Dear Staff,

Happy 2015! I hope you enjoyed the holidays and got a

chance to relax a little during our break.

We are quickly approaching the half way point of the

school year. It is so hard to believe. We have already

accomplished so much this year and we also continue

to respond to the many changes this year from MDE. I

compare it to a hamster running on his wheel, which

we are used to, however, this year it feels we are get-

ting things thrown at us while trying to stay on the

wheel! While at times it is frustrating, overwhelming, and

exhausting, I am so grateful to be in Lake Orion with

colleagues that ban together to rise to every challenge.

Please be sure to take a few minutes to read the

Teaching and Learning newsletter to keep up to date on

what is happening throughout LO.

It has been mentioned to me that curious minds want

to know where the money comes from for our newslet-

ter prizes. A few years ago I was thinking of ways to

get more people to read the newsletter and decided I

wanted to award prizes. At the time, our building did

not have a “jean” day. So…..I constituted Jean Friday for

our office and the money that is collected is used for

the newsletter prizes.

Stay warm and have a great start to the new year!

Messa g e f r om H eid i . . .

J a n u a r y , 2 0 1 5

Teaching and Learning Newsletter

2014 ~ 2015

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ELL Testing

2

Great Start Parent

Conference 2

Pearson Inform

Update 3

School of Choice 3

World Language 3

Math News 4

State Testing Up-

dates 5

MI Merit Curricu-

lum Requirement

Revisions

6

Tech Updates 7

1. Great Starts Conference

2. Historical Fiction 4/5

grades

3. 2 –12 Book club

4. SAT Exam

5. Graduation Requirements

2016, 2017, 2018

6. Graduation Requirements

2016—2019

attachments

Heidi Mercer

Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning

GREAT START PARENT CONFERENCE

ELL (ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS) TESTING

P a g e 2

The test is paper/pencil this year, however,

next year it will be computerized. Administra-

tion time of the Access is lengthy:

Listening: 25 minutes (group administered)

Speaking: up to 15 minutes (individually admin-

istered)

Reading: 35 minutes (group administered)

Writing: 60 minutes (group administered)

There are 5 grade clusters:

K, which is administered individually,

Grades 1-2 which has 3 tiers,

Grades 3-5 which has 3 tiers, Grades 6-8

which has 3 tiers and

Grades 9-12 which also has 3 tiers.

When testing students, different tiers and clus-

ters cannot be done at the same time.

There are over 250 students the ESL teachers

must assess within the 7 week timeline.

The testing window for our English Learners

is February 9, through March 27, 2015. The

test is the WIDA Access test, which is what

we used last year. There are 3 tiers to the

test, along with different grade levels accord-

ing to English proficiency. Each of the ESL

teachers have been trained on giving the test

and has had to pass a quiz to be certified.

All students who are listed as LEP (Limited

English Proficient) whether they are actively

receiving services or not, are required to

take the test. Which means, parent refusals

must test also. As with MME or M-Step, this

is a mandatory State test. Lake Orion Com-

munity Schools must have 100% participa-

tion. The test is also very important to us

in making AMAOs (Annual Measurable

Achievement Objectives). There are 3

AMAOs; showing progress, becoming English

proficient and making AYP.

On Saturday, April 25, the Lake Orion Com-

munity Schools’ Early Childhood Department

will host the 9th Annual Great Start Parent

Conference and Resource Fair at the CERC

building. Lake Orion Community Schools,

along with the Michigan Department of Edu-

cation Great Parents - Great Start, the Great

Start Collaborative and Oakland Schools of-

fers the conference FREE to all parents with

children birth through eight throughout the

county.

This all day conference theme, Discovering

Your Parenting Village, begins with a kick off

presentation and then invites parents to at-

tend three “Breakout Sessions”. Along with

parent education sessions, numerous agencies

and community resources will also be participat-

ing at exhibitor tables. All attendees will receive

breakfast treats and lunch, which is provided by

the Lake Orion Community Schools’ Food Ser-

vice Department. Over 400 parents, children and

educators will attend the event this year.

