WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=d1WDmqDiy5c

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: d1WDmqDiy5c):
- 00:04:38: Call to order, Welcome, and Opening Remarks
- 00:24:04: Approval of Meeting Minutes from April 28, 2026
- 00:27:06: District Course Catalogs - No Changes Approved
- 00:27:56: Middle School Science Curriculum Update and Adoption Process
- 00:32:31: Reasons for Science Curriculum Update and Teacher Feedback
- 00:33:22: Questions Regarding Vendor Meetings and Curriculum Narrowing
- 00:37:26: Teacher Input on Myar Program and Future Updates
- 00:41:17: Myar Program Details, Cost, and Key Components
- 00:46:26: State Assessment Data and Curriculum Alignment Discussion
- 00:50:11: Motion to Move Science Program to Board for Approval
- 00:51:29: Middle School Science Program Training for Teachers
- 00:53:10: Introduction to Teaching and Learning Update Overview
- 00:54:17: AP Research Course Introduction, Structure, and Uniqueness
- 01:00:58: AP Seminar Relationship and Unique Course Challenges
- 01:03:22: Enrollment Numbers for AP Seminar and AP Research
- 01:06:05: Curriculum Similarities and Justification of Student Numbers
- 01:10:43: Student Testimonials: Tessa and Kaden on AP Research
- 01:14:29: Student: Kaden AI algorithm and trading testimonial
- 01:16:24: Student: How class is different than seminar
- 01:20:45: Encouraging Enrollment in AP Research and Student Motivation
- 01:24:31: Evidence-Based Reporting and Grading Philosophy Introduction
- 01:29:28: EBR Frustration and Philosophy
- 01:34:23: Additional Comments by English Teachers
- 01:38:15: How Parents Can Engage with EBR
- 01:41:15: How Human Factors Impact Class Grading
- 01:44:14: Questions About District Rollout of EBR
- 01:48:14: Fair Grade and How To Measure
- 01:53:52: Concerns about Politically Sensitive Grades
- 01:57:05: K-12 Technology Usage Survey Introduction and Elementary Data
- 02:00:04: Technology Use and Impact
- 02:03:32: weights and conditioning iPad Data
- 02:06:09: Bloxy Tool for Managing Student Screen Time
- 02:09:10: Middle School Block Policy, Digital Citizenship Initiatives
- 02:14:49: Goal: Technology Should Be Net Benefit
- 02:17:27: Celebrations and Successes - Coast Guard Visits
- 02:18:15: Celebrations and Successes - Graduation Ceremonies
- 02:18:47: Celebrations and Successes - Other Activities
- 02:19:37: Thank you to Kelly Walters and Adjournment


Part: 1

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Heat. Heat. the board curriculum committee to order. The committee would like to welcome the audience. Viewers may watch the live board committee meetings online at tcaps.net/board. Recorded meetings may be viewed on

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demand at the same address. The committee has set aside this time for public comment. Kelly, do we have any public comments? >> We do not. >> Okay, that is the end of the public comments then and we will move on to the procedural items. First up are our draft

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committee meeting minutes from April 28, 2026. Do we have any >> two small okay changes and one is both on the second page >> um in the TCAP strategic plan in the

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middle of the second paragraph we should maybe specify what coach is this uh reading pilot going to be under the coach of PE or coach >> oh okay so just this time will be taught by a reading coach think it's a reading

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coach. >> It be it' be ELA technically. >> Okay. >> An ELA coach. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And then the second thing is when we were going through the learning uh series elementary math uh towards the

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end I think it's in the last sentence um maybe second paragraph and it just says you know that they're going to do this as part of the reconnect of best practices of math instruction

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and I would just add permath expressions because we didn't talk about other methods or other uh curriculum approaches >> in there. I'm just not seeing where you are. I guess I would say Beth, Math

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Expressions is the curriculum and they really are when they're doing this relaunch, they really are looking at the NCTM, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and um the Common Core best practices for the relaunch. But

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that's where you guys are connecting that. >> Yes. >> So not necessarily just two math expressions, but math, you know, concepts overall, right? because the only thing we talked about was math expressions. >> Well, but we did talk about, you know, pedigogy and about those skills and

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that's what she's referencing is the skills more than the curriculum materials. >> I think there was that hyperlink in the presentation to like a national document. Remember we looked at >> and that's not a math expressions

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document. That's a research pedagogy >> and document. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> All right. So, we'll let that part stand, but we've got the ELA coach. He said, "All right. Anything else?" Okay. So, with that, um I do I have a motion

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to uh approve the meeting minutes, please, as revised. >> I I um move the approved meeting minutes as revised >> for less. >> Okay. Motion passes. Moving on to our

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district course cataloges. the end of this year and next year. Dr. H. Hotton. >> Yeah, we have no changes uh to our course catalog this time and we also have no field trips either to approve. So, sort of getting to the end of the school year,

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>> right? Okay. Then we will um well, do I have a motion to put that on the next consent agenda? >> I move we put on the next board agenda that there are no changes to the course curriculum. >> Second. That's a really weird motion,

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but I'll second that passes. >> We strive for excellence. >> Okay, moving on toformational items. First up is our curriculum updates on middle school science. And again, Dr. Hoden. >> Yeah. So, we're going to talk about our curriculum update with middle school science. Uh, Miss Kay is going to do

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that. And then we've got a few different pieces for our learning series today. So, I am going to turn it over to Britney. >> Yes. So, um I'm going to just give a very high level overview with regards to our curriculum adoption process for our um formal recommendation for our sixth

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through 8th grade middle school science uh resource adoption. Um and so this started in the fall of this past year. Um so we went through five phases which you can see outlined on this slide here. Um which started with our preparation and planning. So, we established a

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curriculum adoption selection committee which involved our uh district secondary science uh content team members uh both of our middle school lead principles as well as our middle school instructional coaches. Um we reached out and collected

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um input from all of our 612 science teachers, excuse me, to help um define our instructional priorities uh for our district. Um it was important for us to include our 9th through 12 even though this was a sixth through eighth grade adoption. Um just to ensure that there was that coherency and cohesion across

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our sixth uh sixth through excuse me 6th through 12th grade uh progression of skill development. Um and we used that to um in addition to our um evaluation uh our thirdparty evaluation sites um shortlisted our uh four highquality

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programs which resulted in the selection of um identifying uh exploration with amplify science savar and open sed. Um through that we then went um and engaged in our what we call our initial vendor engagement where we

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had um our selection committee met with those uh four vendors um to have a 20 to 30 minute meeting um of that program um uh utilizing a set of questions that were aligned to uh rubrics um that were

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developed with our identified district priorities um alignment to our next generation science standards or NGSS standards and um high quality instructional practices tied to science. Um the result of those vendor overview meetings was to move forward

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specifically with open sedar as our two curriculums to explore further. Um to which we then had both of those vendors come and uh do formal vendor training sessions in November of this past year on RSD day with all of our 612 secondary

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science teachers once again for that cohesion and that vertical alignment piece. um which resulted in feedback from our 612 teachers to move forward solely with piloting MEAR um as uh that program during the pilot process which then led us to be able to coordinate uh

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and move forward to coordinate pilot logistics which involved um providing a full day release day for our sixth through 8th grade teachers um where they received formal training on how to implement METAR as well as providing um embedded collaboration time with their

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cross town colleagues. um from both East Middle School and West Middle School. Um so once that um uh concluded, we um uh followed up with um some pieces to launch that pilot at the start of second semester in our sixth through 8th grade

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classrooms. Um there was a unit that was piloted at each se sixth, seventh, and eighth grade um across both sites. And during that time, uh teachers had three opportunities to provide feedback once per month throughout the course of that pilot. Um we also uh collected uh

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student feedback as well um at the conclusion of the unit um for each of the sixth, seventh and eighth grade um grade levels. There were also embedded reflections at department meetings that were led by both of our um site content leads at both East and West Middle

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School. Um and then once that feedback was collected and the pilot had concluded um the last phase of this process was that evaluation and decision- making. So as a district leadership team in partnership with um our selection committee med uh members, we reviewed that feedback and the result

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of the reviewing the feedback um in line, excuse me, with um kind of the scope of our secondary district curriculum and instruction work uh for next year um and subsequent years uh resulted in a formal recommendation for the board of ed um to move forward with

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a myar for full implementation across a five-year period. that second semester. Was that last year that you >> this year? >> It was 201. >> It was this year. Yeah. Yeah. Second semester of this. >> Okay. Correct. Got it. >> And I'll also add that this curriculum

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adoption process was um uh kind of put into motion because our contract, our current contract with Savas Elevate was up at the conclusion of this school year. I'd also say that we had gotten a lot of feedback from science teachers about lack of engagement and frustration with

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that current contract. Um I would say about 40% of our teachers were actually using that current curriculum. Yes, it wasn't a program that necessarily promoted that studentled discovery um and that anchoring phenomenon to be able to drive that studentled discovery that

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was tied specifically to those bucketed standards across um that sixth, seventh, and eighth grade continuum. >> So, thank you for laying out that process. It's really helpful. Um I do have a couple of questions. Absolutely. I'm sure >> others do as well. Um, one is just like

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in that phase two for the the vendor overview meetings. Um, 20 to 30 minute each with each publisher. Is is that common? Because that just does not seem like a whole lot of time for such a major purchase and,

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you know, a subject that's important to our schools. We did the we followed the same uh system that the district previously did when we uh engaged in the curriculum adoption process for CKLA where we sent a subset of questions

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ahead of time to the vendors that were tied specifically to like I said our NGSS standard alignment as well as our district priorities. So, they had that prep ahead of time so that when we met, we had our questions and our rubric sitting in front of us and we were able to get um those solidified questions

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answered to be able to have that set of information to uh make that decision to move forward. >> And the teachers had access to the curriculum, too. So, they were able to review it and provide feedback to Britney about, hey, I want them to talk more about this and I want to hear, you

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know, why this is like this or what they're thinking as well. >> Yes. Yeah. Again, it it just doesn't seem like a lot of time, but um if if you're if it's enough for you all to feel like, yeah, we kind of understand the

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limitations and the strengths of this versus that to make a decision, so be it. Um yeah, it just struck me as as a a short period of time. Um and then just in terms of the uh like moving

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forward with with only two the open sed and and the myar out of the four is that common for us to you know narrow it down to two and then ultimately one would you say like with all the different

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curriculum that our district evaluates? I would say from my experience it it followed uh a similar suit once again to our elementary literacy adoption program where we also um as a district and at the time I was supporting as an ISD literacy consultant but um also short we

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had four pro uh programs that at the time the district was looking at did the vendor overview meetings as well during that time and then narrowed the scope to that CKLA and Whiten wisdom and 95% group so very similar to that historical process that happened within the last

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couple of years um which was a big um curriculum adoption for our district. >> Yeah. I want to say the last time that we piloted more than two curriculums was our first go around at math expressions. So that would have been like maybe almost 10 years ago. At the time

