@D114Stanton

@D114Lotus

@FLGSD114

#District114proud

Chris Carvell and Ryan Hawkins for getting our inexperienced wrestling team more mat time by scheduling Saturday meets the past two weekends.

and

the 8th Grade Team for working collaboratively to best meet the needs of some of our most challenging students.

-From Jeff Sefcik

To the Stanton kitchen team on another successful "pop in" visit by the Health Department!

and

Thanks to the EAFL Board, Jeff, and Natalie for a super productive calendar committee meeting! Great conversation and super efficient. Glad to now have options for everyone to consider!

-From Heather

Becky Laverdure for knowing the details of every single bus route!

-From the Bus Drivers

To everyone working to make the Coffee Cart project at Stanton come to life! This partnership with Culver's and the functional work skills our most complex learners will be able to use are invaluable!

-From Heather

Thanks Matt Shannon for your pre-work to help the calendar committee get the ball rolling!

and

Thanks Greer Lally for coming to "play" with us in PE... we love having guest "students!"

and

Thanks Fred Miller for doing such a great job in 1st hour!

and

Thanks Walter Nickles for being so awesome to share a room with for FLEX... I love the dynamic we have!

and

Thank you Betty Cwiak for all the time and effort you put into organizing reading competitions for our students and staff. They definitely help keep me motivated in my reading and I love that we are building connections with students at the same time!

and

Thanks Kim Husko and Chris Carvell for helping me out when I was under the weather, its always nice to know that things will be taken care when I can't be at school.

and

Thanks Amanda Rash, Kendra Wedl, Kathleen Winkel, and Janette Jennings for getting the fitness awards printed and posted to the students' lockers, I know they were excited to see them up!

-ALL from Melissa Williams

(Thanks, Melissa, for all your positivity! 😁)

When you have a kudo to share for someone, please just email me and I'll include it here! The goal is to create system celebrations--so your input is truly welcome!

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News from the Business Office

All is quiet in the Business Office this week! That's a celebration! 🎉

BMOHarris is working to figure out why they sent me the email about payroll---it was sent it error, so we are trying to make sure it never...ever...happens again!

Please see the attachments to this week's Monday Memo email for two job postings.

February 9 Institute Day

Please see the tentative agenda for the day linked here. The final version will be sent out by mid day Thursday.

If you see any major issues, please let me know! :) We're looking forward to an AMAZING day full of learning!

Infinitec Updates

Infinitec is an Special Education and Assistive Technology Initiative that provides webinars, workshops, resources and other services to member districts. Their website not only includes a calendar of events of one day webinars and workshops, but also free archived webinars of a variety of topics for staff with any level of knowledge. Please contact Brandt Rosen (brosen@elced.org) for more information of what Infinitec has to offer.

VIEW FREE WEBINARS WHEN YOU SIGN UP FOR A FREE ACCOUNT:

Click here to register for a free account. When signing up, under "District/coop," be sure to type in the "Exceptional Learners' Collaborative." Please remember that if you sign up, one day webinars are archived for a certain amount of time following the time of the webinar, so it's good to sign up even though if you may not be able to attend the exact date and/or time of the webinar. You will be able to watch the webinar later. Click on the "Online Classroom" tab to view all archived webinars.

FREE WEBINARS:

WORKSHOPS/CONFERENCES:

FUN APPS, SOFTWARE OR RESOURCES:

PrAACtical Resources: AAC 101 Flipbook Handout Looking for a quick, easy-to-read resource to supplement your AAC trainings with colleagues and families? In today’s post we share a PrAACtical Resources: AAC 101 Flipbook Handout flipbook-style handout that might come in handy.
Ditch That Textbook Blog- Finding a class to partner with virtually AND activities to do together Video calls can get your students connected to others just like them around the country and world! Here's how to do it using Skype, Google Hangouts and others.
Increasing Family Buy- In for AAC by Dan Fitch- Published article in “Closing the Gap” Solutions Magazine

PLEASE CONTACT BRANDT ROSEN brosen@elced.org or (224)513-6455 FOR ANY QUESTIONS OR ISSUES

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Speech and Language Tips from Abbey

Check out this week's tips from Abbey! She came up with the fabulous idea of putting each week's ideas on a slide, then adding the slides so all the info is in one place...you can go back and look at any time!

Click here to see her amazing ideas! Updated today!

FACILITIES UPDATES

Keep watching here for updates!

Education Association of Fox Lake News and Updates

Region 49 is currently accepting nominations for Region Chair and Vice Chair, as well as nominations for those interesting in serving as delegates at the 2018 National Education Association Representative Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The election committee strongly encourages you to discuss any nominations with the nominee prior to nominating them for a position in order to ensure they are interested in the position. Nominations are due by February 26th, please email Melissa Williams for the nomination form. The election for the positions will be held March 15th.

Early Career Teachers Professional Development Day: Click Here to Register

Saturday, February 10, 2018; 8:30am-3:00pm; IEA Naperville Office

The 2018 IEA Early Career Teachers Professional Development Day is a networking and professional development event sponsored by the IEA Early Career Teachers Committee.

