BEST District Facilitator Support Summary

Summary of Support Activities from SPRING ’07 DF Meetings

YEAR 1 BEGINNING TEACHERS

- DF & Superintendent meet at the beginning of the year to establish goals, activities and timeline

for professional development based on new teachers for the district that year.

- Encourage video taping and do mini- 3 day lesson series.

- High School beginning teachers are given common planning time with their mentors & no homeroom

duties.

- One day sub coverage for technology training in the computer lab.

- Support from retired teachers as subs and/or work with BTs.

- Encourage BTs to take advantage of state training and online resources and look at portfolios.

- Meet once a month with mentors (during contracted time); no set agenda so that district can be

responsive to needs of the BTs at the time.

- Monthly district-wide meetings (also includes Year 2 BTs, student teachers & interns) after schools on

specific topics (e.g. ethics, confidentiality, brain research, student work, reflection); mentors

invited.

- Prepare parts of the portfolio in “scrimmage” game to assist BTs with language and expectations of

Portfolio.

- Year long, interdisciplinary curriculum mapping so teachers know precisely where they should be in

each content area.

- Full day orientation for language arts and math program provided for BTs.

- Benchmark electronic self evaluation/reflection survey (also used in Year 2)

For information, contact Sue Domanico at domanicos@granby.k12.ct.us .

– Open-ended questions revolving around support to BTs & Mentors; provided to DF & possibly shared

with Administration.

- Internal support teams.

- New Teacher Academy in September. Superintendent runs a session for 2 hours. This sends a nice

message to new teachers. This year he stressed “academic rigor” as an important goal.

For information, contact Fay Ruotolo at fayr@norwalkpublicschools.net

- Contractually, Year 1 BTs start a few days earlier than veteran teachers.

- Two teachers model the same lesson for BTs. One models the same lesson at the procedural level.

while the other models the lesson at the conceptual level.

- Provide a list of the top 10 dress code violations.

- Meyers-Brigg with Year 1 Teachers.

- Program specific to addressing Achievement Gap, shares data with each school.

For more information contact Diane Kearney at b11dkear@ci.manchester.ct.us

- Use high School students as tour guides for new BTs.

- Begin orientation in June and gear toward curriculum.

- Uses Bloom’s Taxonomy to assist with lesson planning.

For more information, please contact Mike Greenwood at mgreenwood@windsorct.org

- In June, meet with Year 1 BTs and do “linking activity’ from BEST Training to see connections

between portfolio and standards.

- District asks Year 1 BTs to keep a journal – expectation is that there will be about 5 entries over course

of first year – concentrating on teaching and learning. DF talks with BT’s about journal, however,

does not require BT’s to hand in.

- Monthly meetings in district for BT’s (1, 2, 3) with administrators and mentors.

- First meeting (orientation) occurs in a computer lab, where BT’s sign-in/register on ctbest.org and

actually peruse the web site.

- Part of BT pd/eval is BEST (Year 1 and Year 2)

- District uses formal survey to see how they are doing in terms of support.

YEAR 2 BEGINNING TEACHERS

- In district individual sessions with portfolio scorers. (Fall and March)

-Scheduled monthly meetings including documentation strategies (what needs to be

supported/taught).

- Building based support.

- Coordinating looking at portfolios with mentor/scorer input.

- 20 minute appointment with mentor as expectation.

- Monthly meetings with Master Mentors that break down the process of putting together portfolio.

- Focus on reflection on lessons.

- Set up review teams that meet with teacher to analyze video.

- Hardwire mentor/mentee time in spring OF Year 1 for following fall.

- Invite BEST “grads” to speak to Year 2 teachers. Grads provide tips on how to make it through the

portfolio process and actually learn something along the way.

For more information, contact Donna Russo at drusso@darienps.org or Karen MacVeigh at macveigh@trumbullps.org

- BEST Field Staff person brings portfolio exemplars to an after-school meeting.

For more information, contact Lenore Schneider at lenore.schneider@newcanaan.k12.ct.us

- Conduct 4 two-hour after-school workshops for Year 2 BTs, one each on planning, teaching, assessing,

reflecting.

For more information, contact Noella Buschbaum at nbuschbaum@reddingps.org

- All Year 2 teachers attend 2 district-wide meetings one to walk through the portfolio process

(October), and one to work with a portfolio scorer (March).

For more information, contact Becky Hamman at rebecca.hamman@ct.gov , Aurea Torresola at auarea.torresola@ct.gov

- PTO, Union, District provide BTs with materials they need for portfolio submission.(ex., accordion

folders, videotapes, etc. )

- After school meeting with BTs and Mentors around videotaping.

