Updates 9.26.09

I am at a standstill on a number of tasks:

• Jonathan Flukes at Oakland Schools was able to send me the ELPA scores for all but two of the 21 students I sent to him–but I can’t unzip the file because he hasn’t sent the password yet.
• I want to update the ELPAS list by digging through the list of elementary students–but can’t get onto Power School right now.
• Because of the aforementioned issue, I also can’t update student info for our FLEP students–nor can I get onto MSDS because I haven’t gotten the go-ahead yet.
• The notifications I was ready to start filling out need to be updated with a new due date–and the list I had printed needs to be sorted into a different way.

The only thing I will be able to accomplish this weekend is creating unit plans for the upcoming units.  Unfortunately, 7th hour is going to be difficult to plan for until Nevils transfer about 7 of the students to my third hour because of their proficiency level (and the huge size of the class).

We’re getting there though!  All screeners need to be done and notifications sent out by 10/8/09.  That gives me a little less than two weeks–totally manageable.

The staff newsletter for October is ready to go; I had my writing group proof it on Thursday, and got good feedback.  As soon as I have the data from these screeners, I’ll print off a new spreadsheet and attach it to the newsletter.  That should go out 10/5/09.

The information that I received at last week’s Title III meeting and this week’s New Director’s Meeting has made it apparent that I need to have a meeting with administration.  Hopefully that happens within the next two weeks as well.

MEAP accommodations are being planned for.  Cherry has ordered the necessary CDs for all grades.  I checked with Melotik to find out how many headphones we have (over 50).  I need to get both computer labs booked for MEAP testing so our elementary and middle school students can have that accommodation.

I guess I got a lot done this past week…

Everything ESL

Exploring ESL – September 2009

New Director’s Meeting

TO DO:

• Uniform exiting criteria
• Record FLEP kids for end-of-year report (CEPI) or for fall counts—ask how to do this accurately in SDS
• IEP forms; Child Care Team criteria
• Final Expenditure Report—due November 30
• AMAOs
• Read 180 and System 44
• Embed strategies for ESL in SIP

Introduction

Do we have to serve them?

• YES! This is based on Civil Rights requirements according to Title VI of 1964. We need to give them access to the general curriculum.
• Lau v. Nichols and Casteneda v. Pickard require us to serve them—and provide the necessary supplies

Who do we serve?

• Home Language Survey included in registration packet; we can just base it on their appearance; it needs to be fair and includes those who are second and third generation and whose literacy skills are lacking
• Needs to be available in multiple languages; resources available at MDE under ELLs
• Must test them.
• Communicate to parents; document refusal of services and inform parents that they must still be tested each spring.
• Must test all students—serviced or not—using the ELPA each year until they achieve proficiency.

Now what?

• Offer services to family in writing using standard form in first language and English; they must sign off if they do not want their student to receive services.
• Provide services and monitor; need to develop a uniform set of criteria to determine exiting the program.
• Once students have been exited, you have the option of testing them for up to two years after; it is our decision as to when we can exit them.

Allocations/Application
How do you access your Title III funds?

• Funding based on student counts from SDS and those tested; if the student left prior to the spring ELPA, the state will still count the ELPAS. Counts are used from the prior year.
• The initial services come from general fund money.
• Must qualify for a minimum grant of $10,000—or be a part of a consortium
• Current allocations in MEGS are 85% of last year’s allocation
• Final allocations will be made in December when your 2008-2009 carryover is known based on Final Expenditure Report—due November 30.
• Modify your Consolidation Application to finish out the year; opens in spring of each year for the following school year. Talk to the Field Service Consultant. DUE 7/1 for each year in order to get the earliest possible obligation date.
• Think now about how to use up the carryover—need to spend it down.

How to use Title III?

