in,
005practice in, and receive feedback on to develop mastery of the competencies and the vision of the graduate? So, we know that when we well certainly um we think about the teaching and learning standards, the content standards and the practice standards, it's really clear, it's really clearly articulated what children need to know at the end of each grade level. And that's the floor, not the ceiling. We want to make sure that we're providing more robust and rigorous learning opportunities. So when we think about those attributes of the vision of the graduate like creativity and integrity and independence, what do we think are some of the some of the skills that kids would really need to be able to practice to learn practice and get feedback on? I'm going to jump in and say um problem solving.
006Uh it'll foster some independence and I think that goes across curricular in all our departments where kids will be able to use the skills that they learned in all their classes to solve um various tasks. >> Collaboration is important. being able to work with colleagues and um people who are like-minded and different- minded to come up to help solve those problems together in a way that is uh efficient and effective. >> Uh I think in that collaboration being empathetic to the people that they're working with and understanding that different viewpoints add to um the solutions to those problems and not necessarily uh take away from the solutions of those problems. I would add to that and when there are actions in terms of communicating and collaborating and critical thinking, we're doing it with transparency, honesty,
007and integrity. >> I would add to that, Bernit, I would add to that the idea that students know their learning styles. They know how they're able to acquire the information and what their modalities are of how they learn best. And in keeping with what you were saying, Ronnie, to be able to say and go to their teachers and say, "This is what I need. um can you help me understand it in this manner? So understanding their learning style and what they need to access teaching and learning. >> I would say along the lines of communication, public speaking is very important and and really building those skills and articulation among our students. It's key for anything they do for the rest of their lives. >> We think uh learning to tolerate productive struggle um especially in
008areas where they're uh not used to uh maybe new areas like art or music for students. um to be able to develop new skills and uh learn how to uh master a new competency. >> And I'll I'll build on that productive um struggle with perseverance. The problems of our world are not easy these days. And so having that perseverance. >> Well, I don't want to be left out, so we'll jump on in here. Uh so one of the things I want to hit on my slide in a little while is about the maker space, the opportunity for creative outlets and creative expression of understanding. And so that's I think a really valuable opportunity here within our vision of the graduate. >> We'd welcome to hear some thoughts from the board members too if there's anything
009that hasn't been mentioned that you'd like to um share with us that comes to your mind when you think of these attributes of vision to graduate. >> Oh, I think that was a really great list and um I like the way that you guys pulled into it. I also think um resourcefulness is important, right? Like when you face a problem, when you like how are you going to attack it? How are you going to find the information? Um I would I would say also um competency in written communications so that you can really master the ability to um communicate your ideas in a clear and effective way because I think that's also a skill that as they go through college and after that will be incredibly important >> and I somebody said resilience and I
010think that's true but and learning to be independent and and to the be able to um you know rely on yourself and your self-confidence to solve a problem. One other thing on the creativity front. Um I think it's it's really important to um stress openness to all different kinds of ideas and that no idea is wrong to um allow them to really have the ability to kind of think out of the box and not feel that their ideas might be um you know laughed at or thought of as crazy. and you know just that there's not there's no fear in failure because if you're going to be creative you have to have the ability to kind of have confidence that anything is on the table and I think that's an important skill in any of
011the disciplines really. If I can add to that, thinking about giving our students um the tools and skills they need to be able to ask the questions that they need to ask to help them navigate that curiosity and to also help keep that curiosity alive and help them figure out um how to problem solve together and giving them those tools. um not really a skill, but I I think for me like and it's sort of missing from the actual vision of the graduate, but really making sure that each of our students finds a purpose and figuring out what it is that they think that they are good at and then going to strive to be excellent at that. Excellence to me is like one of the core um building blocks of our entire town and
012that it's included in the educational process. So, doesn't really matter what you want to be excellent at. could be playing the violin, it could be playing sports, it can be, you know, playing chess, it could be anything. But really figuring out who you are and what you want to be. I think that that's like getting, you know, as you graduate from high school, at least having some foundation in that I think is really important to set this, you know, set the stage for the next part of life. Just one more thing and this has to do with artificial intelligence which I know is in the slides at some point in the presentation but I think increasingly important because of artificial intelligence chat GPT etc. um particularly as you look forward to the job market and
013as they graduate from high school and then college, what are the skills that are going to be really really necessary that cannot be replaced by a computer and to make sure that we are instilling in our students the ability to um gain those kinds of skills which are more interpersonal skills and creative skills and creative thinking and and communication. So, and I think the vision of the graduate is a great great start at that that's becoming I think increasingly more relevant as we've kind of gone through this um technological innovation. >> Thank you for sharing all of those ideas. I think that for many of us as educators, everything we've just talked about is kind of our why, right? Like how exciting is it to be able to be a part of children's development in
014all of these areas alongside their families. So um we feel really um really very I know I can speak for all of us really fortunate the mom and me when I think about my own four children having these experiences in school and life what a gift it is that we can participate with all of you um in helping to guide your children in this way and and everyone in the Darian public schools. So, um, I I really want to also say the piece about failure, you know, failure is like first attempt in learning. And if when children come to school, if they're not met with things that are causing them to struggle and have productive struggle and they're doing things they already know, that's really not learning, you know. And Greg, to your point, excuse
015me, about excellence, it is so critically important that we recognize that excellence is really it's individual and there are just going to be so many paths that our children choose to take and how as as administration and the board, we need to continue to create those pathways for all kids to find that um is really work that I know everyone around this table, board administration is passionate about. So, we did begin the conversation with our new to district staff that way. And what was interesting is, you know, regardless of if they were a related service provider, an elementary staff member, a secondary staff member, whether they were someone who taught social studies, or um whether they were somebody who was a school psychologist, everybody could anchor into that. And we asked them to think about
016given your role in the school system, how will you contribute to children making progress toward the the tenants of vision of the graduate? The standards go without saying, the content standards and the practice standards, that's a given. We want to make sure that we're again being more um rigorous and robust in the opportunities we're providing. We also talked about the fact that everything we just discussed here at the table and in that room that day. Those are things that we aspire to help our children develop, but they're things that also as leaders and those who model in classrooms and out in related service offices, we want to make sure that the adults are modeling all of those things and practicing and improving in all of those areas as well. The next part of our conversation
017was really about the assessment practices and what you'll hear about today and especially Robin, you know, you'll hear about in all of our curriculum committee meetings moving forward, artificial intelligence is certainly changing the landscape, right? you know most things children for years have been able to and people can look up on the computer to get an answer and you can ask chat GPT to do a lot of things for you. So this is going to cause us to think differently about how we instruct and how we assess for learning. Um I know that uh Dr. Burn did mention the World Economic Forum during his opening remarks um at the beginning of this school year and we wanted to also say that so many things that you just named in the vision of the graduate and
018so many of the related skills and dispositions to develop around the vision of the graduate the World Economic Forum recognizes as the most critical areas for for children to develop or for people to develop to have success in their future endeavors. And so when we think about it's it's really again beyond content standards, it's that combination of the cognitive piece like the knowledge the knowledge that people have to have in different content areas and al also the the elements that are more related to self-efficacy, the interpersonal traits, how we work with how we work with others um to be really thinking critically and be able to contribute in groups. Just as a quick reminder, it's important that we're thinking systemically about our curriculum instruction and assessment efforts. So, as you know, we do write and
019revise our curriculum according to a seven-year cycle. It doesn't mean that everything is locked step in a seven-year cycle. As we've discussed before, if there's new legislation, that would be an impetus for change and cause us to revise, you know, in an area. If there is um if there are new standards written like in social studies, that would cause us to think about revising curriculum. And we also just want to make sure that the curriculum is not outdated. When you think about technology, certainly we need to think about how we revise our curricula to be responsive. We're always anchoring into vision of the graduate again because we need to think beyond the content standards really more towards transfer and application. So um as promised, we're keeping a really close eye and these are really small
020numbers here. I just wanted to show this as kind of an artifact and evidence of um the fact that we are progress and progress monitoring our own work across all of the departments in curriculum writing. And you may be aware that at the end of this school year um there is a requirement that all school districts will have their scope and sequences available for the public um on the website. So we're we're in way ahead in some areas and then if you look you know again at the the small numbers in other areas we have some work to do still. Um we can say as a team we're committed to having those scope and sequences completed by the end of the year in our stage one which is that higher um you know kind of