For more information, contact Diane Kearney at b11dkear@ci.manchester.ct.us

-Two ½ days to come to RESC with mentors (all are given released time) to study exemplars and talk

about portfolio prep.

- 6 meetings over year 2 (Year. 1 BTs are invited also) to “break down” portfolio, i.e., planning, teaching, assessing,

reflecting, using portfolio rubric to set standard for these areas.

- District use Title 1 money to pay mentors to ensure support in year 2.

- DF sends all Year 2 BTs, a special note of congratulations right after portfolio due date

with a token gift of candy.

- During the time of implementing portfolio lessons, an aide is assigned to take over classroom while

BT reflects and writes notes on the lesson that just occurred.

- District uses formal survey to see how they are doing in terms of support.

- 1:1 support from subject area mentor or scorer.

YEAR 3 BEGINNING TEACHERS

- DF attends PAC with teacher and meets with Superintendent & Principal to be sure plan for

assistance is in place.

- Invite successful Year 3 teachers to talk with Year 1 & Year 2 BTs.

- A different mentor is assigned to work directly with Year 3 BTs.

- In case of elementary, math and/or literacy consultants are assigned to also work directly with Year 3 BTs.

MENTORS

- Yearly training in district.

- Recognition of mentors for their work and support, e.g. special recognition at Board of Education Meeting.

- Thank you gift in recognition of support.

- Encourage mentors to attend seminars with beginning teachers.

- Mentor and mentee explore on-line learning units together.

- Conduct meetings just for mentors to discuss any specific needs, issues, or concerns.

- Go through rubrics at monthly support meetings, so mentors get a clear understanding of criteria

and develop common understanding of terms.

- Clarify district guidelines and expectations for mentoring role.

- Beginning teachers evaluate mentors.

- Beginning teacher and mentor draw up a “contract”.

- Clarify job description and accountability.

- Mentors use a log to guide discussions and reflections with mentees in both Year 1 and Year 2. Year 1 log focuses on basic

skills of teaching. Year 2 log focuses on portfolio process.

- Mentor / new teacher pairs are scheduled so that they have one free period per week in common so that they can meet.

- Mentor/new teacher pairs are scheduled with the same lunch period so that they can meet.

- Conduct “Mentor Focus Groups” for mentors to drop in to express ideas and concerns and to ask questions.

- Pilot a “Mentor Cohort Leader” at the high school level. Leaders will work with 3-4 new teachers in their own subject area to guide them through the portfolio process by helping them with planning, teaching, assessing, reflecting.

- Workshops geared for mentors (Portfolio overview, mentor responsibilities).

For more information, contact Mike Greenwood at mgreenwood@windsorct.org

- Collaborate at a locale restaurant and have a mentor celebration.

For more information, contact Diane Dugas at ddugas@ewindsor.k12.ct.us

- Gift cards to Staples, Office Max, etc.

- Revise a new mentor selection process. Yearly stipend of $2500 will be given starting in 07-08 School year.

For more information, contact Kim Traverso at kimberly.traverso@ct.gov

- Mentors get a $3000 stipend for a 2 year commitment. Mentors support 3-5 BTs. Procedures and expectations are in place.

For more information contact Denise Carabetta at dcarabetta@ci.bristol.ct.us

- Mentors paid $500 in year two.

- Formal thank you from superintendent and DF to all year 2 mentors

- Special all day workshop for all mentors of year 2 BTs on planning a portfolio, talking about what’s important/critical for BTs

to consider –district gets subs.

ADMINISTRATORS

- Need buy in from administrators.

- Encourage administrators to attend a BEST Administrator’s Institute( or host one in-district) to gain an understanding of

how BEST aligns with the Common Core of Teaching, connects to District Strategic Improvement Plan and teacher

evaluation, and supports supervision of all staff

For more information, contact BEST Field Staff.

- Collectively look at teacher evaluations by administrators to ensure common language, goals, based on evidence of student

learning.

For more information, contact Diane Dugas at ddugas@ewindsor.k12.ct.us

- In district’s pd/eval plan for administrators – they must meet additional times with Year 1 BTs and Year 2 BTs over the year

(beyond normal staff meetings, team meetings, evaluation meetings).

- Administrators are given an orientation to the district’s BEST Support Action Plan.

- 2 day summer intensive look at portfolio by all administrators, dept. heads facilitated by RESC staff.

- Recruit portfolio scorers (one district offered a $500 stipend to teachers to be trained and score portfolios.)

- DF makes sure that his local BEST Committee is composed of a good cross-section of representatives – teachers from across

grade levels, administrators, portfolio scorers, union representatives. This helps deal with issues before they arise.

- Staff evaluation plan aligned with the BEST portfolio.