RAINSHADOW

STAFF
DEVELOPMENT
VOL. II ISSUE 1
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Swea The Art Auction was a great success in
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May of 2010. Staff members greet
incoming guests.

Professional Development Schedule

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

7:30-8:30 Personal Time Personal Time Personal Time Personal Time

8:30-9:30 Welcome Back!! Staff binder, policies, and Benchmarking students, pacing guides Leave for Equus Insight Infinite Campus Training
procedures for courses

9:30-10:3 Microworlds and Models brainstorm: Resource Accreditation: Attendance incentives and Staff Development Insurance Discussion
list, collaborations, cadre system peer mediation, new progress report, Infinite Campus
0 incorporating portfolios, alternative
schedules

10:30-12 Linking theme to common core standards, Ferpa, HSPE Testing, Child Abuse Staff Development First Day Back Review, Duty
review portfolio guidelines and standards, Protocol, Community Resources, List, Donors Choose and
remove RS standards and move to core Rainshadow Counseling Services Donations
standards

12-1 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch

1-2 Personal Time Student Orientation Return from Equus Insight Personal Time

2-3 Personal Time Student Orientation Personal Time Personal Time

3-4 Personal Time Personal Time Personal Time Personal Time

Rainshadow Community Creating Empowered Community Members Through Real-World Education

Charter High School

2010
As staff and faculty, we work hard to expose students to a variety of experiences in the local
community. We want our students out learning from the world and feeling empowered to have an
active voice in changing the world. Our students should be out there getting their hands dirty and
their minds active as they grow as young adults.
 2010-2011 Staff Goals Eno Boards, Staff Wish Team Building with Horses
Lists, Duty List
To Do List for this Infinite Campus Training Accreditation/SIP Review
RTI, Aimsweb, and

Staff Development Thematic Development

and Partnerships
Reading Intervention Insurance

Class Syllabi Discussing the First Day

August 2010 Policies and Procedures
Transitioning to Core
Discussion of the Cadres Standards

Year Three Theme: Microworlds and Models

After our previous staff development day, the
faculty determined that we would go ahead with
the theme Microworlds and Models. While it
may seem to be a science-based theme, the
reality is that much of the science lends itself to
other areas of study. The faculty also
determined to make this a whole school theme,
though there will be special attention paid to
junior level links across the curriculum. In
2011-2012, the year four theme will be used
with a specific focus on seniors and the year
three theme will be used with Juniors as a
focused theme. By 2012-2013, all classes will
be organized by theme. There will be six
cadres of students moving through these themes.
To begin looking at the year-long theme, we will
first evaluate everything that has been put
together at this time by faculty and staff. A
Social Community and Physical
Environment
Quarter 1 Quarter 2
Truckee Meadows The Lives of a Cell:
Microcosm from stem cells to fuel
cells
Similarities and Cellular Makeup
Differences
comparison between our portfolio requirements
for year three Rainshadow students will be
compared to what is being developed for the
year-long theme Microworlds and Models. This
process has been started. From this point, we
will begin to think about potential connections
between each of the disciplines. Brainstorming
of specific activities and projects, as well as field
experiences, will occur. Collaborations between
individual instructors to map out projects will
also be a focus.
The hope for this curriculum is that it can serve
as a skeletal framework for year three students
at Rainshadow well into the future.
Modifications will occur annually, but having a
basic framework will help the curriculum
continue to improve.
Utopias and Dystopias: One
Individual’s Play
Quarter 3 Quarter 4
The Lives of an Atom Model Universes—
Near and Far
Positive and Negative Storytelling
Forces
Theme Resources
Thematic ideas and websites to
support the theme: Microworlds and
Models in its first quarter. More
resources to be assembled for the Staff
Development in August of 2010.
Truckee Meadows Microcosm
www.truckeemeadowstomorrow.org
a site focused on improving the quality
of life in the Truckee Meadows using
ten different indicators, including
health and well-being.
www.thinking.net
an interesting site devoted to systems,
creativity, and thinking.
www.plannevada.org
a site that looks at some of the
pressing issues facing Nevadans. (See
also www.myspace.com/102215794
to view Citizens for Sensible Growth or
www.theurbanblog.com)
www.almanac.com
a site where you can gather data from
all over the world, including weather
and a calendar with all kinds of
interesting tidbits!

www.newtoreno.com/nonprofits
a great site with all kinds of links and
resources for everything Reno.

