So welcome,
everybody, and call this meeting to Curriculum Council to order
402 on Monday, the 12th of November.
We do have several new members with us today,
and so I wanted to take a moment to do some introductions.
My name is Stacey Winslow.
I am the assistant to the superintendent for Curriculum Instruction and Assessment.
I co-chair this committee with Mrs.
Seger, who is at the Red light.
She will be here shortly.
To my right is Missy Kunder.
You place him
as his name on a lot of things, but you don't always get to see her face.
I would be lost without her.
She's on my right because she's my right hand.
It would be awful not to have her.
And if we then move on to Nancy.
My name is Trisha Steiner.
I'm a school board member.
I am Mary Dag.
I'm a citizen advisor.
Hi. Donna Cronin, School board member.
Hi. Tracey Landry,
director of Instructional Technology.
And this is my first time
service to the English Department Chair.
Kip Shore, School Board member. Thank you.
Their high school English teacher, Eric Fountain, Middle School Principal.
Thank you all very much.
For those of you who are new, there's a little button on your microphone.
When you push it and it turns red, it will be on.
And when you're speaking as a part of the committee, you'll want to use that.
I usually remain on all the time because we talk a lot,
but you might not want to, especially if you want to speak to
your neighbor a little bit
because it will be recorded.
So so everybody knows this is a recorded meeting, it is public,
and people do occasionally listen to the curriculum council meeting.
So just so you're aware of that.
So welcome to all of you.
Appreciate our returning citizen advisors and our new citizen advisor.
And I didn't think to ask you raise my.
Okay, I love her.
He seems delightful.
I've known her since I was the middle school principal
when she was in the middle school, so it's known her for a while.
She's so sweet.
Welcome. Very nice to have you here.
Welcome to our new high school representatives.
Also, we are missing some elementary and middle school representatives today.
They have other commitments and a doctor's appointment.
So they did let me know that they weren't going to be here.
And there's Mrs.
Seger. We were just doing introductions,
so we'll let her get settled real quick.
Attached to your agenda, you will see Summary notes from our last meeting,
which was in September.
We did not have an October meeting because we did not have any agenda items.
We are making up for that this month when we have quite a few agenda items.
Once your coat is off, do you want to introduce yourself?
I said When your code is off, do you want to introduce yourself?
Cathy Sikka Board member Hey, sorry about that.
I didn't want to
put you on the spot at the door but didn't want to ignore it either.
So we do have notes there From September.
I also attached our goals for curriculum Council for our new
members to be able to review.
These are our goals that
we set each year to look at
what our council needs are
right here.
We were just doing introductions and CC Winslow on policy
and it's very nice to meet you and you're one of our new city fundraisers.
Wonderful. There's a microphone here.
So when you're talking to me, push this button
and red right.
If you have any questions. Okay.
All right.
Okay.
So our goals for this year, we have an ongoing goal to keep track
of curriculum through Rubicon Atlas and the work that we're doing there.
We also have a goal to monitor kindergarten
because we have started full day kindergarten this year.
It's very exciting.
So that is something that we are keeping track of.
We are also looking at grading at the high school level,
moving to a
4.0 scale as opposed to a percentage scale.
And we will have an update on that next month from Mr.
Smith for
just the process that's in place and some of the work that has been done.
And he is aware of that.
I did speak with him about that.
And just for the record as well, it is here on Mr.
Smith's behalf today.
He is at a conference in Atlanta looking at policies
which I'll talk about later at a board meeting.
So that is attached there for your purview and for you to read closely.
If you if you in your own time, if you would like.
We also under informational items
I have there's some new legislation that has come out
that does impact Rick Gillum.
The first one is Pathways to Graduation,
and I attached a visual
for that for you to look at.
As you are probably aware, there's been a lot of discussion
in the state about the testing that we do, the amount of testing that we do,
what that testing is for, what it means.
And there's been a lot of
postponement of the graduation
requirement for the Keystone exams.
So this is a new piece of legislation
that was just recently signed into law by Governor Wolf.
And this
I like this little detail, kind of lays it out with the four options now are.
So option one is a composite score on Keystone assessments.
And what this is saying is that a student meets or exceeds a state
specified composite score across the three Keystone
exams, and performance must include at least one proficient and two basic.
So instead of a student
having to be proficient on all three exams
and the six modules that are part of those three exams,
now they can have a composite score and still meet graduation
requirements.
I do not have what that score is yet.
I'm sure it exists somewhere, but I haven't found this
option two is a student meets or exceeds locally established grade based
requirements and the associated academic content areas of the Keystone exams.
And one of the follow ing either an AP
or an eye exam in each keystone content area.
We could do that in the APS.
We do not have international Baccalaureate at our high school,
so that would not work for us.
But the AP would a SAT
PSAT or ACT general test
and the
score will be recommended by PD and the State Board of Education
would have to approve that for the ASVAB, which is the military
test of admission to four year nonprofit.
I age E with evidence to enroll.
I don't know.
I haven't had a chance to look that up yet to see
a successful completion of a pre apprenticeship program
passing grade in a credit bearing dual enrollment or post-secondary course
in math, science or English, which we do have the options for that.
And A.C.T.
work certificate
Option three our CTE
concentrators and local grade requirements.
This is not something that we would be very active in here in the district,
but it is something that Dauphin County Technical School of be very interested in
and an option for is local grade requirements
and additional evidence of readiness.
So a student meets or exceeds locally established grade based requirements
and associated academic content areas of the Keystone exams and presents
three pieces of evidence that reflects the student's readiness for graduation
and is related to students post-secondary plans.