021the the skills the knowledge and the the essential questions that kind of larger view of what children will do in in each course and in each unit. And um that will be our ongoing work throughout the year. A lot of our curriculum probably 30% of it is written over the summer. and we intentionally continue that work throughout the school year to ensure that there are quality controls and that we're working alongside our colleagues as that curriculum is developed and our faculty and families will be able to continue to um have a look at that those curriculum documents and educate. Um, I want to welcome Jen. Jen, who is Jen Falcone, our new director of elementary education over there in the corner. And Jen and I have been working really side by side and very closely
022um, with regard to the elementary work. And I'll take this elementary slide because Jen really just got here, although I do feel like she's been here for a bit and has a good sense of where our work is. So certainly, Jen, at any point um, you know, you can feel like you can jump in. >> All right. So this has been a very summer with a very busy summer with regard to our elementary work. As you know last year we piloted the K3 into reading resource. We have two core reading resources two literacy resources at the K3 level into reading and then he for an extra boost for FMIC awareness kindergarten and first grade. Um we do have new social studies standards. So we have had a team of writers in who've been working to
023revise the social studies curriculum beginning the um grades four and five. We're working on integrating those IEB assessments and you'll hear that from some of the other department chairs. Those are the assessments that are part of the Smarter Balance assessments and NGSS assessments that really give children the opportunity to practice demonstrating what they know in similar question types that they'll see on those standardized assessments. And then of course we'll have ongoing work with regard to developing the scoping sequences and um our play-based learning units. the professional learning for the for the for the year ahead um is going to focus on K3 literacy obviously in four five and at this point Jen you want to sure >> talk about your your work what you're jumping into >> absolutely we've already um kicked off the year
024with a very um busy busy start um I I feel so lucky to be working with just phenomenal staff even our administrators but just the depth of um knowledge that our teacher leaders have in this district Um, I'm just very honored to be joining them. So, we had already had an early release day where we really were able to dig into the modules and really pull out key critical skills and and um strategies and work on planning across our continuum for high quality literacy instruction. And so, they're spending a lot of time really matching the program resource to what we spend a lot of time, as you know, developing that framework for high quality literacy instruction. And same with our fourth and fifth grade. Um they were working very heavily in really digging into looking
025at our students um artifacts of writing. Um looking at them, analyzing them for trends and deciding really how to move forward with small groupoup instruction to meet the needs of our individual learners. And there was a lot of fabulous thinking around all of our different buildings. In November and January, we have additional full days of professional learning where we will have um guidance from HMH. Um and I will say they have been doing a fabulous job. Amy and I have been working very closely with um the representatives from that company to really make sure that the learning is tailored to our needs and to our framework and expectations for literacy instruction. We will continue that work on those full days. We've also um been finalizing um the updated progress reports that should be coming out
026shortly. Um a lot of intent and work and effort has been spent on designing the rubrics that will be um compatible and support the teachers in completing those progress reports and really providing our families with the in-depth information about where exactly their learners are on the continuum. And uh along with that um working on you know what small groupoup instruction really looks like specifically in our um areas of intervention when students have been identified as needing some additional support. >> Thank you Jen. We also have um had the first cohort of general education and special education teachers and Shirley may want to add on to this um involved in Orton Gillingham associate training. So, we had the educators first on the general ed side um begin that work in the summer and Shirley's continued with
027that work this school year >> and and tribute to the summer work, there were close to 30 teachers receiving OG training. We began our OG Academy um with a cohort of um elementary teachers and a couple secondary teachers actually. Um and they'll be following up next year and I think um Dr. to burn in his notification said we started our OG Academy officially last week for all of our elementary special education teachers with the exception of our DLC program teachers. They'll go to our next cohort. Um it was early in the year and we need to keep those programs building and and and supported. So we have close to 20 teachers. Um yesterday was day two. We started on September 10th was our first day. Yesterday was our second day. We have fellows who will
028be supporting and 10 teachers will be going through their um this year their practicum and next year the other 10 teachers will start. It's a two-year practicum. I know that many of the board members were supporting our own OG Academy and starting. So, thank you for all your support. We have launched it. We're excited. Our teachers are excited. Um and hopefully you'll be learning more about it throughout the year. So, thank you. >> All right. And at this point, I'm going to turn it over to the rest of my colleagues who represent and lead these other um disciplines and departments. And I'd ask you each as you go around to just remind our board members and our public who's watching fans at home. >> Amy, I'm wondering if we should do questions for each section
029for sure. >> Um so thank you and Jen welcome to the table. Um so into reading and that K to3 literacy piece is a huge lift and thank you for all your work to do that. My question is so year one is imple implementation, right? year two, year three, my guess would be, you know, how do you revise the curriculum? How do you assess it? How do you um what changes in instruction need to be made? How are you thinking about getting the feedback from the classroom teachers, you know, as they finish each module so that going forward you have that their feedback? >> It's a great question. Um so already we've been pulling um really relying on our pilot teachers quite a bit. We've already been receiving feedback about some of our assessments. we've
030made um changes and revisions already um to some of the assessments to make sure that they not only align to the program but um philosophy to what the teachers need in their classrooms to differentiate their instruction. So we've already been um deep into that work. Uh additionally, one of the things that we really need to do is get out into classrooms. Um, one of the things that I thought was so fabulous when I first saw the framework was there are two columns in that framework that says what are the teachers doing, but most importantly, what are the students doing? And so really getting into our classrooms, studying what our students are doing and looking to see if the students are engaged in the learning that we want them to be doing. And so we'll be
031doing a lot of that work together as we go throughout the year. And there also is a component of data collection and analysis as we go along. So we have a uh a well thoughtout assessment profile that we use throughout the year and there should definitely be some linkages and that will inform us what kinds of tweaks we need to make but but it is a long-term process. of the notion that you know year one is implementation year, every year is implementation year and learning year because the kids sitting before you are different each year and their needs are different and will present challenges that we need to continue explore through our professional learning with the teachers. >> Um thank you both so much. Um and Jen, welcome. Um this is a really exciting year.
032this is a big change and I um was fortunate to run into um an elementary educator at an open house and I had asked about the roll out um and they said something that I thought was just fantastic and they were commenting on you know that it's a lot of work and the teachers you know are are feeling that because they just care so much about delivering what it is to teachers. Um but this particular person said that um you know the important thing to remind the teachers was that they all know how to teach right and that this is a different program but they know how to teach and that they you know they will do right by their students just for that which I thought was just really beautiful and I wanted to
033share but I was curious just to hear from both you Jen and Amy you know what you think the general sentiment is across the five buildings how um how are the teachers feeling about it how are the students you know what um what's kind of the vibe I think people are are going into it with a very positive attitude. They want this to be successful. It is a lot of work. Um very thankful. Last Friday we had our first early release day and it was very valuable. Um we shared out very um kind of systematic templates that they could use to plan um and just to help them get through the resource. It's a lot of pages, but that's one of the beautiful things about the program is that everything is embedded in one section
034for them. And so truly just in whatever ways we can to support the time that the teachers need to get through the materials to make sure that they're prioritizing the learners, that they're being having time to look at their assessments, to really figure out what they need to focus on more. Um, but I I feel like it's been a very positive start, but with a lot of Exactly. I think who whatever teacher that was that said it probably said um share the sentiment of a lot of folks around the district. >> Um, thank you. And if I can just add, you know, from a board perspective and to Dr. Burn's point about this being a continual implementation and learning process for all of us, please come back to us if if you need more and
035if things change and as you you know go down the course of this action and something needs to pivot um we we want to hear that and support that. >> Great. Appreciate that. >> And I think everybody's really interested about the going forward what happens with four or five. So we we expect to hear a lot about that as well. >> That that was one of my questions. So the fourth and fifth grade you you're focusing on writing process and grammar. Is this a new resource that you're using or what are you using especially for the grammar piece? >> No, it's the same program. However, it has been updated. um the units of writing that we are using um have been updated and we've been really focused on the grammar mechanics. That was actually the
036lens in which we were looking at student work for the fourth and fifth grade this past go around and almost doing a little kind of mini studies on um refreshers on some of the aspects of grammar and syntax and and all of that. So, um, you know, I think that's the work of the community as we move forward, just to study how well, um, K3 is going and to decide where we need to go for fourth and fifth grade. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> And just just one more piece about the K3, we know that the legislation is K3 literacy, but as a district, we were very intentional to begin that work thinking preschool through grade 12 plus. So um we we will naturally be coming forward um throughout the curriculum committee meetings with
037updates about the K3 literacy um resource instruction and assessment that's happening there and also um grades beyond three and what we're seeing and how we're going to approach that. >> Go ahead. >> Um any uh thanks for all the updates. Any um challenges or issues at the early stages worth flagging? Honestly, time, right? It this takes an extraordinarily amount of time um time for teachers even um like I know there's I'm learning a lot in the district and so just looking at the structures of time here um has just been something we may want to continue to talk about. Um but you know the the effort and the willingness to engage have been phenomenal. Um, and again I want to reiterate that the expertise that we have around the table and the pilot teachers have
