Meeting+39+-+Oct+'16

** Monday, October 10, 2016 (Faculty Inservice Day) ** ** H103 – BioHazard Meeting Room **
 * Science Department Meeting **


 * 1) I. Looking Ahead – Important Dates
 * 2) a. Friday October 14th Happy Birthday Gerry
 * 3) b. Saturday October 15th President’s Appreciation Dinner
 * 4) c. Wednesday October 19th Testing Day
 * 5) d. Friday October 21st Professional Development Plans Due
 * 6) e. Midterm Grades Due Thursday October 27th
 * 7) f. Midterm Grades available on Q on Monday October 31st
 * 8) g. Next Department Meeting Thursday Nov 3rd (7:20 am)
 * 9) h. Open House Sunday Dec 4th

Open House – Sunday Dec 4th – reviewing the Open House brochure making changes and modifications to the brochure. - NGSS – needs to be added to the brochure – add the California State Standards with the NGSS. Some of our parents know that key NGSS word – include both NGSS and CA Standards language. - Change the pyramid to a rectangle – including a 4th box with AP and Elective options. - Remove cockeyed box and pyramid and replace with photos of students in the lab actively doing science. - Remove 150th logo - 10th year of physics first in 2017, started in 2007 - The Science Dept. Believes that….revising the back side – only including the top / most important statements.
 * 1) II. Open House Flyer
 * 2) a. Discuss Updates Needed / NGSS

Looking over the overall School Profile and dept. grade discussions - Percent of A+ on the Spring 2016 final grades in other departments is quite large – science dept. is 0. - Concern expressed in our school wide GPA’s increasing since 1999. - Students taking more “easy A” courses on campus – more students are taking Health on campus as opposed to off campus. - It would be nice to look at the data without Health, Theo, & Fine Arts.
 * 1) III. Grades - School Profile (GPA / SAT / ACT / Subject Test Data) and discussion about overall department grades

- Draft of policy proposed from Andrey – not quite sure yet how to officially “publish” the policy. - A student who goes beyond high scores – someone who has gone beyond the scope of the course in greater depth, or something outside the requirements of the course. - The A+ should be just ornamental, not a GPA bump. Take it off the grading scale, and school wide- take it off the pressure of the kids, etc. If you are not getting extra GPA credit, take it off completely, since it is just cosmetic. - Our dept. feedback – we do not give A+, and will continue to not give A+ - take it off school wide, especially since it does not impact the GPA. Take it off the grading scale all together. - Students taking a schedule now where there are more opportunities to take courses in departments that are easier to get high grades in. - It should not boost the GPA – just a cosmetic feature – it will thereby remove the subjectivity. If college admissions know that is the case, that it does not boost the GPA, and know the Loyola policy. - Percentage part taken out of the policy – if the GPA is a 5.0 anyways, it is a teachers subjective call.
 * 1) IV. Discussion on Policy regarding awarding A+ grades (Proposal from Andrey)

(observe 20-30 minutes of a class period; pre/post meeting with the observed teacher) - Formal Observations – Fawzia has a sign-up sheet for formal observations at a time of your choosing, period 5,6,7. This will be paired with your PD plan discussion.
 * 1) V. Formal Observations

- Submit to Fawzia by October 21st at the latest – try to get it to her by the time of your observation, that way it is all one meeting with Fawzia PD and Observation discussion. Pre and post meeting and PD plans all in one meeting.
 * 1) VI. Professional Development Plans (Due Friday, October 21 latest)
 * 2) a. Last year’s plans were emailed in September
 * 3) b. Write this year’s plans and update last year’s plans with status (completed/in-progress/not completed); include both in document
 * 4) c. Discuss plans (schedule on October 24th to 28th) or during pre/post observation meeting


 * 1) VII. BioHaz Mornings – Thank you Kimberly and Paul (next)


 * 1) VIII. PLC’s Updates from subgroups

- PLC updates – Physics subgroup – observation made – last year time we spent with teachers in subgroups was outside of classes. Now they can get much more done with the time during PLC. Quality of what they are doing is working well. - Chemistry subgroup – ability to meet just with Chemistry, updating and discussing syllabus and common labs and demos – whatever you want to do just document what you are doing. Robb – observing Eddie during Period 2 – Bio PLC is period 4.

- Learning Glass available in Andrew’s room anyone that would like to try it out.
 * 1) IX. Move down to L006 (Time for groups to work with learning glass)