And then they give some examples of what
those pieces of evidence might be.
So this is something that is relatively new.
We have not had had the opportunity to have a ton of discussion about it yet
here in the district.
I actually just have it on our grade level coordinator's
agenda for this Thursday so that they are aware.
So we will be having more discussion about it.
But I did want you to know that this is new legislation
that we are now going to be working through.
And did anybody have any questions on that piece?
Did you say this is for this graduation year?
This begins with this year's sophomores.
Oh, sophomores. Okay.
And do do they have a date of when they want to vote on it?
It's it's law.
So you have all four of these options, either any of them.
So it's not just picking one. Any of those four options.
I know if the option to where it says
a an AP exam in the in the course right now is in the math
and algebra keystone it is and we don't have
would they accept a calculus you know what how I'm guessing
they would have to as far as I know there's not AP algebra right exactly.
I think so.
So in essence, it's a math. They're looking at it
as a math assessment, not necessarily the algebra keystone.
So right now it's math, biology.
I mean, algebra,
biology and was the third Keystone literature and English.
Yes. Okay. So we could satisfy.
Yeah, we could satisfy all three of those with APIs.
Okay.
And then we don't know what the APIs, what the equivalent
we don't know what the score is yet. And
and then S.A.T. subject tests. Okay.
All right.
Yeah, I'm.
I am hoping to get a lot more guidance on that next week.
I have a curriculum advisory committee meeting at the IU, and they usually do
a very nice job of filling us in on the extra details on there.
So I'm hoping that's going to be on our agenda for next week.
And when I peruse the agenda at the end of this week, it's
if it's not on it, I'll be asking if your please take a look at that
and besides an option to seeing the door, enrollment is another option.
Is this fabulous?
I think right now we only have had two enrollment.
We do. That's the only school that we have an agreement.
Is there any way that we can investigate
some of the other schools that we've used to have that in the past?
So what we've run into with other schools right now is we're running into issues
with them, not wanting to worry about their clearances
and hackers willing to have just everybody on campus get their clearances.
And so we're all good there.
But if we have a student from our schools who goes
to one of the other universities, we have no way of protecting them.
Clearances And a lot of the schools have been like, yeah,
we don't want to.
So that's been somewhat of a of a roadblock at the moment.
But we have been working through a bunch of those different pieces
and we did have we have a couple of students
who are going to need that dual enrollment piece as they move up through.
So we wanted to make sure that we had at least something in place
and anticipation of that.
So we think that was a year and a half ago that we got the
the hack agreement in place.
Can I ask why we have not considered Harrisburg University?
We actually are considering Harrisburg University.
That's one of the ones that we are working with.
I myself, my class is that it is a dual enrollment.
Yeah. Yeah. They are offering a lot.
I just Brian Corn was just a retreat
that I was at for the Curriculum Advisory Council
and they're doing a lot more than what they were even a year ago.
And so that is a group that we're going to be reaching back out
to after hearing from him again, I know our district has 54 credits
at the high school available for doing and that's awesome.
So, yeah, cool.
Thank you.
Any other questions with this piece?
And we'll continue to update it and update you with it as
as we get more information and as we have more solid ideas of how we're proceeding.
I'm just going to ask questions, ask for updates,
but also so for now, you still foresee having the Keystone exam?
You have to have the Keystone exam because that's a federal requirement.
Okay.
So the students still have to take that exam.
Okay. So also it's time to take the exam.
But if they don't pass that, these are other alternatives to meet graduate.
Okay. Got me. Okay.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Any other questions?
The other piece of legislation that
would have impact for curriculum counselor that you would want to know about is
called Act 35.
It was signed into law on June 19th, 2018,
and this one has to do with an assessment of civic knowledge.
So I included a Google doc link here for you to be able to read through.
I'm not going to read every single piece of it carefully,
but essentially what this is requiring is that beginning
with the 2021 school year each Eola
And that's us or I'm sorry, earlier
I said Minister at least once two students in grades seven through 12.
A locally developed assessment of U.S.
history, government and civics
that includes these three points.
We have to determine the form of the assessment
and the manner in which the assessment shall be administered,
and we can administer the assessment at the conclusion
of the required course of study.
So we would probably look at doing that at the end of the civics course.
And we can use the United States
citizenship and immigration Services test to satisfy those requirements.
I have been in communication with Mr.
Mumma at the high school.
He is the Social Studies Department chair. And
I think what we're going to do is, is
because it's not a requirement yet, we are going to try this out this year
with this group of students probably using
the citizenship and immigration test
just to see how that goes, to see if that works for us
or if we want to to move to a different
locally developed assessment.
So we're going to try that for the next two years
and see how that goes and then decide where to go from there.
And we'll do that at the end of the civics course.
Questions Do you since the civics course,
to my understanding, was designed in anticipation of of of maybe a keystone
exam being provided for civics course, which has not happened
and doesn't look like it's going to happen now.
So do you
do you foresee or have any or that you have discussions about
where you're going to place that in the in the sequence of history?
I don't see us moving it out of ninth grade at this point.
Okay.
Did you have a question about that?
No, I just because before there was a it was just a more extensive
review of world history, did they have like world history in ninth grade and then
like a part two wrote history in 10th grade?
Right. They are trying to teach all of world history in one grade.
Now. Right? So now it's really condensed.
So that's why I was just wondering if there is
and it's sort of, you know, because it starts, you know, in eighth grade and then
the civics sort
of interrupted that, I think, to some degree.
