Timeline+for+Seventh+Grade+Cross-Curricular+Alignment+(First+Six-Week+Period)

Timeline: Seventh Grade Cross-Curricular Alignment (First Six-Weeks Planning)

To: Yvonne Clark, Christie Read, Robin Svatek, & Jana Wylie

As we approach the beginning of another fabulous school year, I know you are all thinking about ways we can better align our seventh grade curriculum to better serve our students. Through our Professional Online Learning Community (POLC), I thought we could go ahead and set the timeline for our first six-weeks planning schedule in regard to our coordinated lesson planning. Please read over the timeline below and let me know what you think. Please make suggestions for improving the timeline so it fits your professional and classroom needs. Remember, our POLC is designed to support our technological growth as we strive to better align our seventh grade curriculum, which will, in essence, better serve our seventh grade students. As always, your input is much appreciated and greatly valued. So ... redo, rework, and provide sugestions, suggestions, suggestions. Remember ... teamwork is our motto. Therefore, let's work collaboratively to better align our mathematics, reading, and writing curriculum so we can better serve our campus's seventh grade students during the upcoming 2009 2010 school year.

Suggested Timeline: Seventh Grade Cross-Curricular Alignment (First Six-Weeks Planning)

Lisa, I just spoke to Cristie on the phone. She is out of town, The dates and times sound great to her. She wants to do a pot luck working lunch, too. I do, as well. But it looks like we all agree on the dates, but can we change the time to 8:30? Jana. Jana, Thanks for letting me know about Cristie. She usually responds quickly to all technology inquiries so I figured something had to be up. I'm glad to know that the dates work for her. Yes, we can change the starting time to 8:30 A.M. each day. We will do a pot-luck-working lunch as Yvonne suggested each day so we will be ending earlier, too. I know that is good news for all of us! Lisa

Lisa, The dates and times are great for me! I am going to pick up my husband from the airport tomorrow, so I will not be available until sometime after 2:00 or 3:00. I will try and log on later. We are very excited about him coming in for a visit before heading to Afghanistan!! Say a prayer!! If you don't connect with me tomorrow, I will get with you later on the agenda, but I am very flexible, so make it work for you guys! Thanks, Robin

Robin, Thanks for all of your input. The dates seem to work for everyone so we'll stick with this timeline. I'll be asking for your input for the agenda tomorrow. I'll contact you via cell tomorrow to make sure you hubby gets in alright. I'm so excited for you and your girls. I know they are thrilled to get to visti with their daddy before he leaves for Afganistan. You have my prayers ... no doubt! Lisa

Monday, August 10, 2009: Meet in Yvonne Clark's room at 8:00 A.M. to begin planning for the first six-week period. Bring your curriculum binders. We can work from 8:00 - 12:00 and then break for lunch. We can reconvene at 1:00 and work until 4:00 P.M. Let's try to plan the first two weeks on this day.  Lisa, do you have the school and district calendar? We will need to be aware of the benchmark dates Mr. Cooper has set. This will impact our scope and sequence. Let's also discuss special events and holidays going on throughout the year, and plan lessons around them, especially the difficult ones. Robin

Robin, I have already gotten a copy of the school and district calendar so we can plot the benchmark dates. I've already spoken with Mr. Cooper, and he's going to let us plot our own dates so they better align with our scope and sequence. He's going to meet with us one day. I'm going to also invite Veloria Miles to meet with us since she's heading up the seventh grade this year as Assistant Principal over our grade level. Lisa

That will be great and make it easier to work up a scope and sequence if we can plug in those dates! I am excited to see Mrs. Miles. She always has great ides! Robin

Robin, Mrs. Miles e-mailed Yvonne and said that she would attend on the day that we work on our benchmark dates. That's great news! We'll plan on setting all of our field trip dates, too. Cristie suggested this. It's a great idea! Lisa

Tuesday, August 11, 2009: Meet in Yvonne Clark's room again ... same time ... same schedule. Let's try to plan the third and fourth weeks of the first six-weeks period on this day.  I spoke to Mrs. Hooper and she suggested some books for reading that would conincide with the 6 + 1 Writing Traits. She suggested which trait you guys would be covering first, but said you would all the information regarding the sequence. Robin

Robin, This is great news! Bring anything with you on these dates. From all responses, the dates seem to work well. It's the time frame that is going to have to be tweaked. How about an 8:30 A.M. starting time? Jana suggested this. It works for me. How about you? Are you alright with doing an eat-and-work lunch each day so we can end earlier each day, too? Yvonne's idea is great! I love it! Lisa  Absolutely! The starting time at 8:30 would actually be better for me. I love the idea of eat and work. I will bring my lesson plan book from last year, the scope and sequence, and my calendar with TAKS dates!! Robin

Robin, Great idea! I'll make a note to bring these things, as well. Will you please copy the TAKS dates calendar for everyone before the meeting? That would be great! Lisa

Wednesday, August 12, 2009: Meet in Yvonne Clark's room again ... same time ... same schedule. Let's try to plan the fifth and sixth weeks of the first six-weeks period on this day. Lisa, I think that you have a great idea, working together to coordinate our lesson plans. Could we possibly do a "pot luck" working lunch so that we could get out earlier? Yvonne

Yvonne, Yes, we can do a pot-luck-working lunch. We all agree that this is a great idea. Can we do this each day so we can not only end earlier but start a little later? Jana suggested a start time of 8:30 A.M. each day. Does this work for you? It seems to be a great idea! Lisa Lisa, Wednesday is Cub Camp. My daughter is a cheerleader and will be performing. I will need to slip out of the meeting for about an hour to watch her performancel. Robin Yvonne, love the idea of "pot luck" lunch, I'll bring a meat tray for sandwiches!

