The News at TEN!! (Thoughtful Education Network)
April 26, 2007

Greetings!

On March 29th, I attended training in Henry County, arranged by Kricket McClure for their “instructional leadership teams.”  Mr. Tom Dewing from Chicago was the presenter and spent the day with the teams.  This is the second time I have heard Tom present to a group and he has been very effective each time….both with large and small groups.  He is currently a principal who “walks the talk” and knows all about Thoughtful Education.  When Tom does a presentation he is actually modeling the strategies he is asking folks to use!!  This day was spent revisiting some topics he had previously worked on with in Henry County….Vocabulary Code implementation……building relationships….looking at student diversity…talking about unit development.  If you want more about the work Tom has done with Henry County, please contact Kricket McClure.

Gallatin County, under Dot Perkin’s leadership, had a meeting with Joyce Jackson on   April 17, 2007.  I attended that meeting, along with Dot’s administrative team.  In about 2 hours Joyce talked about the overview of Thoughtful Education.  Following was a discussion on how to outline a plan of implementation once Dot was ready to move forward with TE.  At this time, Dot is planning to have 3 days of training for the next school year, starting on July 31st.  Day 1 will be the overview of Thoughtful Education and the Five Pillars, as well as the overview of Learning Styles.  This will be for all the staff.  Day 2 will be the Vocabulary Code training.  Day 3 will be working on the establishment of the Learning Teams and plan schedules for the idea of “artifacts” with staff.  Dot has chosen to go slow with her district on this by doing just a few strategies a year…. and what I have heard from others, that this is the best approach.

As I met with Dot, Joyce and the Gallatin County staff, one of the “ah ha’s” I had was what do we need to do to help our administrative teams support the “Learning Clubs” and the “Leadership Teams.”  What is effective….how to monitor, etc.??  I have asked Joyce Jackson for a date in July to do a PD for administrators on this very topic.  It would be a half-day session.  I have not heard back from Joyce as to a date that will work for her.  I will share that with you when it has been finalized.

Cathy Barnard, Anchorage Independent Schools, shared with me that they will have training on “Concept Attainment” May 8th.  They have previously been trained on “Learning Clubs,” “Breaking the Vocabulary Code,” “Tools for active, in-depth learning,” “Notetaking and Summarizing” and “Extrapolation.”  Joyce Jackson will work with the faculty on a PD day in June to wrap up the year and prepare for the next four topics for next school year.

Do not forget the “Art and Science of Teaching” Conference, June 19, 20 in Lexington with Marzano and Silver, along with Joyce Jackson.  There was a discount registration rate offered to those districts having 20 or more attending.  I would ask Joyce Jackson if you could get a discount even if you had fewer than 20 attend!  Never hurts to ask!! Gallatin County is sending a team to this conference.

OVSO meets on May 16th, 3:30 PM.  One of the agenda items we will discuss is an update on Thoughtful Education strategies and future plans in our districts.

…..Thank you!!

"News at T.E.N!"
July, 2007

In case you have forgotten, T.E.N. is an abbreviation for our Thoughtful Education Network.  I have some information to share with you.

Several of our OVEC districts to sent staff to the Silver and Strong Institute in June.  I know that Henry County, Owen County and Gallatin County had a large group attending this.

As many of you know I have been trying my best to figure out how to continue to support current OVEC districts who are already implementing TE and how to encourage more districts to join those now “on board.”  Here are some thoughts….. Some of this information I will need a response back before we talk about TE again at an OVSO meeting.

New TE Districts for 2007-08

• If we have 15 new schools interested in beginning the TE Initiative for 2007-08 we could get a group rate.  The 15 schools would include Gallatin County, which has already developed a contract to start TE in the upcoming year.  With 15 schools it would cost $6000 per school for:

• 3 people per school, including the principal, to be trained next year.
• 4 days of training and coaching for the school reps.
• 2 days of training for district staff
• Materials and shipping of materials
• Consultants and their travel
• 15 schools and cost spread over all the OVEC districts for a year= $60,000
• At one there was interest in TE in Eminence, Spencer, Bullitt, Oldham and Owen.  ANYONE INTERESTED IN THIS??

Support for Current TE Districts-on going support

• For those districts currently implementing TE for year or more, OVEC could:
• Plan workshops on specific strategies, charge per teacher attending.
• For example, we could focus on “Similarities and Differences.”  Refine the 3 strategies category of “Similarities and Differences”……Compare and Contrast; Metaphorical Thinking, Inductive Learning.  Here is how we could unfold this….
• Day 1:  October-Teachers learn the Compare and Contrast Strategy plan a lesion, take the lesson home to try it out.
• Day 2:  November-Teachers return and bring sample lessons with benchmark papers (high, middle, low) for lesson exchange.  Then work on new strategy:    Inductive Learning.
• Day 3:  February-Teachers return, bring lesson sample and benchmark papers for lesson exchange.  Then work on new strategy:  Metaphorical Thinking.
• An outgrowth of these 3 days of work, OVEC could be the coordinating agent to develop a lesson plan bank that could be shared regionally and be password protective to be used by the OVEC districts.
• We could also do the same with assessments and develop a bank of items around Task Rotation, Comprehensive Menus, and Graduated Difficulty.

What are your thoughts about all of this?

• Unit development information……
  • I have contacted Knox County to get access to the units they have developed.  Their website to access this information is password sensitive.  Once I get this information I will pass on to you.
  • McCreary County has also developed units and has the information online and I will get that and pass on to you.
  • GRREC will have their units online at end of summer.  Jamie Spugnardi was the coordinator of this and now has accepted the Associate Commissioner position at KDE.

I will work with Dave Mehl our Technology contact at OVEC to add the TE drop- down box to include TE information for all of us to share and continue to keep current on new information as we work on these strategies.