So I'm just wondering if because that's no longer, you know,
going to be a possibility for having a keystone
if there's room to look at where the best places to have that
and maybe even a younger grade, maybe even sixth grade or oh, too young.
Okay.
I would actually move it to 11th grade if I had my druthers on it,
because 11th graders are almost ready to vote and it's very, very relevant to them.
Okay.
But that is not a question or a
or a topic that the department has brought up at this point in time.
And they are getting ready to move in to revision.
And at that point in time, maybe they will want to talk about that a little bit.
There was a lot of work done to put that into place there.
So I'm not sure that they're ready to undo that work,
to move it around in the schedule.
But certainly it's
it's things like that are always up for discussion.
It'd be great if you could work it into a voting thing.
Yes. You know, when you turn 18, here you go and register everybody. Yes.
That's what I said in my class. It was awesome.
It was very exciting that we celebrated it.
So but that is where we are.
By August of 2019.
There are some things that PD has to put in place
for for this to happen.
But we're going to we're going to give it a try this year
just to see how that how that goes.
Are there any other questions about the civics portion?
Act 35
So sorry.
Just to clarify,
so this does this include sophomores because they had civics last year.
So will they have to take the test as well?
It begins with the year 2021.
Not the class. Oh, not the class. Okay.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Absolutely.
Yeah.
I had to look at that one twice, too, because I was like, Wait,
it's the year.
Okay.
All right, Mrs.
Seger, ask if we could have a little update on full day
kindergarten, lunch time staffing
just because
that is part of one of our goals to kind of keep track of what's happening
with full day kindergarten.
And I did ask Mrs.
Castleman if she would give you a quick update on where we're at with that.
So be happy to. Thanks.
First of all, if you get the opportunity, please stop by the s.e.c.
Especially during lunch time.
It's a crazy fun time.
Currently with our 12 kindergarten
classes and our 11 first grade classes.
That's a total of 23 classes going through lunch in our cafeteria.
We have nine different waves happening and it happens like this,
and it's like clockwork.
And kudos to our cafeteria and recess aides
and our food service workers right now because they have it down to a science.
Basically what happens is there is a group of three
no more than four classes that come in at one time.
So say it starts at like 1135.
Three classes come in
and they go in their line, sit down, have lunch,
and then they get about a five minute warning
when it's time to clean up because they have to
then be ready to transition to the bathroom to go to their special.
While that's all happening,
three more classes are coming in, but they're coming in one at a time.
So it is totally manageable.
Going again, getting their lunches by now.
They're pros.
Today I was in there and three different kids raised their hand. Ms..
Katzmann Look what I did all by myself.
Got the milk carton opened, you know, open the cauliflower sack.
It was it was great.
So we're seeing growth already.
So this goes on from
1135 to, I want to say 1245 constant transitions.
So that was why we had asked to for the board support
and thankfully got it to hire four more cafeteria recess aides,
because not only are these women in addition to
we've had wonderful volunteers, parent volunteers,
but these women or men right now, they're all women,
help the kids open things, but they also help them
get organized and get ready for their transition
and then take them to the bathroom and to their transition.
So it is something that, as I said, is going very, very well.
Something that we just are introducing is on our TV monitor.
A it's right now it's bubbles, but we're hoping to do different
seasonal visuals for the voice level because yes, it is loud and it's okay.
They're not running around there.
We want them to socialize.
They're having fun,
but we're trying to get them to use the visual on the monitor
like if the bubbles get going too crazy, that means it's too loud.
We can, you know, change colors, things like that.
Today, they were clear bubbles because in the past they've been colored
and all the kids were like, What's going on with the bubbles? Mrs.
Castleman said, Well, let's try it out carefully.
Okay.
So it's definitely working.
I don't know how we would do the schedule without the waves,
because built into that, making sure the kids get nourished, making sure
they get their specials, making sure they have time for recess is also time
then for the teachers to be able to have their collaboration time.
So these positions are also making sure that teachers then aren't
having to go and pick up their kiddos, that we can help make those transitions.
So please come by and see it in action.
Does anybody have any questions?
Thank you.
The kids are doing great.
Thank you for the support.
It is really great If you have the opportunity to stop in
and even see the classrooms. It is.
It's amazing and it's a whole different atmosphere.
It's just so much more
relaxed.
Isn't the right word because they're busy learners.
But it's calm.
It's and it's and it's joyful.
It's I love it.
I love being in the UCC.
It's it's wonderful.
Okay.
Any questions with any of the information items before we move on to our discussion
piece?
Okay.
All right.
So Mrs.
Decker shared that there were some questions
about what we're doing with sex as a sex education in health class.
So I wanted to do kind of a brief overview for you
and then open it up for any questions
that you might have or any discussion items that you might want to share.
So if you'll forgive me, I have multiple levels of notes
that I would like to refer to to make sure that I'm getting things right.
The teachers were super helpful in providing me information
because while I can see the curriculum, I don't.
It doesn't have the depth of details necessarily that maybe you're looking for.
So I'm going to give an overview and then questions that you have would be
I would be very happy to answer.
So I'll start with middle school.
We do have a a boys and girls day that we talk in fifth grade
about reproductive organs and some of the things that you can expect
as you move into puberty.
It is 40 minutes once,
so I did not include it in this overview.
And in sixth grade we do not address
sexual health or sex ed in health class
and seventh grade.
We address mostly anatomy in the forms of systems.
So we talk about the reproductive system.
And so
through that, we talk about growth and development, puberty
in males, puberty in females,
male reproductive organs,
what the different parts of the body do,
female reproductive organs
and what they do
and endocrine the endocrine system itself.
