G/T Committee Meeting Minutes

G/T Committee Meeting Minutes<= /p>

January 10, 2010

In attendance: Geoffrey Ohl, Natalie Hoyt, Brittany Robey, Tara Blood, Disa Lyon, Laura Grabowsky, Margaret Fitzgera= ld, Molly Gorny, Valerie Breunig, Jane Miller, Mary Jane Mudd, Claran Johnson, Molly Alexander, Christopher Sanche= z, Jason Fermier, Janna Wright

1.&n= bsp; Cal= l to Order: The meeting was ca= lled to order at 4:22 pm.

2.&n= bsp; Int= roduction: Mr. Ohl thanked ev= eryone for coming. He began the meet= ing by reminding the committee of its mission:&nb= sp; to examine where West Briar’s G/T program is, decide where the program needs to go and figure out how to get there.

3.&n= bsp; Act= ion Items from Previous’ Meetings

a. = Issues with Math Department – <= /b>At the December meeting, several parents raised concerns with the math homework. The first concern w= as with the Problem of the Week assignments.&= nbsp; The parents reported that the POWS have not been consistently assigned. Mr. Ohl talked to t= he Math Department chair. He agr= eed that the POW assignment had lost its structure. The math department will begin ass= igning the POW’s more regularly, aiming for one every other week.

Another concern was that t= here is not enough daily math homework and if it is assigned, it is not graded.   Mr. Ohl reinforced the impor= tance of daily homework, recognizing that homework must meet 3 goals to be effective: purposeful, provid= e immediate feedback and provide practice. At the math department meeting next week, Mr. Ohl will insist that the student= s receive feedback from their homework, even if the teacher does not take the grade, the homework should at least be checked for correctness.

b.      Renzulli Learning System – = At the December meeting, Mr. Ohl acknowledged that the teachers were not incorpora= ting the Renzulli learning System into their curriculum as frequently as he would like. He sensed the problem t= o be that the teachers were not aware of its potential and commented that he wou= ld like to see the teachers get more specialized training. Dean Hoyt has since set up a train= ing session for the Science and Social Study teachers on February 17. Mr. Ohl had mentioned that he want= ed the training to be in a small setting. &n= bsp; He feels that by combining the two departments, the setting will sti= ll be small at 17 teachers. Mr. = Ohl is especially pleased with the cost of the training; Dean Hoyt was able to get Renzulli to send an instructor for West Briar’s teachers free of char= ge.

One parent inquired about = Renzulli parent training. The parents would like to learn about maximizing the uses of Renzulli.&nbs= p; Mr. Ohl reminded the parents that West Briar had already had a parent training taught by Billy Wooten, the West Region’s G/T coordinator. The parents did not feel that the = parent meeting was detailed, hands on enough.&nbs= p; That meeting simply gave a snapshot. Mr. Ohl said that he would look in= to setting up an instructional parent meeting. Either a West Briar teacher will t= each the parents or Mr. Ohl will bring in a Renzulli instructor.

Mr. Ohl asked Ms. Robey if= she feels that the teachers need more instructional time on the IIM research model. Ms. Robey thinks that = the previous in-service was fairly all inclusive and that no further time is ne= eded.

c.      = Conversations with Westside – <= /b>At a previous meeting, the committee felt that West Briar teachers should meet with Westside teachers to isolate areas in which West Briar students are lacking. Mr. Ohl reported tha= t the conversations are beginning this week; the language department represented = by Mr. Wyatt, 8^th grade language arts teacher, will go over Thursday morning.

d.      G/T Teacher Meetings -   At the November meeting,= Mr. Ohl announced that the teachers of each grade level would be regularly meet= ing to coordinate testing and project calendars, among other items. At the December meeting, he said t= hat he was pleased with the outcome of the meetings and in fact, wanted to expand = the concept to hold regular meetings with the G/T teachers. Starting next week, the G/T teache= rs will meet every other week, before school.= Goals of these meetings will be, among other things, insuring consistency of the program within subject matter, aligning curriculum by cl= ass as well as to discuss best practices. The teachers will contribute ideas of what is working for them in the classroom in reaching the students. For now, Mr. Ohl and Dean Hoyt will sha= re responsibilities facilitating the meeting.= Over time, Mr. Ohl would like the meeting to become an intellectual = learning group with exchange of ideas and not necessarily require a facilitator.

&nbs= p;

e.      International Festival – At= the December meeting, Dean Hoyt mentioned that the International Festival neede= d to be reconfigured and that it should be streamlined and refocused to be more a learning tool. Mr. Ohl feels = that the International Festival should be a celebration of West Briar’s diversity with possibly food and performance. He wants to break away from it bei= ng a six week long “pseudo” project. As Mr. Ohl mentioned at previous meetings, he wants to get away from projects and emphasize products as the culmination of learning.    The International Festival will continue but making sure it is merged into the current curriculum. =

&nbs= p;

4.      = Open Discussion

a.&n= bsp;      Pur= pose of committee: Macro Perspecti= ve versus Everyday Details – Before opening the floor for discussion, Mr. Ohl wanted to remind the committee of our purpose. He wants our dialogues to be focus= ing on rigor, improving the G/T program, and how that would look like in the lesson plans, course work, schedules, etc. He wants us to share instances of how our children were stretched and analyze these incidences for their value points. He does not want the committee to concentrate on individual issues, or every day details. He acknowledges that these concern= s need to be heard but our committee is not the appropriate venue.

b.      Science Fair – Mr. Ohl intr= oduced three science teachers who came to the G/T meeting as our guests and to contribute their input on the science curriculum; the teachers were Brittany Robey,7^th grade teacher, Christopher Sanchez and Jason Fermier, the two 8^th grade science teachers who teach the G/T curriculum.

