Regional Office of Education 47

ROE 47 will be closed to day in honor of Independence Day!

SIGN-UP NOW ! https://www.roe47.org/page/pl-opportunities-workshops Workplace Wednesdays Facilitator: Gail Wright, ROE Description: In collaboration with Lee, Ogle, and Whiteside County businesses, Sauk Valley Chamber of Commerce, Sauk Valley Community College, the Whiteside Area Career Center, the Lee/Ogle/Whiteside Regional Office of Education #47 will again be offering Workplace Wednesdays Virtual Business Visits. K-12 Teachers will visit businesses in varied Career Pathways. This will help in the implementation of Career Pathways to fulfill the requirements of the Postsecondary Workforce Readiness (PWR) Act. K-12 teachers will be exposed to the concepts of Career Pathways, employability skills, ideas for STEM/STEAM lessons, ideas for project based learning, and information K-12 teachers need to serve as conduits for providing career information to students and developing application lessons. Workplace Wednesday will help educators learn about the Labor Market in Lee, Ogle, and Whiteside Counties. Teachers will learn about employer needs and expectations, making connections to help prepare students for career readiness K-12 and across the curriculum. Workplace Wednesdays is an opportunity for the development of partnerships with business and allowing teachers to learn and share with students 21st Century academic and soft skills needed to prepare students to be workforce ready. Teachers are the conduits for providing career information to students gained from Workplace Wednesdays.

On June 15, 13-year-old Kathleen Keesey, a two-time champion of the Lee-Ogle-Whiteside Regional Spelling Bee, advanced to the final 30 contestants of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Keesey now advances to the national semifinals on June 27.

Your friends at ROE 47 would like to say HAPPY SUMMER 2021! June 21, 2021 is the first official day of summer. Enjoy the sunshine !

It's everything ROE 47, CHECK IT OUT!

Happy Flag Day, June 14th

ROE 47 is helping local education institutions spread the word about openings. Check out SVCC for this opportunity! Disability Support Services Tutor (Part-time - 15 hours per week) Bachelor’s degree in an appropriate field and experience which provides relevant knowledge and skills required. It is preferred that the tutor have experience in the course being tutored or a similar course; and/or experience in teaching similar curriculum. Must have the ability to quickly establish and maintain a good working relationship and rapport with staff and students. Link to job posting and application: https://jobs.svcc.edu/postings/1298

Fellow educators; recharge your batteries with our Summer Learning Series! We launch our summer learning opportunities today and feel confident that you will find a topic that meets your needs! Check out our offerings at https://www.roe47.org/page/pl-opportunities-workshops.

Mark your calendars for The Maggie & Amos Foundation Family Event! About the Foundation: The Maggie & Amos Foundation in honor of our former coworker and friend, Maggie Rosko and her son Amos Meyer, who were killed in their homes in 2016. Since our initiation we have provided over $27,000 in grants to local educators in our surrounding schools, as well as to local libraries. We have also provided scholarships to individuals pursuing degrees in education. Last year we were forced to cancel our Infinity Event due to the COVID pandemic. In order to continue to provide these important funds to our area educators, we are counting on proceeds made from this year's Infinity Event. Our Foundation is near and dear to the staff of Chana Education Center, as well as to the many students who had Ms. Meyer as their teacher. We would appreciate the support of our local educators so that we can continue to grow a legacy in her name. You can find more information regarding our Foundation on our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/maggieandamos

SIGN UP NOW! Limitless Minds by Jo Boaler (summer book study) https://www.roe47.org/page/pl-opportunities-workshops This hybrid book study (Google Classroom and 3 zoom sessions) will provide educators with an interactive professional learning experience. Limitless Minds explores the idea that the brain is static and reveals the six keys to unlock our learning potential. Author Jo Boaler believes that the brain is not fixed but entirely capable of change, growth, adaptability and rewiring. In this book, Boaler explains that anyone at any age can learn anything. Readers learn about ways to change your mindset, love the idea of mistakes and failures and how to promote multi-dimensional learning. Participants are asked to purchase the book. It can be found for purchase or download on Amazon.com Google Classroom: June 7 - July 30 Zoom Session: June 9 from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. on Zoom Zoom Session: June 30 from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. on Zoom Zoom Session: July 28 from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. on Zoom

Enjoy celebrating Memorial Day with your loved ones!

CDH Educational Center is looking to fill the following positions: Speech/Language Pathologist Speech/Language Pathologist Assistant Paraprofessionals (Several openings) For more information, contact Megan Baker, Administrative Assistant CDH Educational Center Dixon

ROE47 is promoting openings in local districts. Check this one out! Middle School Science Teacher - Eswood CCSD #269 is seeking candidates for our middle school science position. This is a full time position on a small, highly collaborative middle school team. Must hold or be eligible for P.E.L. Additional endorsements, particularly in social studies, are a plus. P.E./Computer Teacher - Eswood Community Consolidated School District #269 is looking for a versatile educator capable of teaching any combination of the following: Physical Education, K-8 technology, and K-8 Art. Please send letter of interest, resume, proof of licensure (if available), and 3 professional references via email to Dr. Michael Shapiro, Superintendent, at mshapiro@eswoodschool.org

ROE 47 is promoting local district openings. Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico CUSD#3 is looking for an instructional leader to ensure the best possible educational opportunity for students. Someone who is interested in taking a leadership role in planning, initiating, refining and evaluating instructional and operational programs. Our 6-12 Campus includes about 180 Middle School students, 220 High School students, and an amazing staff! How to Apply Applicants should apply online at the position link below, also found on the employment page of our district website. Link to District/Third Party Online Application Web Page https://www.applitrack.com/roe47/onlineapp/JobPostings/view.asp?FromAdmin=true&AppliTrackJobId=3284 Email Address jpetzke@plt3.org

INFORMATIONAL MEETING TODAY ! ROE 47 has partnered with National Louis University to offer a M.Ed or Ed.S in Educational Leadership cohort beginning fall 2021. The cohort will begin in the fall and run for about 18 months using an executive weekend model. Participants will have class one weekend a month with Friday night on zoom and Saturday meeting in person at a central location near our ROE office in Sterling. If you or an educator you know would be interested in this program, please consider sharing this flyer related to an informational meeting we'll be having on zoom TODAY - Thursday, May 27th at 3:00 p.m. To RSVP and receive the zoom link for this meeting, please contact Wendy Gaeding at the following email address: wgaeding@nl.edu Additional questions may be directed to Krista Peterson, Assistant Director of Professional learning: kpeterson@roe47.org

Current Trends in Adolescent Drug Abuse June 7th , 9am - 11am This two-hour live webinar is intended to update professionals on the most recent trends in adolescent drug abuse and the physical symptoms produced by drug intoxication. Topics cover recent changes to the new Illinois cannabis laws, including the school mandate for reasonable accommodation use on school property. Sign up at thttps://www.roe47.org/page/pl-opportunities-workshops

The ROE 47 Summer Learning Series has many professional development offerings available to schools involved in the Pathways program. Career Exploration Facilitator: Chanda McDonnell, Pathway Navigator Tuesday, June 15, 2021 from 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m, Virtual Registration Required. Click here to register.

Congratulations to Kyle Ackman, Principal at Rock Falls Middle School. Kyle was named Middle School Principal of the Year for the Northwest Region of the Illinois Principals Association! Thank you Kyle for all you do for your students, faculty members, parents and community members every day. Very well deserved honor!

A great read from our friends at Math for All Learning and the Pandemic By Babette Moeller There has been much media coverage recently about “learning loss” that has occurred during the pandemic. Such reports often reference studies that have attempted to predict or measure student performance in reading and mathematics using common assessment instruments such as the NWEA Map Test (e.g., Kuhfeld et al., 2020) or iReady (Curriculum Associates, 2021). Findings show that, compared to previous school years, students perform lower on these assessments in both reading and mathematics. These studies also show that the most marginalized students are disproportionally affected, with drops in performance being greater for the lowest performing students, and for students attending schools that serve a majority of Black and Latinx students or schools in low-income zip codes. Such findings are clearly very disturbing. However, we need to be careful in how we talk about these findings, and how we use them to guide practice. This blog offers some thoughts about learning during the pandemic and offers some practical suggestions for how to act on them. Describing students’ lower performance on assessments administered this year as “learning loss” is problematic. The use of the expression “learning loss” assigns blame to students for not performing as expected. However, more often than not, students haven’t mastered specific grade-level academic content because schooling was disrupted, and not because of any fault of their own. Students cannot lose what they have never learned! What students lost were opportunities for learning of academic content typically covered during a school year. There were multiple reasons for the lack of such opportunities, including experienced trauma, lack of access to computer hardware and internet connectivity, curricula that were not flexible enough to be adaptable to different face-to-face and remote learning contexts, the use of technologies (e.g., video conferencing programs) that were not specifically designed with education in mind, and teachers being put into roles (e.g., teaching online or in hybrid modes) that they had little preparation for and practice with. The expression “learning loss” is misleading for another reason. Learning is a basic human activity that helps us make sense of the world. It is a life-long pursuit that happens not just in school, but also to a large extent outside of school. It does not stop or get lost during historic events such as epidemics, natural disasters, or other unexpected happenings, but rather it will be shaped by such events. Learning mathematics is no exception. As a well-established body of research (e.g., Nunes et al., 1993; Saxe, 1991; Scribner, 1986) has shown, children and adults who have experienced very little schooling can develop quite sophisticated mathematical understanding and skills that derive from their everyday activities, such as street vending, playing video games, sports, construction work, and shopping. Moreover, the mathematics that children learn in out-of-school contexts has been shown to be shaped by the specific activities they engage in, and their family and cultural contexts (e.g., Guberman, 2004). With the disruption of schooling during this past year, and the fallout from the pandemic and racial tensions, students’ learning has not been lost, but rather it has been much more varied than in previous years. What this means is that we cannot make assumptions about what understanding and skills a student brings to any given learning experience, and we have to work harder to understand individual students’ strengths and challenges so we can tailor instruction accordingly. Perhaps most concerning is the fact that a narrative around “learning loss” may negatively impact students’ mindsets and subsequently their success in school. If children are told, or indirectly receive the message that they are deficient (perhaps in the way they are being tracked into groups), it may undermine their confidence in being able to succeed. Moreover, using the results from aggregated formative and summative assessments to make instructional decisions could be very harmful and may result in teachers lowering their expectations for students most affected by the pandemic. When we make instructional decisions as teachers and administrators, we need to take individual students’ strengths and challenges into account instead of relying on a students’ group membership (such as race, ethnicity, socio-economic status (SES), or disability status). For example, we cannot assume that just because a child is from a low SES household or has a disability that they will have larger learning gaps than other students. Given that different students may be in very different places as a result of the disruption in schooling and the experiences they have had over the past year, what are the implications for practice? Here are some suggestions for closing out the 2020–2021 school year: Finish on a high note and celebrate the many accomplishments that students and teachers achieved. Have students share stories about how they coped with COVID and celebrate their resilience. Celebrate a technology skill that students or teachers have learned. Acknowledge students’ and teachers’ persistence in the face of encountering an obstacle. Encourage teachers to engage students in open-ended activities that allow them to discover what students know and are able to do, and to celebrate such discoveries. In mathematics you may want to utilize rich problems that we have described in previous blogs, or utilize routines such as Notice and Wonder that will give you insights into students’ unique ways of thinking. And as you plan for the next school year, keep the following in mind: Do not assume that things will be fully “back to normal” next fall. Accept that recovery will require extra effort to familiarize students and staff with new routines, and that it will take time. Provide students with access to grade-level content and address gaps if and where you discover them rather than focus solely on remediation. Remember that productive struggle propels learning. Resist the temptation to take over and alleviate students’ struggles, as it may demotivate them over time. Be mindful that in addition to addressing learning gaps, students also need emotional support to re-engage in learning. Do not focus on academic content at the expense of students’ social-emotional wellbeing. Provide teachers with opportunities to build relationships with individual students and engage in informal assessment. This includes opportunities for teachers to spend one-on-one time with students. Ask students and their families what they need. Help students to self-advocate and to ask for help when and where they need it. Empower students to help each other and use peer tutoring as a strategy to provide extra support to students who may be struggling. Provide teachers with professional learning opportunities and give them flexibility to adapt curricula to better meet individual students’ needs. It is important to remind ourselves of the pervasiveness of learning. It will help us to maintain a positive outlook on our students and to nurture their confidence in themselves as learners.

Monday Motivation : Summer is almost here!