Agenda+for+Cross-Curricular+Planning

As we strive to plan effective cross-curricular planning sessions as a Professional Learning Community (PLC), it will be vitally important that we completely organize our agenda. The feedback and suggestions you provided for the timeline have helped us narrow the specific timeframe for each day. Thank you for your input and suggestions! Our collaborative effort has created a timeline of which everyone agrees works perfectly. Yes, thanks to our cooperative and collaborative efforts ... we will be starting a little later and finishing a little earlier on our cross-curricular planning days! Hooray for us and kudos to an amazing collaborative team. Remember ... teamwork is our motto!

Now ... I need your feedback and suggestions for our overall agenda for the next two weeks. Can you provide input in the following specific areas, which are listed below ... in addition to the suggestions we have previously discussed on the timeline?

I'm looking forward to establishing an agenda that works for all of us and meets all of our needs. Thumbs up to us as we work collaboratively to plan the best possible agenda for our PLC. I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas and creating a collaborative agenda that meets all of our needs.

Let's keep putting our students first ... always,

Lisa Lybrand Seventh Grade English-Language Arts teacher Henderson Middle School Henderson, Texas

Please provide your suggestions for the following areas as we plan our agenda:

Purpose: What do we want to list as our overall purpose for meeting during these two weeks? Remember ... we have to turn our agenda in to Mr. Cooper, our principal, as documentation of our PLC's accomplishments. Don't forget to keep in mind that we're trying to focus on building a cross-curricular scope and sequence that is TEKS aligned and TAKS prepatory. Moreover, we as a PLC are striving to grow technologically. We probably need to address all of these in our purpose.

Objective: What is our overall objective for our meeting? Remember ... Yvonne will be helping us with the technology aspect so we will probably want to tie this aspect into our objective as we strive to cross-curricular plan. We need to be EXTREMELY specific on our objective. I think that we should focus on using technology in cross curricular planning. I feel that this would help ease the transition for all involved. Yvonne I totally agree that we should focus on using technology while we cross-curricular plan. Yvonne is right. Intergrating technology will help ease the transition for many teachers. Jana We are all in agreement! Technology would definitely be a great focus. We use technology most days in READ180. Robin

Grade level: Do we want to keep just our PLC together, or do we want to invite the other PLC's so we can vertically plan, as well? Lisa, I think we should stick to the seventh grade at this time. We could possibly expand at a later date. Yvonne Lisa, Let's involve seventh grade only. I think we need a year to get our grade-level PLC established before we incorporate other grade levels. Jana Lisa, I agree with Yvonne and Jana. We may can revisit the idea again after Christmas, but at this point I feel we should stick with our grade level. Robin

Facilitator's name: Who should facilitate? Will we need multiple facilitators or co-faciliators? I think you should be a facilitator for the English part; I can assist with the math and technology part. We could ask a reading, science, and social studies teacher to help or give us some notes so that all subjects are covered. Yvonne I believe you and Yvonne should be co-facilitators. Jana I think using two is much better. It will ease the stress of just having one, and I agree with Jana. You and Yvonne would be great as facilitators. Robin

Community members: Do we want to stick strictly to our Professional Learning Community (PLC), or do we want to include others in our meetings? I think that everyone in the PLC should be involved along with the rest of the seventh grade teachers. Yvonne Everyone in our PLC needs to be involved. I spoke with the science and social studies teachers today while I was working in my classroom, and they are excited about the cross-curricular planning process. Leah and Larry shared some great ideas for cross-curricular social studies and science planning. The dates scheduled are good for them, and they will be there. Jana I agree with involving everyone. We need to be a team and learn cooperatively from each other. I really enjoy the collaboration we share when we all work together. It always amazes me of the great ideas that are shared. Robin

Activities: What specific activities do you suggest other than those that we have discussed previously? I need specifics here, please. For example, what is the purpose of each activity, the description of each activity, the activity's steps, and the estimated time for each activity? Again ... be EXTREMELY specific in this area.

Lisa, one thing that I would like to do is to introduce the wiki to all of our colleagues. I want to guide through the set-up process and show how to collaborate on the page. Another idea is to create a "website" wiki that will allow colleagues to post new websites that they find that could be helpful to others in education.