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we were using um investigations and we piloted Eureka math expressions and math and focus. And I'll be honest, when you have that many going on, it's really hard to like um make sure that everybody receives the support they need. It's really hard to have a cohesive

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conversation. And so like looking at, you know, first reading the literature about like what's aligned to the standards, what are other districts in our state using? Um okay, now we've got those. Let's go through those materials as teachers. Let's let's narrow down to what two we'd want to pilot. then bring

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in the vendors and have them give their spiel and their presentation. I mean, I get what you're saying, Josie, but like really 30 minutes with a vendor after you've already looked at the curriculum, it like after a while, it's >> Yeah. No. And I wasn't advocating for two for more than two pilots. In this

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case, it was like the vendor, you had two vendors who gave the training sessions at the RSD day and then the district chose to move forward with just one. Now that part is unique and that was a decision that the science leadership team made together and felt

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very strongly about that they felt like even though they inepthly looked at the myar and the open uh sciad they really said that the myar was what they wanted to pilot and they actually didn't want to muddy the waters with another one. Um,

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>> and I'll add uh an extension like beyond our district science uh content team, our leadership team recommending that that also included input and feedback from all 612 teachers there. So 85% of our 612 teachers who sat through both of those training sessions um decided to

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move forward solely with myar and Britney I had a lot of conversation when she got that data. She was like Jess like 85% of them don't even want to look at this other one anymore. It just and we talked like is there value in doing both? But then we thought about like those people who really felt strongly about my star and like then we were like

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well the committee said 85% want to look at this one. How are we to say hey we want your opinion but just kidding we're going to do what we want to do anyways. So right um we went with what the teachers wanted to do on that case. So >> how does it get updated?

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How do you update the science as things come in? A lot of change goes on in science. You're constantly science is never settled. >> Right. Absolutely. Um I I personally can't answer that question for my star,

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how myar goes to update their curricular resources. um I'd be happy to get further information from them and how they make sure that they're up to date particularly with kind of the observable events, the phenomenon that are constantly being explored across our um

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our world um as as a followup um just because I can't speak specifically to what they do as as a company to make sure that their resources stay as up to date. And the second question is how much flexibility do teachers have in

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deciding what area of science they will teach? For instance, there's a whole bunch of stuff kind of on the cusp of going on in astronomy. If that breaks open, someone may feel very comfortable doing exploring that more and it could

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be very exciting. But another teacher may not. another teacher may want to stay in earth science and how much flexibility is there for the independent teacher? So, I would say there's a balance between um kind of that coherency piece with regards to

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that standards and skills coverage as it relates to science instruction with also opportunities for that embedded teacher decision making um and flexibility with regards to responding to student needs and student interests. So there will be um an aligned scope and sequence just to

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make sure that those standards are covered um across that sixth, seventh, and eighth grade continuum so that we're sending our students prepared into uh 9th uh through 12th grade learning. However, there will be that embedded kind of decision making teacher flexibility within that scope and

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sequence for that course or that grade level at that time. >> Yeah. And I would say that's where sometimes we see elective courses get started, right? because either the field expands or we hire in an individual who has more background or has a passion in that area and then we would see like an

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elective course in astronomy maybe be offered. We really are bound by the standards and what our standards present us and we really want our teachers to ensure that they're covering the full scope and sequence of the standards which pretty much fills the whole year of what the content should be. Right? As

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much as our people have interests and new things happen, we really don't want them to navigate too far off that direction in lie of teaching what the state expects our kids to learn and know how to, you know, know and be able to demonstrate, especially

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as they progress forward, right? Science is a six-year, three in middle school and three in high school required um course. >> That's a good question about the updating though. >> It is. >> Yeah. Here is some more information about the program um in general just so

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you guys have a handle on that. And then you can see the costs the costs for the first year um it's more of a it's a bigger lift for us to get this off the ground. And then there are consumable lab costs that every year we will encounter those to ensure our teachers

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have the materials that they need for those. >> Yes. So myar um there are a couple key elements um that really help solidify moving forward with the formal recommendation. It is a problem bra based integrated science and engineering program that actually comes out of um

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Michigan Tech University. Um and so that was developed through a collaboration of engineers, scientists and teachers. Um it is a program that is currently utilized across 136 districts in our state. Um, and I think what is a benefit because it was curated um, here in the

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state of Michigan is that they have those place-based connections which allow that opportunity for students to explore and engage in that studentled discovery for real life um, kind of observable complex problems that are occurring in our state and how it applies kind of to the world around

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them. Um and then you'll see um also that um in that pentagon um the lessons are really meant to be student driven um through an anchoring phenomena. So they're actually engaging with a real life problem um and then they engage

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through that fivephase process. Um, and so, uh, for those of you that remember, we had a celebration and successes, I don't know, a couple months back during our pilot process where one of those anchoring phenomenon in the seventh grade classroom at the time was exploring how um, viruses spread and

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what the process looks like, not only a virus is spreading within kind of your body itself, but then also how it spreads to the greater community. and they did that through a simulation um and then created those integr integrated models as a next step in that five-phase process um to show their understanding

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and how that spreads um kind of across communities and through nations. Um, and then as Jesse said, um, that cost not include or that it, excuse me, I'm sorry, it does include the contingency. Um, that's that's a mistake on, uh, the slide there that I can update, but that

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cost will be around 97,000. And that includes not only access to um the myar teacher and student resources, but also the Kendall Hunt non-consumable lab kits um which is uh partnership with myar and they're the

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sole source provider of those lab kits um for teachers to be able to utilize those materials to execute and facilitate those simulations across um their units within the grade levels. >> And that's over five years, right? >> That is over five years. That is correct. So years one through three

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include the purchase of those non-consumable lab kits. Once those are purchased, because they're non-consumable, they don't need to be refilled on a yearly basis. So that's where you see years one through three being a little bit higher than years four through five. Years four through five will just include the cost of the

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teacher and student materials through myar. So what would you say were the key components of this particular program that made it the clear winner in the teachers minds?

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>> I would say the biggest piece is really that clear um alignment not only to those next generation science standards which have been around for about 10 years but um uh the other components of that three-dimensional learning and it really being student driven. So it's not a teacher upfront standing and

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delivering. it's actually hands-on inquirybased uh for students to engage in those standards and then allow them an opportunity to showcase their understanding um of that content. The other key piece I would say that really highlighted this program as well is

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their um high quality assessments that are written to the degree that aligns really well to the um shift we're making as a district into evidence-based reporting which I know the team will get into a little bit later in this presentation. um that that assessment uh which drives a lot of our planning and

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delivery of our work um already aligns to the direction we're moving in as a district which is also um of high value to us moving forward. >> Did they did these publishers all present some national or state level data too in terms of student

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performance? I don't know, NWA or um MSTEP science testing. >> Um not in the not in the current um uh overviews with regards to the vendors from a national standpoint. I would say

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that there were highlighted uh student growth and achievement metrics for our districts in the state of Michigan that are currently implementing it and have been implementing it for multiple years um which we have their MSTEP data to showcase how they've grown um since their implementation which I would be

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happy to provide that information to you. Um >> but in summary like was my star again there the clear winner over the other vendors >> in our district in particular? No, for the in the state with the state level assessment data

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>> we don't really have assessment level data tied to curriculum like that's not really something that you can we know like Hudsonville I know has been using my for link public

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um so I also would be happy to provide the list of the districts that are currently using that >> and then it's hard too because there's not a national science science assessment, right? Like uh PSAT and SAT primarily assess reading, writing, um and mathematics.

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There's not a science component to it. And MSTEP is just the Michigan assessment. So it that question's like tricky because there's not really national data that >> Yeah. >> And you're when you're looking I'm sure when you're looking at various curriculum you I mean it's all again

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addresses the standards in the state. So, you know, >> we're looking how aligned is the curriculum to the standards. Um, how engaging is the material? I mean, I I saw a couple lessons. I happened to see a lesson that was about the spread of the disease. I saw another one in one of the middle school classrooms about

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genetics. It was fascinating and the kids were highly engaged and coming up with great claims and that evidence to support the claims they were making. They were using great science vocabulary. Um, so they're looking at like is it aligned to the standards? Is it does they have engaging activities

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that are relevant and interesting to kids? Do they have rich assessments that ask the kids to to demonstrate and put together knowledge versus regurgitate facts? Right. >> Um >> yeah, you said did I hear Grand Blank, Midland, and Hudsonville? Was that

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>> Yeah. So those are Yeah, those are three three key and then there's several more both from downstate up here in our area. uh Grand Traverse Academy utilizes that uh Elk Rapids and Cadillac Public Schools um up here in Northern Michigan are three that kind of come to mind off off the top of my head. So throughout

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that curriculum adoption process, we also did reach out to several um districts who have been utilizing uh this curriculum to get input with regards to how teachers after multiple years of implementation are feeling um about it, how confident they are that it's meeting students needs and it its

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alignment to the standards. I mean, it all has been very positive um for the districts that have been utilizing this for several years. >> All right, that's good. It's good to hear. We have a network of colleagues in

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Michigan then. Okay. >> Did you have any areas at all where you thought it should be stronger? >> I would say um you know it's it's like any new curriculum, right? when you

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are adjusting uh not only the resource itself it takes um there's a little bit of a learning curve if you will and so I would say the um the strengths which is on our dock and we talked a little bit is how to embed that teacher decision- making that still stays true to that

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critical content piece but allowing that responsiveness to student needs so that we're not just you know teaching every lesson you know scripted and kind of compliance if you will but how are we actually using the response from students to move that learning forward.

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Um, so I would say that will be adjusted I think over time as we increase our confidence in being able to implement that program while infusing our kind of our own art of teaching into that. >> And if you do that very well, then what will happen is you'll never teach it the

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same way twice. >> Yeah, I would definitely say my different than Savas and some of those bigger um like more for-profit companies. um they are more cookie cutterish. There's more of a direct script for the lesson which some of our

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teachers just really don't like. And then some of our teachers will say, well, this is so much I won't say open-ended, but does allow that flexibility and does allow our teachers who are science teachers to be scientists as part of the lesson. Um which a lot of our folks like, but some

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of our folks want more scaffolds and support and and don't want that freedom. So that's part of the balance with this. Okay. Um, >> shouldn't this be a motion to move to the finance committee for approval or

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>> for the purchase? Yeah. For the purchase >> curriculum goes through the curriculum aspect. >> Well, shouldn't it be? No, I'm sure >> it already go there. Is it already? >> Okay. >> Your motion is to put it to the board >> and then the finance committee's motion

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is also to put it to the board. >> Okay. >> From both. >> So, it's already going. And again, this is sometimes brought up for us to talk about like this is his point of redundancy. Okay. >> However, there are two pieces to this. One is a financial purchase and the other is a content agreement. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> You know, so that's for the board to

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figure out later, but as of right now, it's introduced it both and both for a recommendation of the board agenda. >> Got it. So, I move that the curriculum committee uh move this to the full board for approval. >> I second. >> All right. Motion passes. >> Right.

