TEAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS & PRODUCTS

At the 2002 CONSTRUCTIVIST CONFERENCE

• The Adirondack Curriculum Project and Newcomb CSD team completed a plan for an October 30 staff development day to introduce classroom teachers to units on the Adirondacks that have been developed over the past several years by members of the ACP. On October 30^th, they will share their template for creating Adirondack lessons.  They also worked on ways to get more teachers involved and started planning for an event in 2003.The Adirondack Curriculum Project team was facilitated by Anne Shoemaker, an ESL teacher in Delaware.

• The Ausable Valley Elementary team revised the Portfolio for the K-4 ELA standards across the curriculum. The revised Portfolio included:
• a grid of writing genres according to the four ELA Standards for grades K-4.

• A corresponding grid of suggested cross-curriculum writing task per genre.

• Definitions of writing genres for the current AVCS K-6 portfolio.

• A rubric that could be used in each standard.

This was not a final product in that it needed staff and district input. They are going to
incorporate the writing task into their classroom assignments and collect students’ works as exemplars to share with district and staff. Finally they wrote a letter to explain to staff and district this information. The Ausable Valley Elementary team was facilitated by Diane Mirro of Florida

• The Ausable Valley Middle School team investigated ways to "make their middle school more learner-centered".  They identified four areas and designed strategies to address each of these areas.

• To increase student input into school decision-making, they designed a monthly survey to be given to students to solicit their ideas and opinions.

• To increase teaming in the middle school, they designed a middle school profile pamphlet to increase their "identity" and to give focus to their planned middle school meetings.

• To increase communication among the middle school faculty, they designed a series of communication tools to share information between themselves and the other grades in the middle school, as well as the elementary school and secondary school.

• To increase parental involvement, they created the framework for a community service activity, designed to increase student self-esteem, which includes parents in its planning and implementation.

The Ausable Middle School Team was facilitated by Veronica Brierley, retired Principal from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

• The AuSable Valley High School team accomplishments included: 

• An outline and timeline for a multidisciplinary 'culture fair' to be completed during the year.  Foreign language worked on specific plans to accompany this.

• Social studies teachers reblocking their 9th grade course to reflect units of study rather than text book chapters. This was a major accomplishment.

• A flexible student rubric for evaluating social studies projects.  This is a work in progress, as it will need both student input, and refinement of language.

The AuSable Valley High School team was facilitated by Frank Pickus of Gloversville.

• The Adirondack School District team came to the realization that aligning their math curriculum was going to take more than a week at the conference.  They did a lot of research among people there who had aligned theirs and found something they thought would fit.  To use an analogy, they called the two options they planned to present to their principal and math department the onion & the pie.  The Onion is where each grade level teaches a bit more each year on a certain topic, peeling off more and more of the "topic" for mastery each year.  The pie is where a topic is the responsibility of a certain grade.  For example: Geometry would be covered thoroughly in 7th grade but used in 8th but mixed in with other topics, especially problem solving.  6th would be responsible for fraction mastery, but fractions would be interspersed throughout the next 2 grades.

Then team members are going ask the Board of Education & principal for the Institute’s help in setting up a way to get the whole department involved in this project. They are also very interested in "Connected Math" that Gerry Peters discussed with them and they are going to pursue that further as well. The Adirondack team was facilitated by Peg D’Arpino of Florida.

• The Brushton-Moira Parent Involvement and Support team worked with the “VOPAT Model” to involve parents in student reading projects. The team left with an action plan for implementing the VOPAT Model during the 2002-2003 school year. The Brushton-Moira Parent Involvement and Support team was facilitated by Jennifer Bishop, CSRD project director, Wilmington, Delaware.

• The Brushton-Moira team designed a comprehensive plan to improve the school climate. The plan addresses the following goals:

• Develop strategies to eliminate barriers to positive change

• Develop a survey and collect data to prove need/direction for change for students and staff

• Community building between staff, administration and BOE
• Open lines of communication
• Open school for more community activities
• Deal with vandalism

• A Student/Staff/Parent committee
• Working together as a community
• Read-A-Long Program
• 7^th grade orientation (with a letter to each home already written
• Staff recognition (Gallery of Stars)

• Redesign penalties/positive rewards for appropriate behaviors
• Redesign ISP (Opportunity Room)
• Produce a simplified “Guide for Success” with different name
• Renaissance Program
• Character Education (virtue of the month)
• Certificates for students (virtue recognition)

The Brushton-Moira team was facilitated by Charla Jennings, superintendent, Granville Central School District.

