Competence

Open Communication

Loyalty

Defined Autonomy

Honor

High Expectations and Accountability

Coordinated and Aligned Curriculum and Assessment

Coordinated and Embedded Professional Development

Quality Classroom Instruction

Effective Use of Data

According to the book Advantage, there are six critical questions a leadership team should answer around which all decisions, goals, tasks, meetings, etc. should be centered and focused:

1) Why do we exist?

2) How do we behave?

3) What do we do?

4) How will we succeed?

5) What is most important, right now?

6) Who must do what?

You have probably had a conversation with your school principal regarding three initiatives that will be monitored closely for the next four to five months. When we think about teaching and learning, what is most important right now is ensuring our students demonstrate proficiency. It is our goal to increase the content mastery scores in all content areas: ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies. In an effort to narrow our focus, our initiative and actions steps are as follows:

Initiative One: Get more students to demonstrate proficiency in Math and ELA in 3rd, 5th, 8th and 9th grades.

• Expose students to the intent of the curriculum.
• Ensure assessments are aligned to appropriate level(s) of rigor.
• Ensure feedback is provided in a timely manner.

The Teaching and Learning team is excited about being more visible in your Math and ELA 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 9th grade classrooms. You will receive feedback on the following "Look Fors":

• The lesson is based on grade-level standards.
• The learning target is linked/aligned to the standards.
• The learning target is clearly articulated by teacher or students.
• The learning target is embedded in instruction.
• Student tasks/assignments and instructional activities are directly aligned to the learning target.
• Assessment items are aligned to the intent and rigor of the standard.
• The assessment method matches the learning target.
• Students can articulate how he/she receives feedback to improve work.
• (Elementary) The teacher is on schedule.

These observations are not evaluations. I need for every teacher to understand it is our job to support your efforts in educating our students. It is never our intent to evaluate. It is our goal to provide you with the support needed to get the job done.

If you have any questions or concerns, you are more than welcome to reach out to me through Let's Talk or through e-mail. I am more than willing to provide more information. In addition, I am in the process of developing a presentation and webinar to create more clarity on the initiative.

Again, my team looks forward to being in your classrooms to observe instruction, assessments, task and assignments and to assist in any way that we can.

Dr. Tanzy D. Kilcrease, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning

As most of you know, the Teaching and Learning Department is 100% Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Certified! Every month the department is given a challenge to enhance their technological skills. Ms. Olena Floore, the Elementary Coordinator, was the winner of the November Challenge. She and Ms. Michelle Snay, the Pre-K Instructional Coach, are building the capacity of their team by training some of our Pre-K teachers to be leaders of the "electronic PLCs". They are being innovative in creating virtual PLCs which is a recommendation that Solution Tree highly suggests in the book titled Virtual Collaboration.

Congratulations, Ms. Floore and Ms. Snay for demonstrating your dedication to our Strategic Objective "Know Technology".

Learning Walks have been conducted at the following schools: Alex II, Bruce, Brookdale, Bernd, Burdell-Hunt, Carter, MLK, Hartley, Heard, Howard Middle, Ingram-Pye, Rutland Middle, Lane, Miller Magnet, Porter, Riley, Skyview, Central, Howard High, Southfield, Taylor, Southwest, and Union.

We have thoroughly enjoyed working closely with school teams and look forward to assisting schools in conducting their own Learning Walks. Let's continue to develop reflective and public practice to improve our schools.

Dr. Tanzy D. Kilcrease, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning

Instructional strategies are used in classrooms to enhance learning. Explicit Instruction is a teacher-led instructional strategy. According to Anita Archer and Charles Hughes, authors of the book Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching, explicit instruction is systematic, direct, engaging, and success oriented, and has been shown to promote achievement for all students. This teaching strategy involves setting the stage of learning, clear explanation of what to do, modeling the process, guided practice, independent practice, and assessment closure.

Mr. Dominique Nichols at Westside High School utilized explicit instruction to teach his Pre-AP class how to write a college quality personal narrative. Mr. Nichols explained the elements of the personal narrative and shared exemplars. As exemplars were shared, Mr. Nichol asked students to identify the narrative elements. Not only were elements of a personal narrative explicitly taught to students, Mr. Nichols also modeled the thinking process for generating a personal narrative. Students were actively engaged throughout the instructional delivery and asked questions for clarity about elements that were unclear.