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>> Yeah. But it it will be to be clear. It will be finance. >> I'm just specifically talking about recommended motions and it's not here. So I was just >> Yeah, we've just been getting updates on curriculum and then finance would talk about the purchase and they would make

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the motion to go to the full board. >> That's how it's been handled this year >> with the on boarding. >> Okay. Yeah. Yep. So um yeah, I just had one last question about this. So, is the proposal for um all middle school science teachers to get training on this

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new publisher in August for full implementation next year? >> Um on our district PD day um that first week that teachers are reporting back um we um are also looking to explore um part of their training is to get a

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person trained in house for a professional they call them a professional learning facilitator. one of our science content leads at East Middle School um has asked if she could be that professional learning facilitator for our district, which will be really nice. And so she'll go through that training this summer. Um and she

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will actually be in partnership with um my star staff uh providing that formal training which will incur which will occur that first week we report back in the 26 27th school year. >> Okay. >> Are we getting some new science teachers too?

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>> We are will be entitled. Yeah. Yes, we're hired. I think we hired two new science teachers at West Middle School. >> Two teachers around. Yeah. >> Yep. We had two retirements at West. So, >> okay, great. Well, thank you. Um, we

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will move on to uh the second part of our learning series, which is the um teaching and learning. Again, I will defer to Dr. H. Yeah. So, >> and Mr. Tysworth. >> Yeah. Mr. Tyworth. >> Yeah. Go ahead.

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>> Step it up. >> Uh, we have three uh pieces to talk about today. The first one's going to be we want to talk to you a little bit about AP research. Um, that course, how it went. Uh, we want to talk to the board formally about ev evidence-based reporting, EBR, as you'll hear that more

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and more in our secondaries. And then lastly, as a request from the board, uh, Mr. Tisworth and I in partnership with our tech department um performed a K12 usage survey uh for our districts. We want to give the board some data about how technology is being used across

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TCAPS. So we will start with AP research and I want to introduce you to our two teachers who were teaching the course this year. So Lissa Vandery was teaching the course at Central High School and Cali Rintella was teaching the course at West Senior High. Um so we started AP

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research this year and both those guys went and got trained through the college board to teach the course. Um this course is not to be confused with AP seminar which Miss Renel I think you teach that as well. Yep. Which was a newer course. Is this year two for AP

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Seminar? >> Yeah for us. Yep. Second year. >> Um and so AP research is the second year. Um it's an extension of AP Seminar. um they'll talk more in detail about that and it does involve if students take the AP seminar, the AP

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research, and some additional other AP courses, they're able to get what's called the capstone um from College Board. So, we're sort of figuring out now we're going to have kids in that situation and how would we honor those kids and designate them at graduation and honors ceremony and such. But, I

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will kick it to you guys to talk a little bit about the course, what's how it's unique and different. And I know they've got a couple students here who are going to um talk to you guys a little bit about what they did through AP research as well. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Um and thanks for having us. Um it's an

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exciting class I think because it's so different and I'll let the kids talk about that a little bit more, but it is not like any other course that they take because they do a lot of the work themselves like they design their own projects. So I think the first thing to know about it is we hear research and we

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think that's all outside research and then creating a paper right and so that's what we do in in the typical research component across English curriculums and then sometimes in social studies um but they have to design their own project so they do the initial the

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key components are there they come up with the question that they are interested in this inquiry it's all inquiry based which is very exciting to hear science um leading into that with that mindset >> and they go through their own process um where they come up with the topic that

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they're interested in investigating further and then part of that investigation involves doing a full lit review. So anybody who has taken or done any kind of master's level thesis work knows what that is. Um and so they go

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through that and this year they were all juniors. they were the first class that was that could take this because you have to have taken seminar first. >> Um, and so that is a pretty in-depth process and it's very focused on peerreview work. Um, and so they're not

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they're not doing general internet searching for this. um it's high level academic research in terms of the collection of information first and then through that they have to come up with um a more focused question that they are

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then going to build a project in which they conduct an investigation to answer that question talk about their hypothesis come to a new understanding. So in that second bullet they have to come up with a method that is aligned to the professional conversation of the

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work that they are going to be within. They have to come up with a design for their project. Um and then they have to carry through with the execution of of that project. So a lot of the preliminary work in first semester is that building the lit review, coming up

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with the method method, learning about different types of methods um that will be more appropriate for theirs. And that part is also highly individualized. So Kelly and I are not figuring out the multiple different types of methodology

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to teach these kids and the kids aren't learning 12 different methods. They focus on what is going to work for their project. And sometimes that involves a lot of individual um figuring. Um we had kids that had to go talk to stats, our stats teacher, and

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they had no idea. They were not in AP stats. They didn't know anything about um the different types of statistical analysis and they had to figure that out. Um Kaden will talk a little bit more about this, but his method was truly an experimental design using AI to

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make an algorithm to do stock trading. Um, did I get that sorted right? I couldn't understand any of it in the beginning. Really, not anything. And I just kept saying, "Okay, okay, yeah, is this going to work?" Um, he assured me

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that it would. Um, and so they go through, I think the coolest part, and Kelly, you can attest to this, is that they go through this process of trial and error that they don't often get in other coursework that's just on a straight flow through content. Um, and

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they have to then assess and re-calibrate and then move in a different direction. And then they do all of this. They they spend two months running whatever project they're running. Um, some stu I had a student who grew plants um and played different

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types of music and her cat ate them at one point and she start all over again. Was very frustrating to her. She wrote that up though in her methods like in her paper then. And so then they have to turn it into a four to 4,000 to 5,000word academic paper. Um and then

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the interesting thing I think for us in terms of teaching that is we are very much a side byside mentor and we cannot direct that at all. Um we can't even correct sentence structure or paragraphing. We have to say you need to

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look at the rubric and you need to use your research groups, you need to use your peers, you need to do this and which for students can be very frustrating. Um it just fix this. Just tell me what's wrong. Can't. Nope. You have to figure that out. Um, and we can say you might want to check the second

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level on the rubric very closely. >> Um, and do you think that this is really your best writing? We can ask questions like that. Um, and so they go through a that entire process. Um, and then they have to do a presentation and a defense.

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And so that's a 15 to 20 minute presentation in front of three adults. um any of the other research students who wanted to be there. Um and it's pretty high level. It's recorded. Um we have very specific questions that then we have to ask them to defend their

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project. They practice that a lot. Um >> and we're well trained by the college board. I think it's kind of the training is kind of a lot. Um and you have to do it every single year. And so >> we have to prove that we can score these

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presentations based on this rubric. um which I think is kind of cool for teach as teachers. I think there's like a lot of growth that happens as an educator too. And I would just add to that the ex the the AP seminar component of this. It it they're doing a lot of this but um in

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in shorter little um sections and and uh there's a lot more teaching I think on the front end in AP Seminar around some of these skills. Same same thing goes they they present but they present twice on two different papers. So one is like

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a report where the lip review stuff then builds on that in research and then the other one is argumentative which is the sort of um extension of that and then they and they do two different presentations that are shorter. So I think that's why the college board says

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you have to do AP seminar because you've learned a lot of these skills and you get that independence and then I get these kids back um in research and they've I know they've already learned that stuff. So then when you say now come up with your own question and now you have to like fill a gap with your own method and your own research. It's

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exciting but it's hard and it's stressful too. So I I just think I think it's like the perfect combination um for high schoolers willing to >> and is an elective. So seminar can will serve as their 10th grade ELA requirement,

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>> but then AP research is an elective course. So I I think we both feel like the kids who are electing to take this and do highlevel academic work um that is not easy. Um I I we feel like it it is something that's pretty exciting. um

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they should be applauded for that I think. >> Yeah, lots of positive. All of these kids were in research actually. >> So, and it's just been a really it's been a really um unique teaching and learning experience, I think, for the kids. And we're going to let them talk. >> Yeah.

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>> Is it a one year or >> one year? One full year. >> Okay. And roughly 20 kids. >> So, we have I have 13 right now in my um section at Central. And we have a class like ours runs as an actual class. It's a little different at West.

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>> And at West, we are sort of running it independently. I have a 4th hour writing center time and the kids came in to meet with me during that time as well. So, we did run it a little bit differently. Um, >> for us, I don't know if this is going

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off script here, but for us, it it allow the K. It was hard for them to fit it into their schedule. And so if we run it one hour, then that's an hour that they can't take their music class or an hour, you know. So it was like I don't know how we run it.

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>> And how how many kids did you have? Sorry to interrupt. >> Seven. >> Okay. >> Seven. >> Oh, seven. Okay. So 20 was total. >> Total. >> So it's interesting that you have a had a class where you had more kids versus the flexibility of um

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Right. and but had less kids just you would I would think it would have been reversed. I would have thought if it was competing on an elective to allow more kids to kind of open it up to their schedule. But >> well and this year it so this year only the kids who took seminar right last

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year could take it and that was only STEM kids. So it was a much smaller group. >> Um and then they also could take this or innovation and design. So I think our innovation and design numbers were much higher. >> Yeah. Right. A lot of students took that. >> Okay. And will that continue down that

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path of STEM to be able to take seminar or will it Okay. >> Since we since we made that switch to opening seminar up. >> Yeah. Now seminar is is sort of has replaced our honors English 10. You know for a 10th grade year the students have a choice between ELA 10 or AP Seminar.