• The Cheektowaga Middle School team developed a plan to create an "Advisement Period" for 9th grade students. This period will give students and teachers quality time to explore such topics as study skills, social skills, career exploration, time management and conflict resolution. A pilot program will be implemented Sept. 2002. A collaboration with Niagara University students is also in the works. NU will assist in developing an assessment tool for the program.

The Cheektowaga team was facilitated by Joleen Reinholz, Coordinator of the Alternative Education program for Sweet Home HS., Amherst, New York.

• The Child Care team played joyfully and was pleased that their parents were kept occupied so they could have a good time.

The Child Care team was facilitated by Lauren Goldsmith, an English Major entering her fourth year at St. Lawrence University, and Kyle Dowman, a student at Potsdam High School.

• The Clarkson team (of one person), Cathy Avadikian, gathered
  information and data on current topics related to the advisement of
  first-year college students. This was an excellent environment to
  conduct such a study, as Ms. Avadikian was able to come in contact with many
  educators, and was able to ask questions pertaining to "what do all
  students need in terms of advising?"  She met with many educators,
  as well as parents and students.  This information will be
  extremely important to her work in this area, as it will be included
  in her activities of interviews and research, as well as added to her
  graduate studies at St. Lawrence University in which this will be
  part of a final thesis project. The Clarkson team was facilitated by Cathy Avadikian, Director, University, Engineering, and Science Studies at Clarkson

• The Copenhagen team accomplished all the goals they came to the conference to work on.  Their product consisted of four completely done, ready-to-use projects for integration into a joint math-science unit that the teachers will team teach to middle school students. The Copenhagen team was facilitated by staff developer Gerry Peters of Gouverneur.

• The Crown Point team of eight participants developed a school plan and a timeline for sharing with colleagues at their school.  Their primary focus revolved around constructivist strategies including both those that the facilitators brought to the conference and some that they already had in place.  They also networked with the Crown Point team that was working on a Vopat program to generate parental involvement and support for increasing student achievement in reading. team. The Crown Point team was facilitated by Sandy Latourelle and Elaine Rice

• The Crown Point Parent Involvement and Support team worked with the “VOPAT Model” to involve parents in student reading projects. The team left with an action plan for implementing the VOPAT Model during the 2002-2003 school year. The Crown Point Parent Involvement and Support team was facilitated by Jennifer Bishop, CSRD project director, Wilmington, Delaware.

• The “Educate the Children” Napal team Co-Directors developed plans and strategies for the Fall Fund Raising Project and for the Teacher Evaluation Center assessment.  They also produced a goal statement to move the organization through future strategic planning and generated an outline of ideas of more effective methods of working with their Board of Directors. They were particularly pleased with the strategies they designed for giving ownership of fund raising activities to their Board of Director members. The “Educate the Children” team was facilitated by Pat Baldauf of the Glasser Institute and St. Rose College of Albany, New York.

• The Herman DeKalb team completed a plan for grade 6-12 students to partner weekly  with pre K-grade 5 students for recreational activities in the after school program. The Herman DeKalb team was facilitated by Ruth Heit of Ventures, Inc., New York City.

• The Jefferson Elementary School, Massena team completed:

• a timeline for implementing a 3 year plan to increase parental
  involvement in their school

• a list of goals and objectives for the first year of the 3 year plan and
  a set of strategies for implementing the plan in the first year.

• a detailed plan for the first year that included naming and contacting
  facilitators and coordinators.  a rough draft of their assignments was also
  created.

• a list of contacts and tentative dates to meet with them for completing
  and implementing the design for years 2 and 3.

• a list of contacts to seek out help if required.

The Jefferson Elementary School team was facilitated by Mike Smith, Niagara University professor.

• The Leading EDGE team accomplished three main things.

1. We outlined what a website might include, gathered all the material for the website (over 75 printed pages) and developed a cover letter to solicit proposals for the development and maintenance of the website

2. We aligned our "Level I Institute" with Character Education. i.e., we highlighted all the activities we do that relate to character education, clarified our outcomes regarding character education and developed a brochure emphasizing a "Level I Character Education Institute"

3. We explored how our challenges need to be "tweaked" to reflect DBQ and AIS and then aligned some of our challenges specifically to those areas.

