AIM~P+Year+1

=Remember the meeting dates for the year:= August 8, 2013 Introduction, Orientation

September 5, 2013 Classroom Management/Parent Communication

October 3, 2013 Parent Communication/Grading

November 7, 2013 Instructional Strategies

January 9, 2014 Classroom Management/End of First Semester

February 6, 2014 Professional Learning Communities/Evaluation Portfolios

March 6, 2014 Pacing/Planning

April 3, 2014 Ending the School Year

May 1, 2014 Planning for Next Year

//All sessions will begin at 3:45 p.m. and conclude at 5:30 p.m. and will be held in the School Board Office conference room. Participants will be awarded 30 recertification points for participation in these seminars.//

=**Resources**=

=Messages=

=Grading Practices-Please give a brief description of your grading policies.=

Mary Jane-I count homework and classwork assignments as one grade, quizzes as two grades and tests as three grades. At the end of the six weeks I average by the number of grades.

Liz- I work on a point system. I take the points earned and divide it by the points possible. As students complete and submit lessons from MicroType, I give them a completion grade (a 30/30 if they complete all sections). Once the students learn more letters, they will be taking timed writings and, depending on their GWAM (Gross Words A Minute) and number of errors, I will give them a grade based off of a scale (Ex. 25-30 GWAM=A, 20-24 GWAM=B, etc.). This scale will change with each 6 weeks getting increasingly faster with fewer mistakes. Students also learn how to write memos, reports, resumes, letters, tables, etc. The number of points possible will vary for each of these assignments depending on the difficulty.

=Please describe one successful teaching strategy you have used this year.=

=Please submit reflections on your first week of school.=

Liz- My first week of school was good. I got to know the students and started learning their names. The students also got on the computers to start typing and find out their initial GWAM. I think, however, that I should have been more strict/mean from day 1. I can tell that some students are starting to take advantage of me and not listening when I tell them to do something. I am not very good at being mean and it will take a lot of practice before I learn how to balance being strict, but still being pleasant. I suppose the first year of teaching is for learning and I keep trying different things and learning what works and what does not work.