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Those are the two choices. And so the other thing that Lissa is alluding to um is that this next year really it could be open to a junior or a senior because you might have not had room this last year to take it as a junior but you took AP seminar as a sophomore but you want

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to take it as a senior and so that's we're looking to see what the numbers end up being when they're seniors to do it. And we think it will still be low because it's a lot of work for an elective class. >> And honestly, I think it it will though

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I know it's not always cost effective. Um >> I because we're sort of >> just mentoring and guiding and it's a lot of one-on-one that that works better. Um if you had 30 kids that you were trying to walk through this process

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with all their own questions, >> that's a lot. Yeah. >> Not not in the first time approach like that. No. >> Right. >> Did you say something? I I know we're all really excited to hear from you guys and we will get there soon. Um I just

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had a question a quick question about the continuity between these two classes. Did I hear at the beginning you said something about the topics? The students topics would remain the same. >> They can, but they don't have to. >> Right. Okay. I would say half of my kids chose to do something that they had

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learned about that they had been interested in in seminar and they couldn't go as indepth with it. And even when we were doing our training, we saw that a lot. Yeah. >> Mentioned in the that kids they they key into something their sophomore year and they think >> there's a lot of prompting in AP

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seminar. The College Board releases seven stimulus materials and you read these stimulus materials and you study them with the kids and then they form questions based on those stimulus materials that are thematically connected but like very different sorts of um texts. And so I think that the

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idea is that's like fueling these these questions. And so they maybe also pick to go one way and then remember that they were also interested in this thing and then when they get to research they can do that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um, and just in terms of the, you know, low student numbers, I

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mean, I, you know, I see these things grow over time. I think with the IMC, we've all seen our STEM programs grow. you know, I want innovation and design to succeed, but word of mouth catches on with kids, great teachers, you know, you'll you'll probably get higher numbers, but to the extent that there's

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variability in our student classroom sizes, that studenttoteer ratio, because we as board members get questions about this. Um, this is administration >> question. How do you all measure, you

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know, and quantify the the teacher time so that you can, you know, say to another teacher, hey, you know, we can justify a low enrollment in this class because the teacher workload is X compared to the another average size. Well, I would say there's no formula for

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it. There's no like rubric about that for these guys. Um, part of this was it's a brand new AP course and we knew it was going to be a heavy lift. And so we made a commitment from both the high schools that were going to run it. We're both going to run it, which gave these two like someone to bounce ideas off of

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when they got stuck, too. We've tried to start AP courses with one instructor, and that's a really uphill battle for them because they have no one to call and say, >> "How does this work?" Um, >> we'll see for me. >> But you're right. As budgets get tighter, the question is where are we going to prioritize? The one area we do

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try to prioritize at the high schools is our um ongrade level math and English, right? We do try to run those a little bit smaller than 33 if possible. Like we like to run those around 25 to 28 if possible. And I think these guys, even though they maybe don't teach algebra 1

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or ELA9, although you have in the past, would say it makes sense just so that you can develop relationships with those kids to motivate those kids and to see those kids and make sure those kids feel known and valued and seen by their teachers. It does help a lot with the instruction for those kids.

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>> Well, and I would I would just add to that, Josie, that we both are in very different situations in teaching it because I'm not on a teacher schedule. So, like me teaching this was not taking away one of my five classes that would have been because it was an add-on as

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the librarian. >> So, and then >> Kelly, yours was in in a similar way >> because I had that writing center space. They they pair it with that. >> I have three other preps, too. Um, so,

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so it was great to have the two of us also to be able to talk because, but, um, the other thing I would say, and I think Tessa can speak to this and everybody really, um, Tessa's really connected with her AP psych course that she was taking at the same time. And the

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other thing to think about with AP research is it it l it can glob on to the other research classes. So, it's like an extension of that. So her project she leaned on her AP psych teacher a ton and and used those skills and that learning and all of them were

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working um they all kind of uh matched up maybe not Katie so much with with a another AP course that they were in. So I don't know there's that piece of it too >> but at the end of the day even though these were add-on for their schedules it cost the district a2 on both sides of

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town to run it. Yes. Uh but I I don't think there was any tension maybe I just don't know from other colleagues about wow you have a class of only this many kids. >> Well I don't know >> they might not bring it up directly to that teacher

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you guys. No but that didn't take away from anybody. I wasn't taking any I I just because of my situation >> and I guess because of mine too because they're like oh you're doing that and you're >> and we have to start somewhere. We have to start with these smaller investments and they will grow.

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>> We really think that this is the type of course that number one will show kids like do I want to go into research? Right? These are kids who are all juniors and seniors. They're starting to think about what are they going to do after high school? Do I want to do advanced research? >> What do you think, Tessa? >> That's I was just going to ask the kids. >> You guys, we're ready to roll.

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>> And the opportunity for them as as we all know like for that postsecary like what am I writing about? What experience was different and made me reflect and made me grow as an individual? this is the type of experience that providing this to our kids I think really could help them stand out and have a reflection on college essays or

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scholarships or or their next steps um because they've done this high level academic and not every student gets that experience. So >> great segue. Would you all like to start? >> How do you want to do this? Yeah, you want to introduce your students and

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>> um so at Central this is Kaden Ron Roth and his title of his project was AI algorithm and trading and well they're probably not going to like explain everything that they did. We kind of just had those three questions there. They'll talk about it and really just ask them whatever you want to ask. >> Do you want them to Larry? I don't know too. You want to talk from that table

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over there? >> Doesn't matter. >> It doesn't matter for you. Okay. >> Whatever you guys you guys want to stand up and talk over there or if you guys Yeah. Perfect. And this is Tessa Newman from West and I shortened up your title, but she did music entropy and selective

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attention for her. >> So why this class, guys? >> So hands down, this is my favorite class I've ever taken. >> So I'm going to talk about in a very like highlight, very positive. This is

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the first class that I felt was really applied to many of my other classes and very appliable to the real world. So I'm currently like in AP government, AP psychology, I'm in English with Mrs. Rintella. Every week we do research and for the first time I've actually

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understood how to analyze an article because research follows a very uh similar structure. For any paper that you ever write, it's always the same. You have your methods, you have your abstract, you have your inquiry, you have your methods, your results, you

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have your data. It's all very similar. And I feel like I could take each piece from all my classes this year and apply it to research. And from a person that's in model UN government, I've done a lot of public speaking. It kind of prepared

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me for the presentation, the 15 to 20 minute presentation. And I love presenting. So this was like the second like we did seminar and then they're like hey research I was like I get to present again no way like that's kind of

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fun and for the first time like I I'm not a great writer. I'm not an awesome test taker but for some reason research just clicked because it was something I was very interested in and it was a topic I was very into. And then I can talk about my paper, but if you want to

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say something about that. >> Yeah. So the main reason I took this class and my reasoning behind it was I was in seminar and I like how I like how you put it as kind of a front end for all the information that you need and it it tends to go pretty smoothly after learning that in AP research. But the

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way I saw it was if there's a topic that I'm interested in, which I was interested in trading. So I I thought to myself if I can force myself to learn extremely in depth about this topic for an entire year I think it's going to be

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beneficial and you know it it can be difficult to do those kind of things on your own. So I took it as a way to force myself within grade and yeah I mean I had a really positive experience. I really like the class and I think it's a way to develop a lot of important skills

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along with seminar 2 public speaking being conscious of the way you're talking and standing and using fillers and stuff like that. I think it's definitely benefited me in a lot of ways outside of school. So yeah.

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>> Can I have a question? Music entropy. Why that? So, there's two things I love more than anything. One, music, and then two, psychology. So, because there's so much freedom in this

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class, I got to pair the two together. And I'm a dancer. I play I'm in orchestra. I was in choir for a year, so I'm very musical heavy. And then psychology this year, I just think it's the coolest thing ever. So my research question was to what extent does high

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entropy compared to low entropy in instrumental music affect a listener's attention during a dyotic listening task >> which basically >> normal stuff in simple terms entropy is a physics

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term it means disorder. So it's the difference between a particle going like this and a particle going like this. So when you apply it to music theory, it's the difference between a very predictable piece of music such as a classical piece that's just quarter

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notes versus something more abstract like contemporary, more rock and roll maybe that's like, oh, I don't know what's going to happen next. And how does that affect how you can focus, how you pay attention to a certain thing? So, and when I applied it to a dyotic

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listening task, it can kind of in simple terms, a dyotic listening task is it measures your selective attention, which is your ability to focus on a certain stimuli when there's so many things present in a certain environment. And I could use that because I listen to music all the time. I listen to in the

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car, when I'm studying, when I'm dancing, when I'm doing anything. So, it's like I think it's very relevant and applicable to this world. So yeah, >> I should talk to you at some point. >> And were you able to make money after you? >> Yeah, we want to hear about yours too.

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Ken, >> originally I wanted to make it make my project as kind of an applicable way that people could get into. I mean, with what's happening with AI now, you can do so many things with it. I wanted to be for my project to kind of be a blueprint

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if I wanted to show someone how like if they were asking about not that I'm a trading guru or anything. I'm just saying I know like the struggle of not knowing what's going on because it's a it's a very complex realm I'd say and I

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wanted to um I wanted to create like that blueprint so people could get into it easily and I was very clear with all of the stuff I used and how I set it up. So I ended up I and and the reason I said that is because originally I started out with like uh I just put $100

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into a cash account. So, it's like realistic. But then with what I was doing and I'm not going to go into the reasons, but I had to go to a paper trading account, which is like fictitious money and it's a it's the actual stock market like you're making moves in the stock market, but it's just

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fictitious money. Um, so I didn't make any of my own money, but I did >> I did I did make fictitiously with AI. So, >> and I would just say like I think it a cool it's great to hear them talk about

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this. Um, but each of them did a completely different that's the cool thing about the course is that >> like um Katie focused on movies. We had a couple about politics and um so it's like you can really do anything that you want. So,

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which one else highlights? Um something I really liked about this class compared to seminar is seminar you kind of had those stimulus you had to follow certain structure and especially the first year seminar we were told we had to do something connected to STEM

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since it was a STEM class and difference you had to work with a group so you also had to agree with a topic that everyone wanted to do which was tricky and then for the individual project you had to do something using those stimulus so it's hard and especially if it's narrowed and

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you kind see a theme in all the sources. You kind of have to go that direction. But then research, you had a blank slate. You could have done anything. So I probably had 10 different research questions. They were all very similar, but they were just a little little bit tweaked to

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what I could have done in that moment. So it was it was cool to have freedom, but it was also scary because you had to take full accountability for what you chosen. And I remember I was doing my inquiry and I got probably halfway and I

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realized this is not what I want to do. It's not specific enough. It wasn't going where I wanted. So I had to kind of do a curve ball and go the other direction or I had to go deeper or I had to like you can't just do like surface level research because you don't really understand. So like from that you had to

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learn how to actually you know understand what you're reading and I think that's really important. What a lot of people don't do in a lot of classes is like, oh, Google it first first website, click it, read it. Okay, that's all I know. But you can't do that when you do research because you have to

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find that gap. So, you have to find what you don't know, which is scary. to that point too. I mean, doing actual research, I I think it was again just so powerful to really learn how to actually do research because research is required

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in so many other classes and it's just required as you go throughout high school. And I remember for AP Lang, we had to do a separate research project in kind of the middle of the second semester, early second semester. and I was just totally bored because it was so

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surface level and I didn't even feel like doing it after doing AP research. So, I think it's I think it's really cool how really in depth it is and how you can really explore something that's entirely new because you go through the professional

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conversations and you find something that hasn't been evaluated yet and then you get to like truly explore that. It's I think it's extremely valuable. This question is really towards the students or towards our our teachers,

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but um how do you um see encouraging other kids to take this course or how do you I mean you've done such a great job articulating here for us the curriculum committee. So, thank you for being here, but like how do we get other kids to understand because I can see the

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excitement in both of you and so um just curious if you have any thoughts around >> I think I can kind of answer that. I think it depends on the kid. Obviously, if they don't want to pursue something in school that will, you know, it's more work, but it'll benefit them, then it's