SEE ATTACHMENT 1

Teaching and Learning

ELA

Please see ATTACHMENTS 2 & 3

for exciting book club information.

PEARSON INFORM UPDATE

JANUARY, 2015

P a g e 3

Did you know that as a teacher you not only have ac-

cess to your data when logging onto Inform, you also

have access to your building’s data and Lake Orion’s

overall data?

After logging into Pearson Inform there are 3 icons at

the top left; the person icon is your (teacher) classroom

data, the house icon is access to building level data,

and the building icon is to look at district data.

Just a note: Elementary teachers your winter data

must be entered into Pearson Inform no later than

January 30, 2015. Reminder that the session name is

“Winter”.

Lake Orion is excited to host The First

Annual Effective Practice Conference for

our county. The conference is scheduled

for June 23—24, 2015, from 9 A.M—3

P.M. at LOHS. Michael Fullan and Jenni

Donahou will be keynote speakers plus

there will be many breakouts with our

own talented Oakland County teachers

and administrators!

Stay tuned for more details.

SCHOOLS OF CHOICE

The Board of Education has approved 106 seats for school of choice for

the 2015—2016 school year. (60 elementary, 36 middle level and 10

Learning Options) The application window is April 13—May 12, 2015.

LAKE ORION WORLD LANGUAGE EXPANDS TO 6TH GRADE

The Board approved a plan to slowly and carefully

begin expanding our World Language program. While

our budget remains a real concern, the Board also

recognizes the need to continue to enhance our

programming. Beginning next year, World Language

will offered in 6th grade. In previous years an ex-

ploration to World Language was part of the middle

school program, where students received 5 weeks of

Spanish and French. It is thought that something

similar to what was previously offered will be imple-

mented for fall, 2015. World Language teachers are

beginning to meet to plan the details. It is hoped

that eventually World Language will be offered once

again at our elementary level. The Board has

thoughtfully approved for us to continue to expand

the program one grade at a time, working our way

down the grade levels. This implementation plan

takes into the concern that budget remains an issue

and if a grade level cannot be added at the next

level there will be no gap in the program because we

are working our way down the grade levels with im-

plementation. This is part of our program that our

community continues to have interest in expanding.

Teaching and Learning P a g e 4

MATH DEPARTMENT NEWS News Puzzle of the Month

Grade 3-8, 11 – M-STEP – Get the latest updates from the state about the Spring 2015 M-STEP assessment by signing up for the Spot-light newsletter. https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/MIMDE/subscriber/

new. Under Student Assessment, select Spotlight.

A preview of M-STEP can be viewed in Google Chrome with the fol-lowing link. Copy and paste this link into Chrome https://

wbte.drcedirect.com/MI/portals/mi/ott1 Click on the 2015 Preview Link, you will then need to click to sign on. Once on the sign in page, use the username and password displayed on the screen to log in. Students and teachers may log into the Spring 2015 Preview as often as they like. This preview does not represent all standards for ELA and mathematics, nor all grade levels. The preview is intended to provide students and teachers with a brief look at the technology-enhanced item types they are likely to see for English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. Students will also have an opportunity to use the navigation tools and features of the online delivery engine. High School – Released from MDE on January 7, 2015 - All Michigan high school juniors will begin taking the SAT as the state-administered college assessment exam beginning in 2016. There will be more infor-mation including free test prep materials and on-line practice availa-ble in Spring 2015 at http://michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140--344785--,00.html

Middle Level – Are you part of the Connected Math Facebook page? You can get many news updates and ideas while you are updating your status or finding out what your friends are up to! If you go the CMP website (https://connectedmath.msu.edu/ )scroll down to the bottom

and click on . Like the page and you are connected! The latest post has a link to the Dash Activity guide that they just recently added to the website! Here is the direct link if you are not interested in face-book… https://connectedmath.msu.edu/teacher-support/planning/using-dash-

studentactivities/?utm_source=Web&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=Teacher+Support

Austin likes to watch squirrels find and store acorns

for the winter. Brown Squirrels can carry two acorns

at a time. Gray Squirrels can carry three acorns at a

time and Black. Squirrels can carry five acorns at a

time. There is a pile of 24 acorns.

