As my school district
continues to become immersed in Understanding by Design and Formative
Assessment, the unit plans provided in the Model Curriculum are
invaluable for lesson creation. Although the language is a little bit
different than the lesson plan format that we use, all of the components
are there. I annotated one of the unit plans to make it easier to
convert into the FA format we use (to the right is p.1):The entire Model Curriculum can be found on the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA) website under Professional Development.
In addition to our discussion on the Model Curriculum, a number of librarians expressed their concern over the new Teacher Effectiveness system that is starting to be implemented in Pennsylvania schools. Librarians fall into a unique category where some schools may consider their librarians to be "teaching professionals" and others "non-teaching professionals." Of course, "non-teaching professional" is a bit of a misnomer - even those librarians with flexible schedules teach students. For definitions, rating forms and additional information, see the information published on the PA Department of Education website. PSLA has also compiled an example framework, Guiding Questions and a Tip Sheet, which can be accessed here. As Dr. Biagini mentioned at the WCASL meeting, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) created a webinar on the evaluation of Non-Teaching Professionals. If you happen to fall into this category, it may be worth a watch.
Although I am still learning how to implement all of these materials myself, I am certainly happy to discuss any of these items with other PA librarians. While we have a lot of hurdles to overcome as school library media specialists in PA, luckily we are equipped with the tools to be successful.