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kind of hard to get away from that. But if you see someone who's, you know, open-minded and want wants to use school as a way to um kind of further their own knowledge to a great extent and then further their own skills as well. I

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think if you can convince them on that side of it. You know, I think it I think it would be >> I think motivation is a major push factor in it because it was my seventh hour. I didn't really have free time in

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my schedule to do it. But because I chose a topic that I wanted to do, something I was very passionate about, it kind of drove me to work on it and it kind of made me be like, I much rather work on that than do my math homework, per se. And I think

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I love it. >> Yes, I love Matt, but >> good recovery. Yeah, >> but I think just that freedom that I got and it's kind of cool to see kind of the

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behind the scenes because in psychology unit zero, you learn about the research methods. You learn about the ethical guidelines. You learn about the statistics and kind of everything that goes into research. And I think it's very different from learning about it to

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applying it. And for me, I'm the only one that did an experiment at West, so I had to make sure it was ethical, which I thought was really interesting. Making sure having the informed consent, the IRB, having, you know, debriefing,

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protection from harm. And it's like you hear about that, but actually applying it is a whole different thing that I thought was cool. >> Yeah. And I just to piggyback on what they're saying, I don't think it's a class for every kid. I don't think you push every kid to do this. I don't I

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don't think it would work. And so, but the idea that they get to dig into one thing all year, right, and kind of become experts on that and then present and defend their presentation, I think is a draw for certain kids. Um, but I I

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mean, I do think it would be a problem if we were like, "Everybody take AP research." It would it would not work. >> Plus, you'd go nuts. >> Yeah. Right. Yeah, >> for sure. >> And and like every AP class, I assume

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that this gives you some college credit down the road if you get a high enough score, right? >> Depends on the school. >> Yeah. >> But generally a four or five. >> Yeah. >> Just to have this experience like the fact that they have done research at

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this level. Um I mean as they say stated, yeah, you do research in AP lang, but it's not like this at all. Um, and it's like a mini it's sort of a mini um introduction to a dissertation. And so, you know, if you're going to continue, I mean, I didn't have

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>> I you know, when when you jump into a dissertation, like that's the first time you're ever dealing with that. And these kids have a little bit of a blueprint, right, for what that process looks like, which >> I think is invaluable. Yeah. >> So, >> terrific. Well, thank you so much for

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coming today and sharing your experience with us. >> And you three ladies in the back, >> did you find it equally valuable? >> You enjoyed it. >> So, we are going to try to run the course, I think, next year at both

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schools. I think I don't know what numbers look like. No, we're not running. We're too low. >> We are running it the same way next year at West. And right now we have eight kids signed up for it. So again, I think it'll be like

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this sort of independent um run alongside the writing center. I'll meet with them, but I also have a bunch of students who are going to come help mentor my my new AP research. So I think that's another cool thing, too, right? Is we we can build up and I think that'll help

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build the course overall. Like they're going to come in and work with these research kids, too. Um, so it'll be a neat little community >> and I know a lot of our AP seminar students currently who have individually come and spoken to me and said, "I want

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another year of learning under my belt. I want to take AP Lang. I want to take AP stats. I want to do this stuff first so that when I'm a senior, >> they can navigate this with a little bit more confidence." Um, because I do think junior year can be it can be

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>> that's a tough year academically period. Right. So, and we have heard a lot of that too is kids are going to sign up for a senior year. So, we'll see what that looks like. >> And a lot of schools who teach this um and have had it long term. It it's just a senior level course. Like that's just

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what they do in general. >> But that said, we're not thinking of like moving seminar to junior year. So, >> you don't seminar is really a sophomore class. >> It's how it's built. And can this fill in for any of the required courses

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towards graduation or is it just totally elective? >> Right now it's elective. Um I would not I I have we have actually talked about considering pairing it like if we could pair it with something because other

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there are other schools who do that too like they tie it to some schools do it with an AP like an AP lit course. Some schools do it with an English 12 course because you because and I think they they would attest to this so much of it they could do right on their own. So you

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could run a you could run a schedule where it's like three days of of whatever required course it is and two days of research but then that would mean also a lot more at home you know independent work. >> It is something that we could consider

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moving forward if we needed to. You could take a a question in physics. >> Yes. >> You know, >> question I mean any particular area that you had interest in >> and go in depth on and it would seem like that could also be like part of the

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requirement for for science. >> Yeah, I think we we talked about that originally. Um I talked about that with them um about if they depending upon what their project is, right? Because I mean

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Cadence would fit under computer science coding to a certain extent, right? He had to do all of this stuff with with using the tech. Um >> and then I'd have I had a I had three that did um social studies, political

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science like geared topics. But then the concern was if they are working within a certain so then the question was what if why can't we float the credit why can't we say okay well let's you're doing you are doing I had a student who did a rhetorical analysis of political

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speeches and it was all English yeah >> linguistics rhetoric based stuff so could that be an English credit right could the kid growing the plants and researching plant development and plant growth could that be a science credit

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could. Right. So, so, so, but then what that conversation turned into, well, we can't ensure that the state standards for those courses are necessarily being met within a project oriented um approach. So that was kind

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>> very narrow very narrow >> and I don't know that you would want to have to ensure that the state I mean that would that would shift it would change the >> choice >> but the narrowness is where you look at applicability of what you've learned >> right

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>> and that is very valuable >> terrific well thank you again for sharing your experience with AP research >> yeah thanks >> with that do you want to turn to evidence-based reporting? >> Yeah, and this is something that um you

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know, it's like I invited Lissa and Kelly here on purpose um can talk about as well. So, um something that's that is building more momentum um at our secondary, so grades 6 through 12. Um it I would say gosh a couple years ago.

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It's been a couple years now that that teachers uh came to the building principles to the leadership team and just expressed some frustration over um point grabbing gradebing it being more about how do I how many more points do I need to earn this less about the

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act of learning. Um and at the same time we had teachers who were like I want learning to be about growth over time and I want to say hey these are the foundational skills or standards of my course and I need you to master them and whether you master them in October or

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November or December and January it doesn't matter as long as you get yourself to that mastery level as opposed to oh you didn't master it right away you didn't develop that right away you have a 60% here. Oh, now you develop mastery. Now you hit a 90%, we're going

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to average them together. Um, so really this idea of grades reflecting what students know and are able to do versus the time in which they know it within the constraints of a semester. Um, we know that window is is there. We have to roll grades at some point.

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um how do you allow kids multiple attempts especially at those major skills that we really want to develop on on within our students that we bring them back and bring them back and and require and hold the kids accountable to continue practice and demonstration of

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those. Um this thinking too really um forces our teacher to have teachers to have a clear alignment to what are my major skills and how does my content fit into that? Um and what will that look like throughout the entire semester and what might that look like the first two

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weeks of a course versus on week 12 in a course. Um and then we've had a lot of discussions around that last bullet. We know that good work habits matter. We know that it matters that people show up in time and are polite and are respectable and are part of our learning community. But the question is, should

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that be reflected in their math grade? Right? Should their math grade truly refle reflect what they're knowing able to do in mathematics or should it also reflect how they are as humans as far as showing up on time, um being polite to others and those types of things. And how can we separate those two out and

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hold kids accountable in both of those realms? um but in ways which are appropriate and teach them to get to levels. So few years ago a lot of teachers interested in this um what they do when they're really launching this is they take their whole course and they divide it into major categories and

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those categories might be by major skills and these guys have done it for some of their courses. So they can give you some examples of hey what are the categories maybe look like and then they think about what's the evidence in which students would demonstrate learning underneath those categories. Um the other way to divide it besides skill is

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by content um too. And so um but a lot of teachers dabbling it with this year we have we did purchase what's called an overlay for powers school so they actually can score students in this way as well. Um but now the momentum has really picked up with more and more teachers learning about it and hearing

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about it. We visited some schools that are integrated this 612 or even K12 right city was K12 with this um and what that looks like. Both Danielle and Britney went on that visit, too. Um, and and they say that they really went to this to fight apathy students. They saw

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students just not um feeling motivated to engage in their learning, feeling like, "Ah, once I can't do it, who cares? Now I can't do it." um they were really going after some students who feel like once they kind of got themselves in a hole academically, they just never are motivated to get themselves out because they don't see

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the light at the end of the tunnel because how can I get out of where I am at this point grade-wise? Um and so this next year with uh all of our secondary teachers, we are going to for our three professional development days have uh a national speaker who's done a ton of

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work with school redesigns on this. He'll be coming in and providing learning to all of our secondary teachers around it. And then they'll be organized in their content areas to start thinking about what are our major major categories and what does proficiency look like in these major categories and and what's the evidence

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underneath which will help us get that clear alignment um for things. Um and I think the second slide kind of outlines that too as well. um it really will strengthen our tier one practice because you have to have a clear common understanding of what your

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major um skills are and how students will demonstrate them at different points throughout the year. Um do you guys want to talk at all about how it's changed not just how we score and grade kids, but it also has changed how we interact with students in the classroom and what that time looks like too.

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>> I would say that's the biggest thing for me. I've been doing like I have Brady in in comp right now. So, I do like a I don't use the overlay in that class, but I I manipulate the grade book to kind of fit um these ideas. For me, as an

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English teacher, it's more about a um a chance to revise, a chance to get there again over and over again. So kids don't get a grade and it's all averaged together and then they just keep moving on trying to pick away at at points but instead it's like okay this is the score

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I got which is not quite the the you know showing that I I know everything I'm going to do it again and here's the process to do it again here's a process to show more evidence so that I can get to the score I want to get to and so um whether it's in the overlay where I'm manipulating powers school to do this

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for me that's the important thing is that students students know that there's another another chance or they can um apply some more learning and show that they can get it. Do you guys feel like that? Um yeah, so I I think this is I I love

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the idea of EBR students and parents struggle with it, especially our high achieving students. I would say there's a lot of learning that has to happen in the community around it too because because they're good at getting you know a 98% and if they're not at a 98% that

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feels like they're not you know even though that doesn't mean anything when it goes onto the the transcript. So there is a lot of learning too I would add that that needs to happen in the community around it. >> Yeah. And I so I've been using this system since I was at CTC so for about

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nine years. um now and I feel like the main shift is that it gives students a pathway to understand how to move forward in their learning and a typical system does not. It's that you take a

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test and you get a score and then that score goes in in the test category and then some homework and that goes in in the like practice or homework category and then you take a little quiz and that goes in over here. And so then when the students look at their grade, they see a bunch of numbers and none of it is

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attached to learning. They could go in and say, "Okay, well that was a unit five test and I know that that is connected to unit five learning if they remember what that is, right?" And if they go back through their notebook that maybe they have and maybe they do not um and figure some of that out. But with

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these, because they're skills, they can see, and I think Kaden can attest to this, like actually see their progression within any one of those skill categories. And they can also identify, okay, I'm really good at synthesizing information, but I am not