So all the different glands and their functions.
And then there's a human sexuality survey kind of at the end
where students fill in the blanks with the things that they learned.
So it is very anatomy focused in that
how often a week, how many times a week, And is it a four year,
seventh grade health? Help me.
Mr. Rowland
is thinking about the total number of.
Let me just make sure that I think
it runs with Jim.
Right.
Does it run on a C?
Yes, I think it's every other day for a semester,
but the middle school schedule is
two days a cycle
for the whole year of thank you.
So two days a cycle for the whole year for seventh grade
one six.
Any other questions with seventh grade before I move to eight?
And you are reviewing a textbook so all the students get that textbook.
This is a packet. They don't have a textbook.
Oh, they get a packet.
That's a packet generated. Okay.
And do all the teachers teach the same thing?
There's only one.
Yes, one teacher.
One teacher teaches sixth grade.
One teacher teaches seventh grade and one teacher teaches eighth grade.
Okay. And typically a health teacher.
Is that somebody who's certified in physical education?
Yeah, it's it's a healthy certification.
Okay. Thank you.
It's okay if I'm okay.
So eighth grade, then
we get into a lot more
about relationships, boundaries
and decision making
and so they begin with self
and the impacts of social media and health.
They talk about social media as a toxic mirror
and and how it
really reflects something that's very untrue.
Oftentimes
they play a game called Relationship Bingo,
where they are to think of someone they have a relationship with,
and then a circle five traits
that they think are important for that person to have.
And then they find five people in the room
who have circled the same traits and they sign in the box.
And then
once they have bingo, then they sit down and they really talk about what
these things mean.
Because sometimes students will circle things like
they're rich, they're popular,
so they like to have some discussions about what does that really mean,
and is that really a trait that you want in a long term
partner in your life?
What are some other things that might have a little bit more depth
as they talk about healthy relationship traits?
And they also talk about unhealthy relationship traits.
They talk about communication a ton, and that is a two way street.
They talk about what
unhealthy characteristics look like.
They also give some scenarios for boundaries.
And one of the like, for example, like when you go to the movies,
if you go to the movies on a date with somebody as an eighth grader
and you're it's just the two of you, and are you going to hold hands?
Are you going to let the person put their arm around you?
Are you going like, what are what are your boundaries?
What's okay with you? What's not okay with you?
They talk about
what to do if someone disrespects you,
what are risk behaviors?
And then they have a a boundaries activity
where they talk about boundaries in lots of different ways,
like what is the boundary we have in school?
What boundaries have your parents set for you
where boundaries kids cannot cross because of their age?
What personal boundaries do you have for yourself?
How do you respond when someone crosses your personal boundary?
How do you know when you have crossed someone else's personal boundary?
And how do you let other people know about what your boundaries are?
They also have a great
relationship circle activity that they do,
where their name goes in the center
and their closest relationships go in kind of the outer edge.
And then this one is
I have a relationship, but
I'm not close with these people out here.
And one of the things that the teacher shared
that was surprising for her,
but also made her very
cognizant of how important some of these discussions are
is a lot of the especially the boys, at least half of them,
their closest relationships are people
from Instagram or screen names of people that they've never met.
And they say that they're most comfortable talking to those people
because they don't see them and can't judge them.
And they think that that person will be real with them
because they don't have anything to lose in telling them the truth.
And a lot of times their parents are out here in this outer circle.
So that has sparked a ton of discussion
as well about who are the people that you really can and should trust
and take advice from versus people
that maybe you should not.
So she also talked a lot about the middle school dichotomy
where there are, you know, in eighth grade there's just this large
range of maturity levels with students.
If you've ever walked through a middle school hallway,
you can see it all over the place.
It's it's very fun to look at all
the different stages of growing up that are represented in a middle school.
But even in eighth grade, she has some students who are dating,
some who are like, you know, that's gross.
And then some who have phone relationships
where their whole relationship is really not anything face to face,
but they text each other, Snapchat each other for their communication.
So as you said, it's a huge mix.
They talk about physical abstinence
and how to say
and how to
stay safe,
but in very plain and simple language.
And then they finish it off
with a vision board where they set goals.
They talk about what their goals are. They set goals.
And the goals have to be health, academic, personal or professional goals.
And then they talk about how all of those goals can go away
If you don't use physical abstinence and they include drug use and other risky
behaviors in there, as well as things that can get in the way of your goals.
And then they do the vision board again
and 11th grade to see how their plans have changed.
So they keep that in place.
They do not specifically address
sexual harassment, but they do talk about disrespect.
And the
but the teacher felt like she had a space where
if if there is direction to do so, she could very easily
add the sexual harassment piece and
questions about middle school.
So are these are they together, the boys and girls?
Are they separated?
So they're together in both seventh and eighth grade?
Yes, they are.
And in seventh grade, when they're learning about anatomy,
Is the clitoris part of the sexual organ
for a female?
I have diagrams.
I don't think so.
I think we're looking strictly at reproductive organs.
Okay, so looking at reproductive organs
for girls and reproductive organs for boys.
Yes. And the boys include a penis.
But the girls do not include a clitoris.
I do not see clitoris on the
vocabulary list.
Okay.
It's a relatively new discovery
that science has accepted the anatomy of the clitoris.
You know, we sent.
We sent a man to the moon.
We've done a lot of amazing things,
but the discovery of
the clitoris is not well known,
and it's very similar to to the penis.
So it.
You know, it might be here. Sorry.
It's a they have to fill it in it.
But is it on the diagram?
I don't think so.
But it is in the discussion with the vulva
labia majora.
