I love February. It’s the month when I can count on seeing the first robin in my backyard, signaling spring is near. As we all look forward to spring’s arrival, I hope you’ll plan to join us for two upcoming professional learning opportunities: the AASCD Curriculum & Instruction Spring Virtual Bootcamp on February 28th and the AASCD Spring Drive-In on March 16th. The Drive-In will be held in the Elmore County School District boardroom from 9:00 - 12:30 (lunch included). We’ll be exploring whether or not there is cognitive science explaining John Hattie’s influences, the design of games, how to improve a classroom or organization, and the brain’s tendency to be lazy.
I want to also mention what a great time we had in Orange Beach last month at the 2023 AASCD Winter Conference. It felt so good to be meeting in person once again. One of the highlights of the conference for me was the presentation of the That Could Be Me Project. Students from both Montgomery and Butler Counties, along with the adults who assisted them in the project, walked us through each step of the process to create and publish STEM-related children’s books. The students learned that there is power in telling the stories of real people, in this case the Alabama STEM professionals whom they interviewed for their books, and the students also developed some lasting friendships as a result of the collaboration. The adult panelists reminded us that as educators our job is to develop dreams and to not be afraid of trying new projects. Let’s keep this in mind as we help our students develop their own dreams whatever they may be.
Our communities have come to expect a lot from our schools and school leaders. Schools have become a place where teachers are expected to provide “all things to students” whether academic in nature or not; educators are asked to play a significant role in raising children and young adults. Likewise, school principals and district leaders are asked to have the intellectual capacity to make sense of increasingly complex curricular, operational, legal, and societal dilemmas and decisions. To put it simply, for educators at all levels, it is continuously more challenging to keep “the main thing, the main thing.”
I recently had the opportunity to attend the Marzano High Reliability Schools Summit in San Antonio, Texas with many other representatives from Alabama schools. The HRS Framework includes five areas of focus to help school districts meet their unique needs and goals. While many schools commit to fulfilling use of the framework as a long-term, strategic guide for their school, all educators can find concentrated value to one, or more, of the five areas HRS focus on including:
- Safe and Supportive Collaborative Culture
- Effective Teacher in Every Classroom
- Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
- Standards-Referenced Reporting
- Competency-Based Education
We all want to be focused on what we believe is “the right work (the main thing)” and to be engaged, invigorated, and challenged by the work on behalf of our students. For many of us, that’s where we feel happiest, most fulfilled, and when we make the deepest impact on our students. The HRS Summit was a reminder, to me, to focus on “the main thing” and to collaborate with teachers and leaders to share the opinions, advice, and values from those in our schools and districts. What a rich experience when we are all working together for the same common good and goals for our students!
I encourage you to dig deep with the teachers and leaders around you, find a few focused areas that you wish to improve for the betterment of students, take time in gathering evidence and data that can be measured, and have the courage and stamina to see it through! What struck me about the learning opportunity in San Antonio was how connected AASCD partners, participants, leadership, and our representatives are to leadership and the continued success of the students we serve. AASCD continues to desire to partner with you, and your district, to ensure that we help assist you with “the main thing.”
I wish you the very best this spring as your work for students is sharpened by your ability to make it relevant, meaningful, and impactful on their lives.
Student-led Conferences or Report Card Conferences is not a new concept but one that Carbon Hill High School has put into use last year after a return to “normal” school following years of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The concept initially began with Student-led Conferences where the student “leads” a parent-teacher meeting forcing the student to take responsibility for his or her academic progress.
An altered version of this style of conference was shared at a professional development session at the annual MEGA Conference. This altered concept put to use at CHHS involves committed community mentors and the freshman students. Community stakeholders are trained prior to the interviews and sign a confidentiality agreement. Freshman students are assigned to a caring mentor where they spend 5-7 minutes reviewing their progress report or their report cards and sharing their strengths and weaknesses. This in return provides students with an opportunity to take responsibility for their own progress as well as play the equally important role of planning “next steps” on how to improve.
