Closing down Blogspot site

After Friday, 1/8/10 the Blogspot site (and website syndication) will become inactive.  Blog posts will ONLY appear on the HASIP UEN page.  Please visit the UEN page daily for updates, news, event information, links, and resources.

Thank you!

New UEN Site

Friends, I'm always trying to make the HASIP experience better for everyone.  Getting the documents, resources, and information you need should be EASY, and it should be something you can do from ANY computer - most especially, from whatever machine you have available to you in your classroom.  

I KNOW that many of you can't access my beautiful Blogspot site from school, and the public website syndication of the blog hasn't entirely solved that problem.  I also know that accessing the Confluence intranet site is only possible from your HASIP MacBook, which for some of you, means that you can't tap into those resources while at school.

So... let's try something different and see how it works. We can ALL access UEN from any school computer, as well as from personal computers (and HASIP MacBooks).  I have set up a UEN page for HASIP which has program documents, curriculum resources, website links, and a BLOG for regular communication.  You should be able to access this page from ANYWHERE, including the computer on your desk at school. Right now there's not a ton of content, but I'm adding more and more.

Please visit the site DAILY in order to keep receiving all the important HASIP info you need!  And, I welcome feedback on format and workability of this UEN site.

Our VPN will remain in place, and Confluence will continue to be available for access to previously-shared resources, the JIRA trouble ticket system, etc. I will continue to maintain the Blogspot blog with syndication to the public website (so now, there's THREE place for you to get info - use what works for you!).

The address of the new UEN site is:  http://my.uen.org/myuen/86555/4

Let me know if this improves accessibility for you!

~Amy

UAGC Conference Information

The UAGC Annual Conference will be held at the Davis Conference Center this year.  You can go to www.uagc.org for details.  As was described in September 2009, HASIP is able to provide a $40 supplement toward the cost of conference registration for either the UAGC Fall Seminar OR the UAGC Annual Conference.  

If you are planning to go to the UAGC Annual Conference in January, go ahead and fill out the registration form for whatever combination of days you are attending.  Determine your total cost for attendance, and then deduct $40 - the remainder is what you or your school/district must pay.  Write a note on the registration form that you are a HASIP participant receiving the $40 supplement.  Send in the registration form and your part of the payment to UAGC.  Then, send me an email that you are attending the conference. UAGC and HASIP will coordinate lists to complete the process. (NOTE: If you pay electronically via PayPal, you must pay the full amount. HASIP will then reimburse you. Contact me if you are in this situation.)

The UAGC Annual Conference is a fantastic experience, and I hope to see may of you there!  I wish that HASIP had the resources to pay the complete costs for all out participants to attend, but that's not possible.  If your district is not in a position to send you for the full three days, please consider attending the Saturday Institutional Leadership Day.  This is a great opportunity to develop your knowledge and leadership abilities in the area of gifted education.

As always, if you have questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with me. I have placed a downloadable copy of the registration form in the "Conference Information" folder on the UEN site.

December Lesson Reflection and Goal Review

Due to my FMLA and bereavement leave, we didn't do the intended professional development activities in November.  However, we do want to wrap up the first part of the year in a organized and productive way.  So, please make sure that you do the following:

• Have a "goal review" conversation with your coach either before going out on winter break, or during the first week back.  By January 8th, send me the Goal Review form (completed).  The form is available in both word and Pages format - just type right on, and send it back as an attachment to an email. The form is located in the "HASIP Goals and Lesson Reflections" folder on the UEN site.
• Complete ONE Lesson Reflection activity for November/December - this can be on something you've done recently, or something you have planned in the next couple of weeks.  By January 8th, send me the Lesson Reflection Log (completed).  The form is available in both word and Pages format - just type right on, and send it back as an attachment to an email. The form is located in the "HASIP Goals and Lesson Reflections" folder on the UEN site.

You need to submit BOTH of these items (Goal Review and Lesson Reflection) to keep your eligibility for your end-of-year stipend.

Teachers Talkin' Turkey

Teacher Talk will happen TODAY, Thursday 11/19, from 3 - 4 p.m. in Amy's Wimba Room. Stop by with your questions!

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Reminder - October Lesson Reflection

A repeat of the structure/content of your October lesson reflection appears below.  Remember, the goal was to have these finished by October 30 (including meeting with your coach and sharing your artifact/video).  If you're not going to make this date, try to wrap up the October activity ASAP, as we have a new activity for November!

