001Are you on? Oh, got to do it again. To say it again. Can I get a motion to go into work? You're not ready. No, I thought he gave me a thumbs up. He go He went like this. I think he Oh, they're trying to get L. Now you got a thumbs up. Can I get a motion to go into work session? Motion. Second. All in favor? I. So carried. We're going to immediately go into our book approvals. Uh Mr. Pashkin. Should have in your folders. We're actually start with the first. We start with the second one. The AP pre-calculus. Start with that one. Okay. So in your folders you have two book requests. The first one is for AP pre-calculus. This is if you recall the new course that we are introducing the first
002time next year. We currently have approximately 60 requests for the course which is great. It is also taking the place of a course that was kind of in existence serving. Okay. So in your folders you have two book requests. The first one is for AP pre-calculus. This is stereo. That's wonderful. Um, okay. It is I'm going to pass around the book. Good oldfashioned big fat textbook we have here. So, I'm going to pass this around for you. And this is the one I got hit with. This is a new book. It's a 2024. Uh, again, this is for grade levels 11 and 12. Directly aligns with the pre-calculus curriculum. Uh, and it's covering all the essential pre-calculus topics. um that it's really heavy on functions which is essentially like math machines essentially what input to
003output. So all these different kinds of functions that are in place in pre-calculus and getting ready for calculus polomial rational exponential logarithmic and so on. Uh there is some also focus on different representations graphical, numerical, algebraic and verbal and it also has a technology integration including GeoGebra which you may have recall we were using a number of years ago before we got our new calculators to serve it with the Chromebooks because they actually function on the Chromebook. So this is not new to us and uh we're excited to get started on this course. We feel it'll be a really good important addition to the class. It's great stuff. Any questions? All right. If you want us extra textbook, I can see if I can get you one. No. Okay. The next book we have is
004for IB English and the title of the book is A Thousand Splendid Sons. It's by Colette Hassini, who is the same author as uh the previous book, The Kiterunner, which you may have read. So, I'm going to pass this around as well. I haven't read this one yet. Yeah. And this is again this is a novel uh designed to support IB English curriculum. Uh also aligns with the goals of the curriculum to foster global awareness and interary connections. Uh it engages students with a diverse perspective on Afghan with from an Afghan cultural lens and supports three core syllabus components. Uh the focus of the book is on two Afghan women. They start out as young girls and takes you through their lives. Now, these are fictional characters, but it's based on events from the war
005back in the 70s, kind of working through the '9s. Um, and taking you through their narrative structure, uh, of the two women's viewpoints. Uh, it's very sophisticated, but it's the language is accessible with, you know, the style of the author allows the students to stay really engaged in the book. a lot of focus on motherhood, gender roles, resilience in this particular culture, uh, and the political turmoil of the war in Afghanistan at the time. It is heart-wrenching. There's a lot of tragedy and loss, but it also focuses on the themes of perseverance and trying to uh get to a point, a better point down the line. And I'm not going to give away the end. Uh but it it it's a very gripping and moving story that should be a great addition to the IB
006English curriculum which does focus a lot on different perspectives, different cultures and we do again feel it would be a great addition to the IB English curriculum. I would hope I I assume that anybody that's in the class that would be noticeably distressed. Yeah. To just that it would be addressed. How many kids take this one? Uh IB English is a pretty popular course. It's a two-year class. Um, we can we usually running between I have to look back. It's usually between two and three sections per year if I remember correctly. So, we have it's about probably 40 to 60 kids per year taking the taking the class. Might some years might be a little bit more than that. I have to look back. Any additional questions? What year are they reading this in? Uh,
007it wasn't selected to any specific year. they have time to kind of fit different novels in throughout the throughout the course. So, I wasn't given a specific specific year. It just was looking for approval to be included in that class because it is two years. So, they would probably have to find the best fit for dur during that time of you know the war and all that kind of stuff. But there should be I mean there is got to be some good stuff in there that Oh, it Yeah, it's it's very graphic. I mean graphic from the sense of verbally graphic you know which doesn't doesn't get into but it does provide which was approved okay no I'm just I'm just I believe I as well I use the word graphic I more real you
008know it's it's getting real scenarios real situations that that people during that time had to deal with and and kids worrying about you know I was thinking actually one of those talking about the summer of 1992 which is when I was thinking well I was getting ready to go off to college you have kids there who are worried about getting their the house being bombed, you know. So that that's kind of the focus. See, I'm more I'm like and and I know you're talking about here, but I'm more worried about our country. Are we doing a lot are we doing more stuff for our country, too? Like reading about our country, our our history that's here. Are we making sure everything's being covered? I I got this, but I mean in other curriculum, I'm looking
009at are we covering our American history? Are we doing all those wars, the Civil War, and all this stuff where we we're doing all of that stuff? Yeah. throughout the curriculum. We do have um I mean I can probably have Mr. Del University provide some some different books, but I know um things they carried is one in particular they read at at a younger level where they focuses on the Vietnam War and a story about a person and all the things that they're carrying both figuratively and literally through that scenario. So that's another example. Okay. But in particular to your point, they they do have to focus on um uh authors from their own not only our country but all respective world. I got it. That's what they So let me ask following that. Typically
010for maybe our English classes, I'm imagining the department has a chart of what books, you know, does the teacher have some latitude in some of the English classes re right from seventh grade on to pick out of say 10. I'm going to do these two this year and at what rate do we say hey let's take one book out of the equation or add a book just curious co as the former director of English but jump right in on that good question sure so at each grade level there are what we call core texts that we ensure that every student regardless of the teacher reads and then there are a list of supplemental texts that meet the New York State literacy standards and the teachers have the ability to supplement based upon what the what
011the skills are that the grade level is looking at. Um, every year they re-evaluate the core curriculum and they are constantly adding and removing texts that are no longer relevant. Um, but it is reviewed every year by Miss Dell University as well as the English teachers collectively. I'm just curious. Yes. Including some of the books that we have actually approved which are now part of their yearly curriculum. Yeah. And they evaluate that based on, you know, different levels, interest, and so on. And just one final piece, if there's a text that's removed, it may be removed for a grade level um complexity, but it might move on then to an elective course or to IB or AP. So that they're always being reviewed um in accordance with the standards. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All
012right. Sounds good. Thank you. Good stuff. So very exciting for second piece of the work session. We're going to Mr. Leech is first going to start Okay. here. Correct. Uh what are we going to do? Okay. We're going to go right up. We're going to go right upstairs to say the tables. Anomage. Ananomage. It's like one of these. An enemy anomage tables which were purchased and we're going to get a demonstration. Correct. Correct. All right. So, we're going to take a pause. We're going to go upstairs. Live and live stream will pick up in the library. Yes. In the library, we can see the tables. All right. Thank you. So then you can we don't have a Oh, you're taking him. I'm taking him.