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good at like the conveying of that information in a clear way. I need to focus on that. And then I need to go ask Miss Vanery for help in how do I transmit this information more clearly in the method and format that it needs to be transmitted because I have all of

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these ideas over here that I can synthesize and they're great but it's getting lost in this area as opposed to okay you're still at a like B or B minus in your paper but why right and rubrics can help with that but rubrics aren't

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typically the thing that ends up in the grade book and So when you're looking at the gradebook and you have skill categories and you have a more simplified version, am I proficient? Am I above it? Am I just below it? Am I two steps below it? It's an easier um kind

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of pathway for them to be able to see. >> So question for you on like parents pro our progress reports that we get like it's very grade driven, right? So like you you know do you think over time that will translate to proficiency where we're seeing where our kids are not

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proficient? Does that make sense? >> Do you know what I'm saying? Because like like I get my report and it's like you know >> there's a grade there's a grade but I don't know like >> right >> for some of our kids like my daughter was super self motivated and like understood exactly what she needed to do

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to get where she needed but then my son when I ask him you know why why like you know this stuff I I'm I'm lost as a parent how to engage in those those blocks of what he's not getting. >> Yeah. And that's that's sort of what we

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are we're looking at and exploring right now is what's the best way to communicate to kids and parents in a transparent way. We the overlay has been sort of nice and solved some of our problems those teachers who have been using it but it is it is u as a parent you have to click in and you have to

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really kind of know what you're what you're looking for and looking at and so it's not as transparent to our parents. Right. So, you know, give me an example like, you know, and and grading is a big thing in this that kind of comes out is some folks struggle with, okay, I just I know what a B is, I know what an A is,

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but it really doesn't depth unlike a standardsbased report card that gives you very specifics about what are those skills. There are some even high schools that have gone away from letter grades and gone to a standardbased grading, you know, using evidence-based grading for

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that. Um it's a battle. I think one that we've said right now is not one we want to take on. But you know teachers have the ability to take that and then transfer that with a student understanding all those things transferring it to a letter grade because you know now colleges like I had

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the chance to sit down and meet with the um uh the uh um registar at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and talk about transcripts and they say we actually have many high schools especially international that are all standardsbased and all competency based

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in that way and we know how to handle that. So the idea of it having to be an A or a B is not really a true. However, for communities often that know that they they struggle to get past that and sometimes can cause these things to blow up. So we're very cognizant of that.

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We're going to have to kind you kind of have to live in both worlds. But we do feel it's important for kids to begin to understand mastery of those concepts and and to be able to show much more um comprehensive components of what they're they can do or they need to work on or

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you know to be better to be able to especially to raise the rigor of some of our courses. >> You know you always realize the grades are subjective. >> Yes. the just nature of the beast. >> And the more of what you get down to one letter, the even more subjective it is.

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But I think it makes it easier in some ways for both student parents and teachers if you can bring it out and say this is how I'm I'm gauging that human element of how you're doing in the class

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which is are you falling asleep or are you actually engaged in what's being discussed? Are you present in class or are you just assumed write this your time in my class out? Are you respectful

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when someone else says something that you don't agree with or you going to bulldoze over them? How do you face all that? And I can put kind of a yes, no, beginning number system to behavior. And

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they used to do that when I was a kid. you had your your sort of like your behavioral number score and then you had your letter grade kind of for where you were on the testing. I think getting

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around that would be very very useful. And it's interesting because I think most teachers want their kids to like them. And you really begin to push to this grade elevation to the point that Harvard

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comes out and says, "We're going to limit the number of A's you can give out." Harvard has to come out and say that >> because they've gotten so out of balance. Well, I actually think that the EBR style grading increases the rigor in

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the classroom. Uh, like I said, largely because kids have a way to to keep getting better and so they keep working, keep working, right? There's this this rigor. But I do think the end goal is that kids can meet the standard. And so if we if the standard if meeting this

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standard equals an A while we're still dealing with grades, you might see that your kids have A's. But if the rigor, I don't think that matters if they've had to work really hard to get there. I do think that is another part of the conversation that has to happen though. Like more rigor in the classroom doesn't

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equal that we have a a curve grading and more kids have C's. That's true. >> It just it I I think you will see more kids have a >> doesn't mean that even if you're very very disciplined, very very hardworking that your work ends up being an A.

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>> Right. Right. And that is a very hard thing to accept on the part of either the teacher >> or the student. >> But if we're truly being honest and saying that they're mastering the content, >> you know, that's the key part. And you know, I think quite honestly, I think, you know, we've had this conversation. I

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think we have work to do with that. And, you know, especially at some levels. And so that's something that, you know, we really, you know, we really want to get to >> a more micro look at what our kids are able to do than simply a letter of

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macro. Um, and this is a first step towards that. >> So this is a really complex topic. >> Yeah. >> And um, we have a packed agenda today. I don't want to give short shrift to this at all, but um I just want to ask

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because I I have some additional questions, but I want to ask like where you are as a district in terms of rolling this out. Are we starting small incrementally with certain high school classes? Are we going whole hog like K through 12 with this? What's what's the

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plan there? >> Elementary level first before we hit high school. Um well our plan is for secondary teachers is we're starting to to build more common awareness and understanding around this. Um we are not

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shifting away from power school as being our grade book that we're using. We are not forcing teachers to go to some type of a categories and a numerical value but we're next year we are systematically raising awareness around what it is. How does it change your instruction? How does it change the

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design of what your course looks like? How do we have conversations around that? At the same time though, we are supporting our teachers who are interested in I've already been playing around with this. What is a better system to communicate to kids and parents? And we are looking at

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potentially doing a pilot of what that would look like um in a small group to to sort of figure out does this system work within our system and if so, how would we potentially bring it to scale if that's where we want to go? We just visited a district um a few weeks ago,

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Lake City, so close to us who was full EBR, grades, you know, K through 12. They're on their fifth year in the journey though, and they still had two high school teachers who weren't who weren't there yet, who next year will be into the system. But I mean it this is we have to build some understanding

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about why for our kids about what the instructional shifts in the classrooms just that idea of allowing a student multiple attempts um and that doesn't lower the rigor um is something that people have to wrap their brain around because sometimes the initial thought is

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well why would they even prepare and care about the first time if they know they can they can do test corrections and they can get an opportunity right? How do we shift that into um every opportunity our students have to demonstrate learning actually builds their skill and their understanding? And how do we prepare them so the first time

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they do it, it's their best effort so that we can give them feedback and coach them to where they need to go next, right? Um that's a that's a huge philosophy kind of thing to crack. Um, so we're going to build awareness with all of our all of our secondary teachers in all of our departments next year. And

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then we're going to work on what could our courses look like if they were in these major categories and what does proficiency look like. We're going to see if we can get that far in one year. I don't know. Uh, but then the idea is to build a whole uh learning continuum within each of those categories of what

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is that path to mastery and then even above that mastery look like. Again, some of these guys already have that, but I wouldn't say >> it's it's a small minority of teachers. >> Yeah. So, is the plan to use the PD days in August for this?

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>> Yep. that first teacher report back which is actually September 2nd because Labor Day is so late and then the November day and then that new February day that we've added will allow us three touch points throughout the year to sort of learn and grow our understanding go and teach and practice and bring back

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student work and bring back conversations into those rooms. But this is kind of the thing for our secondary teachers, our district leadership team, um, which our content leaders sit on, our building leaders sit on, have really said we want to grow a more coherent understanding around this for every

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teacher within our district. Um, and so that's sort of where our first step is for next year. >> Well, so among sorry, among other complexities, um, I I wonder about the impact on teachers and I could just anticipate teachers

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getting like nervous, you know, oh my gosh, now I'm grading the same thing from the same kid three times until they get it right. I know, especially that crunch at the end of the semester. Um, so I mean, just be prepared for that. You don't have to answer me today, but

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just that is that is a component of this as well. >> Sure. >> Well, I have a question that's totally different. What about K through eight? >> This is going to be 6 through 12. middle schools as well are involved in this. >> And remember, our K8s are are our our K

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fives, rather, are already standards based grading. >> That's what I was going to say. As a parent of elementary school kids in this district, I feel like we're very familiar with this kind of grading. >> And I'll add from an elementary standpoint, we're gearing up to do a

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revision of our report cards moving into next year to ensure that we really have as much cohesion as as we can across our K12 system from that philosophical standpoint. and making sure that from the onset we are communicating to families like the critical components of evidence-based and standardsbased

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grading so that when they transition into sixth grade at the middle school and then nth grade at the high school there's that continuation of understanding across that K12 piece. My question though is you have a kid who works very very hard but doesn't get it

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and you have another kid that almost from the moment they walk in the door knows how to do it. You know a foreign language. The kid that walks in the door to a German class that has lived a year in Germany is going to be a lot

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different than the kid that has no clue. And so how you end up doing fair grading because what's the purpose of the grade? Part of it's your personal assessment and the parents assessment, but part of

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it too is to kind of give you a sense of what these kids having sat on an admissions committee. It's important you know how to evalu because that's a portion of how you decide your acceptance.

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>> But but we've said as a district and as we get look at our strategic plan outcomes are the goal. Mastery matters >> and if we don't have a level of mastery of the content the state has put out. >> So you're talking about the measure across the board.

