CommPACT


 * CommPACT Professional Development**
 * 10-17-08**

Below are the headings and the notes that were developed by each group. **Shared Responsibility** **Community Spirit** **Participation** **Equity** **Collaboration and Communication** **Reflection** **Experimentation and Discovery** **Risk Taking** **School as Center of Expertise** **Respect** **Alignment**
 * Building on Strengths**
 * Promote and environment of achievement
 * Parents: survey to build collaboration
 * Game night, movie night, invite involved community members and those that have demonstrated interest
 * Kids: “Special Day” type of event by class or grade focused on individual strengths/interest
 * Parents and students can anticipate projects and for next grade
 * Modeling/ practicing (how to share common responsibilities)
 * Classroom rules are generated by the class based on student goals for the school year
 * Invite parents into the classroom to observe how students share responsibilities and celebrate their achievements
 * Cultivate a positive learning environment and relationship with parents
 * Celebrations of our students- Class projects, Student of the Month, Citizenship awards, festivals and performances, field day, birthdays, newsletters, Literacy Council
 * Field Trips- Museums, Bushnell, Recycling Plant, Library, Rock Cats, Library, Firehouse
 * Parental Involvement- Open Door policy for families, Open House, PTO, Conferences, Fliers/ Communication, Volunteers for in school or trips or academics, CommPACT groups
 * After School Groups- Running Club, Wrestling, PALS, Christian Academy, Connectikids
 * Students- cooperative groups, reinforce and expect cooperation in groups, encourage public speaking, no wrong answers, positive feedback, expected top be active listeners, attendance
 * Parents- educate the parents first, Must be actively involved, special projects, homework, PTO meetings, Parent Conferences, Open House, Invite parents into classrooms, Parents need to celebrate their child’s success
 * Teachers need to give parents positive feedback in order to foster participation, SFAC, Family Resource
 * Community participation in any way, $, supplies, time, tutors, anything
 * Staff- model good behavior and have high expectations, have an open mind, good communication with parents
 * All members of the school are her for one purpose
 * High expectations for all students and staff
 * Have learning expectations as opposed to rules that focus on negative behavior
 * Classroom family atmosphere
 * Positive environment
 * Kids opinions count- show them it counts
 * Differentiate instruction
 * Celebrate individual successes
 * Newsletters
 * Assisting parents with techniques to show kids’ interests
 * Awards
 * Positive letters
 * Invite the parents in
 * Involve parents in classroom activities
 * Activities for the parents- dance
 * Including community in school activities
 * Providing opportunities for workshops for parents
 * Grade team meetings
 * Data team meetings
 * Students collaborate on class rules
 * Staff meetings
 * Principal speaks to students in classroom
 * Daily oral language materials
 * Class meetings, morning meetings
 * Social workers discuss character education
 * Math home links
 * Parents need to know classroom rules
 * Parents can receive a monthly newsletter
 * Creation of student council
 * Inclusion of other staff (paras) in staff meetings, especially when CommPACT is discussed
 * Send home reports/evaluations BEFORE report cards (Rally, PCPALS, etc.)
 * More utilization of paras for academic purposes
 * In our classrooms, we ensure that all students work together to achieve the goals, Parents are encouraged to participate in all classroom activities
 * We encourage students to be risk takers. We all respect each others cultures. As an example, we had diversity month where each class chose a different country.
 * We invite the parents to come into the school for different activities. Classrooms send home monthly newsletters to share upcoming events and what their children are learning.
 * We have open house for parents, sharing of ideas, everyone working together, we all respect different points of view, we encourage staff members to trust each other professionally
 * Character Ed.
 * RTC, Responsive classrooms
 * Data Teams (meet, plan, implement, assess, re-meet)
 * Differentiated instruction- teaching different ways to meet the needs of all students, different modalities, finding what works for each student
 * Behavior
 * Field trips
 * Students learn to express without fear what they need (manipulative, accommodations, written directions, etc.)
 * Family projects- provide parents with information on how they can help kids with discovery at home (provide information about museums, free programs, science center, websites, etc.)
 * Trust**
 * Kids and parents confide in staff
 * There is trust among staff
 * That is lack of trust between school staff and district office
 * Staff supports one another
 * Character education
 * Journal writing
 * Sharing work/ thoughts/ feelings
 * Team building
 * Peer tutoring
 * Role playing/ modeling
 * Reward/ acknowledge trustworthiness
 * RTC
 * Vision: no need to lock doors, kids can go to bathrooms without an escort, kids will behave for subs, kids will come to school every day and on time, kids will come to school prepared with uniforms, parents and teachers will work together to show unity, parents will believe we care about their kids
 * Staff, parents and students are honest
 * Sharing journals
 * Have families come in – open house, conferences, special projects or performances
 * Volunteer opportunities for families
 * Ask kids to teach parents something they have learned
 * Parent survey
 * Have kids interview parents about their perspective
 * Have community members come in to talk about their work (police, politicians, etc.)
 * Model trustworthiness
 * We trust children to translate information for their parents
 * Children get positive reinforcement just for trying
 * Students are encouraged to be risk takers in order to foster independence
 * Students ideas are validated and respected
 * Students learn by practice
 * Students learn by teaching each other
 * Teachers are learners too
 * Show/teach family members what they’ve learned
 * Students let family members know that it’s OK to make mistakes
 * Students can model what they’ve been taught to their parents
 * The whole child
 * Knowing the child and the materials and knowing how to meet the individual needs
 * Knowing how to introduce new materials, identify prior knowledge, and determine how to scaffold the new information into their schema. Take into consideration strengths and weaknesses.
 * Bio/Psych/Social Assessment and academics- model behaviors, post expectations in classroom and recognition for achievers
 * Develop interactive activities (HW) to engage the entire family (vision statement, moon calendar, etc.)
 * Invite parents to regularly attend classroom activities
 * Modeling respect with students, colleagues and parents
 * Collaborating and compromise are modeled and expected EVERYWHERE- classroom, hall, cafeteria, home, etc.
 * Classroom discussions
 * Character education- getting along, tolerance, random acts of kindness
 * Certificates or awards sent home
 * Citizenship awards
 * Student of the month
 * Student of the week
 * Common planning time
 * Grade level meetings
 * Grade level data team meetings
 * For students: goals, visions, strategies, class rules, character education, RTC
 * Role modeling
 * Positive reinforcement
 * Positive parent/ teacher rapport
 * Positive student teacher rapport
 * Keying in to student interests
 * Stop and listen to the students no matter who they belong to
 * Parents need to be aware so they will ask
 * Parent suggestion box
 * Classroom parents/helpers
 * Student/parent projects to do as homework (weekly) teacher initiated
 * Parent readers who go to classroom
 * Parent share jobs/careers
 * Teacher/parent journal