038been phenomenal. They have come here after school with me a couple quite a few times to kind of process what's going on in their buildings. They've um volunteered to go into other buildings where the grade levels didn't pilot. The collaboration and the expertise across our district is something you all should be very very proud of. Again, I would say the biggest challenge that I see at this time is just is time. >> And then just sort of a quick followup that's sort of related is um I know we had a lot of discussions uh at the board level around the amount of time that we'd be taking for the professional learning days that we added to the schedule. just I think we should make sure that we're tracking that as we go forward to to
039you know make sure that we're that time is really being utilized appropriately that we really need all that time not just for the ongoing this year but as we roll out four and five right >> to make sure that if we're thinking about okay are we going to have to take extra days for that is it the right amount of time or maybe we can dial it back. >> Go ahead. Just one more. I I was curious, Amy, um, piggybacking on what you were saying. Could you just explain a little bit about how and when we connect the different levels um, back to each other? And I know that that you do this work and that your office does and the department chairs, but is there ever an opportunity where we have the, you know,
040secondary teachers kind of talking to elementary school teachers or about, you know, the skills that they see in high school that are either very strong or maybe a bit lacking and and how that relates to the work being done in middle school and elementary. We um we do and I think one of the one of our efforts now is when we think about for example grades four and five when we move forward with that work there will be K3 voice in that work moving forward. So I think it part of it is just how you structure and design um committees and how you design um research and implement and implementation plans and then of course the ongoing opportunities with professional learning PLC time etc. And it's >> and will that will that so the K
041through voice helping to inform the four through five. Will there also be that middle school level that six also coming to like this is what we need these kids to come in with and >> and that's why we started the work with that. Um, so the core review team did like the heaviest lift, but remember above and beyond the core review team, we had that steering committee, the district steering committee, and the intent was exactly what you're getting at, ensuring that we're thinking about what's happening in ELP because certainly our little ones there are developing pre-iteracy skills and then what what is the like the long view of really an articulated literacy program for the school district preschool through grade 12 plus because the bottom line is is you know grade levels to some extent
042are arbitrary. because there are the standards and there are kids that are at the standard, there are kids that are approaching and there are st there are standards that are beyond. So even beyond the grade levels, we need to have teachers confident to teach the children to meet them where they are in every single classroom. So that is part of our regular practice and design. >> Thank you. That's really helpful. I I think that you know sometimes just having like those concrete examples are really helpful. You know, when a kid is coming to sixth grade, this is what the expectations are of, you know, English B and so this is how we're preparing them in fifth grade. And as a matter of fact, it's the I often hear and I'm sure the department chairs would
043say this, um the the 612 folks, they really want time with the elementary, the middle school wants time with the high school. That's time that they find very valuable. And likewise, um grade level staff hor um horizontally across the district. You'll hear a first grade teacher say, "I want to be with all of the first grade teachers in the district." That um horizontal and vertical planning is super important. >> Great. >> We'll move on. All right. >> Good morning. Uh for those that don't know, I'm Tim McGuire, your instructional technology coordinator, and I'm here today to represent the librarians and some of their recent work. To set the stage just a little bit backtrack in time, last school year, the elementary librarians, and there's five of them worked together to develop a set of course
044descriptions, K5, as well as a scoping sequence. So, that requirement we're in pretty good shape on. after the end of the school year, some of the elementary librarians are able to get together and they worked on uh developing stage one uh curriculum for K2 and there's five units at each of those grade levels. So that's the work that's there, but they they want me to emphasize the work is in draft. So they librarians have already asked for time to come back together and review their work they've done so far before they proceed forward in grades three through five. So that's some of the work to happen there. Um, in addition this year, I think things to put on the radar. Uh, the freedom to read law was slipped into, uh, the the state's budget this
045year, and it's a law that's effective immediately. So, one of the things you can anticipate the board of ed to receive is at some point some new policies that have to be adopted. There's going to be three areas or three policies that need to be adopted. Uh, one is a excuse me, a challenge materials policy. Uh, one is a uh, collection development policy. And the third is a display and programming policy. Um the there's already guidance for our staff in a lot of these areas. I'm already working with Marge and and she's been in communication with Shipment about what actually needs to go to the board level, what can stay more in the in the handbook, but that's work that the librarians are going to be participating in. Um all the librarians K12 have expressed
046a lot of interest in the maker space work. Uh, in fact, just this past week, I was talking to one of the high school librarians and she's interested in developing a cart at the high school level where uh staff in other areas can check out the cart when they need an extra set of resources for activities they're trying to do there. Uh, and at the elementary level looking closer to um aligning some of the activities more tightly with what the curriculum is that we've been developing. So, more work and learning to do around maker space development in the library spaces. Uh along that line, some of the curriculum work is also going to relate to our digital literacy work. Uh that is a unit of study at each of the grade levels now for uh
047the K5 and and the work is already happening there. One of the things we're keeping an eye on is what that looks like for inclusion of artificial intelligence. And I'm taking the perspective that that falls within digital literacy. And I also want to emphasize that I don't believe that should be on the librarian's shoulders exclusively to carry digital literacy or artificial intelligence literacy, but they also have the opportunity to touch a lot of students there. So, we're we're going to continue to develop some opportunities for work there in them. And as part of that work, and I'm positioning this now intentionally, we're using a number of resources at especially elementary level. For example, code.org comes to mind, code monkey comes to mind. Um, common sense media comes to mind. Some of those resources that were
048you there are all fantastic resources. Some of them aren't going to stay free. So, um, we we need to kind of like position what do we need to really keep as core and and moving forward that especially if we're going to include AI literacy, like what can we adopt that makes sense? And that's, you know, again, we've been leaning on free tools. I don't think we continue to do that for much longer. Um, and also, I'm pleased to say that the uh two of the three library projects have uh been completed. So, if you haven't had the opportunity, go see the new libraries are beautiful. The two librarians at Royal and Hindley have been working hard to get those spaces up and running and also kind of maximize the use of spaces. Looking we now
049have dedicated areas for what I see as maker space or STEM and there's also like dedicated uh green space, green screen space or green room space. So, uh we were just there as a group of the elementary librarians on Friday looking at the the Hindley library and um honestly having conversations like how are we going to arrange the content here? What might we use this space for? So, good conversations to have forward and um I'm thrilled with the work we've done so far. So, I think I will pause there >> and I know you have some questions. >> Thank you. >> Um I I appreciate that you said that you know that AI work and the digital literacy work should not just be solely on the shoulders of our library media specialists. Like that that's
050the world we live in now. That is everybody's job. Um >> can you it's been a minute since I've had elementary school students. Can you remind me um how often they're actually like in is there the library class of what that schedule's looking like? >> Sure. So, uh K12 had and our district has scheduled block time each week to go to the library media center uh where it's essentially a drop off scenario and uh the library media specialist has uh a lesson and a book selection opportunity. Uh the 345 model is more what we we call flexible approach and typically time is scheduled between the librarian and the 345 classroom teachers in where the librarian can push in or the class can come down in support of uh topics. So for example, if a teacher
051is doing a research project, maybe it's a a state study, the library can come in and showcase materials and help support the teacher with that. Um the other thing is that the book selection time is more flexible for them. So that typically the classroom teacher will you know head on down and go pick your books now before we start the next thing. So it is um scheduled by each librarian with those teachers three four five um and I would say that it varies a little bit from school to school. Some it's very regular like every week but others it's in chunks of time. So it might be all third grade uh this month and fourth grade. >> Gotcha. Um, and then going to your question about or your comments about the new policies and the
052new legislation. Sure. >> Um, and maybe this is a question for Marge or Eric or Dave, but when do you think well is that is that something we'll see this fall? Is that something >> so >> is this immediiacy issue or >> Yeah. I mean I I don't want to jump in here, but is the law is essentially effective immediately. So we're we need to work on this promptly. Um, we have some stuff in place at board policy level that I think can be adopted, but I'm not the legal lawyer to determine if that's okay if we need a separate document for uh, libraries. And I should also should mention that this is a requirement for not just school libraries, also public libraries as well. So, I imagine you're going to hear a bit more
053about this, but um, we're kind of waiting, I think, for Shipman to u give us the best guidance for it. I know. Okay. Truthfully, Marge has been in contact with them. I know it was again yesterday, although I haven't had a chance to touch base with her about what the outcome of conversation was yesterday, but um yeah, you're it's going to be on your >> Okay. >> Um thank you. I um I love I love these meetings. These are my favorite ones, so I always have a lot to say and questions. Um just a couple quick things for you. I think that um piggybacking off the legislation um Eric, it would be really great if we could have, you know, like a sort of like one-page overview. Obviously, we can all read the bill, but
