New BOCES Summer Learning Experience!

The term “summer school” often conjures up images of students sitting in hot classrooms, trying hard to concentrate as teachers review subject matter that didn’t make sense to them during the school year, and their focus is more on making plans for lazy afternoons in the sun as soon as the dismissal bell rings. Well, we’re about to change that!

Students who register for this New Summer Learning Experience will be on a newly designed track for learning. This year’s summer learning experience promises to be much more Personalized and Engaging for students!

The use of technology will be evident everywhere as students use laptop computers to take on-line courses and teachers use the Polycom technology and Breeze software to communicate with students, both in the room and at another site. Some students will even be able to take on-line courses from home. No, this isn’t your father’s summer school anymore!

In the past, students have been transported to one school site and taken 1-2 core academic courses. This summer, school districts can choose to have students attend either Elm St. Academy in Cuba or Wellsville High School, depending on their geographical location. Teachers certified in the four core academic high school areas will be teaching from both sites. Students enrolled in on-line courses will be taking classes under the supervision of NYS certified teachers either at one of the sites or on their own. Personalization is the name of the game!

Integration is the key element for students in grades 7 and 8. This year, middle level students will be engaged in an integrated ELA / Social Studies class and an integrated Math / Science class. No longer will students have to wonder how to connect what they learn in one subject area to what they are learning in another. Integrating the content areas will lead students to making direct applications to deepen their understanding of the concepts they are learning. Isn’t the application of knowledge and skills what true learning is really about?

Instructional delivery will be more diversified than ever this summer. Students registered for Earth Science, Biology, and Chemistry will take these courses on-line under the supervision of NYS certified teachers at both sites. US History, PIG, Economics, and Spanish I will be available on-line “any time, any place.” For students taking Math A, Global Studies and ELA, teachers will use distance learning to instruct students using the Polycom technology. It’s all about creating learning environments where students can take the initiative to become fully engaged in their own education."

If you’d like to know more about this 21st century framework for student learning, please call 716-376-8297 or email Lynne Yehl at lynne_yehl@caboces.org. We hope to see your kids this summer!

Clarity of Thought: Finding Your Voice as a Leader

School leaders at all levels and in all roles will gather together August 14-17 at Holiday Valley for Curriculum Camp XII. The week will be dedicated to understanding our authentic voices as leaders by finding clarity in what we believe. Dr. Dennis Sparks, Executive Director of the National Staff Development Council and one of this year’s national experts at camp, believes that “silence offers us access to the clarity and power of our own “voice” – which is the wellspring of our authenticity.” He believes that our authenticity is the most important source of influence as a leader.

As busy teachers and administrators, we often find that there’s not much time for silence in our hectic schedules. Finding the time to reflect and clarify our thinking is difficult. We need to understand that our effectiveness as a leader ultimately depends on our willingness to carve out the time to be silent and reflective through things like meditative reading or journaling. There are enormous rewards for taking the time to understand just what it is we are clear about. It helps us focus our efforts and communicate our ideas to our colleagues in a manner that is meaningful and enabling. According to Wilma Mankiller, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, "people with clear minds are like magnets and people and organizations move toward that which they are clearest about."

Join us in the Leadership Cohort at Curriculum Camp XII and bridge the gap between knowing and doing. Find out more about how clarity of thought will make your vision for learning translate into action.

Join the discussion by visiting Dr. Sparkes Blog at http://www.nsdc.org/sparksblog/

Laurie MacVittie, Staff Specialist for Math, Science and Technology and Co-chair for the Leadership Cohort at Curriculum Camp XII.

My Kind of Brain

I didn’t know what the word meant. I just had to go to these special classes where I would walk on a balance beam and trace these strange lines and letters. I also remember looking at these pictures of shape, numbers and letters. The word was dyslexia. When my parents sat me down (you know the way parents sit you down to tell you something that is difficult) and broke the news to me, I still didn’t know what the word meant. I just knew I had trouble reading.

