Patricia MacNeill, Ed.D.Assistant SuperintendentGreene County Schools

Snow Hill, NCwww.gcsedu.org

By Design Not Chance

Leading SystemicChange:

WHO WE ARE•Five Schools

•3,251 Students

•212 Teachers

•43% African American, 33% White, 22% Latino

• 72% Free & Reduced Lunch

•Both low wealth and small & rural

Our Shared Instructional Vision To create a

community of learners in which administrators, teachers, students and parents are all active participants in the teaching/learning process.

To use technology for the delivery of quality, student-centered instruction.

GREENE COUNTY SCHOOLSTHE HEDGEHOG CONCEPT

L’Esperance, Frey, Gabbard (2002)Adapted from Collins (2001)

PassionThe Learning Environment

Best in the World

Consistency & Continuity of Programs

Economic Engine

Quality of TeachingBalanced with

Standards

Communication

Providinga

Framework

Providing Staff

Development

Building a Learning CommunitySharing LeadershipBuilding Capacity

Critical Balancefor

Cultural Change

Critical Balance

Cultural Change

Infrastructure

“What good is it if it doesn’t work?”

Critical Balance

Cultural Change

Content

“What good is it if it isn’t educational?”

Infrastructure

“What good is it if it doesn’t work?”

Critical Balance

Infrastructure

“What good is it if it doesn’t work?”

Content

“What good is it if it isn’t educational?”

Staff Development“What good is it if

teachers don’t use it?”

Cultural Change

Set Expectations•“Begin with the End in Mind”

•Provide a Framework

•Allow for creativity and consensus-building in accomplishing goals

Benchmarks

Vision

Stephen Covey

Framework

Goals

TIM

ING

The Need

Sustained

On-going

Standards based

Relevant

Timely

Staff developmentthat is . . .

An Instructional Technologist and Literacy Facilitator at each school

A system-wide instructional team led by the Assistant Superintendent for Instruction

A research-based comprehensive staff development plan aligned to system goals

A vanguard group for major initiatives

Design Principles

The Advisory Council A school-based team

focused on instruction

Weekly meetings

Participants Principal and Assistant

Principals

Instructional Technologist

Literacy Facilitator

Media Coordinator

School Counselor

Exceptional Children & ESL representatives

ContentSystem-Wide Initiatives

Literacy

Technology Integration

Comprehensive Counseling/College Access

Numeracy

Creativity

School Improvement Goals

North Carolina Standard Course of Study

Delivery Modeling of best

instructional practices

Blending of content and pedagogy

Evaluation by participants

Smart sheets for reference

Smart Sheets

Sequential steps

Pictures/screen shots

Arrows for emphasis

Specific information

Tiger Features: Spotlight and Smart Folders

iBits Smart Sheet

Spotlight allows you to search your iBook for a file, application, picture, word in a document, etc. The icon is located in the top right corner. Just click it to search. Type in a word.

Example: If you want to find all documents that have the word dinosaur in it, just type in dinosaur.

If you double-click on one of the documents, it will open and the word you searched (dinosaur) will be highlighted.

Note that you can search files created during a certain time span.

You can also search by the other criteria listed. Explore and see which way works best for you.

Now let’s take it one step further. Suppose that the search you did on “dinosaurs” is something you would like to go back to often. Turn to the reverse side of this sheet to learn about “Smart Folders.”

JHP SHP 2/9/06

GREENE EARLY COLLEGE

O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7

s t u d e n t s c o l l e c t s o i l s a m p l e s

Learn and Serve Grant

Renewed for 2007!2008

Upcoming Events

HANDS !ON SCIENCE

ast year"s successful service learning e#orts have resulted

in the renewal of Greene Early College"s Learn and Serve America Grant, Nature Trails and Historic Tales. Ms. Elaine Beaman, Service Learning Director, will go to Raleigh

on October 26 for o$cial receipt of the grant.

In preparation for resuming work on the nature trail at the Greene County

Recreation Complex, GEC freshmen have toured the site. The students are very excited and eager to join the sophomores in working on the trail and in their classes.

Tentative plans for this year"s service learning include clearing more of the

creek trail and building a kayak landing.

As always, learning remains the priority. Students will continue to complete classroom assignments that

bring service learning and the North Carolina Standard Course of Study together.

Parents who have

not yet visited the sire are encouraged to do so!!!and volunteers are always welcome!

Oct. 15

School PicturesStudents should remember to dress for

pictures. Orders will be taken after

proofs are returned.

Oct. 17

PSATAll GEC students will take the PSAT.

Testing will begin at 7:45, so please be

sure students arrive on time.

Oct. 18

Early ReleaseStudents will be released at 12:45. Staff

will be involved in professional

development.

Oct. 19

Teacher WorkdayThere will be no school for students on

Friday, October 16. This is a protected

teacher workday.

Nov. 6

NC Online Test of Computer SkillsStudents who have not yet passed the

North Carolina Online Test of Computer

Skills will be tested at 10:00 a.m.

Students who need to take this test

have been provided with practice

materials that they should work on

during Seminar.

Nature Trails and Historic Tales

L

Monthly instructional newsletters from media, literacy, and technology

School-to-school sharing at instructional meetings

iCal scheduling

Communication

eMail

Wikis

Blogs

Discussion Boards

Class Pages

Group Pages

Parent Alerts

Calendar

Surveys

Lesson Planner

Communication

Share

Leadership

“Leadership is the professional work of everyone in the school.”

“Everyone has the right, responsibility, and ability to be a leader.”

“How we define leadership influences how people will participate.”

Building leadership capacity is a necessary component of sustained school improvement.

Linda Lambert

What is my

leadership

role within a

1:1 initiative?

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR

SCHOOL CURRICULUM

CLASSROOM TEACHER

DISTRICT ADMINISTRATOR

DISTRICT

TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR

DISTRICT CURRICULUM/INSTRUCTION

CHALLENGES•Convincing teachers to share instructional leadership with students

•Coaching students to become active in and responsible for their own learning

•Providing quality staff development and planning time

•Supporting teachers with a sensitivity to comfort level and experience

•Providing benchmarks and guidelines

EVALUATE•“Inspect what you expect”

•Engage in on-going collaborative evaluations of all initiatives

•Refine plans continuously over time

PFM/ 08-14-05

Revised 08-10-06

Assistant

Superintendent

Instruction

Board of

Education and

Superintendent

Administrators

Instructional

Team

Advisory

Council

Leadership

Team Committees

Individual

Teachers

and/or Teams

Students

Parents

Parent

Advisory

Council

Greene County Schools

The Learning Community

Communication in A Culture of Change

Community

Federal and State

Leadership

Collaboration Model

Nurture the Learning

Community•Engage all participants in active inquiry

•Make administrators, teachers, students, and parents active participants in the learning process

•Encourage innovation

•Share and celebrate successes

The goal is not to innovate the most

It is not to have the best ideas

Appreciate the implementation dip

Redefine resistance

Reculturing is the name of the game

Never a checklist, always complexity

Michael Fullan

The Process of Change

Systemic change is a multi-year process

and keeps you engaged

in continuous inquiry for improvement.

- Abel Real, Graduate,Greene Central High School

“Technologyhelped

me to create, learn, explain,

document, and analyze the different

aspects of my life.”

Congressional Testimony

There is a Siletz Indian proverb that captures why so many of us love teaching -

One who learns from one who is learning drinks from a

running stream.

We read and write and stay current on best practices so that our students can “drink

from a running stream.”