Curriculum Corner

We hope you had a wonderful, restful summer and are well on your way to a successful 2021-2022 school year. We look forward to continuing to share ideas, resources, and strategies through this monthly newsletter. Be sure to check out the reader's contest at the end of each newsletter for your chance to win a treat of your choice delivered to you at school!

I had the opportunity to sit down with our new superintendent, Dr. Todd Lambert, to learn more about him, his career, and his views on classroom instruction. See the interview below to learn more!

• Where are you from? Where did you grow up?

I have lived in Indiana most of my life. I grew up in the Mishawaka area and moved to Lafayette when I was in middle school. I attended the University of Kentucky for my undergraduate degree and received my Master’s degree from Ball State University. I completed my Ph.D. at Purdue in 2008.

• What can you share about your family?

I am married with two children. My wife, Tricia, is an elementary teacher. We have one daughter who just started her sophomore year at Indiana University in Bloomington, and a son who is beginning his senior year at Kenyon College in Ohio.

• What is the last book you read?

The Motive by Patrick Lencioni. I enjoy the Lencioni books and this one is a great reminder about why people are motivated to lead.

• Why did you go into education? What path has your career in education taken?

I went into education to see students grow and succeed. I grew up in a family of educators, but did not originally plan to make education a career. However, once I realized just what a difference you could make in the lives of students, I was hooked. I started out as a 6th grade teacher and also taught several years at 5th grade. I was an assistant principal for two years and an elementary school principal for seven years. I moved into a central office role as a Curriculum and Instruction director before becoming an assistant superintendent. I did all of that in Indiana before moving to Fort Collins, Colorado in 2010. While out there, I served as the Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Schools, and Interim Superintendent. In addition to my time in public schools, I have taught classes at the university level for educators pursuing their administrative licenses.

• Who inspires you professionally?

I am inspired by the teachers in the trenches who carry out this difficult work. I watch them plan, adjust, motivate, inspire, and try just about anything possible to find success with their students. This past year and a half has shown us how valuable our teachers are to our society. I watched so many of them succeed under some of the most difficult conditions imaginable during the pandemic. It was not easy, yet they represented our profession with class and grace, and I am proud to call them my colleagues.

• What do you value most when you visit a classroom?

As the superintendent, my visits are quite different than what they were as a principal. I try to be visible and to show the teachers that I am invested in their work. I try to speak with the students and do whatever I can to make connections.

• When you think about classroom instruction from the Superintendent chair, what do you value?

I pay close attention to the balance of student voice and teacher voice. I appreciate classrooms where students, regardless of their age, have the opportunity to interact and engage. I also value classrooms where the teachers monitor student progress in an ongoing way. I especially appreciate formative processes that lead to student success.

Amplify CKLA has launched several updates and features for the new school year to help save time and better support student learning. A few of these features include the following:

1. Student Hub Updates: The eReaders for all grades (K-5) now has highlighting and bookmarking features. Students in grades 3-5 also have note taking abilities. All of these features will assist with close reading and reading comprehension. *Remember that students can access their hub through Clever.
2. Teacher Resource Site: These changes have aimed to make the process of finding specific resources more efficient. There are also new features and resources available to teachers including the daily instruction tab in the top right to easily access materials you may need for the day. Check out the video below to learn more about the updates!
3. ReadWorks: CKLA and ReadWorks have partnered to link texts to support the Knowledge Sequence for specific knowledge domains. The texts provide vocabulary supports and formative assessment opportunities. You will now see ReadWorks on the main Amplify CKLA log in screen.

To learn about all of the new updates, click here!

In late July, the 4th WCSC Summer PD Fair took place at Castle High School. Attendees were able to choose from 40 unique sessions presented by 27 WCSC staff members and 7 guest presenters. We would like to thank the following Warrick County staff members for creating and leading engaging professional development for their colleagues.