My case of dyslexia is very mild. I have finally found out what the word really means. I think it has more to do with learning than reading and actually what I discovered is that dyslexia is an auditory issue. I discovered this after watching Susan Barton's 3 hour WebCast. Through further studies, I have finally found out how my brain works. When I read I have a problem decoding the words on the page. There is only so much space in the working memory part of the brain. I like to compare it to a shot glass and a gallon milk jug. The shot glass represents the size of our working memory; the gallon milk jug represents the size of the amount of information that can be stored in our brains long term. Part of my shot glass gets filled quickly because I am working so hard to decode the words that I read. When I read I have to read and reread the same text over and over until decoding the text is no longer an issue and most of my working memory shot glass is not filled up. When my working memory is not filled up with decoding I can then continue to read and devote more of my working memory to comprehension.

I also use some technology to help myself with my dyslexia. I use a program called ReadPlease2003. ReadPlease2003 can be downloaded for free from ReadPlease.com. This program allows me to copy anything that is in HTML format and paste it into ReadPlease2003. Then the program reads the text to me. As the program reads the text it hightlights the words in yellow. I have shown this program to reading expert Dr. Ellin Keane and she said, "However you can get a read aloud is a good thing." This is also further research to show that ReadPlease2003 helps both students with and without reading difficulties.

Dyslexia, which my spell check ironically keeps telling me I've misspelled, is just a word. Dr. Mel Levine, who I had the honor of meeting recently, would say that dyslexia is just a label. For me, Dyslexia is a part of who I am. As a teacher I fully understand when a student or a colleague struggles with any part of learning.

Capturing Kids' Hearts Means Listening to Their Voices

Capturing Kids’ Hearts training offers teachers an opportunity to connect with their students in an authentic way. According to its founder, Flip Flippen, “If you have a child’s heart, you have his head.” The three-day training model offers educators a chance to explore their relational capacity with students as well as learn the critical skills of building communities within their classrooms. These skills include the shared design of Social Contracts by students and teachers, developing an approach to communicating with people that consistently places engagement with a person as priority, and learning how to address inappropriate behaviors in the classroom under the guises of a Social Contract.

During the week of March 26th teachers, administrators, counselors, and support staff gathered for our 6th Capturing Kids’ Hearts training held at the Olean Center BOCES. On day two of a typical training participants get a chance to listen to students share from a video how Teen Leadership, a middle-high school curriculum available to teachers who have taken CKH, has impacted their lives. Unique to this training event in particular was the participation of twelve of our own students who traveled from the Cattaraugus-Little Valley campus to share how CKH & Teen Leadership has helped them adapt to the unique challenges in high school.

The power of this experience is evident from the responses that have been collected over the last six training experiences. Teachers and students are finding refreshment and rejuvenation following these three days of professional development. If you have thought about attending a Capturing Kids’ Hearts training there is another opportunity on July 31—August 2 at the Olean Center BOCES. Fall dates will be coming soon!

CA BOCES Partners with Buffalo State College to Improve Student Achievement in Mathematics

In response to the No Child Left Behind Act, all of our students in grades 3-8 will be assessed this March in order to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of mathematical concepts. Over the past eight months, the Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES Instructional Support Services division has partnered with Buffalo State College to deliver a professional development to local area math teachers. Currently, there are 43 teachers participating in the Middle Level Math Series for Grades 5/6. These teachers will have worked directly with Dr. Sue McMillen, a mathematics professor from Buffalo State College, for five full-day sessions focused on improving curriculum, instruction and assessment. This fall, the teachers analyzed the NYS math assessments to better understand their instructional implications and to create parallel assessments for use in their classrooms. Each participant experienced standards-based activities designed to build conceptual understanding and are working towards integrating more classroom manipulatives into their lessons. During our February session, we plan to share best practices designed to improve student achievement and integrate various technologies, including interactive math websites, into the classroom.

Dr. Susan McMillen has been involved in numerous projects that focus on improving student achievement in mathematics. Her passion as a teacher leader centers on her use of technology and manipulatives with a goal of teaching math for understanding. She was the principle investigator and project leader for IMARS (Improving Mathematics Achievement in Rural Schools) which involved several of our districts. She was a past editor for NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) journal, and a project director for I2T2 (Involving students in Inquiry-based activities using a variety of Technologies and other Tools). She was the primary teacher-leader for the CA BOCES Curriculum Camp Math Cohort this past August, where she worked with 35 math teachers in grades 3-12 along with staff specialists from the CA BOCES Instructional Support Services division.

