March 26, 2010

• Alphabet Soup -- has been offered to Gadsden City, Pell City City, and St. Clair County as an In-Service for 2010-2011. I'll keep you posted on any acceptance from those systems.
• I have asked Etowah County for the dates you have chosen.  I asked Oxford City if we can invite Handley Middle and Wedowee Middle.  I asked Etowah County if we can invite Piedmont City and Cherokee County.    I will need to fit Attalla in maybe with Etowah County.  When I hear from Etowah County, I'll ask about including Attalla City.
• We need one more Alphabet Soup for Jacksonville City (Piedmont City will be invited) 
• Oxford City has agreed to the date for Alphabet Soup.
• I think that takes care of all of the systems except Anniston and quite honestly, they do not have enough AMSTI teachers to attend.   We have the "go ahead" with Calhoun County.
• School Calendars are posted on websites.  I've saved Calhoun County and Pell City City to the G drive in a folder called School Calendars.  Who would like to volunteer to make our combined spreadsheet of calendars?
• Duran Jr. North is requestion PD's - I'll get with Ms. Davis and hopefully it will be an inservice in August - Science NB, Math journaling, math content, math and science implementation (check data and provide activities based on the lowest data) and time management which can be included in all of those.  - be thinking and planning........I'll invite them to participate in this years PLT/ACHE training to begin to implement PLTs where they can also work on these topics
• As AMSTI embarks upon our 11^th year, we have scheduled a “ Celebration and Vision Casting” for April 5 from 4:30 until….  We hope you and your specialists will begin arriving around 4:30 with the meal underway by 5. This will allow time for celebrating our successes and casting a vision following the meal.   The event will be held at the Oxford City Civic Center.  Dinner will be provided. 
• We hope the evening is a festive occasion, celebrating the excellent work that everyone  has accomplished.  More to come as we get closer to the date. Steve Ricks
• 
  
  Directors,
  
  
  
  In an attempt to operate more in the advance planning, QII mode, we have set the following dates for statewide staff meetings.
  
  
  
  August 17-19, 2010
  

  October 5-7, 2010
  

  January 11-13, 2011
  

  March 29-31, 2011

March 19, 2010

Invitations (by email) have been sent to schools to attend the ACHE training.  A prerequisite - PLT training 2009 and a follow up session.  :  Hokes Bluff Middle, Wellborn HS, Saks Middle, Ohatchee HS, Weaver HS, WE Striplin, Etowah MS, Handley MS and  CA Donehoo --  

Deadline to Register April 9

What: Computational Fluency

Who: K-5 Math Teachers

Limited to 6 math teachers per school

Where: JSU InService Center

When: April 28, 2010

8:30 -3:30

 What: Lenses on Learning The "Base"-ics:  An In-depth Look at Refraction and pH

Who: K-5 Science teachers Limited to 6 science teachers per school

Where: JSU Inservice Center

When:  May 5, 2010

8:30 – 3:30

What: Laying the Foundation

Who: 6-12 AMSTI Math teachers – limited to 5 math teachers per school

Where: JSU In-Service Center

When:  May 5, 8:30 – 3:30

• Kit rotation update:
• Calhoun County has returned 3rd rotation and has picked up 4th rotation.  (Tuesday (16th)  and Wednesday (17th))
• All other school systems have been contacted but have not given a specific date to return 3rd rotation. BUT when they return 3rd rotation, they will pick the 4th rotation.  They are suppose to return 3rd rotation March 24-27
• If you have any updates or corrections to presentation list sent by email, please send add to, correct, etc  and send to me by end of the day  Monday, March 22.  I’ll  compile the list and submit it to Dr. Carr/Vicky for the In-Service report.  
• The state department auditor is coming Wednesday morning to do his yearly scan/inventory of the laptops.  This only affects the Toshiba tablet PCs from the black cases.  If you have borrowed one of these please make sure it is back in my office by Tuesday afternoon before leaving for home.  After the scan on Wednesday you are free to borrow them again.  Thanks!  Eric

March 12, 2010

Happy Blizzard Anniversary!

Remember to SPRING FORWARD Saturday night.  Yea!  The days will be getting longer.

Sustainability news:
Etowah HS, Mr. Wilkinson said that March 23 will be fine to begin.

