Month: August 2014

GALILEO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Leadership Team/Department Heads Meeting

8/26/14

Marcus called the meeting to order at 11:20am.

Leadership Team Agenda

I.          Administration Update

–Marcus said we would put time limits on agenda items now to keep the meetings on track.

–Marcus began with a welcome for Nancy Lambert-Campbell.  She told us about her kids.

–Marcus mentioned Mr. Emmi would be full time in the Counseling Office.  Nancy will take over Katie Pringle’s duties.  Nancy and Marcus will work on the budget.  Marcus is going to take over Athletics and some of Buildings & Grounds.  Lisa is going to do Textbooks, and part of the BSC.

–Marcus was trying to get an interim administrator to help with security, safety and emergency procedures.  So far we have not been successful but HR is working on it and hopefully there will be someone in place by the end of the week.

–Nancy said she would probably be back on October 16^th.

II.         School Year Calendar

–Lisa distributed the calendar and asked everyone to go over it and see if there are issues, corrections, etc.

–She eliminated the Election Assembly, added the CAHSEE dates.  She will distribute it to everyone at next week’s faculty meeting.

–Michelle mentioned some Wellness activities.

–Kathleen asked about SBAC and Lisa explained we would decide the dates later.

–October 9^th is Back to School Night.  Marcus said next year it will have to be in line with the district Back to School Night Week.  That means we will not be able to hand out report cards then.

III.       First Week Bell Schedule

–Joseph suggested not having block schedule the first week of school.  He asked how everyone else felt about this.  He thought all classes should meet every day.  He mentioned students transferring classes and how this affects them.

–Doug felt that made sense but he did like getting right into the semester.

–Lisa asked if everyone liked having CPT the first week.    Everyone said Yes and we could not have that if all classes met each day.  David asked if we could have one day short by an hour and a half. 

–Transportation is an issue.  We could do shortened classes and have all 6 periods but get out early on Wed. and Thur.  The group preferred this option.

IV.        Picture Days

–Marcus gave the history of picture day and what a struggle it has been.  We use these photos for IDs.  We are waiting to hear from Prestige.  9^th and 10^th graders will be in PE classes and 11^th graders will come from US History.  These days are next week.  We will let everyone know the schedule prior to next week.  Some ELL students will be included in their ELL classes.  There will be make-up days.

–Marcus felt it was important to have all students take the photos—they are used in all aspects of the school.

V.         Emergency Response Training

–Marcus said we will have to have an Earthquake Drill this week.  The ERT team will meet next week.  September will include the Emergency Preparedness Week, where we will have all the drills.

–Stephen Jackson asked about students in wheelchairs.

–Joseph said he liked the fact that not everyone can make announcements.  He said that those in the building after school should be able to make announcements.  He mentioned one teacher who was frightened by not being able to communicate with others.

–Marcus said the after school coordinator will have all call access.  There will be procedures on who to talk to after school.

Department Heads Agenda

I.          BSC/CPT

–Lisa mentioned she has items from many of the members.  She would like anything else anyone has and then meet about these items.  Send her items for the calendar.

–Marcus mentioned that time for CPT must be utilized.

II.         Schedule/Balance Concerns

–Stephen Emmi thanked everyone for their patience.  There may be some more balancing next week and then everyone will get updated class lists.

–Lisa mentioned changes in the ELL student schedules.

–Marcus told about the ELL Village over the summer.  He said the district is asking us to take more of these students due to what is happening in Central America.  He said we will take 25 and we will be allocated another FTE.

–Marcus said our numbers say we are full—at 125.  District is asking us to take more.  We are closed for Newcomers.  After our reclassification, some of them will move into the general ed. population.

–Marcus explained the history of “Newcomer” in the district.

–Kathleen explained the “US Entry Date.”  She also discussed the 3 years and how that can affect students.

–Lisa said there is a new Board of Ed Policy that some ELL students can stay until they are 21.

