Science Department Meeting Friday, August 28th, 2015 (7:15 am – 7:50 am) H103 – BioHazard Meeting Room
I. Important Dates
a. Faculty Party 8/29
b. Birthdays (Jim 8/30, Fawzia 9/6, Robb 9/14, Andrew 9/20, Mike 9/29) - Possible Canvas page for our dept - meeting minutes, calendar, discussions, etc. calendar
c. Back to School Night(s) Wed, Sept 9th (Fresh/Soph) & Tue, Sept 15th (Junior/Senior) - This year the rotation is flipped, fresh/soph first, then junior/senior the following week
d. NSTA (Reno 10/22 – 10/24 ….National Nashville 3/31 – 4/3) - NSTA national in Nashville, regional is in Reno
e. CSTA (9/24 NGSS Walnut; Sacramento 10/2 – 10/4) - One day on NGSS in Walnut
f. September 11th – last day for AP and Honors to drop without permission
g. September 28th – last day to for AP and Honors drops by teacher or petition by student with four signatures (counselor, parents and 2 teachers involved) - email Andrey if you identify a student, the earlier the better.
h. 9/14 – Professional Learning Communities
i. Next Department Meeting – Friday, September 25
Budget Updates Bring in pictures for the board in BioHaz
II. Professional Development Plans (Due Friday, October 16)
a. PD Template (emailed) -Fawzia emailed us our PD plan from last year, update it with what you have/have not completed. Will probably get an email from Rick with what should be in your PD plan. Content, Spiritual, Pedagogy, etc. Be sure to follow up and note down what you have completed. Fawzia will meet with Jim and Stefan to talk more details.
III. Summer Sabbatical recipients (Quick Synopsis)
Robb - learning and the brain conference in Santa Barbara weeklong conference. Strategies to get through the filter, and the best strategies for getting information to where it needs to go to the brain. Most important thing to do as teachers is how to get that information through - engage right at the beginning of the class to get through the filter and different strategies. Collaboration with other teachers, and opportunities to network with other teachers and administrators. 40 teachers, 5-7 science teachers. Conference in Pasadena - California teacher conference.
IV. Updates on any significant changes/reflections for AP Physics, Chemistry & Biology Courses important to share
a. APES - Robb - no real updates, challenge for Robb on ecology, etc. without Craig here. How to fit it it all in to the 70 minute classes. Bookends of the course, the most important environmental issues.
b. AP Physics – Gerry - AP Physics C, run the labs according to Mike's gauntlet approach - mini challenges every class day. The class revolves around them doing the mini challenges every day and improving their designs, etc. AP Physics 1 - using parts of the modeling curriculum, written assessments and worksheets, difficult to write opened ended questions and the modeling worksheets help tight that. Modeling was never actually designed for an AP curriculum - going to use Mike's gauntlet approach for AP Physics 1 as well.
c. Chemistry – Fawzia - 70 minute schedule - met the students twice this week - 50 minutes scrambling to do the lab - had time to work on calculations and conclusion questions. It was wrapped up a lot nicer - last hour with flex time, 75% of the class stayed into flex time.
d. Biology – Paul / Kimberly - putting the labs around the content, having the students design their own labs, asking questions and setting up procedures to generate good data, statistical tools, etc. Better handle on how to sequence labs.
V. Department Goals
a. Time for Student Reflection in 70 minute periods - One of the goals was to have some reflection time at the end of our class meetings. Bringing the kids back and discussing and wrapping up the lab - good 10 minutes to discuss and reflect. Putting knowledge around the visceral experience and reflect upon it.
b. Continue content/pacing and active classrooms in the 7-period schedule - pacing will still be a challenge - AP kids seem concerned because of the fewer minutes overall.
c. Collaboration with Math as the Hybrid Course Evolves (PLCs?) - possible collaboration with the Math dept - Emily had put something on Facebook - trying to do different things in their course.
d. Share Pedagogical Techniques - Active / Patterns / Modeling (possible Canvas page?) - share teaching techniques - active, patterns and modeling - Canvas page for the dept. Sharing pages to the Commons on Canvas so that other teachers can see it.
Reflections on the 70 minute schedule - only seeing students 2-3 times this week - Robb - likes the 70 minutes, good amount of time, worried about getting all the material in throughout the year. Engaging transitions - Last period before flex, students stick around, Flow of the school day seems a lot less rushed. Lee - playing with the idea of having sophomores come down to the lab as mentors for the freshman and gets more of the students to stick around. Maybe talk to Tom Zeko about potential service hours for the students?
Friday, August 28th, 2015 (7:15 am – 7:50 am)
H103 – BioHazard Meeting Room
- I. Important Dates
- a. Faculty Party 8/29
- b. Birthdays (Jim 8/30, Fawzia 9/6, Robb 9/14, Andrew 9/20, Mike 9/29) - Possible Canvas page for our dept - meeting minutes, calendar, discussions, etc. calendar
- c. Back to School Night(s) Wed, Sept 9th (Fresh/Soph) & Tue, Sept 15th (Junior/Senior) - This year the rotation is flipped, fresh/soph first, then junior/senior the following week
- d. NSTA (Reno 10/22 – 10/24 ….National Nashville 3/31 – 4/3) - NSTA national in Nashville, regional is in Reno
- e. CSTA (9/24 NGSS Walnut; Sacramento 10/2 – 10/4) - One day on NGSS in Walnut
- f. September 11th – last day for AP and Honors to drop without permission
- g. September 28th – last day to for AP and Honors drops by teacher or petition by student with four signatures (counselor, parents and 2 teachers involved) - email Andrey if you identify a student, the earlier the better.
- h. 9/14 – Professional Learning Communities
- i. Next Department Meeting – Friday, September 25
Budget UpdatesBring in pictures for the board in BioHaz
- III. Summer Sabbatical recipients (Quick Synopsis)
Robb - learning and the brain conference in Santa Barbara weeklong conference. Strategies to get through the filter, and the best strategies for getting information to where it needs to go to the brain. Most important thing to do as teachers is how to get that information through - engage right at the beginning of the class to get through the filter and different strategies. Collaboration with other teachers, and opportunities to network with other teachers and administrators. 40 teachers, 5-7 science teachers. Conference in Pasadena - California teacher conference.Reflections on the 70 minute schedule - only seeing students 2-3 times this week - Robb - likes the 70 minutes, good amount of time, worried about getting all the material in throughout the year. Engaging transitions - Last period before flex, students stick around, Flow of the school day seems a lot less rushed. Lee - playing with the idea of having sophomores come down to the lab as mentors for the freshman and gets more of the students to stick around. Maybe talk to Tom Zeko about potential service hours for the students?