• It has to be about MORE time
• Before/after school—and supplies for such programs
• Transportation for such programs
• Family literacy

Supplement/Supplant

• ELLs must have access to the curriculum—and anything that impedes them must be addressed through general funds
• Determination

1. First Test – an LEA uses Title III funds to provide services that the LEA is required to make available under state or local laws, or other Federal laws
2. Second Test – Using Title III funds to provide services that it provided in prior years with other funds

• Must supplement; provide additional services beyond the core language instruction educational programs

Implications
General Fund

• Salaries for teachers, parapros, and administration
• ELPAS and ELPA administration
• Core Language Instruction; determined in the same way an LEA determines other core curricula
• Supplies, staff, etc.
• Communications with parents

Title III

• After using a common determiner, students are identified for additional support
• Is the need centered on the acquisition of the curriculum or the language skills? If it’s language skills, Title III funds can be used to provide more instructional time.

Curriculum

• Issues – Science, Social Studies, etc.???
• Targeted curricula for survival, language domains and other core areas
• Resources – ELP standards
• Stakeholders – Teachers, Admin, Parapros
• Process

Testing

• MDE Contact: Aric Kuester (KuesterA@michigan.gov)
• Administer two tests: ELPAS and ELPA if student has been identified

AMAOs—only for Title III schools

Three components to measure program:

1. Progress – 75% of students must improve by four scale score points (approximately two questions).  New twist for 09-10’s AMAOs—look for students back the beginning of the testing requirement.
2. Proficiency – 10% of students move to the FLEP category on SDS. Move to FLEP status by the end of the school year.
3. AYP

Consequences

• Year 1: Letter to parents
• Year 2: Letter to parents and plan
• Year 3: Letter to parents and implement the plan
• Year 4: Letter to parents; change staff or model

Monitoring

Annual Self Assessment

• Sent in fall; due back December/January
• Administrative (Fiscal responsibility; data recording and analysis)
• Student Identification (Survey, testing, and monitoring)
• Parent/Community Involvement
• Instructional Programs and Assessment
• Teacher Qualifications/Professional Development
• Program Evaluation/School Improvement

Desk monitoring or on-site monitoring; might be combined with field services for all federal programs; receive single report

Risk factors

• AMAOs
• Business office pulling money regularly
• Amount of carryover (FIR and draw downs)
• Problems with the program
• Change required
• Respond with a plan to correct the situation
• Consultant will approve and monitor to be sure that the changes were made

Parent Support

• Permission to service students
• Support
• Translations – general fund
• Conferences
• Newsletters
• Field trips
• American school system
• Literacy programs

SIFE (Students with Interrupted Formal Education)

• Age can be a problem at the secondary level
• Rigor—don’t just grant them credit just to do it
• ESL can substitute for ELA credit, but is not recommended for high school if ESL class is not meeting the level of rigor for the ELA class

SIOP

• Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol
• Will repeat next summer; the trainers will be available for training after this year

9.15.09 Updates

Parent notifications

• Updated “Parent Notification” letter; created data file to complete letters, and printed all copies; will be filling these out and sending them by the end of next week

Screeners arrived!

• Sorted to ensure all materials arrived; missing Level IIIs; checked order–I had ordered 10.
• Placed an order for 20 more Level IIIs (I need 18 total, and am not sure when the 10 I ordered will arrive).
• Organizing a schedule as we speak for testing in hopes of being done by Friday, September 25.  May need to recruit help.  There are 69 students who need to be tested as of today–but this may be missing new elementary and high school students; need to double check files.  After going through the list of students, I realized there were some duplicates as well as some students who have already been unenrolled; the number is now down to 50.  Based on test levels and grades, I have broken the students into 12 groups of 3-7 students; at an hour per test, this should take approximately 12 hours to complete, which could be done by next Friday as long as all goes well.  Ideally, Mrs. Holden (or other volunteers) would help–and guarantee meeting this deadline.

Preassessments for returning students

• Disaggregated data for preassessment administered in classes.
• Still need to administer approximately 20 tests at the high school level, but won’t be able to until HS schedules are fixed.  Have been told this would be happening soon…No longer have HS students coming in during the last 20 min of my 1st Hour middle school class.