“Our work with Dr. Sue McMillen has helped our teachers better understand the mathematics that they teach and our goal is to have our students benefit as well.”

Mary Morris, Staff Specialist for Instructional Support Services
Regional Math Coordinator

What’s New at “The Barn”?

The BOCES Library Media Services is looking ahead and keeping digital and technology resources current, while updating and maintaining traditional library resources as well. A team of eight people working together in “The Barn” at the Olean BOCES Center brings you thousands upon thousands of media resources available for schools to use on a daily basis. Diane Crater, Program Manager, and her staff (Rachelle Evans, Cindy Fox, Donna Gigliotti, Maggie Jensen, Ray Johnson, Lynn Kuc, and Ronda Turner) work diligently to offer world-class service of over 5,000 professional library titles, 14,000 bookable resources (including 10,000 videos), and 12,000 digital streaming videos to the BOCES centers and participating (COSER 501) school districts.

Some of the most recent acquisitions to the Professional Library include:

• Six titles for professional development suggested by Mike Sullivan at the recent “Connecting Boys with Books” Fall Membership Day for the Cattaraugus-Allegany School Library System
  
• Fifty titles from Mike Sullivan’s “Books for Boys” list for use in the classroom
  

New bookable and downloadable resources through MediaNet include:

• Ipods for playing downloadable audio and video
  
• Mp3 players for recording, pod casting and playing downloadable audio
  
• Robosapien robots to use with lesson ideas and/or video production instruction and camera
  
• Two extra “empathy bellies” that can be booked, for a total of three, from the “Baby Think It Over” resources (extras ordered due to popular demand)
  
• “Beyond our Borders”, a new cultural geography digital movie series featuring many countries from around the world
  
• Glenn Colton music albums, specializing in music for students

Maggie Jensen, the new staff specialist for the Library Media Services, is available and eager to train teachers on the use of the vast and varied resources. She can be scheduled for faculty meetings, in-service trainings, and on a one-to-one basis. Give her a call at 716-376-8260 or email her at margaret_jensen@caboces.org.

Local Students To Compete at Odyssey of the Mind Tournament

60 teams representing 17 school districts from across Cattaraugus, Allegany, and Steuben Counties will compete in the annual Region 19 Odyssey of the Mind Tournament on March 10, 2007 at Wellsville Central School, Wellsville, NY. The regional tournament is sponsored annually by Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES under the directorship of Lynne Yehl, Program Manager. This competition is the first step in determining which teams will represent New York State at the Odyssey of the Mind 2007 World Finals later this spring. Winning teams at each division level for the five long-term problems will advance to the NYS Odyssey of the Mind Tournament on March 31st in Binghamton, NY.

Odysseys of the Mind helps students of all ages exercise the skills of critical thinking, collaborative teamwork, and good sportsmanship – all while having fun. The competing teams and their coaches spend many long hours brainstorming and experimenting with ideas to prepare their own unique responses to a variety of problems. Teams also compete in a Spontaneous Problem situation at the tournament. In the Odyssey competition, teams have 8 minutes to present a solution to their selected problem and are judged on their innovation, originality, and ability to meet the problem’s specific requirements. Teams compete in their same age group at the Division I elementary level, the Division II middle school level, and the Division III high school levels.

This year’s problems are:
Tag’Em, the vehicle problem. Teams will design, build, and propel 1-3 vehicles that will make trips within a Tagging Zone to accumulate points.

The Large and Small of It, the invention problem. Teams must create a performance that integrates small and large versions of pages that change appearance and serve as the sets for the original performance.

Around the World in 8 Minutes, the “classics” problem. This problem asks teams to create a character that travels around world, stopping at three different locations along the way.

Out of the Box Balsa, the structure problem. Competitors will a construct balsa wood structure that supports hundreds of pounds of added weight and whose pieces fits inside a small box.

Students in grades 1-2 can create a skit about a group of explorers that find a time capsule filled with usual items designed and made by the team. Teams at the primary level are not eligible to compete at the State level but the enthusiasm and creativity that they demonstrate in their presentations ensure that Odyssey of the Mind will continue in this area for many years to come.

We hope you can come to be a part of the excitement of the Odyssey tournament. Admission is free so we’ll look for you on March 10th in Wellsville!