For your first required lesson reflection of the ’09-’10 Program Year, we would like to connect YOUR goals to what you are doing in the classroom.  A lesson reflection sheet was attached to the email that was sent out on 10/12/09 which asks you to try to make that connection. The lesson Reflection Sheet is available in both MS Word and Mac Pages formats, and can also be downloaded HERE from Confluence.

For this reflection you might choose to implement a strategy, or you might describe an action or series of actions you need to take in order to move toward your goal. Please either take a video of your lesson/strategy implementation, or include a copy of an artifact (such as a choice menu, an independent learning contract, etc.) that shows what you did to move forward toward your goal.

You will send your Lesson Reflection sheet to your coach, along with any artifacts. If you take video,  CLICK HERE to learn how to share the video with your coach (you can just share a key portion).  Please complete this Lesson Reflection activity as close to Friday, 10/30 as possible – we’ll have a new focus for the weeks prior to Thanksgiving. Again, send it to your coach (not me), and save a copy for yourself (I’ll be collecting these in December).

Below are few other HASIP resources that might help you with this reflection activity – these are all available through Confluence.  You MUST be on your MacBook with the “tunnel open”) that is, connected to the VPN) for the links to work.  You’ll be asked to log in to Confluence, and then will be taken to the specific resource (this applies to the links above as well).

Interest Surveys

 Curriculum Compacting

Characteristics of high-ability/gifted learners

As always, if there is any way we can support you, please don’t hesitate to let us know!

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October Lesson Reflections

It’s time to think about Lesson Reflections and Professional Development!  I have really enjoyed reading your goals, and believe that what you have written gives us a lot to think about and work with in the next few months.

The trends that stand out in the goal sheets are:

• Accountability – holding high-ability students accountable for the quality of their work/participation.
• Collaboration – working with colleagues to address the needs of high-ability students when there are so many other things we need to collaborate about as well, and time isn’t provided for “gifted collaboration.”
• Differentiation – making the necessary adjustments to meet our high-ability students’ needs; providing challenging, high-quality experiences to targeted students.
• Engagement/ Motivation – how “hook” and motivate high-ability students (often connected to accountability).
• Identification – who are the “high-ability” students in our classrooms?
• Language Arts – developing high-level curriculum and learning goals; integration with content areas.
• Strategy Implementation – curriculum compacting was mentioned several times, along with choice menus, tiered assignments, and higher-order questioning.

For your first required lesson reflection of the ’09-’10 Program Year, we would like to connect YOUR goals to what you are doing in the classroom.  A lesson reflection sheet was attached to the email that was sent out on 10/12/09 which asks you to try to make that connection. The lesson Reflection Sheet is available in both MS Word and Mac Pages formats, and can also be downloaded HERE from Confluence.

For this reflection you might choose to implement a strategy, or you might describe an action or series of actions you need to take in order to move toward your goal. Please either take a video of your lesson/strategy implementation, or include a copy of an artifact (such as a choice menu, an independent learning contract, etc.) that shows what you did to move forward toward your goal.

You will send your Lesson Reflection sheet to your coach, along with any artifacts. If you take video,  CLICK HERE to learn how to share the video with your coach (you can just share a key portion).  Please complete this Lesson Reflection activity as close to Friday, 10/30 as possible – we’ll have a new focus for the weeks prior to Thanksgiving. Again, send it to your coach (not me), and save a copy for yourself (I’ll be collecting these in December).

Below are few other HASIP resources that might help you with this reflection activity – these are all available through Confluence.  You MUST be on your MacBook with the “tunnel open”) that is, connected to the VPN) for the links to work.  You’ll be asked to log in to Confluence, and then will be taken to the specific resource (this applies to the links above as well).

Interest Surveys

 Curriculum Compacting

Characteristics of high-ability/gifted learners

As always, if there is any way we can support you, please don’t hesitate to let us know!

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News and Reminders for Monday, 10/12/09

1. Send in your goal sheets as soon as you meet with your coach!
2. Teacher Talk will take place on Thursday, 10/15 from 7:00 - 8:00 a.m. in Amy's Wimba Room. The room will be open early if you need time to get your technology up and running.
   
   
3. "Fall Break" in the Washington District (where the HASIP staff is located) occurs on Friday, 10/16 and Monday, 10/19.  Your friendly HASIP staffers will - hopefully - be out enjoying the beautiful autumn weather. We'll be back to business as usual on Tuesday, 10/20.
4. The October lesson reflection activity will be emailed to all participants and coaches on Monday afternoon - watch for it!

