Logistics and Information for Saturday's Workshop
Ashley Paschal
From: Homan, Jeff <Jeff....@teachforamerica.org>
Date: Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 1:54 PM
Subject: Logistics and Information for Saturday's Workshop
To: "tfa-lower-el...@googlegroups.com" <tfa-lower-el...@googlegroups.com>, "tfa-upper-el...@googlegroups.com" <tfa-upper-el...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "Johnson, Ida" <ida.j...@teachforamerica.org>, "Schoeppe, Melanie" <Melanie....@teachforamerica.org>, Rob Strain <strai...@gmail.com>, "Stewart, Jessica" <Jessica...@teachforamerica.org>, Jessica Newburn <jessica.sny...@gmail.com>, Ashley Paschal <adpa...@gmail.com>
Happy Thursday Content Leaders!
I hope everyone is having a great week and is excited for our conference on Saturday! As of now, we have 67 corps members signed up and planning to attend our workshops; we’re confident that this is going to be a game changer for many of our corps members and their students, and are looking forward to seeing how our new strategy plays out. I’m writing with some last minute logistics and information to ensure that everything runs smoothly on Saturday.
Arrival, Check-In, and Set up for Workshops
Location: LPS Hayward, 28000 Calaroga Avenue in Hayward, CA
Morning Session: “The Classroom You Want: How to Create and Manage a Classroom with High Expectations for Academics and Behavior,” being delivered by Julie Jackson of Uncommon Schools is from 9am to 11:30am. The session will be in the school’s cafeteria.
Lunch: Lunch will be served from 11:30 – 12:00.
Afternoon Session: The Elementary Literacy Conference will kick off promptly at 12:00 in the cafeteria. The schedule is as follows:
Pre-Conference Sync Up: At 11:15, we ask that all Content Leaders and Program Directors meet outside the cafeteria for a quick pow-wow before we kick off the whole group session. We want to ensure that we are all on the same page for the rest of the day and are ready to execute.
12:00 - 1:15 Conference opening led by Jeff Homan
1:15 - 1:25 Transition
1:25 - 2:10 Session 1
2:10 - 2:20 Transition
2:20 - 3:05 Session 2
3:05 - 3:15 Transition
3:15 - 3:45 Closing
Arrival and Check In: Doors will open at 9am for the morning session, if you are planning to attend. If this is the case, during the 11:30 – 12:00 lunch break, you should check in with either Kate Kruzienga or Ida Johnson. They will be able to give you your packets (if you had us copy them for you), and let you know what room you’ll be presenting in. If you’ve requested a projector, it will be set up in the room for you before the morning session, so you won’t have to worry about hooking it up. If you are NOT planning to attend the morning session, when you arrive, please come to the cafeteria to check in with Ida or Kate, and they can direct you to your room to get set up. Everyone should plan to arrive no later than 11:15 as we have a very tight schedule and want to stay as close to on time as possible.
Whole Group Session: Table Facilitation
Attached to this email are the almost finalized drafts of the whole group session that I’ll be delivering. I’m trying to build in time for corps members to process what they’re learning with one another and engage in a rigorous discussion of how they will apply what they are learning to their own classrooms. Corps members are going to be sitting by grade level and/or content (in the case for special education corps members). During the opening session, there is a point where I ask them to work together as a group to define what their vision of excellence is at their grade level, with particular attention to how they are going to create an inner and enduring drive in their students. I’m hoping that we can have at least 1-2 Content Leaders and/or Program Directors at each table to help them process information, facilitate discussion, and capture their thoughts and ideas on poster paper. You do NOT need to prepare anything in advance for this time, but if you want an idea of what will be happening during the session to help frame your thinking in advance, I’ve attached the session plans for you to review. Ultimately, we really want corps members to drive the conversation and discussion, but I think it will be really helpful for them to have people to bounce their ideas off of and/or ask questions.
I will also talk briefly at the pow-wow about what’s going to happen, and we’ll determine who will sit with what grade level at that point. If you have any questions, please reach out to me.
Whole Group Session: Closing
During the Closing, we’re going to ask corps members to come back to their grade level tables and revisit the vision of excellence they created in the earlier session. Attached to this email is the template we’re providing for them to use during the whole group session and in the small group session to capture their ideas and action steps. We’ll want table facilitators to help lead this discussion as well – as a continuation of what happened in the opening.
Quick Request
We had the idea of having actual grade level texts on the tables during the session. If possible, can each of you bring a handful of books from your classroom to put out on tables during the whole group session. The idea here is that we want corps members to think about what students need to be able to do to access those texts in an authentic way as readers, and it’ll be helpful for them to have an example. I’ll be bringing my library and spreading it out across the tables, but any additional books we can add to the group would be helpful. Just be sure to put your name in the front cover of the book so we know who it belongs to and can get everything back at the end.
If you have any questions/concerns/suggestions/feedback, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Can’t wait to see you all Saturday!
Jeff
Jeff Homan
Program Director, Teach For America, Bay Area
22 Fourth Street, 7th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Office: 415-659-0800 ext. 48185
Cell: 415-314-8162
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Ashley Paschal
3rd Grade Teacher
Think College Now Elementary School
ash...@thinkcollegenow.org
408.529.0428
Senior Content Leader: Lower Elementary
Teach for America-Bay Area