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>> You got it. That is the >> opposed to the individual. The measure is on those standards that the state has put out there is a student have they mastered those standards? Yes or no? Regardless of how old they are, where they come from, socioeconomics, any of

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that, have they met the bar? >> That is really the crucial point. >> It is, you know, and that's that's where, like I said, based on what the board has put out, you know, that's what the mark we're trying to meet, and we've got work to do to do that. And you know,

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it it it it a lot of those things of, you know, we all love, you know, Susie or Jimmy that are working hard. You know, a lot of our kids work hard, but we've got to find a way to get them to the mastery level. >> And so, a a kid that doesn't turn in any

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of their homework, but can actually demonstrate it in a testing. >> That's part of the conversation, right? >> That kid is going to be at mastery. >> We looked at acknowledged. We looked at some cool I don't know if this was

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across the board, but we looked at like when you were talking about that last there are rubrics where you have the the mastery rubric for the skill for the content, but then you also have >> um some of those softer skills on a separate rubric. And so there's this

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whole story, right? Then you can that's like the whole story of the kid. And then the mastery is what would equate to the grade, but you also have this rubric of like how hard did they work? Did they show up every day or did they not ever do their homework? And that's like a separate piece. I think that as a

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teacher that was really interesting >> like our profile of a graduate, it has all of the those competencies that we want students to be able to collaborate, communicate, problem solve those elements. Very hard to quote unquote grade, >> right? >> You know, that's something I think that there are some schools that are working

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hard on trying to figure that out. So >> figure it out. So >> So I think that's a big part of what, you know, Jesse is saying is that, you know, we're exploring and learning from a lot of people. I think we, you know, this has always intrigued me of this work because this goes all the way back to the some of the teachers that taught in the IB program in this district, you

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know, a decade ago or even longer. Like you see components of the learning and teaching that, you know, who've been there. Um, and so that's been unique for me to kind of see in pockets what was done. So there are teachers that taught in those. Mike Living good, somebody for instance that a lot of you know that taught in that that has mentioned that

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to me. And so now we're looking more holistically. our career center right now is completely competency based in grading um in that way. So there's a real movement towards this and if we're truly truly going to raise the bar, we've got to measure off of mastering that kids have that. So that's what

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we're trying to take this next year and and educate more teachers on on what that looks like and try to build that and then maybe a year away we're from a small cohort to your question are really trying to say this is collectively what we're going to have one school or a group a class you know a grade level

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class do to see what that looks like >> right now the the teachers who are using it right now who are using it in small pockets but we are ensuring that that course across the district is all using it right Right. >> So, I know they're using an AP7, for example. But that means whether you're a

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student at West Senior High or Central, that course experience is similar and more common. Um, >> which gets back to our student advisory committee, you remember our kids talking about, I've got teacher A and teacher B teaching the same class and they're one allows test corrections, one doesn't

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like that. How do we get to some uniformity with that? And this is some work towards. >> Yeah. No, that's why I said this is complex, too. like the same same subject. Yeah. One teacher, you know, is known as the easy teacher, easy A's. The other teacher's more

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rigorous, >> but then the kids are that have the more rigorous teacher, they're getting fours or fives. The other AP teacher, they might not be getting that high of scores. And then you've got, you know, the disconnect between, well, how come my kid has all A's, but their SAT scores

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aren't that high? You know, that's a parent concern. So, it is a really >> it is >> complex and honestly politically sensitive topic that you're tackling and I just want to >> we've got to go slow to be >> give you credit for for taking this on

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because it's you got to get the staff buy in this the the parental buy in. Um so yeah and I guess just one one small thing here for those who are voluntarily doing this right now. Is there a

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national nationally standardized um organization that's saying here is the overlay tool that you should use and everybody's using that consistently or how does that >> we wish that was something >> that would be awesome. >> No. Well, so there is not and because

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there are different ways in which to approach this type of work. Um and I think we've noticed that um going to see different schools and seeing how different places operate and I think it it needs to be like put on record. um that our administration has been amazing

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about this and not just saying we're going to pick this one over here and everybody's going to do it in this way. I mean, there has been a very um intentional um way of going about getting information and data collected about it and seeing what might work and what might not work. And we are using

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the overlay that CTC uses and it's not something that's going to work for us. Like we figured that out like just in year one of like seven teachers using that. like it's we need to find something else and we need to move to something that will work in our district

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for our teaching staff, our student population, our parent population. Um and so we're working through those. Um and then I think that even with a little bit from the administrative perspective of okay, we got to slow our role down a little bit too and figure out how to do this in a way that is going to be the

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most productive for everyone, >> right? best ultimately for the students um as they're moving forward through it >> and that the community and the parents have a clear understanding >> y >> of how you got from A to C.

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>> You know, I think that's important when you're just evaluating a skill that's easy. But when you're evaluating information and ability to use information more broadly, that's much more difficult. Well, thank you for introducing us to

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this topic and we are excited to keep apprised as things develop next year with your professional development days and so on. So, thank you for leading the way and I see the wheels turning and these students heads over here listening to this conversation as well. Um, so

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yeah, with that I think we could turn our attention to the last piece of our learning series which is our K through2 technology usage. >> Yeah. So, um, Jesse and I worked with Danielle and Evan, um, and Britney to kind of figure out what's the best way

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to gather data around screen time usage for elementary and secondary. Uh, and obviously it looks much different. Uh, I think that with elementary there are certain times in which the curriculum lends itself to using the curriculum where it's or it's tied in with screen time, while secondary uh, Jesse will get

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into is more of an integrated uh, usage wolf. So that measured time is I think a little more difficult to tease out. So we kind of did two things with the questions. One is just a just a general number of time of how much screen time

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they use by the four core we did for elementary. And then in future slides you'll see primarily we took comments down as far as what do you use it for uh with within those four core and that's also described. So do you have initial

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questions about this particular slide? We had about 127 responses. So just over 75% of our of our classroom teachers for elementary. Uh we hooked this onto our we do a a uh survey on a regular basis

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through our PLC. So this was part of that. Um this was an anonymous survey. So, this is of course for those who don't necessarily know in the audience, the elementary school students have the Chromebook going around in a cart from classroom to classroom.

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>> No, they have they within the Yeah, each classroom has a cart. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Every classroom cart. >> So, it's always in there now? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. Yeah, that would >> it is a charging station and all that. So, they can be plugged in and they do not go home.

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>> Okay. Okay. So obviously the big takeaway here is that some um some like science and social studies use the Chromebooks more in general than the math. And you know >> I would say the opposite. So just a zero to 15 minutes of science and social

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studies those high numbers are 15 minutes right and we see a little more usage. And I think if Britney or Danielle Emmy want to speak to I I think our ELA and math definitely have more connections as far as curriculum specifically. You know there's boost

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reading which is a tier one tier 2 um practice tool that we use. So I think we're naturally going to see a little more time used with with computers with us with those subject areas. >> Okay. Thank you for putting this together. I think there's been some

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conversations around um overuse of our um technology and so um this is great. >> Yeah, I think it's definitely a topic that's out there right now. We all know that we're seeing those stories of districts completely banning it. Um and so sort of what Dan and I wanted to do

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is say, well, hold on. Let's let's make sure we're telling the story about what our usage looks like before we really run to one of the extremes. And as Evan and Danielle and Dan and I have talked, it's it's really around intentional use, right? Are we using it to service

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teaching and learning for that student? Um, for secondary, we did the survey through the four core departments. And so each of the departments, their department leader gathered the information. it that just makes more sense than sending a survey out to everyone because when you get into the

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non four core areas like I mean weights versus art I you know we just didn't feel like um there's as much usage like in a band class they don't really have their Chromebooks out right at all and so we didn't want that to skew the data um so you kind of look at that at our

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secondaries so this is six through 12th grade um each of our content leaders at each of our four and at TC high gave us some feedback based on each curriculum area, how much are they using that? And then this next slide here, um, talks

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about what are they using it for? And that's what Dan was kind of going into with that differentiation and intervention. >> Yeah, specifically in elementary, we saw a lot of responses around practice and reinforce reinforcement and then differentiation and intervention. Those

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are the the primary uses that we saw. And as Jesse mentioned, you know, we only did our classroom teachers. So we did not do specialist teachers. new special education teachers we thought to get a a really good idea of how much are in front of it. >> Can we go back one slide?

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>> The science. >> Yes. >> Where it's used 30 to 45 minutes. If that's in a classroom where you teach a science class for an hour and then you have another class comes in, is that over the course of the day for

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all those classes or can you end up with science classes mainly taught by a computer? >> Oh, I don't think that anything is taught by a computer. I think the skills are reinforced. One of the things you'll see on the on what they're being used for is their science department does a

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lot of labs and manipulatives and things like that and it came out in the data stuff that you just you couldn't recreate that if you didn't have the technology. I wouldn't say they're teaching the content for the first time that way. I would say you're still going to see the more traditional lecture or investigative things, but then they're

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using the technology to enhance or further explore or show a lab or a simulation that you um couldn't do without it. Because if a lot of your labs end up um like that and not hands-on, I think you lose a lot.

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>> Oh, agreed. Agreed. But our science teachers still do a lot of labs hands-on. We see a lot of our science teachers setting up their lab stations and and running those two. That's not lost. I was also a little surprised as to how sc how high science came back with usage, too. >> More discussion. Could that just be

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like, okay, we're going to do a lab now, but you need to have your laptop open so you can enter information spreadsheet. >> That's why this is a very um quantitative number and we've got some qualitative work to do to really take a look deeper into all of these, you know.

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So, this was an initial blush, you know, for us to at least, you know, get perceptions of our teachers time. And then I think you know we do have a few questions here and there to ask and um you know to to take back and find out. >> Yeah. >> So weights and conditioning would be 60

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minutes. >> Right. That's just it because they have it and they're recording their information in their Chromebook, you know, or iPad >> while they're doing Right. Exactly. You know, that's what I'm saying. So the the secondary was really really hard I think

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to gauge. But elementary as well is like you know I think it still is okay like well if you're of all those classes in one day is it really 15 30 minutes for the whole day you know we we've got some more qualitative study to really do

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>> and look at this to to understand >> but just a correction um weights and conditioning they don't use their Chromebooks there's an iPad that's shared to enter their data >> okay >> but sometimes if they have an issue with iPads or whatever they do have a Chromebook come in and use that instead to fold over.

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>> Okay. But I think >> there is a mix of both. Okay. >> It is a different >> It's mostly iPad, but there are days where if they have an issue with those that they are using the Chromebook. >> So maybe you're going to get into this too with the qualitative. Um I guess

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Yeah. But exactly what's what is the impact on the student is did you assess that yet from the teacher's point of view? >> No. No. Neither survey had that on. >> Okay. No. Yeah. We really looked at how

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much time are they using it for and then what types of things are they using that for too. Um and Danielle I know helped put together the survey and deliver it. Do you want to add anything on um those the time or the usage? >> Um the time was interesting. If you go

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back to secondary, um the the math teachers specifically, they're 0 to 15 minutes per day, but the way that they're using it was incredible because they're looking at some simulations and manipulating things in ways that they couldn't do in person. So, I thought that was that was really really cool to

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see how they're using their little amount of time. Um ELA is highly variable. I do want to mention that. Um if they're doing research, they they use the Chromebooks. They're on screens, right? because they're pulling in that intense research, but most of the time if they're writing because of the use of

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AI, they're doing a lot of that by hand and they're having those discussions and they're doing um a mix of both. So, I I think the the time is one piece, yes, because we do have to be concerned about that, but also how they're using it. It it really was purposeful and

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intentional, and that's where we notice the technology making a difference. And that's what is in if you move forward a couple slides, Jess. I guess I have one over here too. I didn't realize um this one in particular. So using the Chromebooks, I

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think that's okay if they're using the screen time in that way to manipulate gravity and look at that complex concept or specifically to look at those patterns and how to increase the rigor that way. So I I think the way that

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they're using it is is pretty cool. Okay. So, Bloxy, I think, is an important piece of this conversation as well. Um, our teachers have a classroom dashboard that they can use to help see kind of what the students are doing and also to help manage that tab floating.

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We all know that if if you're not directly paying attention, it's easy to float to other things and it's easy to get distracted with a technology. So I think that blocks is a key piece of this conversation to help us make sure that our students are anchored to the tasks

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that we want them to be doing. Um we can restrict the number of tabs that they um can can use or can see. We can um push out specific resources that we want them to focus on. Um and we can immediately block or allow different sites. So and we can do that as a student by student

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basis or as a whole class. So there's a lot of things that the teacher can do alongside just being, you know, all the things that we do as educators. Um, but the Bloxy dashboard, I think, has helped a lot with being proactive with managing the devices in our classrooms.