Olivia menorah and then clitoris would be here.
A small, highly sensitive organ located in front of the urethra.
So there is discussion about it,
but it doesn't appear as though there are diagrams
in this pocket of the outer parts of the female reproductive system.
I'm sure that's something that we could identify.
There's direction to do.
So yeah, I would I would recommend everybody
look at
Sophia Wallis's work on illiteracy
as something that every human should learn about.
Since half the population has this organ,
I think it's something that our kids should be learning about.
And should it be a taboo to talk about.
So they're definitely talking about it.
I'm just not sure they're looking at pictures.
Okay.
I think if we learned about the organ, too,
I think it would help a lot of people understand,
you know, just gender and gender identity issues and all those things.
If you could actually see how similar it looks
and how closely we are developed as males and females,
that it's you know, we have more alike than we do different.
Any other questions for middle school?
I did just want to ask about that abstinence too.
Sure.
So you said they have a vision board
with goals and how those goals can go away if they're not abstinent.
They talk about physical abstinence.
So that includes lots of risky behaviors, not just sexual behavior.
Okay.
But in the Pennsylvania standards, abstinence is technically
the only thing we are allowed to discuss outside of marriage.
So there's no discussion about how
human sexuality is a normal function of human life.
And yes, in the context of puberty and growing up and the feelings
that you might have, but not much in intercourse or sexual behavior.
So sex is only allowed in the context
of a heterosexual marriage,
not heterosexual, but marriage.
Okay.
Well, this is just eighth grade a week.
You're still going to high school, right?
I mean, I think most people would agree that you would want to teach
physical abstinence to eighth graders because they're 13 and 14.
So can we hear what you're going to do in high school?
Absolutely right. So that's okay.
So at the high school level, we have health in ninth grade
and we have health in 11th grade and they meet twice a week.
First semester.
And all the
classes are taught by one teacher,
correct?
Is that right?
It changes pretty regularly, but
it's mostly one teacher.
So the notes aren't as clearly defined for this one.
So in ninth grade, they talk a lot about decision making
and to minimize regrets for the decisions that we make.
So the idea that we want to think first and act second,
and that's the kind of people that we want to be,
that's what we
they talk a lot about,
internal and external pressure
and the way that partners might pressure one another,
that boys tend to pressure one another and their partners
and they do talk about partners
to try to be inclusive
instead of saying male or female,
they say partner,
let's see, they do talk about that.
If someone is in danger or needs help, you have to tell.
And it doesn't matter if they get mad at you
that that's something that comes up a lot.
They do worry a lot more at the high school level
about how to teach this correctly and not get in trouble
either.
With parents, students or community.
So there's a I just want to put that out there
that they feel often that they're walking a very fine line of
what works and what doesn't work.
They also worry about
the difference between educating and piquing interest,
not just with sexual behavior, but also with drug use
and educating students about what drugs can do to you.
There has been a lot of research on drug use that if you spent too much time
educating, you are creating interest versus
stifling interest.
So they do talk about consent,
but within in recognition of family values and mores.
And even so much as with with little ones,
the health teacher at the high school also teaches kindergarten phys ed.
And they talk about, you know, you have to give a hug.
Do you have to give a kiss?
Like some families kind of insist upon that with their little ones.
And she
worries that, you know, for in her family she doesn't do that.
So trying to be cognizant
of what some families do versus what other families don't.
So you know, kind of being aware of that.
We are aware
that as far as our peers in the community,
we're one of the
more restrictive
curriculums that a teacher has to work from.
And other schools go a little bit
more in depth.
She does talk a lot about boundaries
that giving scenarios at the high school level gets a little bit more difficult
because you don't want to present students
with something that is going to upset somebody.
Somewhere along the way.
They do talk about refusal skills
and they really talk a lot about can anyone make you do something?
Not in the terms of violence, but in manipulation.
What does that look like?
And peer pressure.
And so a lot of conversation and talking points around that
when they do start talking about sex ed and she surveys
the students about three kids per class, raised their hand
at adult in their life, has talked to them about sex ed.
So it appears as though a lot of people are waiting for us to do this for them.
Just say three, three in the whole class and a whole class.
Yeah.
So one of the ways that they try to think about this
is that we are not necessarily in charge of sex education for someone's child,
but we can open the doors to families having those conversations
in 10th grade, which is not a health year.
They do have a speaker come into classes every year.
Also during third marking period from the YWCA who talks about violence,
sexual harassment and self-defense for both boys and girls.
I know that's something that the students really, really like
and feel like they get a lot out of.
When they do
get to talking about birth control,
they talk about options in the context of family planning
that someday when you are married and you decide that you are
not quite ready to have children yet because you have other things
that you want to do,
they talk about birth control.
And in that context of of a couple who is married,
they do talk about hormonal methods, barrier methods, abstinence,
the rhythm cycle, and how it's ineffective.
They also talk about the path of pregnancy as part of anatomy.
It turns out that even though
kids learn about anatomy in seventh grade, they really actually have no idea
how a sperm fertilizes an egg
and how that whole thing happens and how the baby gets out.
You know, all of those different pieces are kind of floating around up there.
So they do talk about that part of pregnancy.
They talk about STDs here,
both bacterial and viral infections.
Okay.
So they do the vision board again,
in 11th grade.
I think that covers most of it is doctorate.
We have 15 more minutes for that.
I know the courses.
Do we want to continue this conversation and discussion next?
Sounds like a really good idea because I hear
the teachers are here for the courses, so
I know you know, we can get stuck on this for a long time.