The Leading Edge team was facilitated by Jack Drury

· The Malone Middle School Alternative Education team addressed the question, “What can we do to help transition children.” The decided to have one staff member take a student under his/her wing, in homeroom at the start of the day, and discuss with them what their day will be like and whether they have any questions. They also decided they aren’t comfortable with how their “at risk” program is working and decided to discuss with BOCES obtaining support for a full-day program (currently the program is half-day). Also, they will collect data throughout the year before presenting it to BOCES. The Malone Middle School Alternative Education team was facilitated by Marianne Murphy, on the faculty of Cornell University with the Program on Employment and Disability.

· The Malone Middle School Leadership team reviewed its recently accepted three year CSRD grant application for $171,000 per year and designed strategies for overseeing a school improvement process that began 18 months ago and will accelerate with the funding from the grant. The leadership Team:

o Designed a set of strategies (a plan) for overseeing the school improvement process during the current year with a major focus on areas which affect staff and student growth.

o developed a Communication network that encourages personal contact as the main mode of communication between the School Leadership team and the faculty.

o Developed a calendar of meeting dates to enhance the successful implementation of the grant’s staff development component, and also scheduled monthly full-day meetings with its facilitator Don Mesibov

o Designed a graphic organizer (picto-gram in the form of a tree) for use with the faculty, board, and administration to illustrate the relationships between the pieces (limbs) of the school improvement process.

o developed a Concept map that includes the following headings:

§ Effective Classrooms

§ Build Relationships and engaging Instructional Practices

§ Professional Development and Parent Involvement

§ Assessment Sources( School Generated Data, Standardized testing Data and Other data) This information would be assessed by the School Leadership Team and the process would repeat itself (continuous improvement model)

The Malone Leadership team was facilitated by Ted Werner, retired middle school principal, Lockport, currently on the faculty of Niagara University.

· The Malone Middle School Parent Involvement & Support Team, created as part of the recently awarded CSRD grant, included eight people, teachers, parents, and community partnership leaders, who designed a plan for generating greater parental involvement and support.   The products of their work are:

o a mission statement to direct their purpose as a
committee

o a monthly calendar of meeting dates, times and locations for the
2002-2003 academic year

o a month by month calendar of events the committee
will work on throughout the 02-03 academic year

o a means by which to evaluate the outcomes of the
activities identified on the monthly calendar of events

o connections to the other teams working on the CSRD
grant at Malone Middle School

The Malone parent involvement and support team was facilitated by Suzanne Miller, staff developer, FEHB BOCES.

• The Niagara University/St. Lawrence University/Brandeis team completed a compendium of discovery/exploratory lessons/units, with rubrics to assess student performance for multiple grade levels and content areas. The quality of the product was enhanced by conducting interviews with practitioners, using peer
  review/editing, and continually revisiting our assigned mission. Carol Amberg of Gouverneur and Dan White of Syracuse facilitated.

• The Northeastern Clinton 3^rd grade team created a math curriculum divided into four quarters. They made up a general template that they could use for each plan for their classroom.  They are going to get together and make up plans using constructivist activities. The 3^rd grade team was facilitated by Judi Wood.
  
• The Northeastern Clinton 4^th grade team created a list of topics to cover in the 10 months of the school year -- they allotted time to each topic.  They
  also chose constructivist activities for the topics they had identified, all centering on math. The 4^th grade team was facilitated by Judi Wood.

· Ogdensburg Art teacher team worked on a project of spiraling the Arts from Kindergarten through 12th grade and continuing to participate in the Frederick Remington Museum gallery. The Team consisted of two Grade School Teachers, an Eighth Grade Teacher and a representative from Remington Museum. 

Concentrations were in the language usage, vocabulary, and art projects that begin at the Kindergarten level and continue to the 12th grade.  Not necessarily repetition of projects, but the usage of the Art language and Artists throughout the curriculum through the grade levels.  A second concentration was the direction of the 8th grade portfolio, (what was expected to be in the portfolio by the 8th grade? and what did the 8th Grade Art Teacher want as a final portfolio?) 

During the week, other concentrations were the graphic organizer, the timeline, and a curriculum to present to the administration for new development in the spiraling project from grade to grade.

At the end of the conference, the teachers and the representative from Remington Museum attended a conference on achieving a $5,000.00 dollar grant from the Museum in Potsdam. 

The overall conference allowed them to work consistently without interruption from their place of employment and to achieve a concrete plan for this year’s school year. The Ogdensburg Art teacher team was facilitated by Tim Wood, a special education teacher with FEHB BOCES.

• The Parent Partnership Network of Syracuse team composed a parent involvement policy handbook for their Syracuse District and included comprehensive information to empower parents to better address the needs of their children and to access knowledge about methods to create and enhance home- school partnerships.