–Stephen Emmi asked about how to handle textbooks when students transfer classes.  Doug said Math does not use textbooks.  Michelle said they designed the first 2 weeks to not use books.  Others said that textbooks should be returned to the teachers.  Discussion followed.

III.       Teacher Phone Log

–Marcus said we do not trust Synergy, etc. for attendance, truancy.  He asked everyone to talk to their teachers about keeping a log of family contacts.  How do we communicate with parents when their students are absent?  Marcus would like to develop a form and then he will take it to the union.

–Kathleen asked if they have factored in those parents who do not speak English.

–Michelle asked if the Auto-dialer will ever come back? She also asked how many parents have signed up on School Loop.

IV.        Department Budget/Supply Orders

–Marcus said Department Budgets will be issued next week.  $100,000 will be split among the departments based on the number of students.

–Marcus explained the Office Depot order procedure.  Department Heads put in the order, it goes to Marcus for approval and then Linda forwards it.

–Marcus told the group they could begin ordering now.  He asked everyone to put their names on the orders.

V.         Miscellaneous

–Joseph asked about all students changing their passwords—how do students change their passwords?  Lisa mentioned an email from Danny Tan, Hank Machtay and Thong Ly.

–Doug expressed his concerns that many people have access to all these passwords.  Joseph mentioned many students take photos of their passwords that also include other passwords.  No one at Galileo had any notice of these password changes.

–Alicia talked about Club Day this Friday.  She asked who is in charge and how to get a table outside to participate.  Mr. Wing sent out an email.

–David mentioned our instructional minutes and why we have so many extra ones.  According to John Holmes of the District Attendance Office our original schedule was 300 instructional minutes short of the required 64,800.

–Michelle will talk with Marcus about the lunch application distribution.

Meeting adjourned at 12:10pm.

GALILEO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Leadership Team/Department Heads Meeting

8/19/14

Marcus called the meeting to order at 11:25am.

Leadership Team Agenda

Mr. Blacksher welcomed Lauren Marshman back.  Marcus welcomed Mark Bayango back and Michelle Fortunado as Wellness Coordinator and Susan Kitchell as UBC representative, and Bai Zhen as the ELL Counselor and Family Liaison.  Lisa mentioned that we would try to include Alan Phelps as the Librarian in the meetings.

I.          Check in & Opening Day Feedback

–Marcus asked for feedback.

–Joseph said he helped out in the courtyard and it went smoothly.  He mentioned several students did not have schedules in the courtyard.  He also mentioned the VAPA classes are a little smaller this year.

–Lisa mentioned some students went to the wrong tables in the courtyard.

–Lauren said there are lots of class changes requests.  She asked everyone to be patient.

–Susan said it was cold in the courtyard.  She mentioned that students do not know how to wait in a line in alphabetical order.  She gave a few examples.  She would recommend this be taught in the curriculum.

–Stephen thanked everyone who helped.  He discussed the parameters of class changes for students.  He also mentioned not wanting to switch students out of JROTC for PE.  Ethan explained JROTC is eligible for PE credit under special 7^th period independent study.

–Stephen Jackson said it went well for Special Ed.  They are working out the paraprofessional assignments.  They will balance out sections in regular ed.

–Stephen said the IEPs at a glance should be available by next week.  He explained his plans to make these documents available.

–Lisa said they are working on simple documents with simple accommodations for some of the special ed. students.

–David asked if the IEPs are available in the cum folders.  The answer is “Yes” but it takes a long time to read them from the cums.

–Marcus asked Stephen to prepare a 5-minute presentation for the next faculty on how to read the IEP at a Glance.

–He also said they could email teachers IEP pdf versions.

–Wellness is doing well—quiet so far.  They did attend Freshman Orientation and they are visiting the Health Classes.  There are several new therapists.  She mentioned Sunnydale Violence and there are a group of students who need support.

The Crisis schedule will start next week.  This week see Michelle or Naomi.

–Mat said his department is welcoming Danny Lynch for Vicky Ung.  Danny was a student teacher at Galileo and taught summer school.  Mat suggested signs in the hallways with arrows to answer some of the student questions on locations of rooms, etc.