Kathy Baker

Kristin Bradford

Jacey Childers

Brittany Forler

Mackenzie Hawkins

Corbett Hill

Jessica Hurley

Julie Kemp

Kara Lewis

Hannah Lewellyn

DaySha McKillop

Steve Mintner

Marissa Mitchell

Lauren Mosbey

Emily Opell

Lisa Pearson

Lauren Poole

Lisa Porter

Darlene Short

Katie Slepsky

Erin Stallings

Jeff Tron

Ashley Underwood

Jayme Waddell

Tish Wagner

Kris Warner

Carmen Wilson

One highly attended sessions was "Jamboard is My Jam." Emily Opell and Lauren Poole shared strategies with K-12 teachers about how to use this collective whiteboard to develop engaging activities and effective assessments across grade levels and content areas. If you missed it and would like to check out some of their resources, they have shared their website with ready-to-use templates and strategies. Be sure to check it out here: http://bit.ly/jamboardismyjampd

Have you tried to log into Study Island or Exact Path and got a message that your credentials were no longer valid? Or have you forgotten your password? Do not worry! You and your students no longer need to know a website, username, or password for either program. Both of these applications are now syncing with Clever. On both student and teacher Clever pages, the programs are listed under the More/District Apps section. Simply click on the icon and it will log you and your students directly into the program. Teachers will notice that classes are now being synced with Synergy and are already built for you. You can still create your own custom groups if you have this need.

Study Island is available now for students in grades 2-8. Study Island is designed to support classroom instruction for mastery of grade-level content. Teachers create assignments and group sessions to assess and support grade-level standards being taught in the classroom.

Exact Path is available for all students in grades K-8. Exact Path is designed to help students grow from wherever they are. NWEA data-driven learning paths are created for each student based on their individual NWEA scores and goals. Student paths are being updated weekly as more students complete NWEA Map Growth assessments.

The combined use of these programs can help meet individualized learning needs, support your classroom instructions, and help students grow. Please reach out to Erin Stallings if you need help with either program. estallings@warrick.k12.in.us

Beginning with Cohort 2023 (this year's junior class), there will no longer be a graduation qualifying exam, or GQE, requirement. However, the SAT will become Indiana's new high school accountability assessment. Since the SAT is not a graduation qualifying exam, Juniors who do not meet the set SAT benchmarks have other graduation pathways available to them and will not be given retest opportunities.

This year, the SAT Accountability Assessment will be comprised of both math and English/language arts portions but the essay will not be included. The administration of the assessment will be done digitally during a weekday at school. Primary testing dates will be March 2-4, 2022 with make up dates in April. Students will receive standard SAT scores as well as proficiency levels specific to Indiana. The cut scores for these proficiency levels will be determined by Indiana educators following the first test administration. Additionally, students will be able to send their SAT score reports to up to four colleges or universities free of charge.

The IDOE, in partnership with Keep Indiana Learning, hosted a Q&A session about the SAT as Indiana's accountability assessment. To see a recording of that session, check out the video below.

More SAT information can be found at the link below (scroll down to about the middle of the page for SAT info): IDOE High School Assessment

After administering NWEA MAP Growth assessments, you may have noticed a new Class Profile Report as one of the reporting options. "Beta" means that while the report is fully functional, it is not finalized and there may be some updates or changes necessary.

This new report is designed to provide teachers with both class and student-level testing results and information. It is an update to the Class report that provides at-a-glance class information about achievement and comparisons, while also providing specific student details. You can even click a student's name to go directly to that student's profile report to gain even more student specific information.

Want to know more? Check out the article, NEW! Class Profile Report: Access classroom insights faster!

Check this section out next month to hear what your colleagues recommend! Be sure to add a recommended title by participating in our reader's contest!

• Middle School and High School ELA standards mapping will take place on September 21st and September 23rd. Please check with your principal for more information.
• Elementary CKLA Enhancing Practice sessions will take place on September 28th, 29th and 30th. See the session descriptions below and be sure to ask your principal for more details.

In the K-2 Enhancing Practice session, participants will elevate program knowledge to strengthen CKLA K–2 implementation by understanding the progression of foundational skills and focus on high-quality questioning and discussion techniques through lesson study and practice. Participants will practice implementing key instructional elements and leave with annotated lessons and a deeper understanding of critical routines found in CKLA.

In the 3-5 Enhancing Practice session, participants will elevate program knowledge to strengthen CKLA 3–5 implementation by deepening the ability to scaffold complex texts by sequencing reading types, prioritizing questions, and using discussion techniques. Participants will practice implementing key instructional elements and leave with scaffolds for complex texts.

• Be sure to check the WITTS website for district specific tech training, tips and resources. Click here!
• Be sure to check out Keep Indiana Learning for support and resources for Indiana educators created by Indiana educators. Click here!

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Email: estallings@warrick.k12.in.us
Website: www.warrick.k12.in.us
Location: 300 East Gum Street, Boonville, IN, USA
Phone: 812-897-6037