DIOCESE OF TOLEDO
TEACHERS’ BULLETIN
JANUARY, 2008
Attachment - Sensory Processing Disorder
FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT:
As you know Catholic Schools Week is scheduled for January 27-
February 2. Below is a press release issued by the NCEA. The
wonderful things cited in the press release would not happen without
excellent teacher-ministers in our classrooms. Please know that your
wonderful work as ministers of the Gospel is appreciated!
Washington, D.C.
Catholic Schools Week, the annual
celebration of Catholic schools and their contribution to their communities
and the nation, is set for Jan. 27 through Feb. 2, 2008. For more than
three decades, the nation’s Catholic schools have spent the last week
of January recalling what makes Catholic education special.
The 2008 theme is “Catholic Schools Light the Way,” which
highlights the mission of Catholic schools to provide a faith-based
education that supports the whole child academically and spiritually and
prepares students for future success.
“As a result of the excellent, multifaceted education they are
receiving today, our students will ‘light the way’ to a
brighter future through their leadership in our communities, government,
businesses and families,” said Dr. Karen M. Ristau,
president of the National Catholic Educational Association.
Across the country, schools will observe the week with special Masses,
community service projects, academic and artistic showcases, and athletic
and family events. Many schools will hold open houses so that community
members can learn more about the value of Catholic education.
On National Appreciation Day for Catholic Schools on Jan. 30, delegations
of students, faculty and parents will visit Washington, D.C., and many
state capitals to promote awareness among government leaders of the
contributions of Catholic education. Nearly 2.4 million students attend the
nation’s 7,800 elementary, middle and secondary Catholic schools.
“With their emphasis on academic excellence and moral values,
Catholic schools enjoy high satisfaction among students and parents and
high achievement rates, including high school graduation rates of more than
99 percent,” said Marie Powell, executive director of Catholic
Education at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. “This
is a message we want to share with our nation’s leaders.”
I have also asked Bishop Blair to send a letter to our pastors next
Wednesday urging them to speak in support of our Catholic schools during
the masses on the week-end of January 26-27. He sent a letter last
year and I’m sure he will agree to do so again.
ENTRY YEAR PROGRAM:
Assessors for teachers in the Entry Year Program are meeting with
Area Coordinators during the month of January to receive their
assignments. Your Entry Year teachers will be contacted at home by
their assessor to set up the assessment date. CYSS has scheduled two
meetings during January for Entry Year teachers: Thursday, January
24, 2008, at 4:00 PM at Fremont, St. Joseph Elementary; and Thursday,
January 31, 2008, at 4:00 PM at the Catholic Center in Toledo. These
are informational meetings conducted by an Entry Year Assessor and/or Area
Coordinator, and are not mandatory. Entry Year teachers need
only attend one meeting, as the same information will be discussed at both
meetings. Registration is required. Please contact Vicki Fitts
at the CYSS office (vfitts@cyss.org
or 419-244-6711, ext. 630).
LICENSE RENEWALS:
Reports and license applications will be distributed at the end of
the month to schools regarding teacher licensure renewals. Any
license that expires June 30, 2008, may be renewed now if the requirements
are completed. Do not send license renewals directly to the Dept. of
Education. All approved applications with the license fee, payable to
“Treasurer, State of Ohio,” (note that checks are no longer
payable to Ohio TEC), and any outstanding CEU fees, payable to
“Diocese of Toledo,” are to be sent to Vicki Fitts for
processing. BCI and FBI background reports are required to be on file
electronically with the Dept. of Education before any license is renewed.
BACKGROUND REPORTS:
We have a number of license applications that have been on hold at
the Department of Education, some since June 2007. These applications
are waiting on new background reports, which must be done
electronically. Ohio (BCI) and Federal (FBI) reports are now required
because of the recently signed House Bill 190. Please check your
license status. Eventually these applications will be denied by ODE
and returned, and you will have to have apply for a Non Tax until the 3
semester hour penalty is completed for the new license.
