I-SS Innovation Showcase

Updated Jan. 19, 2010.

I-SS is hosting the First Annual Iredell Statesville Innovation Showcase at the Statesville Civic Center on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. According to the announcement there will be a focus on strategies and simple processes that positively impact student success. There will be booths by teachers and administrators with breakout sessions throughout the day. The event is free and open to the public.

Mathew Fail announced at the Committee of the Whole meeting that there would be some 68 presentations with about 150 presenters. He also said that they were expecting participants from a number of other school districts. Click on the link below to access the announcement.

Innovation Showcase

This is a workday for I-SS. Are teachers being informed of this event? Have they been told that they could spend part or all of the workday attending the Innovation Showcase? No? Why not? Because I-SS does not believe that one-day conferences, workshops, or meetings are beneficial to teachers.

The following statement is taken directly from the I-SS web site. It is located in the Professional Development section under the Continuous Improvement tab.

We believe that professional learning improves the knowledge and skills of our faculty and staff, and can lead to changes in classroom practice and increased student learning. Professional development that is not on-going or collaborative (aka One-Shot Workshop) rarely translates into classroom application or student impact. Research shows that the most effective professional development combines meaningful job-embedded practice with support from instructors through on-going feedback and coaching.

I-SS says that one day workshops do not translate into classroom application or student impact. Yet, at the same time I-SS is spending taxpayer’s money to organize and present such a workshop. Where is the reasoning in that?

I have received the following information from Jessica Mellen, I-SS Graduate Fellow.

The event will be held at the Statesville Civic Center on January 26, from 8:45-4:10 (and closed from 12-12:50 so that presenters may have a brief lunch break). This event is similar in style to a science fair, in that the majority of presentations are on display boards (some complemented with technology) in a large exhibit hall. There will also be concurrent seminar-style presentations which will delve deeper into some widely applicable strategies. Each of the seminar-style presentations will be held 4 times throughout the day--twice in the morning, and twice in the afternoon.

The presenters are all I-SS staff who have volunteered to be a part of this event. The requirement for entry was simply that presentations should demonstrate strategies that are having a positive impact on student learning! At this point there are over 70 presentations scheduled (including the seminar-style sessions), and 150 presenters and volunteers from the I-SS staff.

The goal of this event is to both share knowledge across the district, and to celebrate successes that students, teachers and staff are having in their classrooms and buildings. The project team has been working closely with principals to make sure that all I-SS staff has the opportunity to attend the event, as they are the intended target audience.

There will be a Welcome Table, from which any further questions can be answered and information will be provided on the day of the event.

I do think that this type of event can be valuable to teachers. It is always good to see various instructional methods that are beneficial to students. I only wish that I-SS administrators would acknowledge the fact that I-SS teachers could learn from similar events that are sponsored by other school systems and by professional organizations.

I also received the following Showcase information and schedules from Ms. Mellen.

The following schedules are color coded to match a shift schedule for the schools. In efforts to make this event as accessible as possible for all I-SS staff to attend, schools have been approved and encouraged to bring their staffs to the event on school buses.

All visitors are welcome to attend whenever best suits their schedules: please do not feel obligated to follow the shift schedule. You are welcome to arrive and depart (if you plan to do so) at any point during the day that the Showcase is open. Visitors are also welcome to participate in the raffle, which will be drawn at the end of each of the four shifts noted in the schedule. We will also be soliciting feedback about the event via comment cards throughout the day.

Click on each schedule to enlarge it.

January Personnel Report

As reported in today’s Statesville Record and Landmark, it was announced at Monday’s I-SS Board meeting that Todd Holden has been promoted to Executive Director of Secondary Education and Career Technical Education. Mr. Holden has been principal of West Iredell High for the last four years. There was no mention of what his new salary will be. I wish Mr. Holden the best in his new position. You may click on the link below to access the Record and Landmark article.

Todd Holden Named Director

It was also announced at Monday’s Board meeting that the interim positions created when Mr. Johnson was named Interim Superintendent are now officially permanent positions. Specifically, the personnel report approved by the Board states the following.

Ron Hargrave goes from Interim Deputy Superintendent/Race Street to Deputy Superintendent/Race Street.

Melanie Taylor goes from Interim Assoc. Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction/ADR to Assoc. Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction/ADR.

Dale Ellis goes from Interim Assoc. Superintendent for Secondary Curriculum/ADR to Assoc. Superintendent for Human Resources/Race Street.

Bill Long goes from Interim Assoc. Superintendent for Human Resources/Race Street to Director of Teacher Support Services/Race Street.

As I mentioned in a comment to a previous post, Dawn Creason sent me an e-mail on January 4^th stating that Dale Ellis and Bill Long had gone back to their previous positions and salaries. Obviously this was not a true statement with regard to Mr. Long. As far as I can tell the Director of Teacher Support Services is a new Central Office position created for Mr. Long. Again we see that there is no shortage of money when it comes to Central Office positions. How sad it is for the students at Statesville High School and Third Creek Elementary who have to share media specialists because there is no money to hire a replacement for the media specialist at Third Creek who has recently retired.

Renewed Vision Meeting

Materials related to last night’s meeting are now available on the I-SS web site. You can find information for each of the system’s key processes as well as issue bins for each. The reports of the principal and teacher surveys as well as the reports of the various advisory meetings are also available. The video of the meeting is not yet available. I want to thank Mr. Johnson for making sure this information was available in a timely manner. You can access the information by clicking on the link below.

Renewed Vision Information

There was a lot of information shared at the meeting but it seemed to be mostly this is what we are doing and don’t you think it’s wonderful. There was some talk of a few changes being made but the bulk of the information was simply a reiteration of the processes that have been in place for some time. Yes, it was mentioned that there would be more flexibility in some of the processes, and yes it was mentioned that changes were made based on input from teachers and others. However those changes were minor changes compared to the feedback given in the principal and teacher surveys as well as in the reports of the various advisory meetings.

There were several initiatives that the principals and teachers said needed major tweaking that did not seem to receive any tweaking. Or, if they were tweaked, they were minor tweaks. Was this a true response to the feedback received from the various groups? I don’t think so. Was it an effort to encourage everyone to be content with the way things are? I think so.

What do you think? Remember, all comments are welcome. Some comments about the meeting have already been given after the previous post.

I-SS to Share Renewed Vision

Via a notice on the School web site and an e-mail to teachers and support staff, I-SS has announced a meeting to share a renewed vision and improvements for education. The meeting will be on Tuesday, January 12 at 6:00 p.m. in the Mac Gray Auditorium on the campus of Statesville High School. I-SS staff and the public are invited to attend.

According to the I-SS web site, Superintendent Brady Johnson will address attendees and share highlights of feedback received during area advisory meetings, as well as from activities conducted with principals, teachers, and other I-SS stakeholders. Johnson will also share his vision and direction for the school district, including changes to the Iredell-Statesville Schools model for continuous improvement and the district's key processes. Board of education chairman Dr. David Cash will also address the audience on behalf of the Iredell-Statesville Board of Education.

The notice also states that attendees will have the opportunity to share their feedback on the event in the form of written plus/deltas, as well as submit items to an issue bin. There is no mention of any time being allotted for questions and answers at the meeting.

Click on the link below to access the announcement on the I-SS web site.

I-SS to Share Vision