Students were given the opportunity to begin brainstorming ideas and creating a rough draft. Some of the students talked with fellow classmates to share their ideas. Mr. Nichols monitored students’ conversations and progress as he walked around the room and provided additional one-on-one instruction when appropriate. Kudos to you Mr. Nichols for a job well done!

Dr. Sharon Campbell, District Intervention Coach

ThinkCERCA is a personalized literacy program and digital curriculum for teaching close reading and academic writing across all four core subjects. Through standards-aligned close reading and academic writing lessons, literacy instruction prepares students for post-secondary life by building up their analytical skills in every subject. Our middle schools have implemented ThinkCERCA for the past two years.

Learning Walks were conducted at all six middle schools on November 6th and November 7th. We appreciate our teachers and students for demonstrating how they are implementing the program. Two of the components of ThinkCERCA implementation are collaboration and engagement. School-based teams, members from Teaching and Learning and ThinkCERCA consultants visited several classrooms at each school to determine the level of student engagement. Below I have shared a short video of engagement in Ms. Teleah Jackson-Walker's math classroom.

Thank you Ms. Jackson-Walker for demonstrating how math students can be engaged in problem solving and the writing process!

High School teachers have spent time in two professional learning and planning sessions this fall for specific high school math courses. Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and College Readiness teachers across the district have met on different days to learn and collaborate with each other. During these sessions, teachers have discussed pacing and unit planning. The teachers have worked on the development of a unit of study, the pacing of the unit, and the progression of the standards throughout the unit. The teachers in every session have worked on unit assessments with discussions about the alignment of the assessment items to the standard. Work during the sessions have also focused on choosing tasks that are aligned to the standard, and that give all students access into the problems.

Algebra I teachers brought student work to their session in November to share with the group. Teachers did a carousel of each school’s student work. They gave feedback to each school about the alignment of the task to the intended standard. The pictures show various Algebra I teachers discussing the alignment of the tasks. Plans to continue this work for Geometry, Algebra II, and College Readiness, as well as Algebra I, will take place in January and February.

Susan Jones, Math Coordinator

During a recent visit to Taylor Elementary, Ms. Milton’s fifth grade class worked on standard MGSE.5.NF.7 to apply and extend previous understanding of division to dividing whole numbers by unit fractions and unit fractions by whole numbers. The students were given two Twizzler strips for their group to share. The number of students in each group varied. The task was to divide the two Twizzler strips evenly among the group members. Students used their work mat to draw models and plan their work. The students discussed ideas among the group members. Group members gave feedback to each other about the plan. The group then defended their reasoning to Mrs. Milton as she circulated the room and facilitated the learning and discussions. Kudos to Ms. Milton for implementing an authentic, engaging standards-based lesson!

Susan Jones, Math Coordinator

Technology-Enhanced Items: There will be drag and drop items field tested on the fall (December-Economics) and spring EOCs and the spring EOGs. Samples will be available when the assessment department releases the sample GMAS practice tests for students. Please inform students that these are field tested items only so they will not be caught off guard during the Milestone.

Adrienne Hurley, Social Studies Coordinator

Elizabeth Martin, a Southwest High School teacher, began reviewing with her economics students the week before Thanksgiving. I had the pleasure of observing her class review test questions by implementing a test talk. Students are told from the beginning not to focus on the answer; some questions that they may not know immediately may require them to apply what they have learned to make a connection or to eliminate multiple choice answers. Mrs. Martin called on her students who were able to justify why they eliminated certain choices. They explained what content vocabulary they would need to know to answer the question and why a peer's answer choice was not the best option. Student engagement and accountability were very high, and her students expressed they felt very confident!

Test Talk!