054in terms of like those specific three policies and what we think it might mean for us, what it might be covering, however the timing of that works out and is appropriate, I think that would be like a great just like umformational piece for the board. Um I also um with the with the digital literacy and the component of AEI, I wanted to ask if um if the Darian public schools have any sort of partnership with any of the platforms in terms of um access and privacy. Um, I'm actually taking an AI class at NYU right now and um, while NYU is quite a bit bigger than Darienne, they have um, a partnership with Google Gemini where um, NYU has access to it and none of the information that is put into the applications are are
055used for like learning tools and shared beyond. Just curious if that's something that we might be exploring in terms of um, you know, responsible use and protecting privacy. um data, all of that. >> So, I'm uh fortunate or unfortunate to be the one that reads all the privacy policies of all the vendors as people make staff requests going forward. And uh I can tell you we do have uh in our Darian learn platform, you can actually sort by artificial intelligence, what's already been looked at and vetted as far as what's permitted for staff and what's also for students. And um right now, I think there's currently 16 software programs that f position themselves as AI based. Um, one of the challenges is that this changes so incredibly quickly as far as what's available and appropriate
056and Gemini is a perfect example. So, right now they're giving it away to college students and that might be part of the the experience that you're having there. But um they've also since June opened up a I think they've made something like 82 updates to their platform for for um school districts. And I'm looking at Greg because he and I were at a conference at the end of June and he's texting me, hey, did you hear about this? and said no that's not true and they're like wait no that is true now so that's the kind of things that are happening um we do have uh Gemini uh as a application that they call now I think they call it the Gemini canvas it's essentially their chatbot that's available for all staff um that's been
057the case since about December last year when they made it available it is available currently for our Darien High School students Google has changed the rules and said we can open it to our elementary students but I'm like Let's proceed thoughtfully on that before we do that. Similarly, they have another product called Notebook LM. Similar positioning. Um they uh it's currently available for all staff to utilize to help create content that they can work with their students on. In theory, we can permit this for students. In fact, I was just reading an update this morning before the meeting from Google on that particular product. Uh so but that is but we're not paying for any of those resources and some of the stuff that's available through Google for Gemini uh isn't available to us based
058on the tier that we pay for for our Google integration. We're on the the foundations level. So if again I was kind of addressing before I think if you want to really fully adopt some of those even Gemini resources we need to uh position this in the budget going forward on that. Um there is also a few other products we're looking at but I think uh Gemini is one that's going to have a big influence and factor on what we start doing with students. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. >> Um just to follow up as relates to the AI and especially utilization within the different age levels. So, I mean, I saw a recent study that said like the the retention by a person if you write down something versus you do it on
059a computer versus you use AI is like 80% if you write it down, 30% if you do it on the computer, and effectively zero if you use AI. So, as we're attempting to actually educate the kids, like is there any like what's the rationale for giving an elementary school kid any access whatsoever to AI? And I would argue maybe all the way through. Like what what is our rationale for that? >> Sure. So, I there's a lot of evidence that's being developed as far as what does support learning, what doesn't. I would say there's certain types of use of AI that certainly doesn't. So, if you know, if no teacher is telling the students, hey, go to AI. Here's here's the topic. I want an essay and use AI to create the essay. That's that's
060not a good use of AI. I would suggest that there's probably scenarios where a use of AI tool can be helpful. And what exactly that is, what the evidence to support that, that's still being developed and not by me, by the experts out there. My position right now is I believe it's at the elementary level in some situations it could be good for brainstorming and or a a push back partner. What I mean by that is um so when I taught third grade classroom, one of the challenges was when I was doing writing instruction is I introduce a new topic. Here's a new strategy. we're gonna uh you know uh work on incorporating hooks in our essay today and here's me modeling this and now go ahead and try this out. And in my class
061of 20 I guarantee you 14 of them like boom I know exactly what I'm going to do and start. But then it's those six that struggle to live put that pen to paper and I end up spending all my time sitting with them and conferencing them and never actually really getting a chance to circle back to the kiddos that have already written something. My thinking right now is that you can use a tool like school AI uh as a brainstorming partner and create a very specific prompt where those few students might engage with that as a first step to say hey um uh can you help me with some ideas? Now, understanding that a tool like school AI is the teacher has full access to what the the chat looks like, but also has a
062lot of control of the prompt. The prompt won't feed the student the information. It'll help conversate with them. Now, does that make sense? Uh, would we do that with a kindergarten classroom? Probably not, right? But maybe a third grade class on occasion. The other use that we're exploring a little bit is, for example, helping students pick what they want to read next. So, here's our library collection. The librarians uh really engaged and busy right now. And maybe, you know, the student can uh go to and engage with this chat box. Hey, I really like this Dogman book. Uh what's another author that might have similar books that that work for me on this one of the and last example and they'll let you do it what you want. Uh, one of the things I'm hoping
063to do with the gifted teachers this year is they do a big uh, debate element as part of their work later in the year, one of the things that we were brainstorming and talking about is what if they could do a practice one run with an AI chatbot. So before they go ahead and, you know, face off in the classroom, what if they have a partner that's an AI partner that could push back and say, you know, have you thought about this or here's my, you know, contrast? Those are scenarios that I'm looking at. >> So I appreciate all the examples. I mean I I would take the other side of the argument on the third grader. I would say that that struggle for figuring it out is exactly what we've discussed as a board
064that they need to figure out how to overcome that. That's a good thing and the teacher should identify them and go interact with that student as opposed to handing them a computer and saying, "Hey, here's your answer." >> No, no, that's position. Broadly speaking, I think I think we as a board before AI is rolled out and given access to any of the students, we as a board need to determine what's our policy around this and how do we think that this should work. >> I think it I think it's tricky just the how quickly AI changes and you know I think it's a >> it's definitely a challenging conversation. I don't know Dr. Burn or Dr. Per like how do you how do we position ourselves as a district? I mean again this is
065a topic that we all are very interested in but how do we handle it? >> Well I I think one we're in a learning position so understanding the technology which frankly is still rapidly developing. So being very thoughtful about what if any applications we use that safety measures and the privacy pieces are in place but then thinking about how do we ensure that our kids when they leave us in the system have the skills to use this tool that's going to be a part of their world and frankly it's a part of their world now whether they realize it or not and whether we realize it or not AI is infused into so many things so I think it's it's a lot of exploration a lot of learning and a lot of caution frankly because
066there's still so much that's unknown and so much that's rapidly developing. >> Um just on that note I know colleges even in college course courses some professors in various areas are not even using AI whereas others think it might be a good idea. So I think we I I absolutely agree with you. We need to be cautious about this especially at the younger ages where the challenge and the process is really really important toward learning. So I agree with what >> it's a tricky balance because it's caution but it's also ensuring that we we help our kids develop the skills that they need. We don't want them to leave us and and be completely clueless as to what AI is and not know how to use this tool to their advantage. than their own learning.
067So >> I agree. Yeah, I agree with that. Um I did want to just ask one more question about the library studies because I know in the past we also had had a robotics and coding kind of project at least I think in some of the elementary classrooms as part of their library time that they spend. Is that still happening just in terms of >> Yeah, one of the units is in fact titled computer programming and maker space. And so um the after school robotics program is still running and underway uh but there are also some u robotics experiences that are part of the computer programming. So we I think uh the picture I don't know if the picture I had included there's one I may or may not have included that showed the librarians
068using the indie robots which are like a a K12 product. >> I think it was a yeah kindergarten first grade but it was an exposure to >> Absolutely. That's still important too. >> Thank you. Thanks Tim. >> Okay. So I'll give a high level overview of physical education. Um we are using the healthy and balanced living framework which are aligned to state and national standards. And there was um no published health curriculum prior to this past year on edge planet. And so what we did was we began with um overviews in stage one for grades 7 through 12. And those are all completed. um they will need some minor re revisions over the course of this year, but they're in they're in really good shape. PE um is seriously lagging behind um in the scope
069and sequence department and stage one. So that will be work that I support um um the the PE teachers in doing this year. um professional learning will continue with I think just really understanding what those healthy and balanced um living standards are and thinking about again a continuum preschool through grade 12. I don't think that there's been a lot of investment in that kind of professional learning for that department. So it's something that I'm interested in exploring um systemically this year. >> Uh my question for you Amy is I mean who's leading this PE work? like if we don't have a a physical education department chair or you know is this something going forward that you know do we need a stipened position do we need to think about how this is structured >> so
070that is something that Dr. Burn and I have spoken about because there is not a clearly named um leader of this department like the many you see around the table. Um it's not just the curriculum that I've noted is behind. It's also even the professional learning and the access of the staff in that department to for example Kafir and seeing you know that's the Connecticut association for um PE and health teachers like having contacts throughout the state um to really bring back best practices here that's that's been lacking. So that's something that Dr. Burn and I are certainly thinking about as we think about drafting going into the next budget cycle. >> For now, I'm getting to really know very well the healthy and balanced living framework standards, which is also good learning for me.