Dear AMSTI Friends,
I am happy to let you know that Texas Instruments has been accepted as your newest AMSTI Affiliate!

Please find our information at http://146.229.155.222/About/Affiliates/tabid/79/Default.aspx and be sure to let all of your schools know the good news as well!

Thanks, Ned
______________________________
Ned Colley
Texas Instruments
Educational Technology Consultant
Phone: (770) 406-8822
Cell: (404) 435-9516

Cindy, Dr. Carr and I will meet with COE on March 25 to discuss establishing AMSTI preservice training.

Refreshments for State Meeting

Our site will be responsible for paper plates, napkins and home-made goodies. I think that each of us should bring one pack of plates and one pack of napkins considering we will have approx. 150 per day. Please let me know by Friday, March 12th on what home-made goodie each of you will bring so we won't duplicate. I'll make a list and distribute to everyone afterwards. Prepare for at least 2 days - possibly 3 depending on what has not been eaten with something new for each day. We are also to bring 2 cases of drinks and a 24 pack of bottled water as a site. Suggestions are open on how to handle that!
Thanks ahead to everyone in making this a great visit for our fellow co-workers!
Lynn

March 5, 2010

• For the statewide staff meeting in April, I’m going to follow my friend and 7 Habits leader and ask for snack contributions.  

Each site will bring:  2 cases of drinks, a 24 pk  of water and a few snack food items, we would have plenty. Can we break it down like this for the snacks?

UAH: 5 bags of assorted chocolate

USA: 5 cases of assorted crackers (like from Sam’s)

Troy: 5 cases of breakfast items (pastries or breakfast bars)

Athens: Fruit (apples, oranges, bananas, or grapes)

UAB: 5 Cases of assorted individual bags of potato chips

UM: 7 packs of any kind of cookies

UNA : 4 large cans of peanuts and 4 bags of M&M’s to mix in with it.

ASU-WCCS: 5 Bags of any kind of candy other than chocolate

JSU: paper plates, napkins, home-made goodies- Lynn will coordinate the list so we don't duplicate items. 

UA: Cheese and Crackers (you can get cubed cheese at Sam’s)

AU: 5 Bags of Tortilla chips and 5 jars of salsa.

• April 28:  Pearson K-5 PD - math content PD -  ACHE
• May 5:  Laying the Foundation 6-12 math content PD AND K-5 Science PD by AMSTI SDE

• 6-8 Science PD will be in the fall.  

Sustainability/ASAP Success Stories

Please use this post to share specific success stories involving teachers or students.  You do not have to use a name but please identify the school.

February 26, 2010

• Tanya will begin visiting classes in our Sustainability schools.  Be prepared to share your "schedule" for teaching classes at the Sustainability schools.  Remember to submit your sustainability schedule for each school where you are working  to me either via email or place on the "g" drive and let me know it is there. I belive the schedules are in the ASAP folder on the "g" drive.  These will be placed in the schools data notebook.

• Specialists:  Do you  have any of the following books?  They will be needed at the Statewide Staff meeting in April.  Please let Lynn know which ones you already own (if any).   THANKS!

1.      Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning by Page Keeley (ISBN 978-1-4129-4180-8)

2.      Assessing Science Learning: Perspectives From Research and Practice by: Janet Coffey, Rowens Douglas, & Carole Stearns (ISBN 978-1-93353-140-3)

3.       Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Vol. 1: 25 Formative Assessment Probes by Page Keeley, Francis Eberle, &Lynn Farrin (ISBN 978-0-87355-255-4)

4.      Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 2: 25 More Formative Assessment Probes by Page Keeley, Francis Eberle, &Joyce Tugel (ISBN 978-0-87355-273-8)

5.      Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 3: Another 25 Formative Assessment Probes by Page Keeley, Francis Eberle, & Chad Dorsey (ISBN 978-1-93353-124-3)

6.       Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 4: 25 New Formative Assessment Probes  by Page Keeley & Joyce Tugel (ISBN 978-1-93515-501-0)

 Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning

• Vicky has suggested that the "E's" on Down the Road workshop be changed to a date other than Friday.  She has said that historically, teachers do not attend workshops on Friday.  Please choose a new date and I'll confirm that there is a room available  Keep in mind...Their big workshop week is June 21-25 so they may not have any extra rooms that week.