BACKGROUND REPORT FEES:
The Catholic Center received word on December 27, 2007, that the
Bureau of Criminal Identification has raised the rate for an Ohio criminal
background report. Effective immediately, the rates at the Catholic
Center in Toledo are $25 for an Ohio (BCI) report, and $25 for a federal
(FBI) report. The Catholic Center is open for electronic fingerprinting
from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, lunch hour
included. We require a driver’s license or photo ID, and the
fee, cash or check, payable to “Diocese of Toledo.” No
appointment is necessary. However, due to staffing cuts, we are
unable to bill schools or parishes for fingerprinting.
Because of House Bill 190, which was signed recently, any teacher who
will be renewing a teaching license or obtaining a new license will be
required to have both the BCI and FBI reports completed, regardless
of residency. (See next article)
HOUSE BILL 190:
House Bill 190 was signed by the Governor recently. Among the
many topics, the bill addresses background reports for school teachers and
school employees. The bill is as follows:
1.
Criminal background reports must now be done on all new employees in
a school , not just those whose job duties entail the care, custody or
control of children;
2.
The background reports must be both Ohio (BCI) and Federal (FBI)
regardless of how long the person has resided in Ohio;
3.
These background reports must be repeated every five years;
4.
Anyone who is applying for a license of any kind, new or renewal,
from the Department of Education, must complete the BCI and FBI
reports. These reports must be forwarded electronically to the
Department of Education.
5.
An employer is expressly prohibited from hiring or continuing to
employ any person whose criminal records check reveals a conviction or a
plea of guilty to any crime that disqualifies an individual from employment
with a school, unless the person has met the State Board’s
rehabilitation standards.
House Bill 190 carries an emergency clause, which puts all of these
items into effect immediately. However, an agreement has been reached
with the Department of Education regarding our current policy of having all
teachers who work under a Non Tax or Permanent certificate solely.
Those teachers must still have a background report done no later than
December 31, 2007. These teachers will not be grandfathered in the
policy, but they will not be requested to have another background report
for at least one year.
However, all applications for a new license or renewal license will
require effective immediately, new BCI and FBI reports. These can be
done at the Catholic Center Monday through Friday, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm,
including lunch hours, for $50.00. To find an agency that can provide
this service electronically in your area, check the Ohio Attorney
General’s Webcheck Website:
http://www.ag.state.oh.us/business/fingerprint/index.asp
Look under “Webcheck Community
Listing”.
LPDC MEETING:
The Diocesan Professional Development Committee will meet again
Thursday, February 7, 2008, 1:00 PM, at the Catholic Center. Any CEU
or license applications must be received by the CYSS office no later than
noon, Wednesday, February 6, 2008.
SCANTRON TEACHER IN-SERVICE
As a further follow-up to training that teachers received at their
school using student results from Scantron, teacher in-services will be
held on January 15 at Defiance Catholic School, St. John Campus; January 16
at St. Pat’s of Heatherdowns, Holy Family Center; and January 17 at
Bellevue, Immaculate Conception from 3:45 – 5:30 pm. The purpose of
these in-services will be to share information about NetTrekker;
allow teachers to ask more specific questions about the Scantron data; and
most importantly provide teachers time to share what they are doing with
the data they are able to access with this test. Because this
in-service is meant to be a “next steps” in-service it is very
important that anyone who wishes to attend is familiar with the Scantron Performance
Series website; has a basic understanding of the student data; and has
looked at the “Student Learning Objectives” for individual
students and their class. Registration is first come first serve and
is now on-line at: http://www.cyss.org/onlineforms/scantronteachersjan08.html
SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER (SPD):
Attached to this Bulletin is information from Mary Immaculate School
in Toledo about Sensory Processing Disorder. SPD is a brain disorder
that affects developing children and adults. Those impacted by SPD
misinterpret everyday sensory information (sound, touch and movement.)