071>> Okay. And then school counseling. Um school counseling, what we're thinking about also is there's a lot of interest on the part of the board and certainly on the part of administration to be thinking about the executive functioning that um we really need to be building within our kids. And that is again like Tim was just saying, not owned by any one person. That's got to be owned and lifted by all departments and all grade levels. So where you'll see some of that come in really explicitly though is through the school counseling comprehensive school counseling um curricula. We also are thinking about the the requirement in grades 6 through 12 for all students to have a student success plan. So, this is work that I am engaging in with Kathy Auster, the director of school
072counseling, and we'll continue to come forward um and share those updates with the board in future curriculum committee meetings. Um you'll see that also some of that work outlined as we revise the strategic plan moving ahead. that those um those stu uh individual student success plans will also be where you can really clearly see how we're getting at content standards like you were saying Robin with regard to writing but also like transfer of skill and those other things that we began our conversation with earlier today and to Greg's point about children finding a passion the really an interesting thing about the student success plans is that's where you can start to see what kids are really interested in you know you think about interest inventories career inventories and you begin those in sixth grade >>
073so what does a student success plan look like? You just give us a brief overview of what that >> Sure. So, you start with um interest inventories when children are in sixth grade and then you think about um kind of helping to identify mostly an assetbased lens where where are kids finding success in their learning. Where are the areas where you need to strengthen and then really it's just about creating kind of a portfolio for a learner um to help them develop throughout the way that helps connect like you were saying before Katie, how are we really connecting what happens grade over grade? this will follow a student through. >> Um I I did have questions on student success plan too. So how would it be developed and tracked individually grades 6 through 12 and
074then would parents be informed of that pro process and because it it almost seems like it ends up being an annual conference with a parent of some sort if you're creating a student success plan that goes from grade to grade. And I I'm I'm really I think it's a great idea. I'm just interested in kind of how what your thought is about this. >> And actually, it's it's supposed to be a vehicle to help support continued and strengthened communication between the child, the school, and home. And so, right now, um we as a school system have Naviance, which is kind of our our portal for where and it's where most school districts in the state of Connecticut keep that kind of information. And parents, um you may may or may not be aware many parents
075because are aware of Naviance actually because of the whole college application process. So what this is about is really beginning and thinking about sixth grade opening up that access and creating you know a common collaborative space between a child the school system and the parent um to to bring the child grades six through 12. So yeah Robin you would see that through Naviance and we'll be doing more communication with the parent community about that. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right, Ronnie, you're up. 612 math. >> 612 math. With the designation of honors geometry, this year, our focus was on the entire pathway from where students begin in pre-alggebra through honors pre-calculus. So, these updates strengthen our vertical alignment across the grades, ensuring that students experience a coherent and rigorous progression of learning as they
076move through middle school into high school mathematics. Our ongoing curriculum work continues with stage three development where we're intentionally examining the implementation of curriculum through a special education lens. This ensures that learning experiences are accessible, inclusive, and meaningful for all students in math. In terms of professional learning and priority work, our department is focusing on two key areas this year. team teaching and co-eing models, strengthening the way two teachers can work together in a classroom to maximize support and learning for all students. And our good work with thinking classroom practices will continue with an emphasis on low floor high ceiling tasks which provide an entry point for every student while also offering challenges for those that are ready to receive it. differentiation to meet the diverse needs of our students across the classrooms and evaluating
077data to support spiraling content so that essential skills are revisited and reinforced throughout the year. Altogether, this work strengthens both our curriculum and our instruction while supporting our vision of the graduate and really our overall vision in our department of helping students grow as critical thinkers and problem solvers. And most importantly, all of this work really advances our vertical alignment, ensuring that every student's mathematical experience is connected, coherent, and prepares them for success for the next level. The three pictures on the bottom are actually non-curricular tasks. That's how we open up our school year for students when they first enter, at least for the first day in math. On the left is algebra 2, and those students are doing ven diagrams of what they have in common and what they don't and what makes them
078unique. And we focused on learning styles there. Actually in the middle that is geometry. Uh they are using spaghetti I think to build the most structural tower that they can. And seventh grade of course on the whiteboard saying we love math. >> Thank you. Um Ronnie, could you just explain what um spiraling content means? >> Sure. So that is really being done mostly at the middle school level in grade six, seven, and eight. And we have a lot of students that accelerate in math at the middle school. So, it's really important that we continue if they're in algebra 1 to revisit perhaps percents, fractions, those basic skills um that they're also being tested on at ESPback and they might be be tested on ESPback in math that they haven't seen in two or three years.
079So, it's important we continue to spiral. But as well as that, even within a particular course, if there's when we're looking at student work, if there's something that they didn't master, um, order of operations, we want to continue making sure that we look at order of operations even though we're going to move on to the next unit because in math, every hole that they get along their journey gets bigger and bigger as the math gets harder and harder. >> Great. Um, thank you for that. That's really helpful. Um could you just talk a little bit more about what's going on in team teaching and co-eing? >> Sure. So we it's been this is the second year that we've really I've been working very very closely with a special education department chair. It's very important to
080me that whether there's two math teachers in the classroom or a math teacher working with a special education teacher that we are providing as many strategies as possible for students to find success based off their learning styles. And that ranges from color coding to scaffolding to providing that those differentiated opportunities. But we really want them to be a 50/50 relationship. We don't want to see a math teacher teaching and perhaps a co-teer in the background. We want to see both teachers actively participating 50/50 where students really are getting a twofor one deal. If I can just follow up on that. Um this is great to hear and I think it would it would be really helpful to if at some point you know um in this conversation the board could see a little bit of
081data around this. There was something that we had talked about at an earlier curriculum meeting um and I think it might have actually related to science Christian um which will come up but um you know a snapshot of like especially with the classes that kids are waving into and and how are they doing and how many kids are dropping you know that either have waved in or not and I think it's particularly interesting um in the high school level especially in both math and science where there that we do have a progression of, you know, taking geometry and then algebra 2, but because those um disciplines can be so different, biology to chemistry and how, you know, one student could really take very naturally to one of those that might be more math-based or or
082maybe less to another. I think that would be really interesting as we talk about helping students to kind of like find their path and and also just understand some of those different strengths. So, I think that could be a really interesting exercise for us just to look a little bit about, you know, how our students are understanding the different components of the classes year-over-year and and how successful they are. Um, >> and this kind of ties back to also to the concept of um the pressure that our students face at Derenne. Um it's um an incredibly rigorous school which I'm I'm so proud that we have opportunities for students to do that and I'm very cognizant of our students feeling the need to constantly be in you know the highest class and and recognizing that
083you know strengths come in different places I think would just be a really great conversation for us to keep top of mind. >> Absolutely. and thinking about the fact that again if we go back to the idea of individual excellence and and really student success plan should help us help children navigate especially as they move up through the grades you know it hurts really hurts my heart when I hear kids say well I won't take that class because it's on an elective scale right that Colleen and I talk about again what counts as a STEM credit what counts as a fine arts credit and sometimes by force of schedule right and meeting graduation requirements kids have to make challenging and difficult decisions and we want to make sure that we open as many pathways as
084we can for all kids. So, thank you for recognizing I do think we should keep that at the front of our of our conversations and curriculum committee meetings. >> All right. And then speaking of science, >> good morning, just as a reminder, I'm Christian Dam, the 62 science department chair. uh over the summer this year, we uh uh did some significant work in uh both middle school and high school and toward in terms of uh both completing um and making uh completing some courses and and making some significant strides in others. So, um, one of the big lifts this summer was providing an opportunity for our astronomy course to, uh, get the scope sequence stage one and our stage two, uh, really fleshed out and and designed and and that is currently being implemented as
085we speak um, with two sections this uh, first semester. uh at a middle school, our all three grade levels have probably 95% of the lessons laid out in their stage two documents for all six units at each uh of those levels. And and really what we were looking at this summer is highlighting some of the interim assessments that can be >> bless you interim assessments that can be implemented um in each of those units that can give us a sense of where our students are uh at the moment and help us differentiate and help us uh think about how we can shift some of the instructional strategies in our classrooms to support those students. Um, and then at the high school, the big uh project this year was really focusing on our 10th grade year.
086So, our nth grade biology courses are are very uh very well set up in in terms of our curriculum. And now we're moving into the 10th grade and building on what we've done in ninth grade to uh create scope and sequences for both our chemistry 300 and chemistry 400 classes and and making sure that there's alignment uh and connections between those two uh sections as we sort of uh shift um what chemistry looks like for our a little bit for our 10th graders. Um, in terms of our professional learning, we started this year by looking at uh student work protocols and making sure we're focusing on the learning that's uh available in the student work and not necessarily in the grades uh that the students are focused on. So, that's something we've been working with
087our teachers on and focusing on um what does this artifact tell us about student learning and not necessarily like this is an A and this is a B and this is a C. And so really uh digging down into the the artifact and and highlighting where it shows mastery of a skill or mastery of a content piece. Um, and that really ties into some of the work we're doing at the middle school and high school around PLC's and and making sure that we're utilizing student work and student assessment to understand where our students are and highlight the the learning that's taking place and not necessarily highlighting how many are getting A's and how many are getting B's, etc. So um that that ties into again modeling those connections between our vision of the graduate and
088student learning in our classes. And I've tried to be more um explicit in and making some of the connections with our work with teachers. Um so for example yesterday we were looking at our um uh positive classroom environment uh domain of the uh single point competencies for our growth and and support plan with teachers and really um giving them a chance to dig into each of those indicators. Um highlight what that might look for for students in the classroom and what to look for for teachers that that might relate to those indicators. And then at the end really uh getting into our learning outcomes for the vision of the graduate and saying like where do you see connections between the work that we're doing here and the communication and the curiosity and the integrity um
089competencies in in our VOG. So providing some uh modeling for teachers where they can then take that and say like now that you've done this lab where do you see these um learning outcomes from our vision of the graduate in the work that you're doing so that students can become uh more reflective in in their work. So, um that ties into our PLC work at both schools as well as um implementing instructional rounds throughout uh our 6 through 12 department that will be taking place throughout the year this year. >> Thanks, Christian. Go ahead. >> Um thank you. Um, Christian, I I appreciate your comments about um like truly kind of mastering topics and understanding those learning competencies and and that really being the goal beyond just a letter grade um and a numeric scale.