Robin, Of course, you can slip away to see your daughter perform. We wouldn't have it any other way. We'll catch you up on any further planning that takes place after you leave. We should have everything on track before you have to slip away. Lisa  Thanks!

Thursday, August 13, 2009: Let's coordinate our materials on this day. Let's plan on aligning our mathematics, reading, and writing materials. We can make our copies on this day ... for the entire six-weeks period. Lisa, do not forget that we will be meeting in the computer lab to research technology usage in the classroom. This will from 2:30 to 3:30. Yvonne Yvonne, This is perfect timing! I can't believe our luck! We can plan together and do the training to tie in our lesson planning. This is going to be AWESOME and so beneficial to our students. Do all of the dates work for you so far? They seem to be working just fine for Jana, Christie, and Robin. Jana spoke with Christie on the phone, and all dates are great for her. Lisa

Friday, August 14, 2009: DAY ONE ORIENTATION DAY (MEET AT HMS IN THE AUDITORIUM) 7:15 - 7:45 Breakfast 7:45 - 12:00 Orientation of Entire Staff (Auditorium) 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch 1:00 - 3:30 Continuation of Orientation ... Entire Staff (Auditoruim)

Monday, August 17, 2009: HMS Orientation (Campus-wide training) ... Skyward Program (8:00 - 12:00) Lunch 12:00 - 1:00 Meet in Professional Learning Communities for Cross-Curricular Planning (1:00 - 3:00) Lisa, Can I share the materials I got at the Mary Ellen Ledbetter conference? I think there are some materials that the math and reading teachers will want to use. Jana
 * Let's go over our coordianted lesson plans and share/compare our materials.

Jana, This would be perfect! I attended Mary Ellen Ledbetter's conference last year. This will be a great review for me. She offers great resources for cross-curricular planning. I'm excited to hear what you have to share. Thanks for volunteering to bring these materials. Lisa

Tuesday, August 18, 2009: Let's plan to schedule our benchmark test dates on this day. We can also get with Mr.Cooper, Principal, to discuss our remediation plan that we brainstormed at the end of last school year. Let's try to formulate our remediation schedule for the 2009 - 2010 school year. This should only take about half of the day. Can we meet from 1:00 - 3:30 P.M.? Lisa, can we add Veloria to this also? I think that she should be involved since she is the grade-level principal. Yvonne

Yvonne, Yes, I will contact Veloria Miles immediately. This is a great suggestion. Since I had already spoken with Mr. Cooper about our POLC, I overlooked speaking with Veloria. Thanks for suggesting this. I hope the times and dates don't conflict with her schedule. Keep your fingers crossed. Lisa

 As I suggested earlier, I would like to have the benchmark dates set before planning. This would make it easier to align the scope and sequence. Robin

Robin, Mr. Cooper is meeting with us to assist us with setting our benchmark dates. He wants us to set our dates this year since he wants us to more effectively align our dates with the scope and sequence. We can do this first and then begin our planning. I think you are right about having an idea about the dates prior to our planning. It will give us a good idea about how much we can accomplish. Lisa

Wednesday, August 19, 2009: Let's plan on aligning our tutorial classes on this day. Let's schedule which days we will provide tutorials so we can align our materials. This should not take but about half of the day. Can we meet from 1:00 - 3:30 P.M.?  This is a great idea. By us scheduling tutorials together, we can ensure different days or times for each subject. I know some of my students may need tutoring in more than one content area. Robin Thursday, August 20, 2009: Classroom Day (Get your room ready ... prepare, prepare, prepare)

Friday, August 21, 2009: Classroom Day/Clerical Day (Get your room ready ... prepare, prepare, prepare)

Food for Thought: When and where do you want to meet to begin planning for the second six-weeks grading period? Your suggestions are greatly needed. So ... suggest away, my friends and colleagues! Suggest away!  Can we wait until about the third week of school? I do not like to get to far ahead because sometimes I need to go back and reteach difficult concepts or something special occurs and we replan for the event.

Robin, Yes, I think we should go with the dates that Jana has suggested. How about Tuesday, September 15 through Thursday, September 17, 2009. This is the fourth week of school. By this time we should have a good idea about what all we have covered and where we should be headed. Jana suggested 3:30 - 5:30 P.M. each day. She can stay as late as 6:30 P.M. each night. What is the latest that you can stay. 5:45 P.M. will probably be as late as I can stay. Will 3:30 - 5:45 P.M. work for you? Lisa

I can stay late until on Tuesday until whenever, but Wednesday, Haleigh has pitching, so I will need to leave by 5:00, and on Thursday, the middle school has a football game, so I will need to leave, probably by 4:30. They are playing in Hallsville. I think we will be able to get it done during the time period you have allotted. Robin

Lisa, I agree with Robin. Can we wait until the beginning of the 4th week of school to plan for the 2nd six weeks perior? Can we meet Tuesday, Sept 15th through Thursday, September 17, 2009 from 3:30 - 5:30pm? I can stay until 6:30 at the latest. Jana

Jana, I like this suggestion. We'll see what the others have to say. Hopefully, we can reach consensus quickly. Lisa

Note: As soon as I receive your input, I'll compose a suggested agenda. Then, I'll send out the rough-draft agenda for your suggestions and reworks.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Let's continue to put our students first ... always!