Health and Well-being Interactions Matter in the Universe Revolutions and www.volunteermatch.org
Rotations a site that will link you to volunteer
experiences anywhere in the country.

http://dsa.nevadaculture.org
Constitutions Divisions Compounds and Motion links to state library and archives for
Mixtures Nevada, the arts council, and Nevada
history resources. All kinds of good
Nevada stuff!

Migrations and Spontaneous Quantum Mechanics The Unknown

Expansions Generation

Starting the New School
Year: Setting Personal and
Professional Goals
As you begin a new year, it is important to reflect on
what you have done and what you wish to do. The
new year affords you the opportunity for change and
growth. At the end of last year, each of you wrote
down goals that you had for yourself for the new
year. Think back on those goals. How will you
implement them in your day to day practice?
Just as you are thinking of your personal goals, we
must begin to think about goals for the school. What
do we wish to see Rainshadow become? What is
the school expected to achieve? What are some
concerns that we have about our current progress?
What would make our progress better?
1. Vision of Rainshadow:
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2. School Goals:
__________________________________________
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3. Day to Day Implications:
__________________________________________
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4. My Personal Stake:
__________________________________________
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__________________________________________
__________________________________________
5. How will all in the community be a
part of this process?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
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Visioning our school is the first step to seeing that
vision implemented. Each of us has a responsibility
to model goalsetting and “dreaming” for our
students. Having a vision in mind provides the start
of a road map to achieve the vision. Think about
looking at your goals, and the school’s goals, and
incorporating time for your students to set goals.
One great site to support this process is:
www.legacyproject.org. There are many goalsetting
sheets for students out there, see Toby for some
examples.
The First Day Back...
Setting Your Classroom Up for Success
Remember: Students wish to know you and
each other just as you need to know them.
While you may know many of your students, you
won’t know all of them. And, they may not know
each other. Allow for time to get to know each other
every day. It is more important than your curriculum.
Try using get to know you games, goalsetting
activities, or icebreakers. Create a climate in your
classroom where students know that you value who
they are.
Set Your Expectations
While you will spend some time getting to know each
other in the first weeks, it is also important to set
your expectations and make those expectations
clear. Expectations for classwork and work ethic, for
classroom procedures, for classroom rules, and for
school rules should be set and followed. Think
about spending some time discussing the rules as a
class and allow your students to interpret what the
rules mean to them. Day one is the day that you set
your classroom management, but the process
carries on throughout the school year. Review your
classroom management system with students (and
with yourself.) Use Rainshadow TERMS as a
starting point for discussion.
Get Your Students Moving
Even on day one, it’s important that students have a
chance to access the curriculum. Look at the
amount of time that they are in your class, and think
about how you can break up the time so that you are
meeting social-emotional needs as well as beginning
to sow seeds for the academic needs. Discuss the
school theme, and how it is a part of Rainshadow.
Value Your Time Together
Use your class time to your advantage. Remember,
class begins at a certain time and ends at a certain
time. During that time, students should be actively
working to reach certain goals. If students finish
their work early, use the extra time as time to reflect
on what was achieved in the class period. Working
time is important.
Be In The Moment
Try to stay in the present moment. As an
experienced teacher, you know what to do. Don’t
dwell on what happened in the past or what you
need to have done for the future. When you are
teaching, you are responding to what is going on in
the present moment. Leave all your baggage at the
door, and encourage your students to do the same.
Steal Ideas From Others!
Check out www.educationworld.com/
back_to_school/index.shtml#first_day for some great
icebreaker ideas. There are so many great tools
available. Try to pick up at least one new one!
Enhanced Anchored
Instruction and Math
Gains
Research has shown that using enhanced,
anchored instruction more students suffering
from a math learning disability. Often, when
students fall behind or have difficulty with their
math skills, the focus becomes on “drill and kill”
methods. Students are taught skills they don’t
understand using direct instruction. This does
not help students to understand what they are
doing. “Among older students, interventions
usually target the students’ recall of math facts,
procedural competency with algorithms, or
their ability to solve word problems. Teachers
of low achieving students often put off
introducing more complex and interesting
problems until after the students have
mastered the basics. The delay can reduce
the students‘ motivation to learn math all
together” (Bottge, Rueda, Grant, Stephens, &
Laroque, 2010). To combat this trend, several
authors have been working with the enhanced
anchored instruction (EAI) model. The idea is
to emphasize problem solving over
computational skills. EAI uses a mixture of
video-based problems (called anchors) and
hands-on projects such as building skateboard
ramps or compost bins.
Through previous research, students made
gains in their problem solving, however
minimal effects were made to their
computational skills. It was felt that students
would develop a need to know attitude that
would carry them through some of the
concepts they did not understand. This
worked sometimes, and when it did not, the
authors used a direct instruction approach. It
was noted that when the direct instruction
approach was attempted, more students tuned
out and turned off because it too closely
resembled the type of educational experience
they had encountered previously. As a result,
this new study looked at two variables: EAI
and informal instruction and EAI and formal
instruction.
The results of the study concluded that
students who received EAI and informal
instruction on an as needed basis made
statistically significant gains in their
computational skills, which did not occur
previously. Students who received formal
instruction did even better.
The implications of this article are that the use
of classroom tools focused on problem solving
will help a variety of students, regardless of
their skill levels. This focus is a 21st century
goal. In the beginning, EAI only used its video-
based problems. It is now beginning to add
supports to this instructional model. There
must be a balance between direct and
constructivist methods. Becoming to aligned
with one side or the other can actually inhibit
the learning of some students. Both types of
instruction can coexist, and can produce
encouraging results.
Bottge, B. A., Stephens, A. C., Rueda, E., Grant, T. S., & Laroque,
P. T. (2010) Anchoring problem-solving and computation
instruction in context-rich learning environments. Exceptional
Children, 76(4), 417–437.