1. Scan and read directions carefully. Top to bottom, side to side…pay attention to diagrams, figures, charts, political cartoons and dates.
2. Use what you learned in ELA. Remind students that they should use all of the skills they have learned in ELA. (context clues, close read strategies and highlight/cross out on the computer)
3. Multiple choice answers…TWO or more answers…pay attention. Two can always be eliminated…see #5.
4. Explain distractors. What is that between the commas? Respect the comma…pause and think.
5. Use the content vocabulary…recognize it in the question and the answer. In other words, "What is the question asking?"…"What content vocabulary word unlocks the question?" Use the meaning of the word to eliminate answer choices.
6. Eliminate wrong answers.
7. Do not get caught up in words/symbols/maps you do not know/recognize…FOCUS on what you learned.
8. Double check your answers.
9. Use other questions to answers questions you do not know.
10. Do not pick answers you do not recognize.

Thank you Ms. Martin for sharing helpful test-taking skills with your students!

Adrienne Hurley, Social Studies Coordinator

What does it mean to teach gifted learners well? That is what a group of teachers meeting every Tuesday night is learning. They are part of the Gifted Endorsement Cohort for the 2018-2019 school year. Bibb County offers the endorsement free of charge for its teachers. The endorsement consists of three courses resulting in 150 hours of instruction in addition to 50 hours of observations and internship. Once completed, the teachers are able to add the endorsement to their teaching certificates.

The three courses are Characteristics of Gifted and Talented Learners, Curriculum and Strategies for Gifted Education, and Program Implementation and Assessment. Teachers work collaboratively to complete assignments and projects that help them master the Georgia Gifted Standards for Educators and the InTASC Model and Core Teaching Standards. Topics covered include identifying gifted and talented students, creativity, under-represented population among the gifted, curriculum compacting, and program evaluation to name a few. As we work to help our students master content, the gifted endorsement will help our teachers move more students to the proficient and distinguished levels.

The new cohort will begin in August of 2019, and is an excellent opportunity for teachers to improve their skills and add the endorsement to their certificate. Come be a part of the education of our gifted and talented students.

Floyd Jolley, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning

Talk is CRUCIAL for our ELs. We must provide (not require) opportunities for them to discuss with a group or partner so they can negotiate for meaning, hear another’s point of view, process

thinking, dig deeper, learn new vocabulary, and practice language in a low stress setting. I’ve found the best way to do this is to scaffold for success. Model what I want to see and hear EXPLICITLY, give them sentence frames and vocabulary, and post the question that they will discuss so they can go back to it if they forget. One of my favorite structured speaking methods is Talking Heads.

By: Valentina Gonzalez, The Unstoppable ELL Teacher, A MiddleWeb Blog

On Wednesday evenings, parents of English Learners are invited to Weaver Middle to improve their language skills and become more active participants in their children’s learning. ESOL Lead Teachers, Sandra Hicks and Barbara Leggett, offer support and instruction to parents. Title III tutors, Isalina Seth and Linda Shurley, work with EL students who stay after school and with the children who accompany their parents to Weaver. This is a great example of how the school and district are partnering with students and parents.

Sandra Hicks and Barbara Leggett, ESOL Lead Teachers

The Bibb County District Intervention Coaches provided a series of writing professional development sessions to equip teachers with strategies that could be used to positively impact students’ writing. Bibb’s Elementary Coaches delivered a total of six sessions at Taylor Elementary School. Classes were held from 4:30 to 6:30 in the evenings throughout the month of November. Each evening of training was grade level specific. Letica Griffin and Travie Thomas served as trainers for the K-2nd grade teachers. The primary sessions focused on the structure of the Writer’s Workshop. Teachers learned strategies for each stage of the writing process. They were provided effective techniques such as storying, interactive writing and labeling (kindergarten); also, they received a ton of freebies. Most importantly, the district’s writing expectations were made emphatically clear. Provided with such a plethora of teaching tools and writing expectations, K-2 teachers can confidently impact their ‘little budding authors’.

While Letica and Travie trained the primary teachers, Dr. Myrja Fuller, accompanied by Catrice Allen, equipped 3rd through 5th grade teachers with invaluable information on writing for the Georgia Milestones. They delivered separate evening sessions for each grade level throughout the month of November. Myrja and Catrice demystified the writing expectations for the Georgia Milestones. They highlighted the writing codes and advised the teachers to share the information with their students. Teachers’ usage of the Assessment Guide, Milestones Rubrics, and other innumerable nuggets provided will ensure students’ success on the Georgia Milestones. The K-5 attendees were impressed and empowered by the writing training. In Bibb County, our goal is to teach students to write right. Right? The District Coaches’ Professional Learning sessions equipped teachers to do just that!