Interns Take Over the County!

When the meeting was called to order in the Cattaraugus County Legislative chamber in Little Valley, NY on Wednesday, December 20, 2006, it was the Cattaraugus County Government Interns who were in charge of the day. Twenty students from six different school districts in Cattaraugus County participated in this year’s County Government Internship program. The 15-week County Government program, offered to area seniors in each county, is sponsored by Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES under the direction of Lynne Yehl.

The County Government Internship program has sponsored by BOCES for more than 25 years. This program is designed to deepen student understanding of the role of county government. Student interns meet weekly with legislators, department heads, and various committee members under the guidance of County Intern teacher, Warner Page. The students become acquainted with the functions of each branch of county government, the procedures for introducing new legislation, and the roles of the various departments in each branch.

The culminating activity requires each student to create a resolution and present it at the mock legislative session. The participating students have the opportunity to test their powers of persuasion as they orally present their resolutions for a vote. The resolutions must pertain to issues related to county government and must pass the approval by the County Attorney. In order to create an effective resolution, the students research a topic of interest to obtain background information and pertinent data. This year, the resolutions included recommendations to improve traffic safety, update the County’s financial software program, equalize the distribution of the bed tax revenue, and utilize volunteer help for various community service projects.

Students participating in the program were:

• Cattaraugus-Little Valley – Kim Colantino, Melissa Paris
  
• Franklinville Central School –Kimberly Dominessy, Jonathan Hall, Dana Phillips, Rae Lee Price, Blake Slagle
  
• Pioneer – Aaron NortonPortville Central School – Annie Blicharz, Kathy Caza, Alyssa McCutcheon
  
• Randolph Central – Brooke Adams, Tanya Coleman, Sara Flaherty, Julia Kinney, Shelby Loop, Stephanie Roosa
  
• West Valley – Erica Benson, Dakota Colf, Rebecca Roach

The County Government Intern Program is funded by the BOCES component schools and through grant funding from the NYS Division for Youth in both Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties. Students from Allegany County will begin their program on January 22 and openings are still available.

For further information about the County Government program you may contact Lynne Yehl at (716) 376 – 8297 or Warner Page at (716)376 – 8202.

Movie Fest 2006: “What Inspires You?”

Giving students the opportunity to work with technology under the direction of their teachers is one of the major goals of the Model Schools program through CA-BOCES professional development. Through the fall months this year, fifth and sixth grade teachers from Ellicottville Central, Randolph Central, and Cattaraugus-Little Valley participated in trainings using video cameras and iMovie to create student films for an online film festival around the question, “What inspires you?”

Teachers first met in September with staff developers to discuss the idea of the festival and to learn the basics of movie making technology. A second face-to-face training was held at BOCES in October, and then staff developers visited teachers in their classrooms to work with students on their movies. The culmination of these months of work was an online film festival. In total, seventeen movies were displayed and rated by people who visited the site. In total, the site received over 775 ratings of which 80% of the votes were student submissions.

We thank Lynette Sexton, Tammy Peters, Rochelle Redeye, Laurie Harrington, Stephanie Saviola, and Katherine Beaver for participating in this project, and for leading their students in creating some very well-produced movies. Not only did they develop their own technology skills, but they passed these skills on to empower their students to express themselves with technology.

For more information, or to see the movies in the festival, please visit: http://moviefest2006.pbwiki.com/.

2nd Annual VFT March Madness Month

It’s back! March is Virtual Field Trip (VFT) month. VFTs are interactive, educational programs transmitted through videoconferencing technology (i.e. Polycoms or DL labs). Classrooms are connected to experts in a particular field or students from a ‘remote location’. While VFTs run throughout the school year, March is a great time fit one into your curriculum. Why?

An engaging and content-driven VFT can:

• Rejuvenate students who are preparing for Regent’s exams.


• Serve as a mental marker for students through multi-sensory instruction.


• Aid students who need “something different” to master a specific content area or lesson.


• Excite students who love technology and virtual learning.


• Build your own technology literacy and professional portfolio.

To schedule a VFT, please contact Phil Pockey via email: ppockey@caboces.org. Phil needs at least 6 weeks notice to coordinate any VFT.