Benchmarking Students
Use Week One As Your Chance to See How
Students Are Doing
This year, we will be benchmarking our students
abilities in the core areas of reading and
mathematics throughout the first week of school.
Students will be assigned a temporary Advisory
Class. The instructor in this class will be using the
time to discuss rules, and benchmark students.
Each day, a different assessment will be
completed. Students will complete the Reading
MAZE, a Reading CBM where the student will read
aloud for 60 seconds, a Math CBM, and a Math
Assessment developed by Rainshadow.
A Note About Benchmarking...
Typically, a student will take a benchmark
assessment three times. The middle score is the
score used as the starting point. For our purposes,
we will benchmark with three assessment for the
Math CBM and the Reading MAZE. For the
Reading CBM, due to the nature of the
assessment, only one assessment will be done. I
will support the teacher completing the assessment
on that day. For the Math Assessment, it is a 12
minute assessment to help the math instructors
have an idea of where their students skills lie.
Aimsweb CBM Testing Times
Each test is meant to be a snapshot of what
students are able to do. The skills measured are
considered to be important skills to student
success. While the math skills measured aren’t
considered high school level skills, the speed with
which a student can work through the problems
indicates the level they are performing next to
peers their age across the country.
MAZE: 3 minutes
M-CBM: 4 minutes
R-CBM: 1 minute
Math Assessment: 12 minutes
Classroom Management
with Love and Logic
Jim Faye first created his love and logic model for
parents. It has since been modified to support the
classroom. If you have time, check out his work. A
couple of key ideas that seem to fit with our goals
at Rainshadow are as follows:
RULE #1
Adults set firm limits in loving ways without anger,
lecture, or threats.
RULE #2
When a child causes a problem the adult hands it
back in loving ways.
1. In a loving way, the adult holds the child
accountable for solving his/her problems in a way
that does not make a problem for others.
2. Children are offered choices with limits.
3. Adults use enforceable statements.
4. Adults provide delayed/extended consequences.
5. The adult’s empathy is “locked in” before
consequences are delivered.
Do not warn students about consequences in
advance. Just indicate that you will respond to
each problem in an individualized manner,
depending upon the unique situation.
Here are two examples of Love and Logic lists:
Classroom Expectations (Example #1)
1. Feel free to do anything that does not cause a
problem for anyone else.
2. I teach when there are no distractions or other
problems.
3. I listen to students who raise their hand.
4. I listen to one person at a time.
5. Please treat me with the same respect I treat
you.
6. If someone causes a problem, I will do
something.
7. What I do will depend on what happened and
what the person is willing to do to solve
the problem.
Classroom Expectations (Example #2)
1. I allow students to remain in my classroom as
long as they do not cause a problem for
anyone else.
2. If they cause a problem, I will ask them to fix it.
3. If they can’t or will not fix it, I will do something.
4. What I do will depend on the unique situation.
When making disciplinary decisions, ask yourself,
"How is my proposed intervention consistent with
my Core Beliefs of discipline that I have included in
my plan and my posted list of expectations?"
Encourage yourself to handle discipline problems
on a case-by-case manner, focusing on the unique
characteristics of each situation.
If you don't know what to do at any given moment,
delay the consequence, refer to your plan, and
discuss possible solutions with other teachers, your
administrators, the child's parents, or others.
Your goal is to achieve consistency by basing each
of your decisions on this same set of values or
principles…rather than trying to treat every
problem the same using a "cookbook" approach.
Consistency with values is more attainable than
consistency between students, situations, and
consequences.
An Example of a Love and
Logic Classroom Discipline
Plan
Guidelines and Code of Ethics for Discipline
Mrs. Krochmal 1996–97
Rules in my classroom are few. I believe that as all
children are different, and all actions and reactions
very personal in nature, effective discipline involves
a few overriding tenets rather than a long list of
specific rules. Situations are dealt with as they
arise with the focus on enabling the child to grow
and learn from his or her actions.
Guidelines for Student Behavior
1. You may engage in any behavior which does no
create a problem for you or anyone else in the
world.
2. If you find yourself with a problem, you may
solve it by any means which does not cause a
problem for anyone else in the world.
3. You may engage in any behavior that does not
jeopardize the safety or learning of yourself or
others. Unkind words and actions will not be
tolerated.
In ensuring that the above guidelines are adhered
to, I will operate with the following principles as my
guide:
1. I will react without anger or haste to problem
situations.
2. I will provide consequences that are not punitive
but that allow the child to experience the results
of a poor choice, enabling him or her to make
better choices in the future.
3. I will proceed in all situations with the best
interest of the child who—foremost in my mind—
academic, social and emotional well-being will
be fostered.
4. I will guide students toward personal
responsibility and the decision-making skills they
will need to function in the real world.
5. I will arrange consequences for problem
situations in such a way that the child will not be
humiliated or demeaned.
6. Equal is not always fair. Consequences will be
designed to fit the problems of individual
students, and they may be different even when
problems appear to be the same.
7. I will make every effort to ensure that, in each
situation, the students involved understand why
they are involved in consequences.
8. If I at any time act or react in a way that a child
truly feels is unjust, that student need only say to
me, “I’m not sure that’s fair.” I will arrange a
private conference during which the student can
express to me why he or she feels my actions
were not fair. This may or may not change my
course of action. I am always open to calm,
rational discussion of any matter.
 School August September October

