Wolfe receives 2016 Outstanding ESU Staff Member Award from NRCSA

From the ESU 2 web page

Diane Wolfe, digital learning director for Educational Service Unit 2, received the 2016 Outstanding ESU Staff Member Award from the Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association March 17 during its spring conference in Kearney.
The award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated creative leadership in promoting quality rural education in Nebraska; have attained the respect and support of board of education members, administrators, teachers and fellow ESU staff members; and have been a staff member at least five years. Wolfe, who is in her 19th year of service to schools, was nominated by Bancroft-Rosalie Superintendent and Elementary Principal Jon Cerny.
"An individual who is able to help schools financially attains the respect and support of administrators and board of education members," said Cerny, citing her experience with the Schools and Libraries program of the Universal Service Fund.
Commonly known as "E-Rate," the program provides discounts to assist schools and libraries with securing affordable telecommunications and Internet access. Wolfe has not only aided school districts in the ESU 2 area but has also been readily available to assist her service unit staff counterparts in Northeast Nebraska (ESU regions 1, 2, 7, 8 and 17) throughout the seven-step, time-sensitive application process to qualify for benefits.The Federal Communications Commission modernized the E-rate program in 2014; Wolfe attended briefings in Washington D.C. and assisted with statewide orientation sessions.
Wolfe's recent creative teaching and learning initiatives, inclusive of project funding, are:

• State-of-the-art video conferencing technology that allows rurally isolated schools to connect students to museums, authors, science centers, performing arts centers, and historical locations where students are able to interact with professionals from across the globe; and a program of virtual field trip experiences for 2015-16.
   
• A comprehensive professional development opportunity for Nebraska history teachers providing online graduate-level American history content classes and  technology to develop digital media-rich instructional units for blended learning.

Wahoo Public Schools Superintendent Galen Bold characterized Wolfe's commitment to quality education: "One of her most defining features is the driving determination to stick with the processes necessary to provide opportunities for those things that are always in the best interests of our students … and make learning exciting and relevant."
Said ESU 2 Administrator Dr. Ted DeTurk: “On behalf of all ESU 2 team members and the Board of Education, it is easy for me to state that Diane is an integral member of the ESU 2 team; we take great pride in calling her one of our best.”

Nebraska Legislature passing Hazing Ban for All Students

There has been some problems with students in Nebraska being hazed while attending sports camps during the summer as part of some "initiation" process. It is long past time to end this kind of ridiculous behavior. Now students who haze underclassmen can be prosecuted.

 From the Nebraska Council of School Administrators:
"Lawmakers gave final-round approval this morning to a bill that would expand the prohibition on hazing.
Current statute defines hazing as any activity by which a person intentionally or recklessly endangers the physical or mental health or safety of an individual for the purpose of initiation into, admission into, affiliation with or continued membership with any organization.  Hazing committed by postsecondary students currently is prohibited.
LB 710, introduced and prioritized by Senator Dan Hughes, would extend the existing prohibition to include all primary and secondary school students.  Senator Hughes believes that because most incidents occur off campus, many schools are unsure how to address hazing.
The bill would include in the definition of hazing:  (i) acts of sexual penetration, (ii) exposure of genitals, (iii) lewd fondling and caressing of another person, and (iv) coercing another person to commit an act of public indecency.  A person found to have committed an act of hazing would be guilty of a Class II misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail, a $1,000 fine or both.
LB 710 passed on a 47-0 vote." 

E-Learning Days

On days like today, where the weather makes travel difficulty and hazardous, a good alternative to having a regular school day is to have an E-Learning Day. E-Days are being used by several schools in the United States to continue learning opportunities even when students are not at school- both weather related and teacher workdays. 

So what might this look like?
High School teachers would have student assignments on Canvas- our Learning management System- and students would access the assignments from their laptops or a mobile device. The students would complete the assignments, with the teacher accessible on-line should the student need assistance.

Elementary students would have assignments in the core subject areas - Math, English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies- listed on the school webpage. The assignments would utilize IXL, XTra Math, Discovery Education, or some other online program, and students would complete the assignments on their I-Pads at home or at Daycare. Teachers have the ability to monitor all students on IXL in real-time and can see what the students are working on and if they are answering questions correctly or having problems. We can also check on how much time the student spent working on IXL.

Next year the plan is to have individual I-Pads for all students in grades K-6. Grades 1 and 2 would not be able to take them home every night, but we would send them home with students for an anticipated E-Day if the weather forecast was not favorable.

What if students don't have internet at home? We surveyed parents and found that most families have internet access. For students that don't have internet access, the students would have one day to complete the assignments by showing up for school early (7:00 am) or staying late and utilizing the school wireless network.

We have a plan to try our first E-Day on November 22 of next year, when there will be no school because we are hosting the Conference One Act Play Contest.  