SPECIAL EDUCATION:
The following is from Marsha Rivas, Director of the Equal Access
Ministry for the Diocese of Toledo:
Do you have special education experience? Would you be willing to
share your expertise with other Diocesan teachers and catechists? Please
contact Marsha at: mrivas@toledodiocese.org or
419-244-6711, ext. 528
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Northwest Ohio Center of Excellence in
Science and Mathematics Education ~ BGSU:
NWO/COSMOS Inquiry Series for K-12 Mathematics and Science Teachers!
The next presentation “Attacking the Hands-on, Minds-on
Gap” will be Thursday, January 17 (5:00-8:00) at Owens Community
College. This professional development includes various presenters
and grade level break-out groups. The session is free, including
dinner.
Special session has been added for K-4 Mathematics:
·
“I like working with Numbers”
·
Presented by visiting Professor, Rosemary Irons, Queensland
University, Australia Author of Growing with Mathematics and the new
Mathematics for Young Minds
·
Session Description: Learning about numbers is natural for
children as they work with resources, draw pictures and recognize symbols
within a mathematically rich environment. This inquiry series session
supports each child’s interests and will provide appropriate learning
experiences for the conceptual understanding of number. Developing
strong conceptual understanding of numbers as counting, quantity, label,
ordinal and relative position will be the focus.
Future sessions will include:
·
February 21: From Hands-On to Minds-On: Questions Matter
·
March 13: Assessing Inquiry
·
April 19: NOW/COSMOS Summer
For more information and/or registration, go to http://cosmos.bgsu.edu/inquiryseries/inquireSeriesReg.htm
BP’S A+ FOR ENERGY GRANT (LUCAS and WOOD COUNTIES ONLY)
Schools in Lucas and Wood Counties should be receiving information
from BP about their A+ For Energy Grant. Last year six
teachers from Catholic elementary and high schools in Lucas County received
grants between $5,000 and $10,000 for research projects in the field of
energy conservation. You can check BP’s website for further
information at: http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=9020145&contentId=7036506
You may want to contact one of last year’s winners listed below
to find out more about the application process and some tips about the
program.
Mary Posadny, Regina Coeli – Cool
Fuel Road Trip Project
Chris Nelms, Lial – Solar Energy in
NW Ohio
Sue Grod, All Saints – Energizing
Students Towards Alternative Energies
Kathleen Wilkens, Central Catholic –
Energizing Students Towards Alternative Energies
Andrea Taylor, Notre Dame Academy - Ethanol as a Thematic Unit in
Chemistry
Jacqueline Kane, St. Ursula Academy – Wind Energy
APPLE LEARNING INTERCHANGE (ALI):
The Apple Learning
Interchange (ALI) is a social network for educators. Find a wealth of
content ranging from simple lesson ideas to in-depth curriculum units for
K-12 educators, research and more. Check it out! http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/
FREE DIGITAL VIDEOS:
Available to all Ohio schools ~ FREE video clips
on INFOhio ~ download or view over 260
titles that include more than 1,200 video clips. For
more information, go to INFOhio’s site to
check titles or download videos at
http://mediast.infohio.org/
SCHOOL TUBE!
You’ve heard of YouTube, schools now
have an academic video site called “School Tube!” In
addition to being a place where students and teachers can upload videos,
there are also lesson plans and other resources available. The site also
has a partnership with the Student Television Network (STN). Check it
out! http://www.schooltube.com/
BEST PRACTICES
TEACHER TIPS:
Teacher Tip # 1: When asking questions, ask 3 questions before
seeking any answers. This way students can come up with an answer
with less stress. John Graversen, 5th
grade, FDR, Nampa, ID
Teacher Tip # 2: Start classes or study sessions with physical
activity to maximize learning. The challenge is offering movements
that match each person’s unique vestibular system. While some
people feel energized with certain movements, others may feel dizzy, even
fatigued. For that reason, it is important to offer fine and
gross-motor movement options. Jeff Haebig,
PhD
Teacher Tip # 3: Staple the front page of the newspaper every
day to a bulletin board set by the pencil sharpener or door where students
line up. They at least may have a minute to read the headlines.