This also provides an opportunity for students to begin real-world, career-related audits of their progress similar to a work force annual review.
These pictures are of our Walker County Schools Secondary Principals assisting Mr. Beaty (CHHS) with 2nd nine weeks report card conferences and providing them an opportunity to see how they work, how effective they are, and how they can implement this process at each of their campuses. Also attached are pictures from the 1st nine weeks report card conferences with Superintendent Dr. Dennis Willngham, and Carbon Hill alum participating. CHHS was also proud to have several board members on hand to participate. Collaboration is key to a successful school system.
#walkercountystrong
Artificial Intelligence (AI) simply means software used by computers to mimic aspects of human intelligence. One example is a program recommends what you should read based on previous books you have purchased from that business. Other examples include assessing people’s suitability for a job or a loan. Machine learning has become extremely powerful in the last decade and this is the technique behind everything from Google translate to facial recognition algorithms to digital assistants like Amazon Alexa. So, rather than programmers giving machine learning AIs a definitive list of instructions on how to complete a task, the AIs have to learn how to do the task themselves. One of the most popular approaches involves software called a neural network that is trained by example. A neural network is a large web of connections, just like the way neurons connect in the brain. The more data included in this network, the easier it is to learn to do something (think about all the times you use google or YouTube videos). AI is often biased, so its recommendations can be too. Researchers have found that neural networks pick up biases from the data sets on which they were trained, thus showing that trust and safety and common sense are still very much needed in decision making.
Why would I broach this topic in our e-newsletter? It is because of 1) an opinion piece, AI In Early Childhood – Six Things Teachers Need to Know by Samia Kazi that I read and 2) the realization the college students are using AI, specifically, ChatGPT, to write their papers.
According to Ms. Kazi, “machines are not humans and they are not good at ethical decision making, making moral choices, or applying social-emotional intelligence. These are the skills teachers must nurture in children as they will be especially important as children begin to interface more with AI”. She goes on to list six recommendations:
- Learn to monitor the use of machine learning in early childhood education
- Act as advisors to programmers
- Understand the dark side of neural networks
- Collaborate in advocating for responsible and ethical use of AI in education
- Ensure that any AI that is used follow acceptable standards
- Remember priorities as early childhood educators (human capabilities)
As educators, we need to know of these developments and focus on value driven choices. Whether in an early childhood classroom, a school system, or a college, it is important for us to be aware of AI – the benefits and the challenges.
A hallmark of Alabama ASCD is to build capacity in educators to grow in the profession and continue their professional learning for the benefit of our students. One way we encourage growth is to celebrate the leadership and accomplishments of our members. Two recognitions we use in this celebration are the Emerging Leader Award and the Outstanding Curriculum Leader Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Emerging Leader Award has been given since the mid-2000s to celebrate teachers and other educators who step out in front early in their careers to find ways to promote student learning and to share what they do with their colleagues.
This year’s Emerging Leader is no stranger to education or to the world of work. She is in her 15th year in public education, but her public teaching career was interrupted by a 21-year career in the private sector. Dr. Peppi Cooper began her public education career in 1988 and spent 12 years as a teacher. In 2000, she made a career change to Southern Nuclear before returning to public education less than 2 years ago.
Early in her teaching career, she built the Spanish program in her school as well as the girls softball program. She created a Teacher Cadet program in her school to encourage young people to consider a career in teaching. Currently, Dr. Cooper teaches in the Dothan City Schools Virtual School and serves as a coach for new teachers in the school district. She is described by those who nominated her as one who has a “willingness to change, accept challenges, and ….consistently demonstrate leadership of herself” before she leads others. She “challenges herself to step outside her own comfort zone” and “encourages her students to do the same.” She is active in her community as well, feeding the homeless and serving as a Spanish translator for workers in the community.
The Alabama ASCD 2023 EMERGING LEADER IS DR. PEPPI COOPER OF DOTHAN CITY SCHOOLS!