–One problem was on the schedules not all of the room number printed.

–Doug said, “So far, so good.”  He said they had less information from the students this year.  They still need to test some of the freshmen.  They talked to students on Friday and Monday who they needed to changes their schedules.  They will be pulling students from classes on block days and will have information for the counselors on class changes.  They will use open classrooms and the library.  Most of the testing will be done in the Algebra classes.

–Ethan said things were going well in PE.  He needs to talk about health issues and how to identify who has health issues.  We do not have emergency cards at the school.  Lisa said they hope to be distributed on Thursday.  Susan said some parents are not honest on the emergency cards.

–Susan said it is good to ask the students about health problems.  Ethan said the first day of PE dress is September 2^nd.  Ethan also asked about G-House TV and where will the PE students watch the broadcast. Students with PE will be able to see the broadcast on the block day when they do not have PE.

–Susan asked that everyone let Susan know if they have students with health problems.

–Susan talked about Epi-pens.

–Ethan mentioned students in the bleachers, garbage on the field, etc.  He suggested having students help clean.

–Alicia mentioned class sizes.  She thanked the Counseling Office for their help and support.  She asked where to put obsolete books.  Lisa mentioned the process with the forms.  Marcus suggested we put them in the garage.

–Kathleen agreed with Doug.  Some classes are too big and they are balancing them and the support classes are going well.  They are testing all week.  They are doing the best they can without much data.  Lisa said data can be pulled from Synergy.  Departments can sign up to have viewing access to the data.

–Lisa thought the first day went well, kids were in classes, the halls were clear, etc.

–Michelle said her department did not complain yesterday.  Everyone was patient and all were expecting changes during the week.

–David mentioned singleton conflicts.  Lisa said Synergy did a matrix on singleton and doubleton classes.

–He has some teachers who are concerned about juniors and seniors being placed in freshmen classes.  He said these students could be disruptive.  Marcus suggested a warning first and then removing those students.

–David also mentioned copy paper getting restocked.

–Mark mentioned new Academy and Pathway teachers and he has been checking in with them for support.  He is doing web sit updating.

–Danny Tan changed the name AoIT to Computer Science Academy.  He is working on the website.

–Lisa mentioned the PTSA meeting this evening.  It will be from 5:30pm-7:30pm and food will be provided.  The PTSA may fund a web master.

–Bai discussed his new role and the name of the room Connection.  He talked about how the room will function.

–He mentioned the 700 school planners—there are about 300 of them left.  They can pay $1 or receive for free if they get an ASB sticker.  He thanked everyone for their help with orientation.

–Marcus mentioned the staff from Central Office and told the group that they expressed that we have a good feel, welcoming adults, and happy students.  It was amazing and had a great feel.  Marcus said everyone helped.  It was the smoothest beginning he has every participated in.  He thanked everyone.

II.         Weekly Meeting Structure

–Marcus felt we conduct our meetings well.  He felt the administrators should be mindful of their cell phones.

–He said agenda items will be timed.

–Lisa said many items will be sent in an email.

III.       PD Feedback

–Marcus asked for feedback.

–Doug said the ones he went to were the best ones he’s been to.  He mentioned 4 of our teachers who led the PD.

–Lisa asked for feedback on Tuesday and Wednesday and David Barrios commented on how fun it was.  Stephen Jackson discussed the talks in small groups.  Kathleen agreed.

–Alicia mentioned the cultural discussion and suggested closure to it.

IV.        Miscellaneous

–Joseph mentioned tomorrow being the first day that we do not have homeroom.  He asked the administration about what they will do to make sure students do not walk out of the building to get food, drinks, etc.  The G-House TV will be at the end of the second block period.  Teachers should not release students early from G-House TV.

Meeting adjourned at 12:20pm.

GALILEO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Leadership Team/Department Heads Meeting

8/8/14

Marcus called the meeting to order at 9:10am.

I.  Welcome

–Marcus asked everyone to share their summer activities with the group.  Everyone shared their experiences.