090Um I know we talked about this last time too, but um freshman biology has been one of those classes where there seems to be um a very large gap between the 300 and the 400 level. And we had talked last year about, you know, getting some of this data that that I was just mentioning too in terms of, you know, the number of kids that are taking the classes, the number of kids that are able to stay in the class. Um, which I don't think that we've seen and I do think that would be a worthwhile exercise. But I I am curious then, you know, especially in that 300 to 400 level biology class, like how how can we best understand what is going on in in those two classes and how they're different and
091be able to evaluate if if the if the difference between the three and 400 level is appropriate or if we might need to be looking at, you know, a 350 or somehow modifying that content so that we don't have kids who um don't have a place, right? Like I mean I think the thing that I'm concerned is that certainly some students really excel and do great in the 400 and certainly some kids are quite challenged by the 300. But how many kids do we have and where is the place for those ones that are really struggling in 400 but aren't challenged at all in 300? So, I I think there's not a lot of examples of students um that are, you know, really struggle in 400 and then go down to like shift to 300
092and and have a um o overall. And I I would have to go in and and look at specific students. Um, as I said last year, we really don't have um a lot of students dropping and leveling down from our 400 to 300 class. Um, in fact, this year I have not had one conversation with a a freshman in the first three and a half weeks of school about leveling down. Um, so I can say that as a data point like we haven't had anybody in our 400 level bio class level down to to 300 as of yet. um we still have a week um and then we have other opportunities. But um certainly, you know, when when we see anecdotally, I I can think of examples where we see a student level down and
093and be a accurately placed and and getting an A minus or a B+ in our 300 level class. Um, but I I would have to look at specific examples and see if there were um specific students that had a a C++ in a 400 level class and then a 99 in our um 300 level class, which would would indicate, you know, they were that specific student in the profile that you mentioned. So, um I I think what we see is a a 400 level class that is challenging for our for the vast majority students who are in the in the classroom. Um, it gives the the some of our students who are really wanting to push themselves an opportunity to experience that productive struggle. And um, I just had a conversation, not necessarily in bio,
094but a conversation with a student who this morning who wanted to drop from a 400 level chem to to 300. and and I just you know our conversation was like you have the background based on your transcript you have the um recommendation of your teacher last year and you have um you know like sort of feeling it because you are going up in a level now and it's that productive struggle and that I'm sort of punching the gut that that we talked about and she said like you know what I'm going to stick it out for another week and see if I'm feeling any different at the end and you know I know that I have some more opportunities to level down at the end of the quarter. So those are the conversations that we
095have in in terms of students. Um but specifically to the profile that you're mentioning, I would have to to dig into that a little bit deeper. Um and then just with the example that you had mentioned, what um what additional supports are we offering in those conversations right to the student and to develop you know some of those vision of the graduate qualities that grit that resilience that you know like this might be hard for you but you're capable and you might have to work a little harder. You know it might not be as easy as as sometimes we get used to. What what's the conversation about them seeking additional supports and how we might be able to provide them? So I you know I think that if we connect it to the vision of
096the graduate companies especially independents in that situation and being a self- advocate and and really having the conversation with their teacher and saying like I I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed here and what can I do you know in the classroom or what can I do outside of the classroom with you to to meet um you know to sort of get me through this um agida that I'm feeling and the anxiety I'm feeling of being pushed past my comfort zone um in this classroom. And so I know our teachers, especially our honors level teachers, are very understanding of that experience, especially with our freshman and our sophomores who may have um this may be their first opportunity at an honors level class. So my conversation with this particular student is talk to your teacher. I
097know that he's supportive of uh the students in this classroom, and he may not know because you have an 85 in the class right now. He may not know that you're feeling this um stress or the strain. Uh and he may just say like, "Oh, this here's some things that I've noticed or here's some things that we can work together on to sort of get you through that initial um struggle and understanding about what the rigor and what the expectations of the class are." So I appreciate that and I think absolutely those are the skills that we want to develop and the skills that that students absolutely need when they go to college and and when they are beyond high school. And I think that as you know we have we have 14year-old students that
098enter the high school and they come from having a team model at the middle school and I can't tell you how many times I've heard that these students feel like they go to college at 14. So for us to expect them to be able to have these highle self- advocacy skills, I think is potentially what might contribute to this idea of pressure and us not acknowledging that success does mean something different to everyone and that an 85 might not be good enough to some and that an 80 might be like an incredible achievement to others. So, I'm wondering how we just build in things that when we have those conversations that yes, we encourage those students to advocate, but maybe we also copy the guidance counselor and we have something on that just so those
099students know that they're supportive and they're not expected to do this all on their own. I think those are kind of the ways that we can really utilize and um the resources that we have while these students are working towards independence because I think expecting 14-year-old students to walk into Darian High School and be able to function at, you know, a collegiate level um especially with diverse learning profiles. Some kids might struggle with executive functioning. Some might have ADHD. some might have, you know, challenges with reading and keeping up with that. Um, I I think that I would love to see us, especially in some of these honors classes, because I can tell you from anecdotal and personal experiences, that if a child's in an honors class and they are performing at a C or
100a D level, a flag needs to go off. And um you know this idea that it's fully on them to be independent at 14 when we know they do have an academic profile um that's telling us that these kids need a little more support. Um so I'd like to see us looking in ways that we can help them grow those skills and not just expect them to have them fully formed. And I I certainly appreciate that and and there is you know I can speak that this year um I think there's a recognition of that especially at the nth grade level. Um we have in our science department have a PLC that's working with our reading specialists at the uh at the high school on just that is looking at executive functioning skills of our
101nth grade students and what we can do not only at the honors level. Um, I can tell you that there are honors level teachers in in that PLC, but also at the 300 level and and bringing in some of those executive functioning skills into the classroom and and making those exping executive functioning skills explicitly to students to just that support their development in self- advocacy, development in in work ethic, development in organizational skills, right? And so that um those go hand inand with the instruction um towards meeting the academic uh and skill con expectations of the course. Um so I think that that's something that the high school um in the transition from 8th to 9th grade is um is being looked at and and actively being uh uh built and designed in the PLC
102process there. And Katie, just one other thing that I want to um just add on to what you said that I think is really important. Um it should never be the expectation that any that entire independence is on any student, even a senior in high school. So couldn't agree more. And additionally, um, the piece about having this, the school counselor be an important part of that conversation is really critical because it may appear that there's an issue with, you know, the child and their experience in a biology class. And that's only one part of the child's whole school experience. So, I think, you know, as far as parents and and our students and teachers and the school counselors, we need to be thinking about not just what appears to be causing the blister, but really
103looking at, right, the whole child, their whole school experience, and having a conversation that considers all of those. I'll >> So I don't want to speak without without data, but I will say this probably to your point, Katie, also it's probably um there probably is a great deal that we could certainly um get more information about. I'm confident school counselors meet with their students to talk about these changes or as if kids are thinking about changes. But I don't want to speak and say that as a fact, but I certainly would reach out come to Kathy Auster and see that. But I know that's a big part of their of their relationship with students. I also would like to say that within the disciplines teachers meet with their students within their respective disciplines, not limited
104to science about those decisions that they're making and hope that's true. But again, we can certainly get that information and share that with Dr. Burn and find out. I also would like to say that both learning center teachers and the special education teachers work closely with the teachers saying, "Let's talk about this. what does this child need to support and be successful in an honors class or a 400 level class as well as some of the related service providers and I know school psychologists also are there and APs but that to say is there is a whole cadre of people who are on board but I think what your question is um how does that happen and and how is everyone committed to that so we certainly can follow up on that >> I think
105it also goes to the 8 to9 articulation piece and making sure that that everybody's speaking to each other that the the child is placed in the appropriate class um moving in and I say I'm currently living this drama in my household and I think my my child feels very supported by her counselor and and teachers in that. So, bravo. Um, I I just wanted to I agree with what Katie's saying and I I want to also note that especially with these honors courses, even as a sophomore or a junior, I'm also speaking about the kids who are not necessarily identified for special education services where they they do have a more frequent interaction with teachers or PPT, you know, the meetings because many kids who might be in a 400 level class, honors, you know,
106and have prior work in honors level classes. A lot of times they also have a pretty heavy course load especially as you know you get into sophomore and junior year and for the self- advocacy piece and executive function pieces is an important element that I think still even as a sophomore many many students may not have still at that point. I I agree that it needs to be even not just the freshmen but um some of the teachers I think it would be helpful for this the kids to be successful and in science in particular um there might be learning differences where some you know some students may have a harder time writing handwriting notes and I know that some of the 400 level classes science don't allow them to do notes on a a
107laptop um and if they're not identified for special education services that they might have a different learning need. It's hard for that kind of a student to have a conversation with a teacher to say, you know, I'm I'm having a hard time even being organized to do a handwritten kind of a thing. And I think there needs to be maybe a little flexibility with teachers to allow for different learning styles so that all of the students can be successful. And then additionally, um I've I've mentioned this before, but I know in college they have like the the equivalent of a Google classroom where some teachers will have class notes. I know at DHS some other teachers may not provide class notes and so it makes it very difficult for students to catch up on missed