Not only does Alabama ASCD recognize emerging leaders; we also celebrate leaders who have spent long careers leading and making a difference for students and schools through the Outstanding Curriculum Leader Lifetime Achievement Award.
This award recipient began her career as a science teacher in 1993, and has served as an assistant principal and principal, and most recently Asst. Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in Florence City Schools. I first met her during an accreditation visit while she was at Florence High School, and I remember witnessing her incredible leadership then.
Dr. Lynne Hice is described as an “exceptional instructional leader who is clear-eyed about what the main thing in school is, to educate students.”
Another nominator described her as an “instructional leadership shepherd coach” to the teachers and administrators in her charge in schools and in the entire district. She is said to lead with grace, dignity and passion as she has taken a systems, structures, and processes approach to equip and support her colleagues, envision and implement innovations, and analyze and align curriculum, resources, and assessments to improve student learning and achievement.
In addition to her outstanding leadership and accomplishments in Florence City Schools, Dr. Hice has been a state leader in professional organizations and has presented on both the state and national levels on the work with which she has been involved.
Her superintendent, Dr. Jimmy Shaw, said she walks the walk and talks the talk every day.
Alabama ASCD as well as her colleagues in Florence City Schools are grateful for her vision and her leadership in our profession!
The Alabama ASCD 2023 Outstanding Curriculum Leader Lifetime Achievement Award winner is Dr. Lynne Hice of Florence City Schools!
Harnessing the power of any type of energy can prove to be a difficult task. The energy was in full force at the ALSCD winter conference held on January 23-24, 2023, in Perdido Beach. Being in a face-to-face setting with other educators from across the state was exciting and powerful. When educators come together for a common purpose, the atmosphere is electric. The Power of Collaboration flowed from the opening session to the close. Our opening session That Could Be Me Alabama with Christine Drew as the facilitator set us on a path of hope and inspiration. Mr. Richard Erdmann pointed out that a dream can inspire many people. Erdmann’s goal was to provide opportunities for students to dream and develop those dreams into reality. Providing students with biographies, historical fiction, nonfiction, poetry etc., and the time to explore these pieces was the key to students' success in connecting reading and writing. This session set the stage for the conference to capture the true power of collaboration and show us as educators what power comes from professional affiliations.
Our keynote speaker delighted us with the current statistics for gaming. Did you know that currently there are 183 million active gamers in the United States (McGonigal, J. 2011)? Those several billion students, as well as adults, are in our schools and even central offices today! There is a unique set of traits that come with gaming: a goal, rules, feedback system and voluntary participation (McGonigal, J. 2011). In education we set goals all the time. Goals are the desired outcome and help one to focus. Rules are guidelines to provide a safe and positive environment for learning. Feedback tells the participants about his/her performance in regards to the goal. Voluntary participation is a level of ownership that students have willingly accepted. Educators talk all the time about trying to connect with students and how to motivate students, gaming is one strategy that works. When students have trouble connecting with the curriculum, sitting down, and talking to them about what they like to do and trying to motivate them is essential.
Scheduling for the upcoming school year was a trending topic! Stacey Royster, Program Coordinator for the statewide student information system, gave us timely updates and tips to help districts with scheduling in PowerSchool. Stacey Royster holds PowerSchool office hours weekly. If LEAs need support or have any questions, Royster’s weekly meetings are easily accessible. In an effort to keep current and not miss out on PowerSchool updates, make sure to drop into one of the weekly PowerSchool office hours sessions. The exciting news from the session is that ALSDE is about to put data power at our fingertips. The inclusion of Unified Insights for all districts will play a key role in PST, IEP, and instructional planning meetings for students. Districts will be able to see a true snapshot of a student and not just attendance and classroom grades. As always, Stacey is paving the way for Alabama educators to effectively use PowerSchool. The support and collaboration she offers is incredible.