A) How many trips would a Brown

Squirrel need to make to store all of

the acorns in the pile? B) How many trips would a Gray

Squirrel need to make to store all of the acorns in the pile?

C) How many trips would a Black Squirrel need to make to store

all of the acorns in the pile? D) If all three squirrels worked together to store the acorns how

many trips would the squirrels need to make to store all of

the acorns? E) How many different ways could the three Squirrels divide up

the 24 acorns and not leave any left over? Each Squirrel must carry his maximum load on each trip.

F) How do you know that you have found all of the ways? G) The squirrels are rather smart. They realize that they can

carry less than their maximum loads. How many different ways could the squirrels divide up the 24 acorns?

H) Suppose there are a different number of acorns than 24. De-

termine a generalization for finding how 3 squirrels can

divide up any given number of acorns. Answers: http://www.insidemathematics.org/assets/problems-of-the-month/squirreling%20it%20away.pdf

Book Club idea: Mathematics Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning Author Page Keeley and Cheryl Rose Tobey

This book is a joint publication of Corwin Press and NCTM. The authors provide 75 formative assessment strategies and show teachers how to use them to inform instructional planning and better meet the needs of all students. Research shows that formative assessment has the power

to significantly improve learning, and its many benefits include:

Promote student thinking Uncover student ideas or misconceptions Increase student engagement Promote self-assessment Improve instruction based on specific goals

P a g e 4

P a g e 5

We were aware that the Michigan Department of Education had issued an RFP for a college entrance exam for Michigan students. We were not aware of the timeline for the announcement.

Educators were notified January 7, 2015, via email that MDE had chosen SAT as Michigan’s new entrance exam.

Nationally, about the same number of student take the ACT and Sat each year.

Most colleges accept both tests and more students take both tests each year.

It’s believed that the SAT is better aligned to Michigan’s new state standards. It’s important that we test what is taught.

While the test is different in some respects, we anticipate that our students will do well on the SAT, as they did on the ACT.

MED has indicated that SAT will be providing extensive support and training for our teachers, parents, and students in understand-ing the test and analyzing the results. This will be welcomed sup-port for our educators and families.

STATE TESTING UPDATE

Please be sure that you are keeping up to date with Michigan’s new state assessment, M-STEP. You can find detailed info by clicking on the following link:

http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-22709_70117---,00.html An early preview of sample questions from the M-STEP assessment can be found at the link below. Please copy and paste the following link in Google Chrome (must be in Google Chrome or it will not open successfully)

https://wbte.drcedirect.com/MI/portals/mi/ott1

Starting in 2016 high school juniors will now take the SAT instead of the ACT.

On January 7, 2015, the Michigan Department of Educa-tion announced that beginning in 2016 all high school juniors will begin taking the SAT as the state-administered and required free college entrance exam instead of the ACT.

The College Board won the three-year bid from the state of Michigan. The state of Michigan, as required by law, underwent a competitive bidding process to choose Mich-

igan’s college entrance exam. The SAT bid was 15.4 mil-lion less over the three-year contract than the next bidder and scored 10 percentage points higher by the Joint Eval-uation Committee (JEC). It is believed that the SAT is better aligned to Michigan’s new state standards and it is important to test what is being taught. The SAT is a glob-ally-recognized test accepted by nearly every college in the nation. Nationally, about the same number of stu-dents take the ACT and SAT each year. It is anticipated that students will do well on the SAT just as they have done well on the ACT in the past.

Beginning in the spring of 2015, the College Board will provide all schools and students with free test prep mate-rials and online practice tests to help students prepare for the redesigned SAT in 2016. The College Board will also provide extensive support and training for teachers, par-ents, and students in understanding the test and analyz-ing the results.

Attached is an article about the revisions regarding SAT.

ATTACHMENT 4

See article on-line at:

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/01/09/michigan-chooses-sat-act/21458857/

P a g e 6

Teaching and Learning

To see the entire article/website:

www.peterpappas.com/2010/08/five-ways-to-engage-students-audiences-tips-teachers-presenters.html

Julie Gutman, Director of Special Education suggested viewing the website below to check out

presentations done by Peter Pappas, titled Five Ways to Engage Students and Other Audiences—

Tips for Teachers and Presenters. Julie thought this could be beneficial to all.

Recommendation…...

MICHIGAN MERIT CURRICULUM REQUIREMENT REVISIONS

There have been a few revisions in the

Michigan Merit Curriculum graduation re-

quirements that we are required to imple-

ment for future graduating students begin-

ning this spring. The purpose of these revi-

sions is to provide students more flexibility

in their high school schedule. These chang-

es are not related to specific curriculum or

the common core.

In the areas of math, science, world lan-

guage and applied arts; students in a ca-

reer technical program are now allowed to

count those credits toward their required

graduation requirements. This will provide

students in a CTE program more flexibility

in their schedule while providing recognition

to CTE classes. These revisions are a ben-

efit to students and do not significantly

impact Lake Orion.

There are two areas that Lake Orion re-

quires as part of our graduation require-

ments that the Board has approved to re-

vise. We currently require speech in 9th

grade. Beginning next year this requirement

can be met with several classes for stu-

dents to choose from instead of just the

one speech class. We currently Attachments 5 & 6

offer a few classes that would meet the

speaking and listening requirements that are

included in speech. In addition, we current-

ly require this half of credit in 9th grade.

This half credit elective can now be taken

in 9th - 10th grade. Again, offering schedule

flexibility to our students.

The other Lake Orion requirement that we

currently have is a 10th grade computer

elective. We are dropping this requirement

due to the fact that our current curriculum

includes great redundancy with regard to

the State requirement for a high school

“computer experience”; therefore, the reduc-

tion of this .5 computer elective does not

impact our students negatively in terms of

content received. This allows for this half

credit to become an elective rather than a

required class. In addition, the 9th grade

Business Foundations class name is being

change to Career Foundations to better

describe the class..

Attached includes our current and revised

graduation requirements. The revisions by

the Sate and Lake Orion are minor and

ultimately provide students with more choice

and flexibility.

P a g e 7

TECHNOLOGY UPDATES

Phone System

The IT Services Department has kicked off

the Voice over IP (VoIP) Phone and

Voicemail project. This much needed pro-

ject will be implemented during the sum-

mer and replace our current phone system

which is over 20 years old. We will be

researching, analyzing and developing our

data and past processes to implement with

the new system. This is a very critical

project because of emergency and public

communication and accessibility.

Microsoft Student Advantage

Microsoft Student Advantage program is

now being offered to staff! The Ad-

vantage program will allow staff to

have the same 5 downloads to their

personal devices as well as the Mi-

crosoft apps with full functionality. We

submitted all necessary data to our

vendor and hope to hear from Mi-

crosoft within the next couple of weeks.

We will notify all staff when those li-

censes are available.

strengthening families

SAVEtheDATE

Great Start-OaklandDiscovering YourParenting Village

2015 Parent Conference & Resource Fair

Saturday, March 28, 20159AM-2PM

Norup International School14450 Manhattan, Oak Park

Saturday, April 25, 20159AM-2PM

Community Education Resource Center455 East Scripps, Lake Orion

Questions: 248.209.2513Watch for registration information at: www.oakland.k12.mi.us/earlychildhood