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>> And that's an additional tool. Bloxy is our internet filter, which obviously we're required and want to have in order to just prevent um any sort of malicious traffic and in general kind of internet filtering. And then um them along with plenty of other vendors have these

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additional add-ons with as Danielle described kind of that dashboard that we piloted those before we engaged with Bloxy to to test out kind of the feature sets where their control lied, how easy it was, and then the ability as she kind

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of just touched on to really manage digitally in addition to hopefully being, you know, proximity close to your students walking around just seeing what they're doing, but have a really quick snapshot and then be able to control as much as saying here's the three websites I'd really like you to focus on. They

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can't go anywhere else for that duration of the class. So, it's been helpful as we've continued to train the teachers on kind of the usage of that for their ability to then again maximize the intentional use of the screen time and try and really make sure that they're using them for um that stated purpose

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and academic use while they're in class. Yeah, we we do provide trainings throughout the year for our staff and we have to come back to it. I mean, this is like I mean, this is you talk about everything a teacher has going on. Oh, wait. And now they're managing a digital environment on the background to make

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sure there's they they do I mean that's another protective piece that we want to have there. They also are wandering the rooms and using, you know, their physical presence too to be monitoring. But, um, this is something we we come back to and refresh our staff on how to use it. And, um, and we do it at

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sometimes at small snippets of time Danielle will come into one of our content and show them how to hey how can you our math teachers were doing if a test and it was on online but then the they wanted the kids to have Desmos which is the online graphing calculator and they were showing them oh how do I release two tabs and a couple teachers

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were like oh my gosh thank goodness I didn't even know how to do this so we try to you know continue to remind them on how to best use this too and then yep oh thanks Danielle things that we're looking at moving forward So that first one, that device block policy

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is something that we've brought up to the board. So um and this is something again I know there's been some dialogue around these time constraints, but Evan has worked with his team that so our students get a computer at sixth grade orientation, right? That's the Chromebook that they get checked out to

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them and that they are able to have throughout the school year. They turn it in at the end of the school year and then it gets upgraded and they get it back that following year. But one of the things we've talked about is um for our middle school students from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. having a block on that

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computer that it would not work essentially for those six hours. Um so Bloxy works all the time. And so it's not uncommon, our building leads know this, to get an alert in the middle of the night because a student is on a site they shouldn't be or making comments they shouldn't be. Um, and we either

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need to quickly alert like law enforcement to make sure the child's okay, or that's like the first parent phone call we're going to make in the morning to make sure they understand what their child was doing at 2 a.m. Um, and so we've had some conversations, especially at the middle school. Um, there's a um, impulsivity, some

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immaturity there. Um, and our middle school just a little our middle school principles are fully supportive of this and um, love this idea. They don't see a lot of uh healthy behaviors happening from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 am on our Chrome devices.

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>> Weird. >> So, the digital citizenship component, I know we just met with uh Dr. Van Wagner and I meet on a somewhat quarterly basis with the presidents of the PTO's from each school. And Danielle did a presentation on digital citizenship.

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They had a lot of interest in it. Her maybe reaching out to the individual PTO's. But also came with that were some lessons that were created that teachers can show. These are short video lessons under five minutes uh that we try to work into the day. Right now time is finite as far as teaching curriculum in

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elementary. But as far as morning meeting or possibly during a snack time or transition from recess, these are areas in which we can show these sort of videos even starting as as young as kindergarten because of they do have screens in front of them and there's a always a safety aspect. So that's going

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to be rolled out more this year, this coming year. >> So I I shared those videos with with principles now to get out to teachers to get some feedback. And then I think next year we'll formalize it more. >> And then I'm working with the instructional coaches in both buildings who are working with their administration to figure out how we can

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implement that in sixth through eight next year as well. >> Bloxy trainings we talked about. Um Danielle's going to do some targeted um intentional professional development that could be through leadership teams, through content areas. She now is part of our uh district uh curriculum team.

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So, she attends those meetings and thinks about where does it make sense for me to provide some information and training to our teachers on different things um to help us use our technology as efficiently and smart as possible. >> She's very supportive.

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And I just think it's really important to Dan just touched on it, but pair that digital citizenship with just what we're going to do in blocking the devices. If all we do is set policies where I'm just turning things off or we're setting all the blacklisted sites, you know, we're

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never really going to get to the root of of kind of the issue in doing that. So, it's um and Danielle has been a big proponent of it, rightfully so, of just really integrating and being intentional about how we're just having those conversations with kids, kind of showing them where that those dangers can be and

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just what the benefits and the the downsides can be to obviously overusing those screens and doing that. So, we're just trying to make sure we're really on top of that and aligning both of those elements together. This includes the AI conversation too about appropriateness and and ethical

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use of AI. I think, you know, I think we've done some work. I think we've got a whole another group of almost feel like starting over to go like, you know, with it, but that's a piece of it as well. >> For the device block policy, are you do we need to revise a board policy? And

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also, do you need are you putting it in the student handbook for middle school students next year? I don't think we have to revise a policy. Our thinking was that we're going to pilot it for first semester and communicate heavily to kids and parents

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as they're getting their Chromebooks in grades six, seven, and eight that they will be uh blocked from those time zones and then we'll get some feedback from um >> I don't think it' hurt to put it in the in the >> I think it'll probably fl put on fall underneath the digital citizens part of

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that that piece. But um >> we've got some work to do with that in AI this summer both handbooks. So I think that's something we'll take a look at. >> There is an awful lot in the handbook. Both of them are enormous amount. >> Thank you. >> And if it's too much, it won't get right.

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>> Agreed. >> Right. Okay. Yeah. I I appreciate the ongoing um conscientiousness about this topic because I think we all can agree the goal is not to avoid technology

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altogether but to use it as a tool to enhance learning and retention and avoid distractions and you know this is part of our goal one academic achievement just as we look at that you know we should expect the

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technology to be a net benefit not status quo flatline you or negative, right? So, >> and so, you know, to that point, um, you know, from that more qualitative look, my goal is going to be, um, when the school year starts to focus on the K3 and I really want to deeply get in and

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look at, you know, I think the big misnomer is that, you know, some people think that kids are on them all day and we have no books in the in the elementary classrooms, >> you know, and we do. we we have books in every in every classroom that you know reading time's happening you know but like I said is you know there there's

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there is this balance to figure out especially K3 um in those years of we're putting so much work into the phonics based literacy I you know I I do want to ensure that it's not being a hindrance that it's a help to you know to um Miss

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Ballinger's point so I think um you know I I I do want to deeply deeply know where that is. So, I'm going to take some time early fall and really take a deeper dive into it. >> Yeah. And I mean, I'm equally concerned about middle school and high school. I I

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mean, I know the focus is on literacy early in life, but >> yeah. >> Um, >> yeah. I'm I'm not taking my eyes off of middle school any and by high school. Obviously, we all think that kids, you know, becoming young adults, they have the maturity and we hope that they can

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self-regulate more, but the middle school is like a big temptation spot, right? Our kids are just starting to get their cell phones and social media and it's all, you know, very new exciting world. >> Yeah. But I think what Evan said is

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really important. Like he could probably employ like three texts to just block websites all day that kids find and then they will continue to find more sites to go to to block. Right. >> So smart those kids, they find the ways around it every day. Let's talk about the workarounds

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for me all the ways that we work around it. >> Okay, great. >> So, it h it has to be a pairing with what are the restrictions we put on and what's the education that we do as to why because ultimately they're going to have a lot of access to a lot of things

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in their lives and they have to be able to choose responsibly. So, >> right. >> All right. Terrific. Thank you with that. that um we can move on to our celebrations and ex and successes. >> Yeah, celebrations. So, we have a

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wonderful connection and uh relationship with our Coast Guard here in town and they do visit our elementary schools. We had two elementaryaries visited this uh spring. One was these are pictures specifically from Long Lake Elementary and Eastern was also visited. Uh Coast

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Guard came in, talked a little bit about water safety, kind of showed the equipment, landed the helicopter on property. So, just a really exciting time for the students and and a kind of a fun experience. >> Obviously, we've got graduation coming up this weekend. Um, but both of our

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high schools involve our students in senior interviews or senior panel roundt discussions. A great experience for all of our seniors to engage with the community members um to sort of show off what they've learned to demonstrate that and and have a pretty cool opportunity to interact with somebody in the

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community. Again, just for everyone, uh we have TC High's graduation on Friday night. That's over at NM NMC's Dennis. I'm excited about that. Jen's got two ceremonies back toback. Um over 90 kids we have graduating there this year. One of our largest classes.

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>> Um and then our larger high schools, we've got West Senior High uh Sunday morning at 11 and Central High School is Sunday at 4 PM and those are out at Interlockan Arts Academy. So, should be a beautiful day and is always a great ceremony for our kids.

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And we had a community member do some reading. Jennifer Whitten, a probate judge from Grand Traverse County, visited Mrs. Ferguson's kindergarten class at Eastern uh to make some connections with CKLA and do some reading with the class. >> And then uh both of our middle schools

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sent students to the inland seas. Um always hit or miss what the weather's going to be like on that boat. You know, >> sometimes they come back with sunburns and sometimes they're in their winter jackets. So, >> both sometimes both on the same day, right?

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>> Yeah. But both of our middle school science uh students, our classes got out there. So, that's really a great opportunity for our students to get out in the Great Lakes and do some science that way. >> And one more celebration. We do not have a slide, but this is Kelly Walters last board curriculum meeting. She doesn't

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want too much acknowledgement, but I thought it would be appropriate to uh just as far as personally the transition from leadership to leadership that Kelly uh has helped us with. Obviously with Jesse and I coming in new and I know even before that, but uh just

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what she brings to board curriculum in particular as far as uh her specific uh keeping track of information. Unbelievable what she does with board policy and helps keep me on track personally in these meetings. um >> which is

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we're actually gonna hire three people and then you mentioned handbook too which is an incredible task that Kelly is specifically helped us with with board curriculum. So this is her last one. It's fitting that we're pushing two hours here for Kelly. >> Right. >> I just wanted to thank her and for all

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her >> absolutely and for putting up with all my my little minor changes on meeting minutes too. So >> yes, thank you, Kelly, for your years of service in this capacity. >> Nice not to have that old D machine

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stuck. >> All right. Well, um, our next curriculum committee meeting will be Tuesday, June 30th, here at the new TCAPS administration building, formerly known as Sabin, on Cass Road. And uh that will

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again be 8:15 a.m. So with that, >> so we'll see you guys all there. >> Yep. Um unless there are any other items, we are adjourned. Thank you.