II.         Department Head Job Description and Responsibilities

–This document was distributed to the group.  Marcus mentioned that it has not changed since last year.  He asked the group to review the document.

–Marcus said we can choose items each year to focus on.  He asked the group to focus on items 2 and 12, which involve more classroom walk through.

–He mentioned item 8, common formative assessments.  He felt we were about 50% there.

–Item 15—he thanked everyone for working on this over the summer.

–Lisa mentioned 7/8 new certificated hires—one new counselor—Andrea Galdamez—10^th grade counselor.  Lauren Marshman will do AVID and other special groups.  Celia Chan will be 12^th grade, Barry will be 11^th grade, Aracely Sanchez will be 10^th grade.

–Lisa told the group who left and who the new hires are.  Lance Cossey, who replaced Alan Phelps when he was on sabbatical leave last year will return.  Alan Phelps will be the new Librarian.  Yvette Huginnie will be with the SOAR program.  Megan Jessup, a student teacher from last year will join our ELD department.  Lauren Marshman will return from leave.  Aron Mizrahi will join us teaching Biotech.  Sara Garcia has left Galileo.  Victor Soberanis will join us teaching Spanish.  And Bai Zhen will be our Family Counselor.

–She explained the SOAR program, which will be in 352 and is a Special Ed transition program.

–Marcus referred to item 18 and asked the department heads to collect the 3-day emergency lesson plans.

–Marcus went to a workshop this summer on meeting protocols.  He asked the group to think about whether or not they want to have protocols.  Lisa mentioned the “norm” of taking turns talking at meetings.

III.       Master Schedule

–Lisa said it has been completed and she sent them to all department heads.  She mentioned room sharing.  Most co-teachers have common preps.  She said she and Stephen Emmi will work to limit student schedule changes this year.

–Math will be doing some testing with the freshmen.  Some changes will be made prior to the start of school.

–Doug talked about the freshmen who will be tested will be given this information at Freshman Orientation.

–ELD will have some changes after testing during the first week.  Lisa mentioned science and social science classes at .8.

–We do have 100 newcomer students.  Marcus said we might get 15 more.

–World Language will do some testing in the native speaker classes.  Alicia explained the changes in Spanish for native speakers.

–Lisa said they have created non-native Chinese classes as well as native Chinese classes.

–Guadalupe Guerrero’s son is a 9^th grader here.  His father is second in charge in the school district, Deputy Superintendent.

–David asked if the drop rules are the same as last year.  He asked if there could be some information sent to everyone.  It will still be the 7 steps.

–There will be a set plans for TAs.  Right now there are very few TAs.

–Bilingual TAs will work with Bai Zhen.

–Michelle Fortunado will head Wellness as Jessica Colvin left.

–Let Lisa and Stephen Emmi know if you need TAs.

–Athletics needs TAs.

IV.  PD Days – Tuesday – Thursday

–Friday will be a Teacher Work Day.

–Tuesday includes the whole faculty and staff.  This will include School Wide Direction and Visioning.  Marcus included information and would like to table this until the end of the meeting.

–Lisa mentioned Monday—9am-10: 30am she will give a Co-Teaching PD.  She invited everyone to come.  This will be in room 203.  She explained what the PD will contain.  Some co-teaching pairs will be present.

–Marcus said that everyone will co-teach at one point or another, so please get this message out to students.

–10:30am – noon, Lisa and Stephen will meet with the counselors.

–In the afternoon they will meet with the new teachers.

–Breakfast will happen on Tuesday from 8:00am-8:30am and then everyone will be assigned to specific tables.

9:00am – 10:00 Visioning work.  Then they will talk about nuts and bolts.

Wednesday—Breakfast and then some Culture/Race work.  This will continue throughout the year and everyone will be broken into small groups.  Courageous conversation about race will be one topic.  Cultural Responsibility pedagogy will be another area.  There will be department time in the afternoon.

–Thursday will be a district PD.  Information will be forthcoming.

–Friday is a teacher workday.