So is that okay with everybody else?
Okay with the rest of the group?
So well, okay.
One month from now, thank you for finding all that detailed information.
I absolutely.
If this has sparked additional questions that you would like to have answered
before next month,
please feel free to just go ahead and tell me
and I'll continue to gather information.
Thank you. Thank you. Sure.
All right. Thank you all for your patience.
We don't usually make you stay here for the whole entire meeting. Sorry.
So we do have some course editions.
We have actually quite a few
digital production to is, of course, that enables
students who want another year of digital video production to continue
to refine and develop their skills as well as to develop leadership skills.
The course will challenge students to acquire and advance
skills in a4 critical areas of 21st century learning,
communication, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration.
There is an attachment there for you and me where it is here to tell us about it.
Really, it's just a continuation of the course that we currently offer.
The kids are really having fun.
They're going deeper into what they're doing.
So right now we have them producing
just the morning announcements, but we think as they develop the skills
to produce other notes,
to produce other things, we can we can get them to do. So.
For example, we had a team working on
the V presentation that we had.
So they're going to do a little video on that.
So that's widely accessible to kids.
It will run concurrently with digital media production one.
So we don't anticipate any issues with staffing.
Are there any questions?
Okay.
For our for our folks who are new curriculum
counsel is the only board subcommittee where all of the members of curriculum
counsel do get a vote, but only board members may make a motion.
So we wanted to make sure that that was clear.
And what we do with course proposals and textbook
proposals is we have a first read in a second read at this point in time.
We're looking at a first read
which allows these to kind of sit with us for a little bit, allows you
to review them, allows any questions that need to be asked to be generated.
And then next month we will do a second read.
And if you approve them at that time, they will go to the full board.
Okay, So may I have a motion to approve
the course edition of Digital production two for first read.
So moved. Thank you. Second.
Thank you.
All those in favor say hi post.
Thank you very much.
And we will move on to great books.
Course number 139.
And this is the ladies here.
Good afternoon.
Lisa Verlander. High School English Department.
And so I've not done this before, but my colleague made us just is not here.
Emily Reinhard is here and we're we're proposing to change our current semester
long English 11 courses to be year round courses of the same title.
So I see that I'm up there for great books.
Nathan Estes for Multicultural Lit
and Emily Reiner will speak about Hero's Journey.
We feel, in order to really deepen the skills that the students need.
Meeting the standards for the 11th grade band.
We want to have that year round time to be able to focus on the writing process
and go deeper into the research skills that we're trying to meet in semester
long courses because we sort of
have to break that continuity when the semesters change in January.
And though our colleagues who are teaching those other courses are doing
the same things, it is in a different content area.
So we feel very strongly about developing rapport,
staying with students, developing a path for them to become writers.
With us as writing coaches or collaborators
and teaching them these skills in a very meaningful way
where we can dig deeper into the content of their choice.
They do get to choose which of these courses they would take
to is any questions.
Because I just have a question about
because there's a few different English courses.
Do kids typically take two English classes in 11th grade?
So currently as it is now, they are picking two of those
semester courses and that's how they fulfill it.
They do have English all year, right? Okay.
So this would just allow them to get into more depth with one focus area.
Correct.
Thank you so.
I know I've heard students talk about these courses
because they're they're very creative in and I love some of their titles.
First of all, words that change the world. Yes.
But anyway,
what are the downsides of this?
Just I don't have any in mind, but I'm just asking you from.
So I was going to say, boy, I don't know if I
you're putting me on the spot because I'm coming here proposing
that we
that we change to the full year because we see the merit.
And so in putting together a proposal and in considering a proposal,
we've certainly been thinking about the merit.
Would would somebody find a downside?
I'm sure I'm on command right now.
I'm not sure some some might say, well, what about a student
who is interested in both?
And certainly that makes sense.
That was part of our original intent in providing student choice.
I don't I don't have a solution for that because I think that the benefits
would outweigh that.
For example, these three particular courses and I don't want to speak Mrs.
Ryan, but they, they all require some literature.
So what we're hoping for is that with the ability to have the year round time,
we could explore additional pieces or going deeper into some of the pieces.
And so therein lies some of that additional work and content
that they may not have had.
So if
someone takes obviously right now they're taking to two master courses.
So how does the in-depth writing change?
And once again, I'm asking because I'm not, you know, familiar with
how how would it change in terms of
if you're going from part one of your spring semester?
I would expect that the teachers know that you're in the spring semester,
that you would naturally go in depth second semester.
Well, I think that for me,
and I think many of us feel this way, one of the concepts
I think one of the tenets of writing is that we try to promote the idea
that there really is no such thing as a final draft.
There's there's a submission date,
there's a published date, there's a presentation date.
But we're trying to teach that idea of any time
you go back and look at a piece of writing, you can improve it.
And and so I think that
if we truly want to engage students in the merits of the writing process,
then we have the time to
do more than one rewrite, for example,
in the obligatory perfunctory process and have them do multiple rewrites
in that given assignment as opposed to saying, Well,
tick tock, we have to get this done,
And so here's your one and done and then it's going to be assessed.
I think this provides
for a more authentic engagement in the writing process, quite frankly.
And one more question. Sorry.
Have you surveyed students to find out if they would prefer
staying in a class all year or if they prefer having two options?
I'm just I would defer to Mrs. Stookey.
Do you have information about that?
Actually, we're not asked the kids this,
so we wanted to come.
I'm sorry.
We wanted to come to the curriculum.
Counsel, Ask what you thought
first before we went to the kids.
There is no sense in going to the kids.