The Parent Partnership Network of Syracuse team was facilitated by Alannah Fitzgerald, a researcher and consultant who frequently works with the New York State Education Department.

• The Peru team, of one, focused on gathering resources (human, written, conceptual) that could be used during the 2002-3 school year.  Attention to curriculum, assessment, and instruction was the primary goal. The participant worked hand-in-hand with the Crown Point School Team.  The primary outcome was a mind-set to deal with new grade levels of instruction, new partner teachers, and a new principal. The Peru team was facilitated by Sandy Latourelle and Elaine Rice

• The Potsdam High School team completed a reference document that can be used to best help students that read below grade level.  This document includes instructional strategies that are matched up with specific "blockers" recognized by many teachers at the conference.

The Potsdam High School was facilitated by Kevin Hulbert of the Regional School Support Center

• The Potsdam Middle School team completed:

• A structure for regular grade 5 team meetings including defined
  responsibilities for the team leader and team members.

• An implementation plan for the team to share teaching responsibilities
  for the science program with each teacher focusing on one unit to be taught to each of the classes at the grade level.

• A plan to integrate a Spelling program within the Language Arts program
  and a recommendation to the principal and guidance for report card
  modifications to reflect the change.

• A revised and updated Math curriculum for grade 5 coordinating required
  units of study with specific chapters in the text book.

The Potsdam Middle School team was facilitated by Dick Broome, a retired K-12 principal and currently a supervisor of student teachers for Union College.

• The Potsdam Parent Involvement and Support team had two goals and accomplished both in excellent fashion. 

• To review and revise the Parent program delivered last year (the James Vopat model) so it can be delivered to new groups of parents this school year;

• To develop a follow up program for parents who participated in last year’s program.   As an added by-product the team developed a program to train more people as facilitators -- both teachers and parents.  

The Potsdam Parent Involvement and Support team was facilitated by Richard Horwitz, educational consultant (and retired NYSUT Labor Relations Specialist), Queensbury, New York

• The St. Lawrence University “Teaching Scholar Partnerships Program (TSPP)” team created guidelines that TSPP participants could use to more fully integrate SLU math and science teacher scholars into supporting inquiry-based instruction in math and science classrooms.  These guidelines included suggested timelines and a list of sequential activities that a college student without an education background could choose from in order to "wade" themselves into the responsibility of teaching up to 3 inquiry-based lessons for the school year. The SLU team was facilitated by SLU professor Esther Oey.

• The St. Regis Falls team continued its work on a K-12 alignment of its curriculum. This process was begun a year ago and only the sample assessments need to be added in order to complete the alignment. The St. Regis Falls team was facilitated by staff developer Jan Peters of Gouverneur.

• The Salmon River Administrators’ team reviewed and modified its CSRD plan (America’s Choice). The administrators identified the priority needs of the District and designed a plan to address these issues for the following year. They used a combination of hard data and "administrative perceptions" to guide this work. In addition to student achievement, much of their work dealt with the relationship of school community and the BOE, with the administration discussing ways to create better working relationships in these domains. Positive public relations and promotion were key factors. The end result of their work at the Conference was a written plan both prioritizing needs and establishing
  rough time-lines and persons responsible to implement actions needed to
  solve problems. The team participated in the Critical Friends process with their Parent Involvement team which seemed to foster some of the public relations
  work needed. The Salmon River team was facilitated by Bill Donahue of the Regional School Support Team.

• The Salmon River Parent Involvement team accomplished its goal of developing a strategic plan for a Parent Leadership Development Project. The goal included two objectives:

1. Develop a plan for a parent handbook for grades 7-12

2. Develop a plan to offer parental leadership development training.

Each objective had strategies and defined- steps, responsibilities, target audience, accountability indicators, cost analysis, materials needed and timeline.

The very balanced team was composed of parent representatives, community representatives, and district staff who work on parental involvement issues. The observer from SLU was a teacher at the school. She was a wonderful addition to the team. The team members felt much empowered by the constructivist approach to accomplishing their task and believe that they can use this methodology in implementing their work during the school year.

They did the critical friends process with their school district administrative team who were also conference participants. The administrators were impressed with their presentation and promised support for the project.