108work and the teacher a lot of times will say well just get it from another student but if you don't have a good relationship with another student and you were sick or you had a doctor's appointment it makes it very difficult in the absence of having a textbook that you can look at to actually make up work and be successful so I think in terms of support structure I think we need to be making sure that all of the teachers are functioning at that same kind of um support level across, you know, whether it's honors biology or honors chemistry or whatever it is so that it doesn't matter what teacher you have, you're still getting the same level of supports or class notes or things that you can have as resources to help you. >>
109I think to that point, this is why we're engaging in all of this work of creating this, you know, this huge document of, you know, this is what happens in the scope and squeeze. This is what happens in these units and to having all that in one place is the purpose of why we're doing this year's long project. >> All right, >> can you move on to six? >> Yes, let's go. It's 9:20. Good morning. Um, excuse my voice. I'm definitely working on a cold, so forgive the grallyness of it. Um, before I dig into our summer work, I want to speak back to some of the conversation that was had about the transition um and the voices being represented there. um the instructional rounds work has been really helpful in doing that within schools
110itself. But um I've started to do some work on last year bringing uh bridging those gaps between sixth grade to fifth grade. So I've been able to bring some uh English teachers and social studies teachers even down to the fifth grade classrooms. Um Julie when she was with us last year came up to see some of the sixth grade classrooms and we'll continue that work this year I think. Um, our ninth grade teachers came down to the eighth grade classrooms to see what eighth grade life is like and you know what to expect when students come into nth grade. And I know that they the eighth grade teachers were hoping to make those similar types of visits. We just ran out of time in my rookie year. So, um, it's something that's definitely important for
111us to continue. Um, this summer, the English department also focused on those transitional points. Um, at the middle school, we brought together our sixth grade teachers from English A and English B, our special education staff and the middle school reading specialists to really do a comprehensive curriculum audit. Uh, we were looking to ensure there was alignment between those two classes and took a good look at three years worth of ESPback data to help focus any revision work we're going to be doing at our curriculum. Our next steps are going to continue this work over the year and um specifically looking at how we can best utilize our literacy lab practices as part of our MTSS process at the middle school. The high school level, we developed stage three materials, those lessons and classroom activities for
112our English 9 course. And then over the rest of the year, we'll also do that work for our honors nine course. I'm thinking also about our learning priorities for the year and the conversations we had about AI specifically and our students. Um, when I've had to have conversations with students who have struggled, um, often those conversations are because they ran out of time and they needed to do a quick dive into AI to finish the assignment or they didn't feel confident that their words were worth saying and they didn't quite feel confident finding a way to reach out to the teacher for that support. So, I've made our whole goal this year to think about how we can get students to both value our work and be invested in our work, but also ways to
113help them feel confident in their work. Um, and so our professional learning is going to be focusing exactly on that, fostering student engagement and investment, um, and confidence specifically through differentiated instruction and student- centered learning. We're going to be looking at learning styles and how to best draw in those students so that they both feel confident and that they understand that this this thinking work that they're doing and communicating is truly valuable. We'll continue to focus on the development of our lit literacy skills and practices. Um Dennis Cabrera and I will continue to focus on strengthening our interdisciplinary connections in our English and social studies departments. And at the middle school, I'm particularly excited to um develop staff's capacity to use data to uh support our learners more strategically. >> Thanks for questions on English.
114>> Um Kristen, I just want to say thank you so much. Um the the way that you were talking about the conversations that you're having with students who are struggling and getting into the heart of like why they might be using that, that is exactly the work that we should be doing and thank you so much for that. that is, you know, really looking at the whole child and looking at their strengths and and getting to some of those um insecurities and those qualities of the vision of the graduate about how to overcome them. Um you know, like on a side note, um my daughter and I had like I thought a really great use of AI in terms of English. She'll kill me for saying this, but she definitely delayed on her summer reading
115until a couple weeks before school. And um most of the time I've read a lot of books that are on their things. Um, but we we put the list in in terms and she put a couple qualities of what she was looking for in a book. Something, you know, that would grab her interest, something that, you know, like what the what the length of it was. And she kind of created this prompt with um criteria to help her select the book that, you know, would enable her to to read it and get it done in time and engage. And I thought that was like a pretty great use. Like she did the work, she read the book, but she was able to kind of get that personal insight. Um, so you know, and then the
116last thing I just wanted to say was the the point that you mentioned so quickly about working with fitness and you know, kind of that integration to strengthen those things, especially in those classes, you know, like social studies that is a different discipline, but that relies so heavily on the skills learned in English. That's so fantastic. So, thank you for that work. >> Um, just one note on the interdisciplinary approach between English and social studies. I think this is a great idea and I'm glad you're continuing to develop that. The only comment that I would make is that especially at um Darian High School as we get into AP Lang, AP US History, many many students take both those APs which are very difficult. But I think for those who only want to take one
117or the other. It I think it becomes a scheduling challenge often because I think we only offer one section for those that are in that kind of a group. And and so I think I would just ask that as a as a district we maybe allow for a little more flexibility for those students who probably already have a very difficult course load in their junior year to allow for some flexibility so that they don't necessarily have to take both of those or a level down for both you know if they really like one. >> The challenge with that is staffing and budgetary. So every course you add, you have to staff it. >> And you know, you have we have so many incredible options at Darian High School, but you know, the more options you
118add, the more challenges you have. And because you only have so many slots that you can put a a course into a program. >> I realize it's a challenge or maybe some creative options that could be offered in in those. Your ears may have been ringing because we all had department meetings yesterday and it's something that Dennis and I brought up at our department meetings to have that conversation with our staff about looking at those opportunities for students and um both supporting interdisciplinary work but also making sure we had opportunities open to students that we weren't limiting them because of that. >> Nice segue into Dennis's work over there. >> Yeah, I feel like Kristen stole all my thunder. uh because I I I feel like what I'm going to say is mostly that we
119are going to work uh very collaboratively together and we were having this very conversation about the American studies, American history, AP and the AP Lang and we are working on creative solutions. So I think it will be much less of a problem next year than it was this year for those students. So uh we're working towards a a way to uh serve all of the students who want to take variations of these different courses. So uh but this year our department is focused on three interconnected goals that align closely with the district's mission and enhance teaching and learning, expand professional capacity and strengthen uh our communication. First, we are deepening our collaboration between English and social studies at both Middle Sex and Darian High School to create a more seamless interdisciplinary approach to literacy and
120critical thinking. Uh we're also working to strengthen the staff capacity to use data to inform um differentiation. So I think of this as really fundamental to our work because we're thinking about not just the students who struggle but also those high-f flyers, those kids in middle school who came in already knowing all the stuff and need to be pushed. So I think it's really key and I do think the PLC structure at the middle school has is going to go a long way to helping us uh accomplish this. So I'm I'm very thankful for that. U so together uh I think these efforts are going to help to improve outcomes but also improve that sort of vertical alignment that we're uh striving for and just a more cohesive teaching community. So I think one of
121the key things that we Kristen and I decided at the at the start of the year is that we want our departments to at some point come together and meet together uh to sort of discuss what are the things that we do that we have in common and where do our disciplines maybe differ in how we teach writing uh so that we can kind of be on the same page and students understand. In some instances our expectations are the same. they're identical, but in others they part ways and that's for very specific reasons, disciplinary reasons of the difference between writing for your English teacher versus writing for your history teacher. So that those are our our goals in in a nutshell. >> Thank you. Specialized questions. >> Um Dennis, thank you. Um I appreciate the
122way you expanded on that interdisciplinary. Um that's really great to hear. Can you talk a little bit about the change to um offering an honors western civilization course? Um you know I um found out what western civ was when my oldest was a freshman, but I had learned through sitting in this room for 10 years to be afraid of it. Um, so I'm curious about if this change is going to be something that is a faster piece or more content and more difficult compared to what is currently or if we're really looking at a change for both a 300 and a 400 level. >> I I think the biggest difference will be that it's easier to uh push those students who want to be pushed even further. uh believe it or not there are students
123who feel like it's not challenging enough which is incredible to me because I do think it is a very rigorous course. So I think it's difficult in our classrooms right now the nth grade level to meet the needs of the student who struggles and the student who excels. So the honors course is meant to be able to push those kids who really need the extra challenge and still meet the needs of those kids who struggle. uh so I think it in the end it will be beneficial to students and you know how they learn >> this will come before us later we can talk more about it then >> yeah so I just just so what I'm hearing you say is that this is really um a way to differentiate right to be able Okay
124thank you moving on >> okay good morning again Scott Webster K12 world languages coordinator uh we're making strong progress in our curriculum development in kindergarten through fifth grades. We completed stage one as well as refined our scope and sequence at all levels. At the secondary level, we've updated our Spanish 2A curriculum, uh, which again is seventh grade. We've revised Mandarin 3, developed our new ASL 3 course and updated both AP French language and AP Spanish language to align with current standards. On the professional learning side, we're continuing our work on strengthening our K12 vertical alignment. Also exploring how AI can support language acquisition and continuing to partner with uh library media specialists to deliver innovative instruction to our students. Um Tim and his team have been wonderfully resourceful in that respect. Thank you. And uh