This event aims to meet the needs of teachers in their 1st through 10th years of teaching. $20 registration fee includes lunch, and all sessions (session may be used for CPDUs).

For more information, please contact IEA early career teachers committee chairperson, Nicole Kurtovich, via email nicole.kurtovich@gmail.com

Melissa Williams, President
Maureen DeVoss, Vice President for Certified Staff
Chris Brown, Vice President for Non-Certified Staff
Katy Gardner, Treasurer
Betty Cwiak, Secretary
Barb Brown, Region Representative
Matt Shannon, Stanton School Representative
Tiffany Tardio, Lotus School Representative

STIPEND MEMO--Updated 12/10/17

Hourly Stipend Payment Request Form--Updated 12/10/17

Flat Rate Stipend Payment Request Form--Updated 12/10/17

Business Office "Who Do I Go To"

Work Order Request

Technology Support Request

17-18 Payroll Schedule--UPDATED 10/22/17

Mentor Expectations

Mentoring Log Sheet

Mileage Recording Form

Early Release Plan 17-18

Blue Cross Blue Shield:

www.bcbsil.com

Guardian:

www.guardiananytime.com

Workshop/Conference Request Procedure

Questions for thought as you read...

How does this article support our work to create common formative assessments and use 15 Day Challenges to drive our work?

Jay McTighe on What Matters When We Assess Learning

(Originally titled “3 Key Questions on Measuring Learning”)

In this article in Educational Leadership, curriculum design guru Jay McTighe says that educators, parents, and policymakers need to address three questions about classroom learning: What matters, how we measure it, and how to make assessment part of the learning process.

• What really matters in our schools? Schools strive to impart knowledge, skills, conceptual understanding, and long-term transfer:

Knowledge – For example, vocabulary, factual information, and basic concepts;
Skills – For example, multiplication, handwriting, drawing, shooting free-throws;
Enduring understandings – “Big ideas” that are conceptual and abstract;
Long-term transfer – Students’ ability to apply their learning in new situations, over time – for example, communicate well in writing, work in a team, solve problems, take the initiative. These are the areas most valued by employers.

Knowledge and skills can be assessed quite accurately with multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blanks tests. But conceptual understanding and transfer can be assessed only with authentic, performance-based assessments that ask students to apply their learning in new situations, explain their thinking, show their reasoning, and justify their conclusions. “Authentic assessments are like the game in athletics,” says McTighe. “While the players have to possess knowledge (the rules) and specific skills (dribbling), playing the game also involves conceptual understandings (game strategies) and transfer (using skills and strategies to advantage in particular game situations).” It’s also important to involve students in choosing how to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, creativity, persistence, and community contributions.

• What are the best ways to assess student learning? Assessments should be geared to what students were supposed to learn and give an accurate picture of what was actually learned. Because no assessment is perfect, multiple measures are best: a “photo album” is preferable to a single snapshot. The biggest problem with standardized tests is that they tend to measure what’s easiest and cheapest to assess, shortchanging outcomes like speaking, listening, argumentation, creative thinking, scientific investigation, research, historical inquiry, and transfer.

Classroom assessments should do a better job than standardized tests at measuring these important outcomes, but that’s seldom the case. One study that gathered all of a school’s classroom assessments over a six-week period found that most mirrored the shortcomings of standardized tests – they measured lower-level skills with mostly multiple-choice, true-false, matching, or fill-in-the-blanks items. McTighe suggests that schools do a similar “stack audit” of classrooms assessments to see if they are assessing higher-order learning – and if not, make a concerted effort to move in that direction.

• How can assessments enhance, not just measure, learning? The best way to accomplish this is through performance tasks that simulate real-world situations. “Like the game in sports or the play in theater, authentic performances are motivating to learners,” says McTighe. “They give relevance and purpose to learning, and they underscore the need for practice. Authentic tasks also influence teaching. Coaches recognize that their job is not to simply ‘cover’ the playbook play-by-play and teach individual skills. They understand that knowledge and skills are in service of larger ends, and that their role is to prepare players for authentic transfer performance in the game.” Here are some characteristics of assessment practices that enhance learning:

The ultimate learning goal and its assessment criteria are known up front.
Models of excellent performance are available.
Assessment tasks demand application in a realistic context.
Assessments are challenging yet attainable.
There isn’t a single right way of doing well.
Collaboration is built in.
Students show tangible products as they progress.
Detailed feedback is provided during the learning process.
Students can practice, refine, and re-do based on feedback.
The teacher is not the only audience.
Students have some choice in how they will demonstrate learning.
The teacher functions like a coach.
Students self-assess, reflect on their learning, and set future goals based on the results.

Schools that have adopted assessment practices like these have needed to make shifts in grading practices and scheduling, including carving out blocks of time for teacher teams to craft assessments and analyze student results.

“3 Key Questions on Measuring Learning” by Jay McTighe in Educational Leadership, February 2018 (Vol. 75, #5, p. 14-20), http://bit.ly/2ElBcfw; McTighe can be reached at jay@mctighe-associates.com.