Everyone loves an acronym, especially educators. Dr. Karen Anderson delivered timely information about ANA (Alabama Numeracy Act) on Day 2 of the winter conference. Dr. Anderson challenged educators to spend time practicing in math and working to develop schedules that accommodate time for exploration and problem solving. She also challenged conference goers to be continuous learners when it comes to mathematics. She encouraged us to dig into those math standards, and work to increase our knowledge in an effort to deliver quality instruction to students. Number talks, mathematical discourse, and exploration tools allow both students and teachers to build collective efficacy and mathematical confidence within the 60 minutes of Tier 1. It will take a mindset shift for us to solidify Tier 1 instruction. The students have something important to say about how they learn mathematics, we need to listen. Dr. Anderson closed the session with upcoming news about resources. Guidance in the form of a handbook for summer math camp planning is coming soon. Both offices, Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI), and Office of Math Improvement (OMI), have been collaborating on this summer camp document to assist schools. In keeping with the power of collaboration, these two departments have gotten off to a great start. Be on the lookout for the summer camp guidance document coming soon.
Principal Brigett Stewart from Piedmont Elementary equipped us with multiple strategies to reimagine mathematics instruction. Her session discussed the power in holding vertical alignment meetings, expanding math time across the district and personalizing instruction for all students. These three topics were game changers for the district. The expectations were set and the culture made the environment less intimidating. Teachers have a voice and are able to discuss their data and make timely, actionable changes when needed. It is crystal clear that Principal Stewart collaborated with her team and empowered them to be intentional about strengthening student reasoning, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. With the largest gains in mathematics in the state, it is clear that the structures and methods Piedmont has developed are powerful.
The Power of Instructional strategies were explored in two separate sessions. Kristie Shankles, ALSDE Multi-Tiered Student Support Lead, stated that teachers in Alabama must learn to “use the power of Tier 2 in the traditional classroom.” This is NOT reteaching. This is another mindset shift. She shared the exciting news about the rollout of the new Problem-Solving Team forms and dashboard that will be rolled out this summer at MEGA conference. Shankles reminded us that PST should be led by the building leader, everyone deserves a seat at the table and teachers should always follow the data. The power of PST lies in everyone having a role, following where the data leads, and creating action plans that impact student populations and change instruction for the better. In addition to this session, Jonathan Thompson, instructional specialist with ALSDE, and Dr. Patrick Chappell, with Publisher’s Warehouse, presented a session on strategies to help struggling readers beyond the 4th grade. They recognize that secondary teachers need training and support. There is a Schoology group to help any teacher across the state who needs more guidance and resources. The open discussion and collaboration in both sessions provided leaders with great resources to take back to their districts.
As the conference came to an end, our closing session Dr. Sandy Husk left us wanting to know more about the ASCD and ISTE merger. Dr. Husk shared that this is an exciting time for two huge organizations to merge creating the possibility of elevating education to another level. These two organizations are the voice of educators and the future of learning looks bright. These partnerships, as well as a collaborative state department have educators in Alabama moving.
"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." ~ Henry Ford.
Two Florence City Schools programs were recently featured in an article at rocketcitynow.com that discusses the Launch Program and 12 for Life.
AlabamaWorks awarded the Launch Program the Innovator Award. The program provides students with career internship and apprenticeship experience with area businesses to promote knowledge, skill improvement, and personal development.
12 for Life has been recognized by Southwire as a Work-Based Learning Regional Best Practice. The company partners with Florence City Schools to offer students on-the-job experience in their manufacturing facility in the Florence-Lauderdale Industrial Park.
Florence City Schools was also awarded a safety grant at Hibbett Intermediate School.
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
This is the beginning of my favorite book, Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. This book reminds us of the importance of celebrating those special milestones- from graduations to birthdays and beyond Dr. Seuss reminds us of this by using witty verses and imaginative illustrations.
January came and went like a thief in the night and bought an exciting milestone to the Alabama Association of Curriculum and Development (AASCD). AASCD hosted its first in person winter conference since the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was held in beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama on January 23-24, 2023. Approximately 80 participants and 11 sponsors enjoyed two days of exhilarating professional learning. The program kicked off with a powerful session on “That Could be Me” led by Christine Drew and Richard Erdmann. They were joined by young authors from the Montgomery City and Butler County school systems who had written books on underrepresented Alabama Stem professionals. The authors discussed the process of interviewing the professionals, writing, and illustrating the books. The audience had a chance to listen as one of the authors read his book, The Cavity Conquerors.