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Teacher Talk!

Teacher Talk will be held on FRIDAY, October 9, from 3 - 4 p.m. (or later as needed) in Amy's Wimba Room.

I know we said it would alternate between Thursday mornings and afternoons (and I realize that Friday isn't the ideal day) - but, this week I don't have a tech specialist available on Thursday afternoon.  So, Friday it is!

Join in for conversation, advice, and tech tips!

Reminder about goals!

DEADLINE:
Hey everyone, how are you coming with your goals?  I know that last week was busy, and that many of you were out for two days for UEA break.  Lots of people contacted me about having some extra time to finish up due to UEA, parent conferences, having been in school for barely month, etc.

I can be flexible but - we DO need those goals! As soon as it's reasonable for you and your coach, PLEASE get your goal sheet sent to me.  We need these for a couple of reasons:  (1) We're looking at the data to help guide our professional development activities, and (2) The two goal sheets (October and January) you complete during this program year are part of the "accountability list" that helps you to receive the year-end stipend.

THANKS TO THE MANY PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY SENT THEIR GOAL SHEETS IN - GOLD STARS TO YOU!

SAVING AND SENDING THE PDF:
Several of you have emailed about problems you've had saving your goal sheet - as in, it turns out BLANK when you go to open it, or when Amy or the coach opens the email attachment. We are SO sorry about this! They hitch is that you have to be using the "Preview" program on your program Mac. Next time we will make sure that the form can be viewed/saved on ANY computer.  Please accept our apologies!  If you have further difficulties please email Trent at tstaheli@highabilityutah.org

Teacher Talk!

Our Tech Talk session on Friday, 9/25 was helpful for at least one person... but we sure would like to chat with more of you! I realize that Friday afternoon may not be the ideal time, so let me suggest a couple of alternatives:

Thursdays from 7:00 - 8:00 a.m. on 10/1, 10/15, and 10/29

alternating with

Thursdays from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. on 10/8 and 10/22

We're changing the name to "Teacher Talk," because we can certainly discuss more than technology - any program issue or question, anything we can provide in the way of resources or advice, and tech help you need - it's all available! Amy will be at every session, and either Matt or Trent will join each time to handle tech questions.

Communication is essential to have the best experience possible in the High-Ability Program - don't be shy, come visit! You'll find us in Amy's "Wimba Room" (click for a direct link).

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What does the High-Ability Program look like for 2009-10?

Here's a snapshot of what we (the HASIP staff) envision for the program in its second year of existence. In some ways things will be the same, and in others, there will be some changes. Participants can expect to be involved in:

1. PLC groups - meeting once a month or so with your group at your school to share resources and ideas, discuss challenges, look at student work, talk about strategies, etc.

2. Coaching support - talking (phone or iChat) with your coach weekly about what's going on in your classroom, what strategies you might try, what kinds of things you need in terms of support/resources/information.

3. Reflections - approximately 2x/month. NOT the same format every time (different from last year). Tied to your own personal goals, and also aligned to some of the topics that are covered in the endorsement classes. In September, the "assignment" is the personal goal-setting sheet that went out at the beginning of this week. Sometimes, a reflection will include videorecording your instruction or class activity, but not EVERY time (or even every week).

4. Professional Development - ongoing opportunities to access readings, webinars, internet resources, etc. We'll be a little more structured than last year, hopefully with a more clear sense of focus and direction. The PD will also be aligned to some of the topics that are covered in the endorsement classes. For example, in October we'll hone in on characteristics of gifted kids, and how we know who it is we need to be targeting with our classroom strategies. This PD focus will give your PLC group and your coaching conversation some direction as well.

5. Continued/enhanced technology training - developing skills for using and integrating technology in a meaningful way in your professional practice. We provide several tools for this program aspect, including the Program MacBook, digital camera, and document scanner. Our Confluence intranet site, the High-Ability Utah public website, and the HASIP blog are all forums for communication and resource-sharing.

Finally, an optional part of the program is the online gifted and talented G/T endorsement class, offered through Utah State University. This is really "icing on the cake" for our participants, but if you choose to get the endorsement, we'll support you in every way possible!

What questions do you have, or what clarification would be helpful in understanding the different program elements? Feel free to comment!