And I. And I love the kids, don't get me wrong.
But proposing something to them that may not even come to fruition.
So we one thing that the kids have said
is that they feel that they wish that a course
could go in more depth.
It is a cursory overview.
That is what we typically do.
And so the kids really to research things and to analyze
things at a deep, deep level, we just don't have time to do that.
And that is really a shame for those kids who are very, very interested in
the course itself
and how many books.
I like this. I have another question.
How many books does each course tend tend to have in the semester?
So I'll speak two great books.
We have three works. We have four approved.
When these were first originally created, we had the one approved,
but we have found that in order to even study these classics
in great books, to force a fourth one would really negate the other three.
So we have three works. Excellent.
And are any of those classes blended
these have semester or have your classes blended?
The one that I am going to propose
to talk about is media studies that is blended.
We do have a creative nonfiction that is blended.
I believe Derek is that senior year at the senior year as well.
Thank you so. Sure.
Any other questions?
I think my question was right now there are three courses
and I would assume the kids are choosing for each semester.
What is the you know, the thought if all of a sudden
there's no interest in that third course because now you're spreading,
you're giving them an option of one course now
instead of two out of the three.
You know, I'm just looking long term.
What's the potential of not having that third class that you were thinking?
I was going to ask somebody help with the numbers.
I can address that once that happens now.
So, yeah, I recognize that.
Two students. Yes.
If there aren't enough students who sign up, we just don't run that course.
So there is that potential that you lose one of these, you know,
in a given year, we wouldn't we wouldn't take it out of the planning guide forever.
But in a given year, we might not offer one if not enough students sign up.
I will say that both all
three of these courses are very, very popular with our kids.
We have never I'm not even we've never, never not run one of these. Yes.
In the time that we've had them as semester courses,
all three of them have run each semester, each semester.
Some statistically of course, because you're you're forcing them to take 2.3.
Now you're only asking to take one, of course.
And math is not my right.
Right.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Would a student be able to take one like in 10th grade and 1/11 grade?
I mean, of these classes, are these typically just taken at one grade level?
So these three we're proposing, they are junior level courses.
I will say, though, that over the years I have had a few seniors who have been
AP lit students, but also took great books, for example, as an elective.
Perhaps Mrs.
Reiner could speak to any who may have taken hero's journey.
Mr. West is not here.
They can take those as electives in addition to their required English.
And as it has happened for me
several times over the past few years, but not sophomores not sophomores.
Okay.
Any other questions?
Okay.
Would you like to hear all three of them before taking a vote,
since it's all this is kind of the same thing?
Or would you want to vote on each of them separately?
I'm fine with voting them all at the same time
because it's a similar situation for all three.
But is everyone okay with that?
Okay, so I'm kind of watching the time to.
Yes. Yeah, those are the three.
Did you have any did you want to ask any questions about Hero's
journey or multicultural literature?
They're not.
You only have credit course English courses. There are.
There are others.
There are others, yes.
What if somebody takes one the courses and then decides that they don't like it
and then it's just the four years, so they have to stick with it
for the whole year?
Well, I think I'm not sure Ms. is still here.
Ms.. Wade, help me.
If so, if they chose one
and within the schedule change period, they have those two others.
If they found perhaps it wasn't the right fit.
Isn't it the same thing
switching a course within that time frame?
So it would be putting in a schedule
change request and perhaps choosing the hero's journey
if they realized this one was not going to be for them.
So those three are all meeting the same requirements for their junior year,
so the other two would still exist as options.
Okay.
And I think typically the high school schedule
isn't as easy to move things around.
I mean, it's a pretty tight schedule.
So and it's a pretty quick time frame.
It's not like college, like I don't like this cosmetic change.
So another one on Thursdays, and
I don't know how likely that would happen if you could.
If you just don't like it, you could change, correct?
I don't think we can just change.
But there is a system in place in the first two weeks
where students wait to change if they feel at that point.
But you're right in that I can have major ones, right?
All other classes to
depending on how many are being offered.
Are there any other questions?
Okay.
May I please have a motion for first read on the course Revisions
of great books, multicultural literature, and hero's Journey.
So moved on. Second, Second.
Thank you.
With any further questions or discussion?
Yes. I would love
if there was some way that we could get student feedback on this
before in the meantime, because that's going to be very critical
as students say, Oh my gosh, I blew I wanted to take all four of these
have semester courses
or they or they might say, Gosh, I hated having to take two separate courses.
I wish I could just have one.
I think their feedback would mean a lot to me
because I don't know who's taking white, but I've heard the names of all these
and I know they're all very popular, so I want to make sure the students
have a little bit of say, Sure, thank you.
I'm going to skip down to the course elimination.
I'm sorry, we need to vote the votes. Sorry.
All those in favor of a first read say
I have those opposing sign.
Thank you.
We'll come back for a second read. And Mrs.
Tuckey, if you need help with that, I can help you do that.
Okay. All right.
I do want to jump down to media studies just because it impacts
this whole decision making process real quick.
Do I speak to that?
Mr. Stuckey
Currently, there are four English classes
at the 11th grade level, three of which we have just discussed.
The fourth one is media studies, and the English Department is requesting
that we remove that course from our curriculum.
And there are several reasons why.
First of all,
we feel that these skills that are taught in media studies need to be taught
to all students, not just those students
who take media studies with our current political climate,
with our current world climate, we are seeing that
and with the amount
of information that our students are receiving
via the web, via all types of media, that our students need to be critical
thinkers, critical listeners, and critical consumers
of media and of the messages
that they are impacted by and that they hear on a daily basis.
