School
Leadership
Systems
7 Middle Schools 4 High Schools 1 State College Vertical Articulation CollaborativePrincipals, Deans, District Directors, District Level Leadership and AVID Project Systems Coach meet
4 times a year to grow professionally by sharing successes and being trained in new ways of work for
schools based on the four domains. The group walks classrooms in one another’s schools for calibration and learning purposes. Feeder pattern
leaders have an opportunity to share with one another ideas for consistency between schools as
well as within schools.
Communication lines are open across districts as well as within
districts. Leaders grow professionally and learn from one another. Schools have a stronger foundation for college readiness for all students because they are
working collaboratively rather than in isolation.
Systems
Culture
Avon Park High School
Recruiting a Community
Partner
Principal, AVID Coordinator, and students reached out to a local business owner who was looking to invest in the students at APHS that would eventually
impact the community. We hosted the business owners for breakfast and a teacher/student presentation. Charles and Stephanie Devlin of
DevTech, Inc. were all in after this initial meeting. They have paid for our students to have matching t-shirts and hosted all of our AVID students
to their business building for lunch and a tour. This year, they are paying for t-shirts for our new students, food for Family Nights, some travel expenses, and classroom supplies. They visit our
AVID students and frequently ask the students questions about their goals, grades, and college
plans.
Our AVID students are recognizing that there are successful businesses rooted in
STEM in their own
hometown. AVID students have two more caring adults to invest in
their future. The community is becoming more exposed to what
AVID is and the impact it is making!
Systems
Avon Park High School
Recruiting Tutors from
Within
Because of scheduling conflicts, it was difficult for our school to maintain consistent college tutors. We
decided to also recruit tutors from our Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment students. They are
formally trained, serve as interns in the AVID classroom and receive service hours for NHS and
scholarships.
Peer tutors have taken ownership of the AVID kids, tutoring and mentoring. The AVID students have a caring peer on campus to turn to when they need advice or a listening ear. The tutors have
become better students/more college ready and are proud of their role in the AVID classroom.
School
Instruction
Systems
Hardee Junior High School Hardee Senior High School
Walkthroughs with Teachers
Once a month, a group of 6-8 teachers walk 8-10 classrooms with the instructional coaches, administrative team, and District Director. After each visit, the group debriefs in the hallway and discusses the answer to the following question; “What did you see?” The group discusses what was
on point and how things could improve. Teachers borrow ideas from the walls as well as the
instruction.
Teachers are implementing best practices campus wide. The
closed door policy has been replaced with a desire to see other people teach. Students are
receiving better instruction.
Instruction
Systems
Avon Park Middle School
WICOR Walkthroughs
and Monument Walkthroughs
We implemented a weekly walk through program utilizing the AVID Coordinator, Reading, Math and
Science Coaches. On Tuesday and Thursday we hired one sub for the day and they cover 4 teachers
for 2 periods of the day.
The teachers get one-on-one time with a coach to discuss their strengths and wealkneses, followed by
a carefully planned visit to classrooms for observation. This is made clear to all participants that this is not evaluatory. It is more like thanks for letting me steal some ideas that are working great in
your room.
The following schedule is used for WICOR walk throughs. Each Wednesday 3 teachers, the AVID coordinator and an administrator tour classrooms aound the campus searching for AVID strategies.
These ideas have helped with our instruction and culture. Teachers
are no longer fearful when the classroom door opens for visitors.
Teachers are getting the time to do what they have wanted to do for years…See other teachers in
School
Culture
Avon Park High School
AVID Family Potluck Dinner
An invitation was sent in the mail for an end of the year celebration potluck. Every student was encouraged to bring a dish that was representative
of their family and culture.
Over 150 attended and students/families were proud to bring their family dish to the table.
Culture
Avon Park High School
AVID Family Holiday Card
Every AVID student had a picture Holiday Card sent in the mail to their home. It featured pictures from
the first semester of AVID and a Happy Holidays message from the APHS AVID Family.
Parents became more involved in AVID Family Nights and in their
student’s education.
Instruction
Leadership
Avon Park High School
Site Team Round Robin
PD
Site team members planned and presented in pairs one of four WICOR strategies in an effort to take the
strategies schoolwide: Quick Writes, GIST, Philosophical Chairs, and Gallery Walk. All site team members were involved and all teachers learn
five strategies in one day using a graphic organizer/foldable to record how each strategy could
be used in their classroom.
AVID strategies are being used schoolwide. Site team members became the primary PD team for
the 2014-15 school year.
Systems
Leadership
Instruction
Avon Park High School
Personalized PD Plans
Teachers are creating their own personalized PD path for the school year. Tailored PD is offered
every other week through Coffee Talks on Wednesday mornings and afternoons. ANYONE
can present/teach ANYTHING they feel would benefit others and anyone can choose to or not to attend. This allows anyone to take on the teacher
leader role. Teachers may also opt to take advantage of Live PD in which they observe another
teacher at anytime to learn something new. The teacher observes and then meets with his/her academic coach to discuss how to implement the
strategies observed.
