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Watchung Hills Regional High School

Discover how Watchung Hills Regional High School improves science education with CONNECT-Ed strategies, professional learning communities, and tangible accomplishments. Learn from their journey to enhance teaching practices and student engagement. Explore the impact of curriculum realignment, labs redesign, and essential questions incorporation.

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Watchung Hills Regional High School

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  1. Watchung Hills Regional High School Warren, New Jersey • Representatives: • Georgia Fisanick • Michelle Madigan • Mike Kutch

  2. Plan for your audience!

  3. Plan for your audience! (not just your content…)

  4. Plan for your audience! (not just your content…) • Teachers are busy, stressed, maybe frazzled • New ideas must be presented in this context • New ideas must apply to a teachers particular situation, they must help them solve a problem

  5. Success #1 De-privatized Practice • We are all parts of: • Teams (sometimes more than one) • Share Student Work • Share Materials • Discuss content in 2-D (horizontally and vertically)

  6. Success #2 The language of Connect-Ed • Teachers: • Recognize • Speak of • And Use • Connect-Ed Terminology: • Big Ideas • Inquiry • Mindfulness

  7. Success #2 The language of Connect-Ed • Teachers: • Recognize • Speak of • And Use • Connect-Ed Terminology: • Big Ideas • Inquiry • Mindfulness It’s okay for teachers to be at different levels of fluency – We are a learning community!

  8. Tangible Accomplishments • Created library of science and science education texts

  9. Tangible Accomplishments • Created library of science and science education texts • Purchased and distributed iPevo cameras to facilitate sharing student work and inquiry based activities

  10. Tangible Accomplishments • Created library of science and science education texts • Purchased and distributed iPevo cameras to facilitate sharing student work and inquiry based activities • Developed inquiry-based chem and biology labs & associated rubrics

  11. Tangible Accomplishments • Created library of science and science education texts • Purchased and distributed iPevo cameras to facilitate sharing student work and inquiry based activities • Developed inquiry-based chem and biology labs & associated rubrics • In the process of developing ecology/marine bio concept inventories (to be completed this summer)

  12. Tangible Accomplishments • Created library of science and science education texts • Purchased and distributed iPevo cameras to facilitate sharing student work and inquiry based activities • Developed inquiry-based chem and biology labs & associated rubrics • In the process of developing ecology/marine bio concept inventories (to be completed this summer) • In the process of realigning the chem curriculum to new course levels (to be completed this summer)

  13. If we could do it again… • Establish norms… really do it! • Norms are to PLCs what classroom rules and procedures are to Classroom Management • An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

  14. Obstacles • Time management: • we got pulled away to deal with departmental crises: • Chemical storage and safety clean-up.  • Finding common prep time • the contractual issues regarding using guaranteed prep time for professional development • Navigating the business end of dealing with grant paperwork.

  15. What Worked • A willingness to be flexible • Changing in midstream when an approach stalled out • A tolerance of ambiguity • Recognition that this was a learning process for everyone involved • There were no right and wrong answers, just more effective and less effective • PLC’s developed collaborative professional individual development plans

  16. What Didn’t Work • Lack of buy-in of UbD before district implementation • Many competing initiatives • New mandated teacher websites updated weekly • New parent access to grade book • New format for lesson plans on Atlas Rubicon curriculum maps

  17. Imprint • The Science department now speaks the language of CONNECT-Ed • We all teach in terms of Big Idea Thinking • Connections across units are being emphasized in curricula • We are beginning work on going across discipline boundaries • We have begun examining student work in the department mini PLCs

  18. Imprint • School-wide initiatives • BILD trainers are moving into school wide training melding CONNECT-Ed and UbD content • CONNECT-Ed trained teachers participate in the • Professional Development Committee • Curriculum Committee • Professional development school wide is organized around PLCs and in the coming year most will focus on examination of student work • Exemplary rating from County

  19. Impacts • On development of essential questions • On redesign of labs into a more inquiry-based format • On deprivatization of practice • What is “good” student work? • On more sharing of educational strategies within the department • Laboratory notebooks/interactive notebooks • Alternate project-based final • Problem-based course assessments

  20. Envisioning the Future Curriculum Realignment National Standards Lab Notebooks Common Language

  21. Curriculum Realignment

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