Category: Presentations

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Ninth Grade Academy Planning Workshop – from “Idea to Implementation.”

There is a growing recognition that ninth graders flourish in the unique environment of a Ninth Grade Academy. These small learning communities improve freshman transitions with a supportive environment, dedicated faculty, counselor and administrator. (Note: See my more recent NGA blog post updates 2007 and 2010. )

Recently, I offered a one-day planning workshop for a consortium of high schools in eastern and central Kentucky. The session was sponsored by the Pike County Schools and the Kentucky Department of Education. The goal of our workshop was to guide NGA design teams from “Idea to Implementation.”

I was joined by Matt Laniak, principal of Eastridge High School at East Irondequoit CSD. Matt and I had collaborated in the design and launch of the NGA – Matt was the it’s founding director and I was then serving as the district’s Assistant Superintendent for Instruction.

Our workshop perspective was "from the frontline,” with activities, resources and discussion to help participants address planning elements – Making use of data, Selection of faculty, Fostering faculty teamwork, Working with feeder schools, Professional development, Curriculum development, Scheduling, Physical plant, Student conduct, Support structures, Partnering with parents, Working with stakeholders.

Participant evaluations suggest it was a highly successful session –
“The workshop had a tremendous impact on our planning, it gave us a blueprint to go by – thank you so much.”
“Engaging, interactive, informative, and very motivational.”
“Real life case studies from presenters who have walked the walk."
“I am so excited to implement the NGA at our school after this workshop. – thank you.”
“Well-organized, the presenters have actually faced the problems we have. So many ideas to make our planning easier.”

Workshop resources include:
Participant Planning Guide 39KB PDF
Q and A – launch a NGA 53KB PDF
PowerPoint Handout 1.1MB PDF

For more resources visit my Small Learning Communities Website and see video interviews with the Ninth Grade Academy students and teachers.

Here's a 55 minute RealPlayer video of a conference presentation I did for the Oregon Dept of Eductation called "9th Grade Academy – A Small Learning Community that Works."  If you need RealPlayer click here.

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Picturing Ourselves: Teaching with Visual Documents

MAG-workshop featured

I recently worked with educators from across the Rochester NY area in a workshop titled “Picturing Ourselves: Teaching with Visual Documents”  at a workshop held at the Memorial Art Gallery.

We looked at strategies for using visual document to create student-centered lessons that invite students to construct their own meaning. Our focus included – the relevance of essential questions, higher order thinking skills, and linking visual literacy with listening and reading skills. Presentation Notes (4 mb) pdf.

Most importantly, we considered choosing images that contain information that is not overly dependant on background knowledge. This enables students of all ability level to successfully “do the work of the historian.”

Use this guide (9 kb) pdf to compare these two images (446 kb) pdf. The first is a famous photo of the linking of the transcontinental railroad. Without background knowledge, students merely see a group of men standing around two trains. Contrast with the second photo from the Stone Collection of a 1910 street scene in Rochester NY. Without much background knowledge students see autos, bicycles, electric trolleys, horse-draw wagons and pedestrians. Independently they can use this image to construct their own understanding of the changes in transportation in the early 20th century.

“Homefront America” is a lesson designed to improve content reading comprehension with an engaging array of source documents – including journals, maps, photos, posters, cartoons, historic data and artifacts. I developed it to serve as a model for blending essential questions, higher order thinking and visual interpretation.

For more ideas go to my websites Teaching with Documents  and Content Reading Strategies that Work For more images from the Stone Collection of the Rochester Museum and Science Center as well as images of Rochester and New York State try The Rochester Image Project. The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection can be searched here.

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Reinventing your high school? Be sure to focus on instruction.

On October 1 – 3 over 2,000 education leaders from 35 states convened at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. to learn about exemplary high schools across the country and how to apply their successful approaches and strategies.

Over the course of the weekend I presented a six working sessions called “Focus on Instruction” to most of the attendees. My pitch was very direct – first forge a common view of teaching and learning, and then treat the organization as an instrument for accomplishing the vision.

On October 1st, my talk targeted creating a common vision for rigor and relevance. I included video interviews with the teachers and students at the Eastridge Ninth Grade Academy in Rochester NY. Download PowerPoint notes  (726kb) Visit my Small Learning Communities Website to see my Ninth Grade Academy Video and other resources.

On October 2nd  I offered insights into the elements of a common vision of instruction. Download PowerPoint notes  (934kb) Download PodCast (45 mb) 47 minutes

I was joined by Susan Gunderman, Principal of Kennesaw Mountain High School, Kennesaw, GA (also Dr. Mimi Dyer- Coordinator – Academy of Math, Science & Technology and Lenora Nyeste, KMHS Instructional Lead Teacher) Download their PowerPoint notes (831kb)

The Symposium explored in depth the successful approaches identified in schools involved in the high school initiatives being conducted by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the International Center for Leadership in Education.

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“Literacy in a Copy / Paste World”

Keynote Address
Learning Through Literacy Summer Institute, Toronto, Canada August 11, 2005

Download PodCast (27.7 mb) 30 minutes

The new information technologies put all of us in charge of the information we access, store, analyze and share. They have unleashed individual and collective creativity. This 30 minute Audio PodCast redefines the meaning of literacy in the digitial age and explores exciting new opportunities to interact with students, colleagues and information in ways that can revitalize teaching and learning.