And we felt that just having students who sign up for this course,
take this course, we think that is doing a disservice to our students.
One of the things that we do in that class is we do examine propaganda.
We do take a look at bias and recognizing bias.
We do take a look at resource evaluation, and we feel that
many of these skills are being taught and will be taught in other classes.
And we feel that they should be taught at the ninth grade, the 10th grade,
the 11th grade, and at the 12th grade level, not in a mere semester course
for the first time as well.
The third point and it really threw me last year we had a student
for the very first time who applied to a college in California.
This young man was not going to play Division one nor Division two sports,
and because it was not NCAA approved
and because they looked at the course of study
and they said the college said, I'm sorry,
we cannot accept this as an English credit for you.
And that was the very first time that had happened.
And although I could make a case for this course,
the college didn't want to hear that.
And so that young person then had to take an additional
English course to fulfill the English requirements
and since that is happening now, and that is the very first time
that's happened, that has given us pause in the English department, too,
that we are not serving our students the best in the best capacity that we can.
So those are our main three reasons why we feel that this really this
course needs to be incorporated within all other courses.
Also, the just like I said, with the political climate,
with our world climate and with the deluge of information
that our students are experiencing on a daily basis.
Thank you.
Do you have any questions?
Okay.
May I have a motion for a first read to eliminate media studies
as an individual course?
So most second.
Thank you.
All those in favor say hi and opposed them saying
okay, thank you.
And on speed dial
as fast as possible to read.
Take a look at the electronics course proposal.
Mr. C Rock is here to talk to us about this.
Hi, I'm Jason SEABROOK, one of the physics teachers at the high school.
And the course we're proposing is Intro to Electronics
would be a complement to our existing physics curriculum.
And in the course, what we'd like to do is really teach kids
about capacitors, resistors, transistors, potentiometers, LEDs,
what they do and how they work together in an electric circuit. So
one of the things kids would do in the course is build
some different kits, assemble kits to perform functions.
They be simplistic enough that they could do them,
but complicated enough that we could analyze
the different components and what the role of each one is.
We were looking at this as a good course for the student that's on a technical
path, looking at maybe repair of appliances, things like that.
It could also be students that have an interest in something
like electrical engineering or that just have a general interest
in technology and electronics in general.
So kind of the whole gamut of of our students
at the high school level.
I think it's a great idea.
I just wanted to ask about the ongoing costs is at 20 $500 per year per semester.
The kits are roughly $100
If we have kids do maybe two projects over the course of this semester.
So we'd be looking at about $100 a student.
If we're talking about a class of 24, that's 2400.
You know, depending how many students sign up, that could vary.
But but yeah, that was for the kits.
That would be student that the students would take home with them
when they're done.
It's kind of something they made in that class.
So that would be per semester.
Then we were thinking of running this
one semester, depending on either,
you know, depending on interest, that could change over time.
But right now we have a are a course that's co-taught
between the physics department and the the tech department.
It's a survey of engineering that runs for one semester.
So this would be a real nice compliment for the opposite semester.
Thank you.
Oh, this question that I have about the
the electronic opponents and things like that, will there be an extension
to any type of coding related to that or is that is it strictly just,
you know, kind of pulling some things together to get a light bulb to to light?
I mean, it would be more than a light bulb, but
as far as coding, I think that probably is more
in the computer area and outside of our expertise.
I mean, certainly kids could take
take that to the next level and maybe, you know, do something in that area.
But now we were looking more at the electronic components.
So specifically, what would maybe one of the kits then actually have
inside of it that that you're looking at know, there's thing
there's strobe lights where you could set a light to flash at a certain rate.
There's a electronic device where the kids would push a button
and rather than roll the dice, it would display using LED lights,
whatever that random number would be for that particular role.
Things like that.
Okay.
I guess I'm thinking then that could easily roll
into the idea of physical computing and adding a coding component to that.
When you're talking about random, you know, creating random numbers
and things like that and turn it getting a strobe to turn on and off,
you know, having a coding component that leads to that.
I guess my question is, is
what are you doing then to
to have them do that kind of thing if that's not connected to it?
Yeah, we're looking more at the circuits.
So they would get the circuit diagram.
They learn, okay, if I put a transistor in the circuit,
what does it do if I, if I need it to double
the flash rate, what would I have to alter to make that happen?
So more of the How did the components of the circuitry work to make it function
the way it does? Okay,
I see that they're looking at soldering skills, things like that.
Yeah, we need some soldering iron spread boards
and then students would would have to assemble the different components.
Okay. Thank you.
Sure.
Given it's soldering is involved, has anybody confirmed
that no special ventilation requirements are needed in the area?
We'll be working.
We do have vent hoods in the lab, in the lab rooms, and.
Okay, there's a mentioned classroom. And I was just wondering.
Yeah, I think we say classroom or lab, our lab
within the lab and run the vents to eliminate that from the room.
Any other questions?
You may have a motion for a first read
for the inclusion of an electronics course in the science department.
So moved second.
Thank you very much.
All those in favor say I oppose him saying
Thank you all very much.
That's very lengthy agenda.
Thank you.
All the teachers for
working through that with us.
We do not have any old business.
We will come back to sex ed discussion next month and we will adjourn at 509.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, everyone.
I think the title that
is a 3 to 1 or something
that's not.
Yeah.
Yeah,
yeah.
To my
staff as well.
Alise How is that?
I know.
Exciting.
6:00.
I didn't know you guys were in your work as long as
we were at 4:00 the last time.
So I'll be
talking to you.
Yes, I meet.