The project is designed to be an empowerment tool for parents and increase student achievement by strengthening the home-school connection, understanding and trust. The team will become the “guide on the side“ and the parents will become the “sages on the stage” for a while. This whole project was inspired by parental input and decision-making, as a result of the implementation of the Vopat project this team developed at the Institute Conference in 2001. Noteworthy, with the implementation of the plan they developed, at the 2001 conference, they won a major national award for best practices in Native American education and parental involvement.

The Salmon River Parent Involvement and Support team was facilitated by Michele Abdul Sabur, Director of Parent Involvement for the Syracuse City School District.

• The South Lewis team worked on aligning the fourth grade math

curriculum with the 4th grade state tests. They came well prepared having already identified weak and strong areas as well as another school's suggested curriculum. They developed a math curriculum specific to their district which incorporated lesson plans and developed unit tests. They were so successful that they were able to begin aligning the 5th grade as well. A real plus for them was having their principal participate in part of the planning as well as in the critical friends review where she was able to demonstrate her commitment to the team's work.

The South Lewis team was facilitated by Sandi Cornelius of Wisconsin

• The Student Environmental Study team published a set of recommendations for environmentally friendly policies that could be implemented during the summer constructivist conference. These four students studied, researched, and evaluated data in preparation for their report which appeared in the Friday issue of the student newsletter. The Student Environmental Study team was facilitated by Paul Smith College professors Celia Evans and Janet Mihuc

• The Student Illustrated Poetry Calendar team worked from Sunday until Thursday on various art and poetry projects including collage, "I Am" poems, found poems, body casting, emotion sketches and poems and blind-contour drawing.  Student work was shown at the Thursday evening banquet, where students also read poetry and performed a movement piece to each poem.  Finally, the student work will be gathered in a calendar. 

The focus of the facilitators’ work with the students was on decision-making while producing works of art and poetry, and student appreciation and validation of their finished products.  Students did a lot of brainstorming, planning and journaling prior to projects and they were continually conversing about their decisions and choices as their projects developed.  The facilitators wanted to give students a lot of freedom to create, but they also wanted the students to realize that work was not to be rushed or done thoughtlessly. The Student Illustrated Poetry Calendar team was facilitated by Linda Konkoski and Beth Konkoski-Bates.

• The Student Newsletter team set forth at the beginning of the week with the goal of producing an interesting, relevant newsletter. The team, consisting of ten students ranging in ages from 8 to 14, utilized brainstorming techniques to develop ideas for articles; worked cooperatively to write and edit articles; and perhaps most importantly, left the conference with an increased interest in writing. Each student improved his/her writing skills during the week, as well as learned a great deal about the benefits and importance of team work. The Student Newsletter team was facilitated by D'Youville College graduate student Jennifer Jarczewski and Skaneateles high school senior Ben Murphy

• The Student Video team, consisting of five students, filmed and produced a 30 minute edited version of the Sunday evening magic and hypnotism entertainment, and planned and taped interviews and video shots throughout the conference. Hours of tape were selectively edited down to a concise 24 minute overview
  of the conference, complete with "commercials" featuring "Best Western" products. Since the rubric for the team’s success with its video was based on audience response (whether they walked out, passively watched, or applauded), the team was pleased with the showing of the video at the close of the conference. The Student Video team was facilitated by professional artist, St. Lawrence University adjunct professor, and retired Madrid-Waddington Art teacher Sandy Hildreth.

ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY COURSES UTILIZE CONFERENCE

AS VEHICLE FOR GRADUATE STUDENT LEARNING

Graduate students enrolled in two separate St. Lawrence University courses in school administration attended the conference as "observers" and as resource persons to help different teams accomplish their goals. Students in Professor Jim Waterson's course, "Administration of Learning-Centered Schools," and in Prof. Jim Shuman's course, "Curriculum Development," were matched individually with different teams at the conference. Through their observations, the graduate students learned first hand about the constructivist design process and how it could be used in public school settings.

The students also made numerous contributions to their assigned teams, often serving as resource persons. Following the conference, both courses continued with meetings among the graduate students to discuss their learning and how school administrators could use the precepts of the conference to effect change in local schools. Without exception, the graduate students indicated that the conference was an exceptionally valuable component of their learning in the courses.

FIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS GAIN COURSE CREDIT VIA CONFERENCE

In addition, five participants in the 2002 Constructivist Design Conference registered at the end of the conference for a graduate-level research project. The project-based course, facilitated by Prof. Jim Shuman, allows graduate students to undertake a research project growing out of their team's work at the conference. Working in collaboration with Dr. Shuman, the graduate students complete the research in the autumn of the 2002-2003 school year and submit for credit, publication, and/or dissemination