Feeling very very stretched in a million directions–but determined not to let it impact my teaching.

Updates: Day 2

Completed:

• Screeners – Received an e-mail from James Griffiths at OEAA, “Currently, there is a backlog of orders for ELPA Initial Screening materials.  If you have not yet received your materials, you may anticipate that your order will arrive by the middle of next week.” Hopefully, that means we’ll get them by Wednesday, September 16–but that doesn’t give me much time to test our new students by Friday, 9/18, which will be ten days after the start of the semester.
• New Students – I have updated the list of new students, which now includes approximately 19 high school students, 18 middle school students and 28 elementary school students–all for a grand total of about 65 new students.  WOW.  In addition to digging through files today to update my list, I also started to meet some of these students: Dana Ortiz, Irma Flores, and Mirielis Santiago.
• Deb Hoerres – Met with Deb today to update her about certain Title III g threquirements.  Some things talked about during the meeting: Screener issues (waiting for their arrival), the large number of new students–and how this might lead to increased support, Title III evaluation and evidence binder, the need to keep a log of administrative work completed to be submitted by the first of each month, and the need to forward my lessons to her.

To-Do:

• SRD – I need to finish updating the SRD for all students in our program by the end of the month to ensure accurate reporting for MEAP.
• Student Files – These need to be updated as well; I would love to do so before the end of the month…
• Notifications (still waiting on response from Tiller); need to fill out, print, copy, and then mail out with parent reports
• High Schoolers–waiting for accurate schedules
• New Students – update elementary and high school lists
• Complete data collection for Preassessments
• Complete sub plans by Friday
• Title III Binder
• Submit PD app for 9/22 mtg. in E.L.
• Complete lessons for next week
• Continue meeting with new students

Ok, enough with the lists.

Day 2 was just as enjoyable as Day 1.  My middle schoolers are awesome; their attitudes are great, their work ethic amazing, and the progress we will make is exciting.  They really enjoyed doing the Scavenger Hunt BINGO activity, and I think it was particularly effective because of the data collection I did on D1.  They also finished the Student Survey, which I am using tonight to chart their goals.  For their QW tomorrow, they will do a carousal walk of these goals and then create a bar graph of what they want to accomplish this year.  We’ll use this data to revisit the classroom expectations and what they want our classroom community to be like.  After, they will begin the Preassessment, which will be finished on Friday.  I was originally planning to start MEAP prep, but I think that will have to wait until Monday.  On Friday, when all students finish the preassessment, I could also do it…

With my high schoolers, I’ve been dancing around my beginning of the year activities since there are about 20 students missing between all three classes since scheduling is an outright nightmare right now.  I currently have three HS students showing up for the last twenty minutes of my 1st hour MS class–but it’s alright.  W’e'll get there.  Despite the craziness, I have had some great convos with the HS students who are showing up.  It’s been very powerful to show them their test scores from the ELPA and to talk about what they need to do to pass the test (and gain English proficiency).

Alright.  Time to do some work.

Updates

Trying to keep track of what’s done and what has to be done:

• High School Schedules – Resubmitted the list of student to Nevils; ten students were accurately scheduled.  Discovered that the bell times for high school and middle school are different; as a result, I can not have a second hour.  Solution? Eliminate second hour and reschedule for 6th hour if needed.  Otherwise, I will officially have my elementary support hour again.
• Notifications – Received approval from Lozelle and Sedick; waiting on Tiller.  Need to develop notifications this week to be sent out with parent reports by the beginning of next week.  Need copies to go in student files.
• Screeners – Ordered screeners 8/21 and called to follow up 8/26; was told they arrive the following week.  Still waiting for the tests; need to administer this week.  Called today and left a VM.
• PD – Need to get forms from Cannady and Flowers to go to Title III mtgs. DONE
• HAVE TO GET SUB PLANS DONE BY FRIDAY
• Scavenger Hunt needs to be created
• Weekend Project – Update files

Daily Reflection

One of my goals this school year is to spend time in daily reflection about my teaching practice–whether that’s for two minutes or two hours.  It’s something that was pivotal in my growth as a teacher during my internship, and was a vital component that was noticeably missing from my practice last year.

