1. Highlands County

2. Bill and Melinda Gates Education Foundation Grant
Initially 9 Districts in Florida Received Grant Money
Highlands Used $ to Support Implementation of the New Teacher Performance Appraisal System
District and School Administrators from Original Districts Met to Collaborate and Share Best Practices
More Recently Teachers from Around the State Attended the Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teachers and Teaching Conference in St. Pete (ECET²)
There were 9 original districts in Florida that received grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Our district used this money to support the implementation of our new performance appraisal system – working with consultants from Cambridge University to increase inter-rater reliability and deepen the understanding of the Danielson Framework. The Foundation also provided the venue for District and School administrators to come together and share best practices. Most recently, the grant funded a conference that brought classroom teachers together from across the State to collaborate.

3. Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teachers and Teaching (ECET2)
Goals
Increase teachers’ capacity for understanding and implementing the instructional shifts required to teach the Common Core State Standards, laying the groundwork for a shared understanding of effective practice.
Support and strengthen teachers’ capacity to be leaders both within their schools and beyond, with specific support for engaging in collaborative, teacher-to-teacher feedback.
Talking Points:
Empowering teachers to lead from their classroom
Many tasks require many leaders – a lot of work to be done and many things to be accomplished – administrators can’t do this by themselves
There are experts at every school – how do we identify them, give them opportunities to share their knowledge and collaborate with others to effect change
Message of change better received when it’s teacher-2-teacher
Aligned Initiatives:
The Leader in Me
CCSS
AVID
Danielson Framework for Teaching – Performance Appraisal

4. Conference Experience
ECET Video.mp4
Conference Takeaways
All of our major Initiatives are aligned and support the overall goal
Need for Teacher Leaders
Impact of Teacher-2-Teacher Collaboration
Talking Points:
Empowering teachers to lead from their classroom
Many tasks require many leaders – a lot of work to be done and many things to be accomplished – administrators can’t do this by themselves
There are experts at every school – how do we identify them, give them opportunities to share their knowledge and collaborate with others to effect change
Message of change better received when it’s teacher-2-teacher
Aligned Initiatives:
The Leader in Me
CCSS
AVID
Danielson Framework for Teaching – Performance Appraisal

5. Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project
Every teacher knows that preparing students for success takes passion, dedication and skill. The MET project's goal was to attempt to break down and measure those qualities so that other teachers can learn from those who do it best.
The video mentioned the Measures of Effective Teaching Project. While at the conference our group discussed the fact that all schools in Highlands County have great teachers. How powerful would it be for them to be able to share their knowledge and experience with other teachers across the district? How can we make this happen?

6. Highlands ECET² Vision
To Elevate and Celebrate the Effective Teachers and Teaching happening here in Highlands County.
We know that great teaching is happening all over our county every day and that every teacher has something great that others could benefit from. We want to find a way for teachers in our district to collaborate and share the amazing things they are doing with other teachers across the district – not just those on their grade level team or in their department. We want to Celebrate all the wonderful things going on in our district and give teachers an opportunity to have a district-wide impact.

7. Gathering Greatness Invest Invigorate Inspire
Phase I
ECET² Heartland
5 to 7 teachers from each school
Goals
Next Steps to CCSS Implementation
Developing Teacher Leaders
District-Wide Teacher Collaboration
Phase II
Gathering Greatness Project
Gathering Greatness is our belief that great things are happening in every classroom across the district. It’s our goal to provide a venue that spotlights those best practices. This is where you come in! We have some ideas but, we need your input.
Tentative timeframe late October early November.
Some of our ideas:
Video Collaboration – a bank of videos highlighting best practices from Highlands County Teachers
District Colleague Circles
How do we create true PLCs within our schools and across the district?
Meaningful Professional Development – targeted and differentiated

8. Let’s Go, We’ve Got Work To Do!
Jerry's Video.mp4
We want to end our presentation today the way we ended our conference in St. Pete. Jerry Lee Wright from WES was asked to give the closing. Sometimes we need a boost like this – a reminder of why we do what we do.