Competency Based Education

Bancroft-Rosalie School has been utilizing Mastery Learning concepts for over a decade. The latest buzzword for Mastery Learning is “Competency Based Education.” I learned that Maine has a state requirement that schools become “Proficiency Based”, which from what I could tell is not the same as Competency-Based.

Competency-Based Education transitions away from seat time, in favor of a structure that creates flexibility, allows students to progress as they demonstrate mastery of academic content so that students are at the correct level of difficulty and can accelerate their progress through the curriculum. Competency-based strategies provide flexibility in the way that credit can be earned or awarded, and provide students with personalized learning opportunities.

These strategies include online and blended learning, dual enrollment and early college high schools, project-based learning, and credit recovery, among others. This type of learning leads to better student engagement because the content is relevant to each student and tailored to their unique needs. It also leads to better student outcomes because the pace of learning is customized to each student.

Our current elementary grouping system is based on student mastery and groups move through the Reading, Language and Math programs at their own pace.  In the secondary school we have some math students working on an individualized math curriculum called EdReady. Mr. Elsasser has a few students who are accelerating their math progress by working at their own pace through Algebra using a program called Khan Academy. We offer 13 dual credit courses taught at our school for students ready to begin their college early with plans to offer more opportunities at Northeast Community College next year.

By enabling students to master skills at their own pace, competency-based learning systems help to save both time and money. Depending on the strategy pursued, competency-based systems also create multiple pathways to graduation, make better use of technology, support new staffing patterns that utilize teacher skills and interests differently, take advantage of learning opportunities outside of school hours and walls, and help identify opportunities to target interventions to meet the specific learning needs of students. Each of these presents an opportunity for  greater efficiency and increased student achievement.

Results Driven Accountability

I serve on the Nebraska Results-Driven Accountability Stakeholder group in an advisory capacity to the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) Special Education Office. The Stakeholder group has been working with NDE to put together a state plan that will meet the new federal requirements.

The goal of Results Driven Accountability is to decrease the gap in proficiency between students in special education and student in general education, in other words increase the number of special education students that are passing state assessments.

From the U.S. Department of Education- “To improve the educational outcomes of America’s 6.5 million children and youth with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education is implementing a major shift in the way it oversees the effectiveness of states’ special education programs. Until now, the Department’s primary focus was to determine whether states were meeting procedural requirements such as timelines for evaluations, due process hearings and transitioning children into preschool services. While these compliance indicators remain important to children and families, under the new framework known as Results-Driven Accountability (RDA), the Department will also include educational results and outcomes for students with disabilities in making each state’s annual determination under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).”

The Nebraska Plan has decided on the following Improvement Strategy-
To improve the reading proficiency of 3rd grade students within the identified cohort, Nebraska will work to ensure school districts are implementing increasingly intensive evidence-based reading methodologies. This will be accomplished through the use of effective implementation of the newly integrated MTSS framework and continuing to align infrastructure within the state.

The identified cohort will be schools that are involved in Nebraska MTSS and PBIS, and have selected reading as the area for improvement on their school Targeted improvement plan. Bancroft-Rosalie fits all of these requirements. That is probably why I was selected to be a member of the Stakeholder group.

This change at the federal level is a good thing, looking at trying to improve student proficiency by implementing a particular strategy in a select group of schools with the plan to eventually take it statewide rather than looking only paperwork compliance like has been done in the past.

Blended Learning Kick-off

The Bancroft-Rosalie School Blended Learning team attended the state Kick-off meeting in Lincoln Monday. Team members are Dr. Cerny, Mrs. Nolting, Mrs. Zwygart, Mr. Elsasser and Mrs. James.

 The Vision Statement for Blended Learning at Bancroft-Rosalie is:
Bancroft-Rosalie will use Blended Learning to achieve student ownership and personalized learning in mastery-based classrooms, while promoting positive teacher and student relationships.

Definitions: Blended Learning- Blended learning is an educational program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home; and the modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience.
Student Ownership- Students feel connected, engaged, and meaningfully involved when they are addressing relevant issues that reflect their interests, their passions, and their identities.
Personalized Learning- A personalized learning experience means increased student control over the time, place, path, and/or pace of his or her learning.
Mastery Based- In the classroom, it’s a teaching method premised on the idea that student progression through a course should be dependent on proficiency as opposed to amount of time spent on academic work.

Mr. Elsasser and Mrs. James were identified as the "Lighthouse Classrooms" to establish classrooms that will serve as examples for others. The lighthouse classrooms will been supported with the resources they need to implement blended learning.

The plan is to work at improving what we have in place- Discovery Education Science Techbook and IXL and XTra Math in elementary, EdReady Math and English, IXL, and Khan Academy in the secondary. RosettaStone will be used with advanced foreign language students. 

Technology needs to support the teacher not replace the teacher

Medication Aide students pass their state certification

Six new medication aides pass their certification.