All teachers are empowered to lead! Teachers are getting out of
the four walls of their classroom and learning from their peers. Teachers no longer feel like they are wasting their time in PD sessions that do not pertain to
School
Systems
Avon Park High School
Freshmen "Ownership of
Learning" Initiative
All APHS Freshmen are keeping a 3 inch binder with all subjects (similar to the AVID Binder). Binders are
being organized and graded in the freshmen leadership classes every other week. All freshmen
are keeping assignment logs for each subject and complete a learning log every Friday (also graded in
the leadership class).
Fewer failures than in previous years for the first nine weeks! Students have fewer
missing assignments.
Systems
Avon Park High School and DeSoto High School
Guidance and Advisement Weekly Grade
Checks
Our students meet with the same teacher four days a week for 30 minutes. Two days are Covey days
and the other are reserved for data chats. Each student conferences with the teacher about his/her
grades, attendance, and tardies. Students track their grades on the attached form and complete a
self-reflection after progress reports and report cards.
Every student is connected to a caring adult in the
school. Students are tracking their own progress and setting quarter goals. Our failure rates
are declining!
Systems
Leadership
Instruction
Sebring Middle School
Where AVID Strikes, Excellence
Happens
When we made WICOR one of our goals for improvement this year, our focus became intense.
From a World Café of WICOR professional development presented during pre-school week to
walkthroughs that will include every teacher being observed at one time or another this year, our AVID
site team is determined to spread the word.
In nine short weeks, we have observed classroom seating change from rows to groups of
students, creating content discussions daily. Our AVID Coordinator, Principal, Assistant
Principal, and content coaches are being summoned to classrooms daily to witness great
WICOR strategies being utilized. Minds are opening, classrooms
are inviting, and student knowledge is increasing across
the board. Our focus is for our students to actually “lift the weights” in our classrooms, and they are starting to “work-out” on
School
Leadership
Culture
Sebring High School
Lunch and Learns
Lunch and Learns are informative, informal, and voluntary meetings held during lunch to provide an
opportunity for colleagues to share some of their best practices as well as resources that would
benefit educators in their classrooms. Lunch and Learns were held throughout different times last year and were very successful in sharing
many AVID strategies to our faculty and staff. We often offered prizes (usually items teachers
love!-stickers, expo markers, post-it notes, etc. and included some sort of dessert to ‘sweeten’ the deal! We received extremely positive feedback about the
various resources we provided and made it a fun and simple process for all involved.
Teachers have gained insight as to new ways of work and are
relying on one another for innovative ways to teach students. Lines of communication
between teachers seems much more open creating a better learning environment for the teachers and the students.
Culture
Hill Gustat Middle School
Weekly College Trivia
The question is announced every morning and during the students’ lunch. On Friday, we announce
a lucky winner at each grade level and share the answer.
Example questions:
What is the highest score a student can earn on the SAT?
Name the different parts of the ACT PLUS? How do students qualify for academic scholarships?
What are the 3 sections on the SAT?
This is about building a culture however I am not sure of the long
term impact it will have since this is our first year. I am sharing the
questions with the other coordinators in our county, which is building community for all of us.
School
Instruction
Systems
Leadership
Culture
Lake Placid Middle School
World Tour As a replacement for a faculty meeting, teachers use part of their planning period to visit other teachers’ classes. The visits are part of our World Tour, and they complete a 3-2-1 after visiting. The 3-2-1 asks
them 3 “Cool Things” that I witnessed on my trip, 2 “Souvenirs (strategies, ideas, best practices) that I stuffed in my suitcase to use in my classroom, 1
thing that I want to “explore” more.
Teachers are learning from one another and walls are coming
down in the classrooms. Collaboration is happening within
classes as well as between classes and the students are the
ultimate winners.
Instruction
Systems
Hardee Senior High School
Ongoing, consistent Professional
Learning
AVID is discussed at every PD opportunity. The goal for our school is WICOR everywhere all the time. The consistency has given us the opportunity
to all speak the same language.
Teachers, new and existing, all have the same frame of reference
and understand the expectations of them in their classrooms.
Culture
Hardee Senior High School
College Wear Wednesday and Walls that
Talk
As a school, we wear college wear on Wednesdays. The junior high and senior high both do this, creating
consistency for the students and the teachers. In addition to college wear we are intentional with what
our walls are teaching when we are quiet. We use pennants, banners, college corners, graduation gowns, and signs made by students to pepper our
walls.
Students see college throughout the building and are starting to ask questions about the schools
they see. The students have started asking questions and want
to know more about college because they see it everywhere.