–Michelle asked if they can opt out from Thursday’s PD and do something else.  Marcus said he would know after lunch today.

–Joseph said he would like to help with the PA system in the cafeteria.

V.         DH Responsibility at Freshman Orientation

–Lisa referred to the information given to all department heads.

–The orientation is similar to last year.  All department heads must participate from 10:50am – 11:20am—the parent piece in the auditorium.

–Please arrive at 10:45am.  There will be 30 minutes to all present and field questions.  This will be translated through headsets.  The way this works is to say something and then wait for the translations.

–Ethan suggested an information table for those students who have questions.  Marcus suggested Bai Zhen’s College Ambassadors and ASB to man these tables and wear identifying T-Shirts.

–Lisa suggested coming up with questions we think all parents would want answered.

1.  What do I do if my student is absent.

2. How does my student get into an honors or AP class of academy or pathway?

3.  What about the summer reading program?

4.  Free meal program? (we went up 10% last year).  Marcus will ask the English department to work on this again this year.

5.  PE—How do we get uniforms, lockers and what if we cannot afford the PE uniforms?

6.  What standard classes do all 9^th graders take?

7.  Why do some students have 2 teachers in some classes?

–Lisa and Joseph will work on a power point for the auditorium.

VI.  Nuts & Bolts for Department Reminders

–Attendance Updates—by mid-October or November we hope to have online attendance posting.  The district is giving every teacher in the district a laptop to make this possible.

–Furniture—Let admin know through Katie if you need furniture or need furniture disposed of.  Get this done by Friday afternoon.

–Clocks—Let Bettie know if your clock is not working.

–Work Orders—let Bettie know.

–Purchasing—tabled until this afternoon.  Lisa said purchasing can happen and then the departments will be given their funds.

–Opening Day—Lisa mentioned the bell schedule for the first day and the particulars.  ASB will do music, club tables will be there and schedules will be passed out.  Lisa asked those with free 1^st periods to come help.  Let the administration know if you can help.

–Senior schedules will be passed out next week as well as the freshman schedules.

–On 8/18, they will be done by grade level and alpha.  Students who did not come on time can go to the Counseling Office to learn where to go.

–Bell Schedule (3° & 4° responsibilities)  With the extra time for 4^th period on Monday, Tuesday and Friday all teachers must let students hear the announcements the last 5 minutes of 4^th period.  On Wednesdays and Thursdays it is mandatory that all teachers turn on G-House TV the last 20 minutes of 3^rd and 4^th periods.

–All activities that were previously done in homeroom will be done in the extra minutes in 4^th period.

–Leadership/Department Heads will meet 4^th period on Tuesdays.

–2014/2015 Calendar—Lisa will have this to everyone shortly as soon as it is complete.

VII.      Suggested Reading Assignment

–Michelle brought this topic up from the last department head meeting in June. Michelle presented and distributed information sheets on what the recommendations are from each department.  The reading selections could be displayed in the classrooms.  These can be in various languages.

–Narrative and Expository would cover the first 2 nine-week periods.

–Argument and Research would cover the second semester.

Meeting adjourned.  Lunch will be ready at 11:15 in 214 and we will reconvene at 12;30pm.

The meeting reconvened at 12:30pm.

VIII.  SFUSD Vision 2025—Reimagining Education

–This involves the superintendent’ and the district’s vision of where a student should be in 2025.  This is a 10-year plan.  There are 6 tenants that are described.  Marcus played a video that is on the district website.  Hank Machtay’s students worked on this video.

Marcus referred to the pamphlet that came with the video.  This contains the 6 tenants.  They are:  Content Knowledge; Career and Life Skills; Global, Local and Digital Identity; Leadership, Empathy and Collaboration; Creativity; Sense of Purpose and Self.  The video was paid for by a grant fro the Haas Fund.

Marcus asked for feedback from the group.

–David said it had a feel like the ESLERS and Stephen mentioned the rubric for success.

–Alicia was happy to see there is an emphasis on other items than how to use a computer.  She sees private schools producing the owners and companies and public schools producing the workers.  She likes the creativity aspect.

