September+24

toc =September 24, 2008: Central PA Coaches Day= //Next Meeting: November 5th, 9am at YCST// Register for this day here

Collaboration Days Details
2 teachers from each district per high school.

History of Days Light Snacks Ice Breaker to build camaraderie Teachers got to hear/learn from other teachers Breakouts with tools - techniques One day per subject area Adding cohort 3 this year $10.00 for lunch and lunch will be in house those days.

Thursday, Jan 8th - Language Arts Wednesday, Feb 4th - Math Thursday, Feb 26th - Science Thursday, March 12th - Social Studies

What should Collaboration Days be like?
Do we still want to have teachers give a Keynote where they talk about what they've done in their classrooms so they can say, "We know that we need to move into 21st Century Instruction. How do we do it?" Can we get IT people involved? They aren't coming from and educator's viewpoint, so how do we get them involved? We need to get certain things open, so how do we get our IT staff working together with our CFF people? There does need to be a way that the central office is more involved in CFF. There needs to be more collaboration between the CFF Coaches, Mentors, and admins in districts. Could we make a fifth day that includes the "best of" from the other days as a bit of a showcase for central office so they can see how things go together from math to language arts to science to social studies. This could give a broad view of why we need things available for our teachers to access. In the end, communication is the most important tool that we have to help move things along. A "Best Of" day could help other districts to move along, especially for some of the districts that have had trouble gaining access to certain sites and tools within their buildings. How do we get students more involved? Cheryl talked about how she was getting two students from each school to get them involved. Ideally, there should be IU days were the CFF Coaches, Principals, Superintendents, teachers and students can get together to move things along. Our collaboration days will be teacher centered, with days aiming for getting school leaders on board being handled in the IUs. Remember, there are four spots on the implementation team: Project manager, Principal, Coach, and Data Collector. Many times, the Data Collector is also the Principal. You should have 3-4 people on your implementation team. There should also be a curriculum and tech representative on your team. A great way to see what's going on is to make a visit to another school. The other schools love to share, and seeing how things work is very helpful in seeing how CFF is working in other schools.

Plans for Collaboration Days
Get two teachers to talk about how CFF is working for them (subject area specific) Tentative Agenda:
 * 8:10 - 8:40: Registration & Coffee
 * 8:40 - 9:15: Two teachers keynote and welcome
 * 9:15 - 9:30: Break and move
 * 9:30 - 10:15: Session One
 * 10:15 - 10:30: Break and move
 * 10:30 - 11:15: Session Two
 * 11:15 - 11:30: Break and Move
 * 11:30 - 12:15: Session Three
 * 12:15 - 1:15: Collaborative Lunch
 * 1:15 - 2:15: Roundtable Discussions/Collaboration
 * 2:15 - 2:30: Wrap Up

Maps have been provided to coaches so we know what rooms are available. Hopefully we'll have the map linked here soon... Remind your teachers to bring their laptops with them.

Register through the wiki (see left pane) as soon as you know when people are coming! The maximum a teacher can send for a collaboration day is 4 (coach, presenter, + 2 other teachers). December 1 is the cutoff, so get the registrations done soon. Invoices will be sent to your district. Call for presenters should be completed by November 4th day so we can make final decisions by our next meeting day. Just because you are submitting a proposal for a presentation does not mean you will be chosen to present. We only have so many spots for presentations, so we will look for outstanding presentation proposals. We want to make sure to get two dynamic teachers for the opening keynotes.

Organizing Responsibilities
(As decided on March 31 day)
 * Location - Includes creating signs - Marg R., Ann J., Aly T.
 * Registration (including money) - Box lunch at York CTC, as made by Culinary Arts Program - Beth (Boiling Springs), Sue S., Marg R.
 * Agenda (setting up) - Keep the same time schedule for all four days. Do we want to include a Keynote Speaker, vendors, etc. - Sue. S, Ben L., everybody
 * Wiki (creating pages and setting up links) - Pat G. and Laurie V.
 * Bloggers - Make sure that there is a blogger signed up for each session - Jimbo L. and Sue A.
 * Hospitality - Greeting, Keynote Speaker, thank you gifts, emails (directions, reminders, etc.), nametags - Michelle K., Aly T., Sam S.

There will be projectors in house. There should not be a need to bring any. There are equipment and supplies here, so if there is anything that is needed, make sure Marge knows. Teacher presenters should keep their focus on what they're doing in their classes. There will be an Open Space where coaches are available to help answer questions and give demos of how to use some of the tools that are shown in the sessions. Google Forms for presentations (links to come) will be posted once they are created. Presentation submissions will be done with Google Forms, asking questions:
 * Title
 * Brief Description
 * Level (differentiation)
 * Presenter's Name
 * District's Coach
 * Specific Subjects
 * Academic Level

=Questions from new coaches=
 * Do the surveys HAVE to be completed during the given timeframe? They should, but if one or two teachers goes into another week, it's not that bad. It was spread out for bandwidth issues.
 * Which teachers will be chosen for data collection? The new teachers for data collection (TPR) will be released Oct. 4. Your data collector should be aware of this.
 * Implementation plans? There is one for eMbedded Learning that needs to be done (Project Manager should handle it) to mention facilitators, who is taking the course, etc. There is also an implementation plan on the dashboard (http://cff.psu.edu), and this is for equipment, etc.
 * FYI: Keep your data results on your machine, as they lost data last year.
 * What if we need to have a cross-district course? Contact eMbedded Learning, and they will create the group and release it when there are 10 members, and they will find the facilitator. Make sure to visit the cross-district webinars.

Tour of the Building
"It's a donut!" - Marge

What will we be doing in future Coaches meetings?

 * Finalize who will be presenting at collaboration days
 * Finalize schedules of collaboration days
 * Sharing, sharing, sharing - looking at new technologies, etc.
 * More pointers for new coaches/taking questions from new teachers

Some hints, clues, and pointers

 * Listserv etiquette: No need to say "Thank you" on the listserv; be aware that the entire listserv will be able to read it!
 * There is a problem with the timers on some Apple carts
 * Don't be afraid to ask questions and share stories