Lisa, I agree with Yvonne that everyone should be introduced to the Wiki process. I would also suggest that we use our campus's DMAC program to disaggregate our campus's test data and pinpoint our weakest objectives across all curricular areas. Jana

Lisa, I learned some great websites this summer at the workshop I attended. I could share those with the group. I actually have it on powerpoint! It should take about 30 minutes to present and maybe allow another 30 minutes for discussion. Some of the websites include lesson plans involving cross-curricular planning. Robin

I'm looking forward to hearing from you. I know that our agenda will help us truly focus on building a scope and sequence that is best for all of our students. Remember ... let's keep putting our students first ... always,

Lisa

Okay, colleagues ... based on your plethora of input, I have formulated a suggested agenda. I've tried to include everyone's cooperative and collaborative ideas. Let me know what you think. Hopefully, we've hit a goldmine! Out beside your name below, please provide your suggestions and/or ideas for "tweaking" the agenda and timeline. Thanks ... and I'm looking forward to a productive next couple of weeks as we work collaborative in our PLC to cross-curricular plan and integrate technology into our scope and sequence. It's going to be a FABULOUS year!

INPUT ... PLEASE!!!

Hey Lisa. The agenda looks great! Thank you for including everyones input. I look forward to learning more about technology as we cross-curricular plan. See you Monday! Jana

Lisa, This looks wonderful! I am so excited that we were able to use wikispaces in order to cooperatively plan. This has resulted in a timeline and agenda with which everyone can be pleased. I know that technology can be a little intimidating for some, but this has been so easy. I am looking forward to our training next week. I know you will have even more exciting ideas for incorporating technology and on our cross-curricular planning. -- Cristie

Seventh Grade Cross-Curricular Alignment: A Basis for Technology Integration **
 * Suggestions, Timeline, & Agenda ... Combined ...

**__Purpose__:** Teachers will work in their grade-level PLC to formulate cross-curricular scope and sequence for all seventh grade curricular areas for the first six-week grading period ... integrating technology.

**__Objective__:** Cross-curricular planning with technology integration (First Six-Week Grading Period)

**__Grade Level__:** Seventh Grade Level Teachers (Seventh Grade Level Professional Learning Community)

__ Community Members __ ** : Lisa Lybrand, Seventh Grade English-Language Arts teacher Jana Wylie, Seventh Grade English-Language Arts teacher Robin Svatek, Seventh Grade Read 180 teacher Yvonne Clark, Seventh Grade Mathematics teacher Cristie Read, Seventh Grade Mathematics teacher Leah Henderson, Seventh Grade Social Studies teacher Charles Gambrell, Seventh Grade Social Studies teacher Larry Gardner, Seventh Grade Science teacher Chuck Waggoner, Seventh Grade Science teacher**


 * Monday, August 10, 2009: ** We'll meet in Yvonne Clark's room at 8:30 A.M. and begin planning our first six-week period. Everyone bring your curriculum binders. We'll have a working pot-luck lunch. Robin has volunteered to bring sandwiches. Yvonne has volunteered to bring fixings for the sandwiches. Jana is bringing chips and dips. Cristie is bringing drinks. I'm bringing paper goods. Leah and Larry are in charge of desserts. We will begin the day by plotting our seventh grade benchmark test dates on the calendar. Mr. Cooper and Mrs. Miles have agreed to meet with us on this day at 8:30 A.M. to plot these important test dates. Having these dates on the calendar will allow us to better align our scope and sequence for each curricular area. We will then plan our first two weeks of the first six-week grading period. Remember ... cross-curricular planning with technology integration is our objective. So...bring your ideas and materials. We will revise our scope and sequence for each curricular area ... for the first two weeks of the school year. We will also schedule our dates into the computer lab. We will want to cross-curricular plan our technology units. Yvonne will faciliate this activity. We should wrap up around 2:45 P.M. You can leave your curriculum binder in Yvonne's room overnight.

** Tuesday, August 11, 2009: ** Meet in Yvonne Clark's room again at 8:30 A.M. We'll eat leftovers from Monday. There should be plenty of food. Our goal is to plan the third and fourth weeks of the first six-week grading period. Robin has agreed to share cross-curricular ideas for 6 + 1 Traits of Writing. She's also going to share some technology ideas for cross-curricular fiction and non-fiction stories. She's got a great website to share with all of us. We'll also align all of our writing prompts for each curricular area ... with a cross-curricular flairj, of course. Don't forget to bring last year's lesson plan book and last year's scope and sequence for your curricular area. Robin is going to bring her calendar with all of the TAKS dates. We'll also plot these dates on our calendars on this day, as well. Yvonne is also going to be sharing some great mathematics websites that have some awesome cross-curricular activities. Leah and Larry also havesome science and social studies websites that they want us to explore. All of these can be utilized in writing and reading, as well. We'll work until 2:45 P.M. We'll discuss our menu for Wedneday and who will bring what item before we leave for the day. You can leave all materials in Yvonne's room overnight.