No name, Joliet, IL.
THE POWER OF VISUAL
LEARNING:
During a rehearsal of Debussy's La Mer,
Maestro Arturo Toscanini found himself unable to describe the effect he
hoped to achieve from a particular passage. After a moment's thought, he
took a silk handkerchief from his pocket and tossed it high into the air.
The orchestra, mesmerized, watched the slow, graceful descent of the silken
square. Toscanini smiled with satisfaction as it finally settled on the
floor. "There," he said, "play it like that."
What You Can Do:
Visual learning is the preference for 75% of today’s students.
Visual teaching can be applied to all classroom levels, and all subjects.
The following exercises are for science and language arts, respectively.
Weather Photos:
Have students observe and photograph clouds each afternoon at 2:00.
Collect the images and forecast the weather based on the cloud types. Save
the images to share with subsequent classes. Use weather photographs to
generate weather reports that can be presented in mock TV weather programs.
Story Starters:
In many stories, doors, windows, and openings mark the beginning of
wonderful adventures. Have students make images of various door, windows,
and openings. Give them a set amount of time to brainstorm as many possible
explanations of what may lie on the other side of the opening. Nothing is
too wild--if they can imagine it, they should write it. Have them save
their story-starter ideas for future creative writing assignments.
Visual Teaching: Using Images to Strengthen Learning by
Timothy Gangwer, MA
FRACTIONS ARE
FOUNDATIONAL:
“Virtually every time I ask
teachers of algebra what they wished incoming students knew, their response
is fractions,” says NCTM president, Francis Fennell. Of concern
to me is the fact that we recognize the importance of curricular
expectations that focus on whole numbers but do not always acknowledge that
a similar conceptual base is necessary for fractions, decimals, and percent.
Students need a variety of representations of fractions, including set and
region models. They need to develop a concrete realization of a
fraction. Number lines help students develop a mental image of how
fractions (or decimals) can be inserted between any two fractions.
Number lines allow comparisons of fractions, decimals and percentages and
also serve as measurement models for computation.
NCTN News, December, 2007
CHANGINGNESS: RESPONDING TO THE ONLY CONSTANT:
The humanist psychologist, Carl Rogers, introducing a deep concept in
an effort to describe the new world of education, stated, “As
we enter a new era in which the only constant is change, the goal of
education is no longer direct teaching but the facilitation of change and
learning.”
In fact, Rogers claims, the only man who is educated is the man who
has learned how to adapt and change. This man has realized that no
knowledge is secure, and that only the process of seeking knowledge gives a
basis for security. “Changingness,” a
reliance on process rather than static knowledge, is the only thing that
makes any sense as a goal for education in the modern world.
(Rogers & Freiberg, p. 152)
Significant research indicates that this goal of promoting change and
learning depends on the personal relationship between the learner and the
facilitator of the learning. Trust and feelings of connectedness are
important factors in creating a positive and safe learning environment and
promoting student achievement (Bryk &
Schneider, 2002; Hoy & Tschannen-Moran, 2003;
McNeely, Nonnemaker, & Blum, 2002).
NATIONAL CURRICULUM REPORTS:
“Best Practice”: The phrase comes from the fields
of medicine and law and describes serious, thoughtful, informed,
responsible, state-of-the-art work in a field. A practitioner who
follows best practice standards is aware of current research and
consistently offers clients the full benefits of the latest knowledge,
technology and procedures.
There is a high level of agreement in the educational field about best
practice for schools. They
are:
Student-centered
Active
Experiential
Democratic
Collaborative
Challenging
From a presentation by Gini Shinabuluro, Ed.D., Institute
for Catholic Educational Leadership, University of San Francisco