Culture
DeSoto Middle School
ACT/SAT Guest Speaker
The students’ guidance counselor, Mrs. Bickett, visited the 8th grade students to discuss the importance of the ACT and SAT testing. The students were able to ask any question they wanted
about these tests.
The students learned not only about the different tests and the scores
needed, but they learned about scholarships and the variety of ways
that they can qualify for college. It was a learning experience for
everyone
Instruction
Systems
DeSoto High School
Weekly Data Chats/Grade Summary Sheets/Data
Walls
On the first day of every week, every class/every period takes the first 5-10 minutes of class to show the students
their current grades in the class (average is projected from live gradebook, and individual assignment grades are printed and posted on Data Walls), and then students
graph their grades and discuss the previous week with a peer partner. They give feedback to each other and
discuss successes or ways to improve.
Students taking ownership of their grades, participation in class, and holding each other accountable;
Grades improving; More data discussions between teachers
Hardee Senior High School implemented binders schoolwide in 2013-14. Each year, because the junior high that feeds our school
we will roll up the grades. Thus, next year – it will be 9th and 10th grade, the following year we will add 11th, and so on – Until eventually there will be a school-wide binder
system.
consistent manner across their various courses.
Leadership
Systems
Culture
Hardee Senior High School
Community Service Projects
Every AVID classroom decided on a community service project to implement during the first semester of the school year. Students will present information about their
class initiative at a parent night that centers on the theme, “Paying it Forward!” Additionally, our Key Club students provide babysitting for parents in attendance at
our parent nights so that they can concentrate on the information presented without distraction.
Parent turn-out at our parent events has increased. Feedback
from parents with small children has been very positive – they
appreciate the opportunity to participate without distractions
from their little ones.
Culture
Systems
Hardee Senior High School
Business Partnerships
We have connected with a Business Partner who funds a full page spread in the local newspaper every other
week. Within that page, AVID activities are often highlighted with photos and short articles written by our
AVID teachers about AVID happenings at HHS.
The community at large has a greater awareness of all the HHS
happenings, including the AVID System that the school has implemented. The Positive PR also helps generate interest and financial
donors.
Leadership
Systems
Culture
Instruction
Hardee Junior and Senior High School
Vertical Feeder Articulation
Vertical articulation has taken place between Hardee Junior High and Hardee High School on various occasions. Meetings have occurred between content area departments as well as the AVID site teams. As a
result, we have established a series of field trips to colleges & universities to maximize students’ exposure to
various options. Additionally, teachers from the high school and junior high are collaborating to vertically align
their content areas.
The opportunities for teachers from the different levels of schooling to get together and discuss instruction
has created a much greater willingness to collaborate on their own and has taken away much of
the “finger pointing” that can sometimes occur between the elementary, middle and high school
levels.
If you have any questions or want any more information on these fantastic ideas, please
email Christie McMullen, Project Systems Coach, AVID Center
[email protected]
Instructional Techniques and Learning Strategies
Writing to learn Inquiry Collaboration Organization Reading
____Focused Cornell notes w/questions in left margin & summary at end ____pre-writing activities/quick writes to develop thinking ____learning logs, summaries, reflections, interactive notebooks ____graphic organizers ____writing process ____ AVID writing curriculum ____note taking ____other ____academic task analyzed and expectations articulated ____ information processed and connections made ____info synthesized into new understandings ____information evaluated; hypothesis made ____application of learning ____questions asked to seek clarification or additional information ____problem solving ____questions to self-regulate ____other
____strong sense of mutual respect and support
____products created and/or problems solved together ____ rigorous academic discourse
____challenge one another to think deeply about the task at hand
____focus on the content and build on each-others’ thoughts ____Socratic questioning or Seminar or Philosophical Chairs ____Jigsaw activities ____collaborative research ____room configuration ____think pair share, table talk, shoulder partners ____other ____organized binders ____up-to-date planners for assignments, homework, in and out of school activities, and long-term projects ____tools to track progress and grades in core classes ____developed 4 or 6 year plans for HS courses ____graphic organizers ____other ____pre-reading activities, KWL, vocabulary mapping ____“mark the text:” numbering,
highlighting, underlining, circling (Interacting with Text) ____Cornell notes, SQ5R, concept mapping,
reciprocal teaching (Interacting with Text) ____metacognitive discussions (Beyond the Text)
____summarize and reflect (Beyond the Text)
____other
Rigor: ____Applying (Level 3) ____Processing (Level 2) ____Gathering (Level 1) Description:
Student Participation: ____Student Centered ____Teacher Centered Description:
Environment:
Motivational ____Posters ____Quotes ____Student generated work Academic ____Content Posters ____Maps, Tables, Charts ____Student generated content posters College/Career ____College ____SAT/ACT Information ____Graduation Requirements
____Pennants ____CTE Testing Information ____Data Walls ____Other
Comments Questions
Observer:
