Teachers Lesson Plans

GOOD NEWS FROM SCHOOLS: Field trip to DC enhances history teachers' knowledge

About 30 high school American history teachers recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where they gained knowledge that will be used to create lesson plans that can be accessed by all Gwinnett County Public Schools teachers.

The field trip was funded by a Teaching American History grant, which the school system won from the U.S. Department of Education. During the five-day journey, the teachers participated in workshops, listened to lectures and got behind-the-scenes looks in museums and the U.S. Capitol.

“The experience was truly an educational opportunity for all of them,” said Debbie Daniell, the school system’s director of social studies. “It was truly an opportunity of a lifetime. ... I am absolutely sure that every teacher came away with increased content knowledge, and that will translate into increased student achievement in the classroom.”

Some of the highlights of the trip included getting to see Gen. William Sherman’s original maps of his march through Atlanta, which are stored in vaults at the National Museum of American History. The group of teachers also met with U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson and got to watch the Senate confirm Leon Panetta as the defense secretary.

Many of the opportunities were arranged by historian Herman Viola, who is the curator emeritus at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Daniell has traveled to D.C. before, but it was her first time traveling to the nation’s capital with fellow educators.

“I was honored and humbled to be in the presence of such American history scholars we have teaching our students,” she said. “They were a fabulous group of highly engaged professionals that represented Gwinnett County Public Schools in the utmost of ways.”

GCPS receives Emmy Awards

The Southeast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has once again recognized Gwinnett County Public Schools Television for its efforts in educating and informing the school district’s stakeholders through its original programming.

The Academy recently presented the school district two Emmy Awards for “Love that Book!”

The school system was announced as a winner during the 37th Annual Southeast Regional Emmy Awards Gala in Atlanta. At the event, the Academy recognized the best of the region’s 2010 visual media.

QV requiring lesson plans from teachers | YourSewickley.com

In an effort to track what students are learning, Quaker Valley School District administrators will require its teachers to turn in lesson plans starting in the fall.

"We bit the bullet and agreed to require lesson plans for our teachers to actually turn in next year," academic services director Jillian Bichsel said.

The decision to require lesson plans will better serve the students, administrators say.

"It's somewhat all over the place," Superintendent Joseph Clapper said of the district‘s current process. "It made it tough in terms of continuity.

"When you're doing curriculum mapping, like we're doing and to the extent we're doing it, you really need lesson plans to fully understand what everyone is literally doing. It's been kind of a missing ingredient for us."

Bichsel said before the school year let out, teachers and administrators met to determine what information would be requested and how the process would work.

Across nearly all grade levels, teachers will use a template asking for a variety of information, including an essential question about the week's lessons, Bichsel said.

"What happens is that the principals request that these be turned in Friday the week before," she said. "It could take two hours (to complete a lesson plan).

For kindergarten through second grade, the process will be slightly adapted to coincide with an academic process that includes multiple lessons, she said.

Bichsel said the end result will allow administrators and teachers to compare plans and objectives and share information across the district.

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