Jane McGonigal, the keynote speaker discussed the importance of gaming in the lives of education. The Reality is Broken author, amazed the audience as she showed them the essential lessons about mass collaboration and how it can create emotional incentives and increased student engagement in classrooms today. Other topics of interest included PowerSchool, the Alabama Numeracy Act, MTSS, and Reading interventions that can assist students in Grades 4 and beyond. The Winter Conference ended with an Awards Luncheon that featured Sandy Husk, who discussed the pending merger between ISTE and ASCD. Networking opportunities were provided in the evening times for those to get reacquainted with their colleagues.
AASCD will partner with the Alabama State Department of Education and CLAS to host its final Curriculum and Instruction Boot Camp of the year on February 28, 2023. Please join us for a day of professional learning on Alabama topics that will assist you in your role as Curriculum and Instruction supervisors. Topics for the boot camp include Accountability Data, Summer Learning Guidance, College and Career Readiness, an Overview of Proficiency Scales, how to use K-12 Data to improve Math Achievement, and an overview of the Performance Matters dashboard. The boot camp will end with a session on Textbooks for those who are working on the PLU with Patrick Chappell. If you have not registered yet, please do by clicking on the link here {include line}.
CLAS will host its annual convention on June 12-14, 2023, in Mobile, AL. We hope that you will accept the challenge by attending the 2 ½ day professional learning opportunity. There will be some motivation, inspiration, and education through keynote speakers, clinic speakers and breakout sessions speakers. You will also have some time to network with colleagues that you have not seen in (at least) a year.
As you make plans to travel to Mobile for the convention, remember that “you’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So…. get on your way! Don’t hesitate, accept the challenge today by registering {include } link.
As always, if any of the CLAS staff can do anything for you on your journey, please do not hesitate to contact us!
Imagining the Possibilities for Alabama's Schools
First let me say, as this is my inaugural AASCD post, how honored I am to join this community of educational leaders. I have learned much from Dr. Davis and no doubt, I have big shoes to fill. She planted a rich garden for the Office of Student Learning, and I am convicted to “bloom where I have been planted.” I ask that you hold me accountable to do the right work at the right time.
Each new year, as so many others do, I chose one word to embody a mindset I want to embrace for the next 365 days. This year, I struggled a bit. I needed this word to set a course for this season of my career, as well as personal growth. And then it came to me on the first day of 2023, as if sung from the lips of John Lennon himself…
This year, I am committed to IMAGINE unlimited possibilities for the state of our schools, as well as the students, teachers, and communities each school represents. I have spent over 30 years in education, and never have I been more excited or honored to pay it forward. To be fearless in pursuit of improved student outcomes, to celebrate our innovative teachers and leaders, and push the needle forward to consider (or reconsider) change.
John Lennon said, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” In this new year filled with hope and possibility, I challenge you to become a dreamer too and IMAGINE a reality where gaps are filled, where hearts are strong, and grace prevails. Our collective difference is our shared destiny, and as school leaders, there is a mighty weight on our shoulders. If we don’t imagine, nothing will happen. If we imagine together, we can move mountains.
Below are a few Instructional Quick Links you might find helpful.
NBCT
- List of of New Alabama 2022 NBCTs and MOCs
- 2023 Scholarship Application - Now Open, Due March 31
- Alabama 5th in the nation for number of new 2022 NBCTs!
C&I Meetings
State Report Card
AL-MTSS
- MTSS Monthly Newsletter - January
- OSI RTI Resource Site
ACAP and ACT
- ACAP and ACT Tools and Resources
- 2021-2022 Proficiency Data Released
- PARCA ACAP 2021-2022 Comparisons
AASCD Board of Directors
Credits:
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