Friday in Formosa

Cheryl and I had another busy day today. We spent most of the time on our laptops. We had to take all the hard work our PD sessions resulted in, type it up and make copies. It was quite the adventure to decipher everyone's handwriting and communicate someone else's thoughts in a clear and concise manner.

Here are some pics and video of our PD sessions with the French Immersion teachers. As you can see, we had a busy bunch of days!

Primary level Teacher Moderation

Ah...the end is in sight...for term 1! Today we met in Formosa for another all day PD session. We have used the same basic format for every day and have been able to lead the teachers quite productively.

The Primary level teachers were pretty cool. They are a fun bunch, with a true sense of humour and a respect for the silliness of teaching 5 year olds! It takes a certain brand of crazy to try to marshall 19 little people through a full day of writing, reading and math! Francine, Cheryl and I are all experienced (read "old") primary level immersion teachers and it was nice to network with the new crop of teachers.

We accomplished a lot as a whole group in the morning. I found the primary teachers were already quite aware of what teacher moderation looks like. They were able to quickly reach consensus on the first student's level of achievement.

After a yummy lunch, we spent the rest of the day looking at the student's work in small, grade-level groups. My group even managed to create the next writing prompts.
Good job Primary teachers and thanks for your open-ness and positive attitude.

Junior level PD session

Well, I'm feeling so positive and exhausted too! Today we met the Junior level (gr 4,5,6) teachers to assess some student writing and experience some Professional learning. I have to say this group was very positive, open and was easy to lead. I felt that our work to date was respected and appreciated. The teachers all had a chance to moderate several pieces of writing and consolidate their thinking.

Great job Juniors!

The Intermediate level teachers---what a cool bunch!

TA DA! One PD session down and 2 to go!

It was a wonderful, productive and interesting day today. Francine, Cheryl and I led our 4 Intermediate level teachers in a full day PD session. The Intermediate teachers are a neat bunch because....they put up with 7 and 8th graders all day, they are well informed about current practises, they don't mind a little conflict, their kids had really interesting writing to mark and ....some of them only have 9 or 12 kiddies in their split classes. Boy, can those immersion kids pump out pages and pages of creative work! Mon Dieu!

We started with a prayer and an overview of what Francine, Cheryl and I have been up to, our goals, what a TLLP is etc etc. Then, we watched a few videos from The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (hereafter called the LNS). We watched a clip of teachers moderating a piece of writing and we shared our thoughts and reflections afterwards. Next, we looked at....an LNS monograph. (Yeah I know...monograph is not a word ya see every day. It's just a piece of writing reflecting on one topic and showing research based best practises). We discussed the pitfalls of discussing and marking work together and agreed to some "Norms" for how we would conduct ourselves. We agreed to limit the brawls to 2 minutes and that name calling could only be in French!

Next, we looked at one piece of grade 7 writing as a large group. We ran into a few glitches. For example, the rubric had a few vague words and unclear qualifiers. We agreed to revise it for next time out. Also, some of the teachers let the kids do the work in 2 sessions, or write a draft and a good copy. Although, this wasn't how we had envisioned the on-demand task being administered, we agreed that next time we would more clear in our directions. Another glitch was a long discussion about whether the text form, genre, format should have been written on the answer sheet or whether we should expect 7 and 8th graders to determine the "best way" to write on a specific theme.

I can see Francine, Cheryl and I making some revisions, and tightening up our rubric for February. We were glad to receive the feedback and the discussion was very enlightening.

Next, we had a fabulous lunch of sandwiches and delicious little MandM brownies. Delicieux. The best part of PD is lunch! Why...well, we talked about all kinds of things and had a laugh and we compared some things happening in our classes and some of the struggles we are experiencing. We also talked about Differentiated Instruction and some MISA Ministry thingy that I knew nothing about.

After lunch we were on fire. Having gone into great detail looking at ONE piece of writing and experienced all the pitfalls, we were able to more quickly reach consensus on the rest of the gr 7 work. We then moved on to the grade 8 writing samples. It was really cool from a grade 3 teacher's perspective to see what the older kids can produce.

All in all a productive and busy day. Did we finish everything on our list? Nope. Did we remain focussed, productive and collegial? You bet. Did we wish we had 3 more hours? Uh huh. So...next week we shall meet again.

In the meantime, tomorrow is a new day, a new set of writing to assess, a new set of teachers to provide PD to and of course, a new delicious lunch to enjoy. The junior level teachers arrive in Formosa for 9 am and boy are they gonna have a hard time topping today.

Formosa...it's starting to feel like home!

Once again I found myself in Formosa. On the drive I saw 5 Mennonites, 2 roadside stands selling produce, 3 combines, 2 hay wagons, a stray dog, various horses, lots of roadkill and ...a farm selling Labrador puppies. Oh, how I wanted to stop and bring a pup home!

Cheryl, Francine and I got down to work right away since the clock is ticking. In less than a week we are leading our first PD session with the Immersion teachers. Yikes!

First, we went over the "to do list". We quickly realized that we should have taken a whole day off for our project, not a half day. Ah well...we prioritized and worked like demons. We previewed the DVD about Teacher Moderation that we will be showing the teachers. We choose a followup for the DVD too. Then we talked about what our PD session should look like in terms of goals and timelines. This involved : what we planned to talk about, who would do what, how long each job should take, how we would organize the groups, what overhead, charts, resources and photocopies we would need and of course...what should we have for morning snacks. Anyone who has led a PD session with teachers knows that snacks are essential.

We then took an hour and reviewed the "on demand" writing tasks that the students completed. We had to read through them all and choose samples that would be used during the PD session. This sounds simple...but was not. In the end, it's a good thing we all have a sense of humour.

Next, we split up the rest of the jobs---some of us photocopied, some of use found necessary equipment, some of us finished up prayers and templates etc etc. It was a last hour blitz that spilled over into dinner time. Ah well.

I wowed the team with my super duper Zellers purchases. I managed to find 27 door prizes for $9 at the Zellers end of season sale. (75% off) I think that's the best deal I've found since I purchased a year's worth of size 8 clothes for my son on eBay for 50$! I love a deal.

In other news, I am still dealing with the mess I made of the "requisition order" for my own TLLP project. Clearly, bending the rules is frowned upon by the School Board. I just hope the matter of paying the Centre franco ontarien gets resolved, before they blacklist me and ban me for life. If I were the CFORP I'd be adding a little surcharge to the bill!

Creating a slideshow

Well today I had another chance to work on my TLLP project.

I started by creating the slideshow I will be using during the Professional Development session I will be leading. I HATE making slideshows. I get frustrated. I bang on the keys! I tear out my hair! It took me 2 hours to create about 15 slides. Nuts!

After that I spent a few hours working on the handouts I will be giving the teachers to guide them through the process of becoming comfortable with the idea of Mentor texts.

I have to admit, I got a lot done and I felt proud of all I accomplished. This is a nice feeling, since as a primary grade teacher I often feel like the day slips away from me and I don't accomplish much. This could be because my grade 2 kids still need help opening their thermos, tying their shoes and want a band-aid for every little boo boo!