Events 23
Staff: Welcome Back!
6
No School: Labor Day
1
Cardboard Box City
The following displays
upcoming events, discussions,
accreditation concerns, etc.
24 23 25
Count Day
Orientation Professional Development

25 30 28
Equus Insight training Professional Development
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Students Return

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff at end up with a major case of burnout. So ask
yourself, is it smarter to live life out of balance or
Work to get involved in other aspects of your life?

Richard Carlson, Ph. D. To begin this process, evaluate your priorities

outside of work. If you had to pick one, what
Prevent Burnout would be the most important? Whatever it is,
exercise or meditation, art or reading, begin to
You may find yourself feeling a little frustrated at carve some time out for it by looking at your
various points of the school year. Part of this is calendar. This may be before school, or right after
natural. There are ways to prevent feeling so school. Whatever it is that you love to do, it will be
overwhelmed that the very idea of “school” is worth it. It will help you create a more balanced,
repulsive. growth-oriented life. It’s inconceivable that you
wouldn’t feel better about life and about yourself
by creating some balance. And as an added
The keys seem to be balance and growth.
bonus, you’ll prevent burnout. It’s really that
Balance in life, and growth-oriented. To be
simple.
balanced in life means that there is a life outside
of work. A balanced life allows for time to be
spent with friends and family, exercise, hobbies,
free time, and as a contributing community
member. Growth-oriented means that specific
goals are set, and working towards those goals by
working hard is important. Individuals who have
both balance and growth in their lives are open to
learning new things, reflective, curious, and enjoy
listening to others.

An uplifting, positive attitude is also important.

People who avoid burnout have outside interests,
and take advantage of their time away from work.
They are fulfilled and nourished outside of work, When instruction is too constrained
and can then carry a freshness to work. The old
excuse “I don’t have time to have a life” is a
narrow, shallow, and extremely short term way of
and repetitive, it can dampen students’
looking at your life and your career. The truth is,
for most people, if you don’t “get a life”, you will enthusiasm to learn.

-J. Boaler