As I walked across my dark bedroom last night to go to bed, I realized that I was starting a new school year–and wasn’t feeling the apprehension or anxiety that I anticipated.  This morning, I was concerned–was this normal for me to feel so ready to rock and roll?

Thankfully, these worries were unfounded, and perhaps my confidence was a good thing.  Even though I hadn’t thought too much about what I would say today, I felt like my back-to-school speech was on point.  I wanted to ensure that my students knew my expectations and goals for them–and that I couldn’t make them achieve these goals if they were not active participants.  I also tried to address the negativity surrounding ESL at PAE head on.  I told my middle schoolers that they were fortunate to have a small class to become readers in–a class that helped develop there amazing skills as bilinguals.  I told them they were my little seeds.  I can’t make them grow; I can water them and give them sun to help them grow, but ultimately, they’re the ones who actually grow.  (Ha, I thought it was cute.  Should have brought an actual seed and plant…)  One student tried to get on his soap box from last year, asking why he needed the class–but I waved it off.  Hopefully, his classmates will too.

My high schoolers are definitely the more resilient bunch, and it doesn’t help that their schedules are so inaccurate.  Out of 35 high school students, only 10 were scheduled in properly.  I knew–especially in 7th hour–that I would meet some resistance from my high intermediate students who don’t want to admit that they need help in reading and writing, don’t want to admit that with the advantage of being bilingual comes the occasional language deficits that need to be filled (I hate using deficit here, but I know what I mean).  I felt like the conversation I had with D, M, A, and I today was very fruitful.  I tried to give them some sovereignty, tried to show them that I understood their frustration.  I gave the rationale for why they were in the class, the benefits of being there, and even showed them their test scores.  I could tell M was getting frustrated, and so to get her mind off of the situation, thought that a get-to-know-you activity might be suitable (even though I wanted to save it for when the other 13 students actually showed up…).  It did help, and it opened the door for me to ask questions.  My favorite part of our conversation today was the idea of identity as bilinguals.  I don’t remember how it came up…I.N. was talking about how he has been working out to prepare for the dances for his quincinera (sp?); I asked D.C. if he had similar traditions in his culture, and so off we went, talking about immigrants becoming Americanized, and sometimes losing the other part of their identity.  I felt like M.F. needed to hear that; I wonder how she feels about her Hispanic heritage.

I’m so glad to have D in class again; he’s an insightful breath of fresh air.  I need to talk to my dad about getting that guitar to him.

Regret from today: not taking A’s cell phone.  I need to be hardcore, and that decision didn’t help.  Tomorrow, it’s mine.

Reflection: Past, Present

I was flipping through the pages of my planner this morning, making sure I hadn’t neglected to put anything on my Back-to-School checklist for my teaching and Title III duties.  It’s amazing to me to realize where I was last year versus where I am at the same time this year.  I know I accomplished a great deal this past school year, and it’s incredibly satisfying to see how much further I am at the beginning of this school year–and how much more I’ll be able to accomplish as as a result.  Here are some tasks that I had in my planner from last year

-Room Key (I didn’t receive a key to my room until January this past year).

-Order Books (I didn’t get textbooks until January either)

-Curriculum Planning (Nobody gave me materials to start with, so I had to begin from scratch.  Granted, this same task is on  my to-do list this year, but the difference is I’m creating individual unit maps rather than mapping out what I think the school year might look like.  And I know what I’m doing.)

