- Present: Chris Cebrzynski, Alicia Garfinkel, Aaron Hanna, Vicki Otten, Sara Heist, Emily Kallaur, Lauren Miller, Karen Abrams and Adam Riggs.
- Meeting was called to order at 5:35 PM.
- Adoption of the Minutes from October – Sarah made the motion to approve the October minutes, Adam seconded the motion – all approved
- Principal
- Mr. C spoke about the new chancellor and a phone call he had with him and other DC Principals.
- We hope he will have the chance to visit Murch soon
- Intervention/Enrichment
- What is RTI? How is it different from I/E?
- RTI à The program/plan/method that identifies and tracks students as at risk or below grade level; very specific – lots of assessments and coordination; RTI comes in 6 week cycles – if the intervention is not successful, it can be modified, or moved to getting an IEP
- I/E is based on data and all students participate
- Another way to think about it – “A student who has an RTI plan will receive an RTI during I/E, but a student in I/E doesn’t always have an RTI plan.”
- The Murch I/E Program – What does it look like? (Murch Mindcraft)
- Looked at handout by Stefanie Berger
- Aides implement the Enrichment, classroom teachers do the Intervention (groups are mixed within the grade-level based on need); Math Specialist and Enrichment Coordinator help too – 12 adults help during each grade level’s I/E block
- Math – 10% are in the intervention block – grades 3 -5
- ELA – 17% are in the intervention block – grades 3-5
- 2nd – 5th grade have 30 minutes per day (1st grade has a different model)
- STEM competitions starting in January to add more Science and Math to I/E
- Most cycles are 3 weeks – number of days a week depends on groups/grade level
- Responses from teachers & aides on I/E
- 72% of teachers responded that a challenge is that there is not time to meet to discuss I/E
- (School-wide Enrichment à Ms. Bentley – separate from I/E block (based on their interest survey); 2nd – 5th graders will all have an enrichment project with her.)
- Discussion of articles and information on other I/E programs
- Going forward
- Coming up with specific Goals and Objectives of I/E block
- Communication with parents about the I/E block
- Section on the website about it?
- Get 3 or 4 measurable/achievable goals
- Would help get all grade levels more on the same page
- Enrichment à Clarify what we are doing – not pushing to the next grade-level, but exploring creativity and curiosity
- Make a scope & sequence for I/E block?
- At the end of the year, look back at projects and see overlaps in grade levels and see how to connect them and what to use again next year.
- Discussion of budget considerations to help with this more
- Time set aside on PD days to plan for I/E
- One idea – Once a month, grade-level teams get a full day to plan with specific goals
- This work is being done to be utilized for next year.
- Future thoughts à Utilizing parents with knowledge in specific areas to help (ex: meteorologists)
- What is RTI? How is it different from I/E?
A small group will meet to work on creating a draft of goals (Emily, Karen, Vicki, Aaron, Lauren).
- Miscellaneous
- Computers
- Adam talked about the issues we are experiencing with laptops at school
- Suggested sending out a survey to all teachers – is everyone having this problem? Can we reach out to HSA about fixing this?
- Mr. C will put Adam in touch with the DCPS person in charge of technology to discuss if we can use Chrome Books.
- Computers