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Happy New Year to all our EBISS Colleagues. We hope that your year is off to a good start with a frenzy of data collection and scores only going up!
With a new decade we've decided to introduce a new format for our newsletter. We intend to send out newsletters which are a little bit shorter than the older ones, but we'll send these a little more often (don't worry, we'll try to keep the pace just right so that they don't become annoying).
You'll also find that they are filled with live links that will take you to places that we think you might find interesting. For example, this newsletter contains a link that will take you to our EBISS prerecorded webinar series. These webinars are customized to present you with information that you need, in short, 10 minute sessions. You'll also find links to free training videos and upcoming conferences.
We hope you'll take 5 minutes to scroll and click around your new EBISS newsletter. Please feel free to send us feedback - we're always happy to hear about things you like, and also suggestions for making it better.
With Best Wishes,
Your EBISS State Coordinators
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Running an Effective Meeting
1. Have an Agenda
An agenda is a list of the topics to be covered during the course of a meeting, and it plays a critical role in the success of any meeting. It shows folks where the meeting will be going. Be sure to distribute the agenda and any pre-work in advance so that participants can prepare for the meeting ahead of time. This ensures that your meeting will be efficient. Tip: Try starting your agenda with a list of the action items from your last meeting.
2. Start on Time and End on Time
This communicates to your participants that you respect their schedules and intend to honor their other obligations outside of this meeting. It will also train participants to arrive on time because they will know that the group won't be waiting for them.
3. Capture and Assign Action Items
Unless they are held purely to communicate information, or for other special purposes, most meetings result in action items, tasks, and other assignments for one or more participants. Don't assume that all folks are going to take their assignments to heart and remember all the details (even the best intentions can get lost in the activity of a typical school day). Instead, be sure that someone has agreed to have the job of note taking. Immediately after the meeting, the note taker should summarize the outcome of the meeting, as well as assignments and timelines, and e-mail a copy of this to all attendees.
4. Keep People on Task and Make Sure Everyone Gets a Chance to Participate.
Make sure you guide your group through the agenda while gently but firmly sticking to the schedule. Also, make sure you give everyone a chance to participate. In any group, some people will try to take over and do all the talking; others will hold back. It's your job as the leader to make sure that everyone contributes.
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Early Childhood Centers Working with EBISS
Did you know that the Early
Childhood Centers from Lane EC Cares, Willamette ESD and Southern Oregon ESD
are active members of EBISS? They
work together as part of a larger group of Early Intervention/Early Childhood
Special Education Specialists (EI/ECSE), behavioral specialists, and
administrators across the state of Oregon in conjunction with the Social
Emotional Working Group (SEWG).
SEWG works to promote social emotional competence and to develop
curricula and systems that support young children.
The world of Early Childhood
is where it all begins. Our Early
Childhood providers use a three-tiered identification and intervention system
(modeled after the PBIS program) to help children be more successful in Pre-K,
and prepare them for a good start in Kindergarten. Their efforts ensure that transition to Kindergarten will be
a positive experience for the children and their teachers.
Gerry Morgan, a behavior specialist and systems coach for Lane EC Cares, recently
presented to members of the North West PBIS network. He provided insight around the differences and similarities
between PBIS for school age children and the PBIS that is being used in Early
Childhood. Interest in his presentation was high, and generated much discussion
about offering K-12 educators an overview of the goals and programs that he
discussed. We are working to make this happen at a future PBIS coach's conference.
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Featured EBISS District: Ontario Continues to Sparkle
Ontario School District is often referred to as the "jewel in the east." They have been with the EBISS project since 2007 and have participated in OR RTI for several years. When budget shortfalls hit all Oregon districts, Ontario staff lobbied to retain their funding for EBISS priorities. Their efforts were successful and the funding enabled them to increase their literacy coaching and build capacity for PBS in every school.
Efficient Procedures: During a recent district EBISS meeting every school had an administrator and a literacy coach present for the purposes of filling out the DSSP and the district Action Plan. Also present were the district EBISS team and the superintendent. They split the group into 5 teams, and gave each team 1/5 of the DSSP. Teams scored their fifth of the DSSP and then they came back together as a large group. Teams reported back, and the whole group joined in on a discussion resulting in consensus around the final scoring of the DSSP. As a group they spent the last half of the meeting completing the Action Plan. How much time did this take? Ninety minutes from start to finish.
Ontario is happy to host visitors from other districts who are interested in seeing some of their practices in action. It is worth mentioning that the drive out there is truly beautiful.
Hats off to Ontario for continuing to be a model of hard work and perseverance, resulting in improved outcomes for students.
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Links we Like!
The U of O Center on Teaching and Learning recently hosted a very informative, standing room only conference in Portland. Topics included response to intervention in math, effective literacy instruction for English language learners, and improving adolescent literacy. If you missed it, or attended and want to review some of the great information that was presented, you can find the presentations at CTL Conference 2009.
Another link we like takes you to a series of FREE online instructional videos featuring Anita Archer (a beloved teacher of teachers) demonstrating reading strategies for grades K, 1, 2, 3, and 7. Sonoma County Office of Education. Just watching the faces of the 7th graders during the lesson makes it a Link We Like.
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If you found items in this newsletter that were useful to you, we hope that you will feel free to forward it to colleagues. Thanks!
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