-Student Schedules (I didn’t know who my students were at the beginning of last year, and assumed that someone was going to schedule them into my class for me.  A week into the school year, I realized this wasn’t the case.  This year, Mrs. Avitia and Mrs. Nevils already have my list of students and are almost finished scheduling them into my class.  I’ll actually be able to start teaching on the first day of the school year rather than having to wait a month into the school year).

There’s so much more done besides this, but these are a few things that make me feel very satisfied and excited about the coming year.  I know there will be challenges and very long days ahead of me, but there’s no way it will be as frustrating as last year.  What a relief!

Remember for planning…

National Hispanic Month

http://www.readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=293

Update on PAE

As much as I need to take time to write and reflect, I’m afraid that it’s been a week since my last update. Today, the fact that I’m an ESL coordinator rather than just a teacher really sort of struck me. Originally, I was supposed to have my first classes with my Basic and Low Intermediate students; by the middle of second hour, I realized that was not going to be the case. Being at a small charter school certainly has it’s benefits, but unfortunately, it means there are sometimes not enough hands to get everything done, including changing my students’ schedules to ensure that they come to my classroom instead of following their former schedule. After a brief discussion with my principal, it became apparent that none of the schedules had been revised nor had the students been informed. So I asked for a copy of all of the schedules, so I could figure out how to adjust their schedules. This is on top of ordering the ELPA Level 1 tests another teacher had supposedly ordered, getting a schedule to a teacher who is helping administer the ELPA, finding all of my students addresses so I could send a letter to the parents informing them of their students’ placement in my class, and talking with my floor dean about where I might move my classroom to ensure that my schedule doesn’t class with the Spanish teacher’s schedule. But all is well. It’s actually nice to be involved in all aspects of organizing this program–sort of fun even. At any rate, hopefully I will have students walk into my room for class first thing on Monday morning.

One of the main benefits of having a three-week delay in my teaching is the ability to thoroughly plan out my program–the curriculum, unit, environment, textbooks, schedules, etc. And so that’s where I’m at. I got to work with students for the first time yesterday as I administered the ELPA; I will have the opportunity to do so again tomorrow. As a result, my guilt level is not as high as it would be if I weren’t working with students at all. I feel very disempowered in some ways…

Today was also the first MEAP Writing tutoring session I’ve had that went beautifully! When I volunteered for tutoring, I didn’t realize that I would be working with students from grades 3-5, nor did I realize that I could have groups of 15 to work with. I felt very out of my element during the past four sessions with regard to classroom management and instruction. Today, I got it though. I took the third graders to my classroom for the first time, made sure they had snack, gave them a deadline for the writing assignment as well as an incentive. I got work one on one with a couple students. Next week, I will make sure I have real writing conferences. I think originally I was over concerned with providing the students with test-taking strategies sort of a la Studypoint style–which meant crammed with information and very little individualized instruction. But forget it. I’m going to just teach writing the way I know how to teach it, and believe that the students’ test scores will reflect what they learn in our brief stints together.

One last thing to discuss: I’ve been wanting to chew on my classroom management strategies for the year, particularly in light of watching Ms. Medel’s Spanish class as well as my experience with tutoring. On the one hand, in both experiences, I am seeing a blend of the student body, with varied attitudes towards learning and respect. On the other hand, my students will all be Hispanic–who typically appear to be more reserved and respectful. So I think I can count on that second thought. I want to empower my kids since in many ways, I’m sure they feel disempowered. This means having them play a part in the decision making process with regard to classroom expectations and consequences. But how does this work with the language barrier? Should I ask them to write this in Spanish if they are not comfortable using English? I’m sure Mr. Potes would help me decipher what they are saying. But at the same time, it’s an English as a Second Language class. I don’t think I can have an English ONLY policy; it just doesn’t seem practical nor does it seem entirely beneficial.  I think I’m going to aim high–we will establish the rules collaboratively; currently, I have it planned that students will work in small groups to come up with ideas.  They can discuss in English or Spanish, but must share out in English.  Good compromise?  We shall see…