Mr. Ohl announced that the= Science Fair is scheduled for Wednesday, January 20 from 1:30 to 3:30. Mr. Ohl invites all the parents to= come out to look at all the projects. Claran Johnson, a 7^th grade dean, is also the dean over t= he science department. In this r= ole, she is also the faculty in charge of science fair. Ms. Johnson reported that this yea= r, the district mandated that all Pre-AP students prepare a science fair project.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

Ms Robey elaborated by say= ing that this is the first year that West Briar has done the science fair and the learning curve is great for both the students and the teachers. The teachers’ guide is a 240= page handbook published by the Houston Science and Engineering Fair. She has put on the 7^th = grade science website the parts of the handbook which would assist her students in completing the project, including the rubric. One 8^th grade parent mentioned that she had not seen a rubric.&= nbsp; Mr. Ohl assured the parents that the rubric will be on the 6^{th<=
/sup>,
7^th, and 8^th grade science websites by the following
morning, Tuesday, January 12. Mr.
Ohl will make sure that Mr. Vanderbilt, Campus Network Specialist, gets the
information posted.=}

Though every student at We= st Briar is required to prepare a science fair project, not all the projects will be entered at the West Briar’s science fair. Ms. Robey explained that each of h= er classes will select the best projects to put into the fair. She also mentioned that the projec= ts could be prepared in teams, not just individually. This also serves to reduce the num= ber of projects in the fair. The G/T classes prepared their projects completely out of the classroom. The non-G/T classes used class tim= e to do some of the preparation.

Mr. Ohl acknowledged that = the school wide science fair project assignment has not gone as smoothly as he would like. He admits that the procedural component of the science fair broke down. He chalks up most of the shortcomi= ngs to this being the first year West Briar has held a science fair.   The teachers were not inform= ed of the district’s decision until mid-September. By that time, the teachers had alr= eady prepared the year’s curriculum. Ms. Robey and Ms. Salls have learned a lot this year and will work to integrate the science fair into the science curriculum for next year. Mr. Ohl sees the potential for the science fair project to become a rigorous component at the G/T level.

c.      = Science Olympiad – Mr. Sanc= hez is the coach of the Science Olympiad. &n= bsp; This is the first year that West Briar has put together a Science Olympiad team. He has been ho= lding weekly meetings since September. It is open to 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders. They have two meets coming up; one= on February 6 at New Caney. The = next one is February 13 and is at Lone Star College.   By being a part of the Scien= ce Olympiad team, the students are able to explore science disciplines and be competitive. The students are= using their brains and feeling smart. The students are excited by being a part of the team. Mr. Sanchez is not sure how well h= is team will do at the competitions; he feels it is up to them to see how hard they want to work. Mr. Sanche= z and Ms. Cain, the other teacher coach, attended a coaches’ clinic at Texas A&M University.

d.      Stronger Science Program – = One parent asked the science teachers what would make a stronger science progra= m at West Briar. Mr. Sanchez repor= ts that he is working towards a stronger program and feels that the program is= already stronger than it was when he started at West Briar in August. He has begun implementing the Laying the Foundation (“LTF”) criteria.    Laying the Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing quality teacher training, rigorous classroom materia= ls, and web-based resources to improve the quality of English, mathematics, and science instruction. LTF believes that training, mentoring, and empowering = the teacher corps will lead to high standards of academic excellence for all students.

Mr. Sanchez feels that ano= ther way to improve the program is to improve communications between teachers and parents. He would also like m= ore performance based assessments, more structure and more pushing the students past what they know. He wants= every day for the students to think critically, not just learning definitions.

In Mr. Sanchez’s tea= ching nirvana, he would have the curriculum vertically aligned. For example, while teaching chemis= try, he would like to have the Math Department teach a graphing assignment with = the chemistry data. In addition, = he would like to see the English Department assign a writing assigning using t= he chemistry

One parent with a child at Westside said that the science department at the high school is successfully aligning across curriculums. = In Biology, at the start of each lesson, the teacher assigns five though provo= king questions requiring responses in short essay form. The questions are not ju= st science based. Mr. Ohl likes = this approach. He calls it “prethinking”.   It opens up the mind to get it prepared for the lesson. Ms. Fitzgerald uses a similar proc= ess in her Caprensi class. Mr. Ohl w= ould like Mr. Sanchez to present the concept of presearch, using the high school’s and = Ms. Fitzgerald’s models as illustrations, at the G/T Teacher meeting.

The meeting was adjourned a= t 5:34.