125we're also using instructional rounds to better understand and support key transitions at both MMS and DHS entry points to inform content and recommendations uh modeling after Kristen and her group. >> Thank you Scott as we say. >> Sure. So u my name is Colleen Thompson. I'm the director of visual art and music. Um, our work in music I've uh reported on over the years is we've really been doing curriculum revision from the bottom up. So, we started looking at our uh ELP and kindergarten curriculum. We've now gotten all the way up to fourth grade um in that deep dive. Uh so, now that means that we're uh starting to talk about how the learning preK through three uh translates to an instrument. So, we're looking at our strings and our band curriculum. It's been really
126great for our elementary teachers to share out the learning so that the students are really applying that to an instrument and it's not like they're starting something fresh. They already know how uh how to read music and they're understanding music well. Um we've been grateful for the collaboration time. Um those early release days uh allows our teachers to come together from all elementary schools and uh really collaborate on how the work is similar and different at each elementary school. and um in vocal music versus instrumental music. Um our focus right now is curriculum development and re revision for ensembles. That's tricky um in UBD format because we don't think of things in units. We're really thinking about students uh developing their ability to sing and play their instrument throughout the year but also throughout the
127years. And we have students coming in and out of the program. Um so we've really organized it in three uh kind of three units for each ensemble. It's the uh kind of technique and individual playing and singing unit. It's the literacy unit and it's the performance unit. And the performance unit talks about not just how you perform at in an ensemble, but also how you observe an ensemble. And so the the concert etiquette. Um so that that expands throughout the year and throughout their time in in music. All of our students have exposure to music uh preK through eight. So we want them to become uh not just great performers but um great music consumers as well. The pictures you see here uh Mr. Andred is teaching about the properties of sound and music tech
128which is a really great STEM connection. Uh Mr. Grower is uh rehearsing. This is on the first day of band. They're already out and playing. We have our first concert next week for DHS and you see Mr. Allen at Oxridge um having students mirror him uh to get ready to play their barred instruments. And so, uh, I got to witness that firsthand and how they transfer that. Then moving over to visual art, um, I am really grateful to have the opportunity to work with the talented team. Uh, Jacqueline Samus has done great work with them. Um, our cur their curriculum is really in great shape. So, when you see the chart and it looks like visual art might be lagging behind, that's just because things haven't been put into edup planet yet, but we're working
129on that. Um we are working on our itinerant art teacher collaboration at the elementary level. We've got four art teachers for five schools. Um and our um our elementary assistant principles were really great at scheduling them this year. So we've got no school has more than two art teachers and no art teacher is in more than two schools. Um and they're also working in 60-minute art blocks. So every student is having a really full experience with just one teacher. Um and that collaboration time has been really really important. Um we're continuing to work on our scope and sequence. We're also starting to talk a little bit more about our display art practices and how we are um how we're just showcasing student artwork um throughout the district. I think we do a really good job
130at showcasing it throughout the town almost more so than in district. these beautiful uh uh pieces of art that you see in the boardroom. Uh we'd like to have those um placed in in more areas around the town so students can really demonstrate their uh their their skill and their development. >> So, Colleen, with the transition back to 60-minute art, we no longer have the the extra art >> right >> block and then the curriculum has been revised to reflect that. Thank you for touching on that because that was definitely a pain point for us in the in that budget conversation. So yes, thank you. >> Um, last but not least, CT or Greg. >> Saving the best for last, I think. >> Hi, Greg Darren. I'm the career and technical education coordinator for 6
131through 12. And I will touch upon some of the highlights that we have this year and over the summer. So curriculum highlights at the middle school. Our stage one is complete for um all the classes that we offer. So, we will be moving into working on stage two for our uh seventh grade computers course and our eighth grade design and modeling course. Um, and if we have time, we will um kind of foster some of that into the engineering class as well. Uh, some of the summer work that we did, we had a couple teachers working on uh a couple of courses there. The pre-law stage one is now complete as well as the DIY stage two is complete. And I I said this last year, I'm going to reiterate this again. the teachers who
132are working on this curriculum work, especially over the summer, are having a really good experience. And I'm saying that because it was brought up again just at the department meeting yesterday, um how they're utilizing the stuff and the essential questions that they worked on over the summer and they're bringing it into class and it just makes them think differently. So, um it's it's been a a positive um experience for some of the teachers working on the curriculum. And uh this this fall we're going to continue our work on the principles of engineering course and our cyber security course which is underway. and but we're still continuing to to develop that. We have um a couple of workshops for the middle school and high school departments to work on this curriculum after school just to keep
133this um fresh in our minds and continue working on it so we um could get as much benefit out of it as possible. Uh some of the professional learning and our priority work. I want to continue to strengthen our course pathways and career awareness and ready readiness and um try to identify some maybe gaps in our pathways and and provide um hopefully in the future adjustments in curriculum and courses to offer um some experience in some of those areas that we may be lacking and um AI integration for teachers. And the the thought behind this is um right now kids are using AI especially the high school level whether we like it or not. And um I think it's important at a very soon or very soon that we have teachers be able to guide
134some of that work that these kids are doing. And teachers will not be ready for that until they can use this proficiently and um easily and use it in their regular workflow to see where the benefits are and see where the pitfalls are. And when they gain enough experience in it, they're going to be better prepared to guide students with this. And um Greg, to your point that you mentioned before, um you're absolutely right to a point. The way I saw kids use AI last year um in some of our courses was a point where they're not learning at all. They're just having it do the work for them. It's spitting out the answer. They're not looking at the answers. They're submitting it and there's no learning. And what I see the shift now as
135maybe kids are getting more experience in it or the the resources are more available. I'm seeing them having more of an interactive dialogue. And if we could guide students to that point where it's more of a collaborative resource, you know, just like having an intellectual conversation with a colleague or collaborating with another pair, it's actually a really intelligent pair. You can have that conversation and that dialogue to be able to learn and ask those questions. What am I doing wrong? Um where where are the mistakes in what you're saying? And and really building upon that and reading it. And I think that's important that we guide students um sooner rather than later because um as Dr. Burn was saying when they leave high school and it's happening right now, the people that are the most
136successful are able to utilize these technologies to the best of their ability. >> Go ahead, Greg. >> Yeah, I just I think one follow up on the a point. I also I agree with that like the kids kids are definitely using it. Um, I think that there's, you know, I think we're seeing some colleges go back to the blue books, which and some high schools go back to the blue books for like writing and doing things like that, which forces the kids to demonstrate their actual capabilities. And so there's no ability to use AI with blue books. Um, and so I think that that's that's one alternative to make sure that they're actually learning versus um relying on a device or relying on um AI. I also think that as it relates to AI, like
137in terms of educating the kids, making sure that they understand the idea of factchecking and source credentiing and making sure that the information is actually accurate. I think even adults just inherently think that AI is accurate and correct and I I don't I don't think that that's always the case. >> Absolutely. Questioning resources and I'm not saying diving completely into AI. Your point to blue books are absolutely a great way to assess students to see what they know. We're doing that in computer science classes. Um handwritten stuff for them to see what they've learned and hopefully if they're learning whatever way they're learning through AI or not, we could assess that in a in a meaningful way. I also just want to take a minute um to recognize Greg's leadership. The I think the first
138conversation I had with Greg was I'm surprised that we don't apply for the Perkins grant and have you thought of that? And then immediately he submitted the application was awarded the the funds last year and has made really great use of those to bring some really interesting technology and experiences in for our students and additional professional learning for the staff. So I just want to again recognize Greg's leadership in that area. >> Thank you. Go ahead. I've said this before, but it's worth repeating, too. I think um the teched department in particular is just so exciting. Um it's really growing as it should be as our world is growing in that way and has really become um a department that um students are really excited about. They they arrange their schedules and they choose their
139electives, you know, to take those classes. They're learning transferable skills. Um, and so I just want to express gratitude that we have those options at Darian and I look forward to um to continuing to hear about, you know, how you're staying on top of trends and what we might offer students. So, thank you for that. >> Of course. Thank you. I'll mention those pictures, too, now that I'm looking at them. Picture to the left over there was last year with a Woods 2 class. They worked on the community bench. They called it the community bench project, but it is for the um the courtyard or serenity garden that um is is coming to fruition now. The benches are out there. And then the uh picture to the right is from our business and entrepreneurship class
140where the students come up with um their own uh kind of mock companies and pitch their ideas to a a kind of uh some sharks, some members of the community where they try to get some funding for their their mock companies >> and you look for volunteers to be sharks in the spring. I I enjoy that. So other board members may want >> Great experience if you could come and be a shark. Yeah, it's fun. >> Great. Thanks, Greg. Thank you. >> Okay. And then I just would point out, you know, I know this is a this is probably our one of our longer, if not our longest meeting of the year because really we talk about um all of the work that's taken place and where we're going next. And I'm really grateful for
141the opportunity to for you all to hear directly from the people who are leading the work, who can speak really about the work that's happening out in schools with our students and staff most directly. And um I'm I'm not going to review this entire list here, but we've indicated that there are some things that you'll hear more about in future board of ed curriculum committee meetings. And then I would also say that as we think about coming forward with the next iteration of the strategic plan, you'll hear and see in that some of these things that we talked about integrated really obviously as action steps into the strategic plan. So be on the lookout for that. >> That's it. All right. Um, thank you all. This was a long meeting. I appreciate you taking the
142time out of your very busy days to sit here with us and share all your great work. Um, we will move on to public comment. >> There's nobody in the audience and nobody on the phone. >> I will take a motion to address. keys.