Wesley Chapel Elementary School

Committee Report: 21st Century Professionals/Quality Teachers and Administrators (Site-Based Committee)

Date: September 14, 2016

Members Present: D. Duty (K), M. McCraw (1st), B. Knight (2nd), A. Newell (3rd), L. Plyler (4th), P. Hafliger (5th), T. Matheson (Support), S. Moore (AIG), C. McHaney (Parent), N. Stanley (Parent), B. Edwards (Parent), A. Shaffer (Parent), J. Wagner (Parent)

Agenda

  • Vote Results: Site-Based Management Team Members for 2016-2017
  • Survey Results (2015-2016 Data)
  • Parent Survey – Results shared; discussed areas of focus
  • Student Survey – Results shared; discussed areas of focus
  • Teacher Working Conditions Survey – Results shared; discussed areas of focus
  • School Improvement Plan 2016-2017
  • Focus areas based on data (Survey data, testing data, growth status)
  • Need for staff development
  • Vertical planning times
  • Budget alignment
  • Tutor vs Globalization (We will use the globalization position paid for by the school for tutoring in 4th/5th grades this year. These were the 2 grade levels that show the lowest levels of growth in 2015-2016)
  • Classroom materials/support materials (Focus on updating outdated classroom libraries.)
  • Funds for professional development needed (The school will cover as many training opportunities for staff as possible. There will be some assistance with training from the district.)
  • Staff Concerns
  • New guidelines for cafeteria can be confusing. Clarification on how the students are to dump trays and dismiss from the cafeteria was provided. Administration will observe in the cafeteria and make recommendations to grade level teams accordingly.
  • Grade level teams need clarification on getting started with RAZ Kids and IXL. This information will be provided to teachers via email from administration.
  • Homework guidelines (More discussion on the new guidelines that were presented and proposed at the staff training session August 19th.) Teams have not started the new procedures at this point, but would like clarification on what is proposed and team discussion on a decision to implement.
  • Use of consistent practices and guidelines for homework across grade level teams. (Proposed guidelines attached.)
  • Discussion resulted in agreement to implement the proposed guidelines. This will be revisited at the next Site-Based meeting to determine how the processes are going.
  • Parent Concerns
  • None at this time.

Next Meeting Date: November 9, 2016

Wesley Chapel Elementary School

Proposed Homework Guidelines

What should homework be?

An opportunity for student self-regulation.

An additional chance for students to build fluency on a skill or topic.

A way to activate background knowledge necessary for the new skills or concepts being taught.

An opportunity to apply newly learned skills to a new situation.

An extension of what has been learned across two or more content areas.

Information taken from: “Better Learning Through Structured Teaching,” by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey.

What should homework NOT be?

Busy work to fill the requirement of providing homework activities.

Work on skills or topics that have not been fully addressed/taught in the classroom

Work that takes more than 40 minutes to complete each night. Developmentally, elementary school students should not be subjected to more time than this on homework assignments.

The expectation will be that all classroom teachers stay within these guidelines when assigning homework.

Grade level teams should work together to plan and assign homework assignments that are consistent across the grade level and that remain within these time constraints.