–Kathleen likes the fact that students are spending time in the real world and she feels the students learn from real life situations.

–Michelle said we have been talking about data so much over the past years.  She thinks this gets away from data is measuring student success, which is good.  How do we hit all of these for all of our students is the biggest challenge.

–Lisa mentioned measuring success in the future with more than just test scores.

–Marcus said WASC mentioned that we do not pat ourselves on the back enough for what we do.

–Attendance, Grades and EAP results were items we looked at last year.

–Joseph feels good about what we are doing in VAPA when he looks the 6 tenants.  He said this year his students would write self-evaluations.  What went well, what didn’t go so well and what could improve.  He wishes the district would include artistic language and musical language, etc.

–Marcus said Joseph should keep pushing this.  Coding is now a language.

–Stephen said all the tenants have so many applications in our city’s industries.  We need to hold these industries accountable for some of our students’ education.  He mentioned leadership, creativity, internships, etc.

–Doug mentioned that many high school students don’t have enough skills to go into companies.  Steven said we should outreach to the companies to see what they can do for our students.

–Discussion followed.

–Lisa mentioned real world challenges in the business world and how we can simulate this with our students.  She mentioned that our students in 10 years may no be able to stay in SF without real world training.

— Marcus mentioned: Simulate the practice of being about to communicate and collaborate.

–Doug mentioned the problem of how students get placed in kindergarten that breaks the issue—many leave SF to go to other areas.

–Alicia mentioned electives and how they are important—students should have more variety of electives.  Students need to know how the world works today.  She suggested redoing the College and Career class to make it much more dynamic and engaging.

–Marcus referred to the Vision for Galileo.  He also mentions the District Priorities, High School Priorities and the Galileo Priorities.  He mentioned the great feelings at Galileo.

–We have the opportunity to come out on top of the Smarter Balance. We need to push for this.

–We must remember our underserved populations—we need to acknowledge that some of our populations are not prepared with the skills they need to succeed.  People need different kinds of things to be successful.

–Marcus will take PD in this direction this year—who we are, where we are and where we want to be.  He mentioned that our Asian population has changed, our Latino population has increased.

–Our biggest challenge is to meet the demands of a continually changing 21^st century.  Many have taught here for any years and we have to change to keep up with the students.  We must be flexible.

–Michelle mentioned the semantics of meeting the requirements.  She wants the students to beat the competition.  Joseph likes the term thrive and compete in that order.

–Discussion followed on the word “Traditional.”  David said much is moving away from traditional, and classroom direction is changing.  Focus now is not all on content but what students can do with the content.

–With the vision, Lisa wanted the wording to reflect the students.  Then David mentioned the Galileo Community.  Stephen suggested Galileo students.  We have an awesome climate at our school reflective of the Galileo community.

–Doug suggested removing the word “obligation” and say “we will provide.”

–Michelle mentioned a creative shift by doing electives within the curriculum for the courses.

–David mentioned we need to constantly reassess our curriculum and make it accessible to the students.  This may cause changes in how we teach.

–Marcus we redraft the Vision Statement and will bring it back to the next meeting.

–Marcus mentioned that

 we need to think beyond our district to be the best.

–Marcus is pushing the district to acknowledge the schools with a Newcomer Pathway.

–Lisa mentioned our Special Ed data has drastically improved in the last year.

–Katie said there have been huge changes in the Dean’s Office and sub groups have no changed to a minimum of 20 (down from 100).  Referrals have been cut in half with the Special Ed students.  A large part of this is expectations and the students changing their behavior as they are engaged.

–Steven mentioned the changes with the main-streaming of the SDC students into regular classes, this provides the first real chance for some of these students to go to college.

–Ethan suggested pushing for a cleaner school—controlling liter, spitting, clean bathrooms, etc.

–Katie is pushing to get recycling bins in the hallways, as custodians must recycle in the halls, but not in the classrooms.

–Katie will be talking with the custodians about recycling.

Meeting adjourned at 2:15pm.