Oakland Schools does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, religion, height, weight, marital status, sexual orientation (subject to the limits of applicable law), age, genetic information, or disability in its programs, services, activities or employment opportunities. Inquiries related to employment discrimina-tion should be directed to the Director of Human Resources at 248.209.2059, 2111 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford, MI 48328-2736. For all other inquiries related to discrimination, contact the Director of Legal Affairs at 248.209.2062, 2111 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford, MI 48328-2736.

strengthening families

SAVEtheDATE

Great Start-OaklandDiscovering YourParenting Village

2015 Parent Conference & Resource Fair

Saturday, March 28, 20159AM-2PM

Norup International School14450 Manhattan, Oak Park

Saturday, April 25, 20159AM-2PM

Community Education Resource Center455 East Scripps, Lake Orion

Questions: 248.209.2513Watch for registration information at: www.oakland.k12.mi.us/earlychildhood

Oakland Schools does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, religion, height, weight, marital status, sexual orientation (subject to the limits of applicable law), age, genetic information, or disability in its programs, services, activities or employment opportunities. Inquiries related to employment discrimina-tion should be directed to the Director of Human Resources at 248.209.2059, 2111 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford, MI 48328-2736. For all other inquiries related to discrimination, contact the Director of Legal Affairs at 248.209.2062, 2111 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford, MI 48328-2736.

Historical Fiction Book Club

Boot Camp!

Get tips/ideas and learn more about forming groups, making the most of

your group’s small group time, conducting table conferences, managing

groups, building background knowledge, assessing speaking and

listening standards, and reviewing resources. For even more information

check out this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yynXGZnoQkU&rel=0

Where: Webber Elementary

Who: 4th-5th Grade Teachers

When: February 4, 2015

Choose a Session . . .

A.M. 7:45-11:00 Session 1

P.M. 12:45-4:00 Session 2

Afterschool 4:15-7:15 Session 3

(The afterschool session includes dinner and $40 worth of Historical Fiction

books; minimum of 5 teachers are needed by 1/30 to run this session)

Bring: One copy of each Historical Fiction book that you have 4 or more

copies

How do I sign up??? Register no later than 3PM on February 3rd. Follow

the link below to sign up on Google docs:

https://docs.google.com/a/ms-lakeorion.org/forms/d/1WX_j-

FLwNbUfNVvTl9nLT-pO04GIkgS_epqM_N-L5Iw/viewform?c=0&w=1

LOCS NOTE: In addition to registering using the google doc a separate

KALPA registration AND a conference request (with Kate DiMeo’s name

on it) must be filled out prior to attending the workshop. Subs for this

workshop will be covered out the teaching and learning budget.

Conference requests received after Feb. 3rd will be the responsibility of

the building and not paid out of the teaching and learning budget.

Sharing of subs is encouraged.

OUT OF DISTRICT NOTE: In addition to registering using the google doc,

you will need to bring payment of $35.00 in a personal or district check

made out to LOCS. Out of district participants who attend the

afterschool session will receive dinner, however, are not eligible for the

$40.00 book stipend.

QUESTIONS? Contact Kate DiMeo kdimeo@lakeorion.k12.mi.us

   

Clarkston Community Schools, Lake Orion Community Schools

Oxford Community Schools

TOGETHER host

BOOK CLUB

Falling in Love with Close Reading Christopher Lehman & Kate Roberts

Tuesdays 4:45-5:30 PM Recommended for Teachers Grades 2-12

But . . Everyone is welcome!

2/24 Clarkston Community Schools Bailey Lake Elementary

8051 Pine Knob Rd Clarkston

3/10 Oxford Community Schools Clear Lake Elementary

2085 West Drahner Oxford

Collaborate across districts. Grow your understandings. Meet new people.

Register Here: http://goo.gl/forms/e697oy1NnZ

Questions? Contact Kate DiMeo, Maureen Magdeleno or Phyllis Ness

3/24 Lake Orion Community Schools Webber Elementary

3191 West Clarkston Rd. Lake Orion

Let us know if you need childcare. We’ll even have snacks!

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ATTACHMENT 5

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