**Wednesday, August 12, 2009:** Meet in Yvonne Clark's room again at 8:30 A.M. Remember ... today is another working-lunch day.We'll plan the fifth and sixth weeks of the first six-week grading period. We should finalize our scope and sequence for each curriular area for the first six-week grading period. Our goal is to have our coordinated lesson plans completed by today. We'll continue working on the websites today to coordinate our technology units. Yvonne will facilitate this portion of our PLC activities.Jana has volunteered to share some websites she learned about while she was at the Mary Ellen Ledbetter writing conference. All of the websites are designed with a cross-curricular flair. Of course, today is Cub Camp. Robin will leave a little early to go see her daughter cheer. Go Cubs! We should finish around 2:45 P.M. Again, feel free to leave your materials in Yvonne's classroom overnight.

**Thursday, August 13, 2009:** Meet in Yvonne Clark's room again at 8:30 A.M. We'll coordinate our materials on this day. Now that all five curricular areas are on board, we will be aligning our mathematics, reading, writing, science, and social studies curriculum. Yvonne and Leah have volunteered to type a list of all websites on this day and plot the dates for our technology lessons on the calendar in the Computer Lab. We'll break for lunch in Yvonne's room from 12:30 - 1:15 P.M. Remember ... we'll meet in the Computer Lab beginning at 1:15 P.M. Yvonne is going to take the lead in facilitating our technology training. We will be researching technology usage in the classroom. Yvonne is going to show all of us how to utilize the wiki with our students. This will help us address certain reading and writing TEKS. We can also plan our wiki questions for the first six-week grading period. Don't forget ... our technology training will last until around 3:30 P.M. on this day so make arrangements to stay a little later on this day.

**Friday, August 14, 2009:** **DAY ONE ORIENTATION (Meet at HMS in the Auditoruim.) 7:15 - 7:45 A.M. Breakfast 7:45 - 12:00 P.M. Orientation of Entire Staff (Auditorium) 12:00 - 1:00 P.M. Lunch ... on your own or with your PLC's members 1:00 - 3:00 P.M. Continuation of Orientation ... Entire Staff (Auditorium)

** Mo**nday, August 17, 2009:** HMS Orientation (Campus-wide Training) ... Skyward Program (8:00 - 12:00) Lunch: 12:00 - 1:00 ... on your own or with yoru PLC's members PLC Cross-Curricular Planning (1:00 - 3:00 P.M.)
 * Let's go over our coordinated lesson plans and share/compare our materials. Jana wants to share her Mary Ellen Ledbetter materials with us on this day. She's already prepared materials for everyone.Way to go, Jana!

**Tuesday, August 18, 2009:** We'll begin promptly at 8:30 A.M. We'll meet in Yvonne Clark's room. Mr. Cooper wants to meet with us to discuss our remediation plan that we brainstormed at the end of last school year. We need to formulate our remediation schedulr for the 2009 - 2010 school year. This should take the entire morning (until 12:00). Lunch will be from 12:00 - 1:00 P.M. We will spend the afternoon sessions gathering materials, making copies, and organizing our curriculum notebooks for the first six-week grading period. We will work in grade-level curricular groups according to subject area from 1: 00 - 3:00 P.M. Let's meet in Yvonne's room at 3:00. We can debrief from 3:00 - 3:30 P.M. Please make arrangements to stay until 3:30 P.M. on this day.

**Wednesday, August 19, 2009:** We will have grade-level technology training in the Computer Lab from 8:30 - 12:00. Kimberly Freeman, our school's Technology Specialist will be providing this training. We will be reviewing DMAC and TEK SCORE, learning updated components of these programs. Lunch will be from 12:00 - 1:00 P.M. We can meet in Yvonne's room from 1:00 - 3:00 P.M. to align our tutorial classes. Let's strive to effectively schedule our tutorial days so we can align our materials.

**Thursday, August 20, 2009:** Classroom Day/Clerical Day (all seventh grade teachers)
 * This is your day to work in your room and to prepare, prepare, prepare.

**Friday, August 21, 2009:** Classroom Day/Clerical Day (all seventh grade teachers)
 * This is your day to work in your room and to prepare, prepare, prepare.