Letica Griffin, Dr. Myrja Fuller, and Travie Thomas, District Intervention Coaches

Partnering with the community is an important part of our Strategic Plan for the Bibb County School District. The partnership with the National Arts Program is unique to the Bibb County School District as it involves both a national partner and local partners found in the Tubman Museum and Macon Arts Alliance. We recognize the value of the arts in all of our lives, and we are pleased that employees and retirees of the Bibb County School District and their families have an opportunity to showcase their skills and talents at the Tubman Museum as an additional opportunity to be part of the arts community in Macon.

Creativity builds the fabric of a community, and we continue to be in awe of the creativity represented. The exhibition featuring over 200 pieces of art is open through December 8, 2018. Approximately 150 individuals attended the opening reception and awards ceremony on November 4th at the Tubman Museum. It is significant that the Bibb County School District and Macon are included for the second time with other employers and cities in many other states to host an exhibit through the National Arts Program. The District ranks with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to be featured in an exhibition of the National Arts Program. Congratulations to all participants!

Ben Bridges, Director of Fine Arts & Magnet Programs

The magnet schools in the Bibb County School District consist of Alexander II Math & Science Magnet School (grades K-5), Burdell-Hunt Communications Magnet School (grades K-5), Dr. John H. Heard Elementary School Academic Magnet (grades K-5), Vineville Academy of the Arts (grades K-5), Miller Fine Arts Magnet Middle School (grades 6-8), and Central Fine Arts & International Baccalaureate Magnet High School (grades 9-12). The slate of magnet schools for the 2019-2020 school year includes a new Academic Magnet at Heard Elementary School. Established in 1933, Heard’s new school building opened in 2015. The school began the process of becoming STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) certified in 2018. While transportation is currently provided for students who apply and are accepted to attend Central Fine Arts & International Baccalaureate Magnet High School and Burdell-Hunt Communication Magnet School, transportation will be added for magnet students accepted at Miller Fine Arts Magnet Middle School for the 2019-2020 school year. Additional information may be accessed through the following link:

https://www.bcsdk12.net/news/what_s_new/magnet_applications_open

The much awaited annual Calendar of Events produced by the Department of Fine Arts & Magnet Programs features 46 performances and exhibits presented in the Bibb County School District during the 2018 holiday season. Every Fine Arts program in the District is included in this calendar. Giving students the skills and opportunities to experience success includes the showcasing of their talents during the holiday season for our community. Teachers of the Fine Arts in the Bibb County School District continue to work not only in preparation for these events, but in exposing students to many diverse experiences in Dance, Music, Theatre, and the Visual Arts. We are very fortunate to have such a great group of Fine Arts educators in the Bibb County School District to work with our students. Without this dedicated team, these events would not be possible. The full 2018 Calendar of Events may be accessed through the following link:

https://www.bcsdk12.net/news/what_s_new/fine_arts_holiday_calendar

With the largest number since record keeping began, over 350 voices of third graders from the Bibb County School District filled the air on Thursday, November 29, as the students performed two selections for the annual downtown Tree Lighting. Every district elementary school was represented in the chorus with third graders.

The large audience that filled the street also joined the chorus in a sing-along of three holiday favorites. The group performed with accompaniment provided by the Department of Fine Arts & Magnet Programs Faculty Orchestra that is assembled of Band and Orchestra teachers from across the school district. Mr. Lester M. Miller, President, Bibb County Board of Education, and Dr. Tanzy Kilcrease, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning, Bibb County School District brought greetings on behalf of the District. This event is organized each year by the Department of Fine Arts & Magnet Programs of the Bibb County School District and serves to light the tree on the balcony of the Macon City Auditorium and the tree in Rosa Parks Square.

Ben Bridges, Director of Fine Arts & Magnet Programs

Email: tanzy.kilcrease@bcsdk12.net
Website: www.bcsdk12.net
Location: 484 Mulberry Street, Macon, GA, USA
Phone: 478-765-8622
Twitter: @tanzy_kilcrease