Volume III, Number 12, March 31, 2000
A publication of the Resource Center for Charter Schools
© Resource Center for Charter Schools
All Rights Reserved
 

GOVERNOR’S GRANTS TEAM GRANT WRITING WORKSHOP
Friday, April 14, 2000  9:30 a.m. -- 4:00 p.m.
Mexican American Unity Council Building
2300 W. Commerce  San Antonio  210-978-0500
Rita Stephan, Instructor

The Charter School Resource Center will charge $20 for this workshop.  Please send your payment payable to the Charter School Resource Center by April 10, 2000.  You must call Sara at the Resource Center, 210-348-7890, to RSVP by April 10th.

CONGRATULATIONS to Raul Yzaguirre Charter School who has formed an educational partnership with the Mexican government.  In celebration of Cinco de Mayo and courtesy of the Mexican government, twelve Raul Yzaguirre students will take a 5-day all expense paid trip to Mexico City to tour government facilities and museums and visit with the President of Mexico.  Congratulations to Richard Farias and his students.

CONGRATULATIONS to Southwest Prep Charter for winning the 1999-2000 San Antonio Charter School Basketball League Championship.

ALL CHARTER AMENDMENTS for the May State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting are due in the TEA Charter School office, fax # 512-463-9732, by Friday, April 7, 2000.
 
 

March 8, 2000

To: AP Coordinator

Texas Lutheran University, in cooperation with The College Board, is hosting One and Two-Day Workshops for educators during the month of April, 2000.  Enclosed are fliers we would appreciate your distributing on your campus or in your district.  These workshops are the following:

• Administrators -- April 10
• Building Success -- English -- April 15 and 16
• Building Success -- Social Studies -- March 31 and April 1
• Vertical Teams -- April 7 and 8
• Powerpoint -- April 7
• Polaroid Education Program -- April 27

Soon you will receive brochures with much more information on our Advanced Placement Summer Institutes to be held on our campus July 17-21, 2000.  The institutes are for teachers from high schools and middle schools who teach advanced placement courses or Pre-AP.  We have developed  Special Workshops during that week for Administrators, Counselors and AP Coordinators, and Building Success.

Thank you for your assistance in distributing this information.  Please call me at 1-800-771-8521 if I may answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely yours,
 
 

Arline Patterson, Ed.D.
Director, Extended Learning
Email: apatterson@txlutheran.edu

1000 West Court Street, Seguin, Texas  78155  35 miles east of San Antonio

Institutes Offered for High School and Middle School Teachers
 

Interact with trained workshop leaders as you actively explore ways to give your students the analytical skills that are fundamental to Advanced Placement (AP®) classes and college-level work.

Participants in the workshop will:

1. Identify classroom approaches that support deep understanding.

2. Develop strategies that encourage students to ask questions and draw inferences.

3. Learn the SOAPS technique for critical reading and analytical writing.

4. Get a solid grasp of how to construct good verbal and written arguments.

5. Explore the attributes of a classroom that has high student engagement.

6. Determine the best way to assess complex performance.

7. Practice creating interdisciplinary lesson plans.

8. Work with instructors from other grade levels to develop an articulated curriculum.
 

• The Building Success workshop and materials were developed by a national team of educators assembled by the Advanced Placement Program of the College Board
• The workshop is particularly appropriate for English and history teachers of grades 7 and up.  It has been designed particularly for schools serving students traditionally underrepresented in the college population.

Administrator’s Workshop
9:00 a.m. -- 3:00 p.m., Monday, April 10
Designed for instructional leaders: principals, superintendents, central office and campus administrators, AP Coordinators.

W.C. Smith, Goose Creek ISD, Baytown
The workshop will include basic information about the College Board and the Advanced Placement Program.  The Agenda will also include suggestions about how to begin and sustain an AP program, the Texas Legislative AP Incentive, a model for meaningful inclusion of students into AP classes, and aht who, how, and what about vertical teams.  W.C. Smith was recognized with an Administrator Award for his contribution to Advanced Placement by the  College Board in 1997.  As director of curriculum in the district, W.C. is responsible for the AP program in two large minority high schools whose students take more than 500 exams annually.

Building Success for English
8:30 a.m. -- 3:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16, 2000

Kathy Alsobrook, Lamar Middle School, Austin
You will develop strategies that encourage students to ask questions and draw inferences, identify classroom approaches that support deep understanding: learn the SOAPS technique for critical reading; determine the best way to assess complex performance, practice creating interdisciplinary lesson plans; and more.  A teacher for 13 years in high school and middle school, Kathy chose to move to middle school for help students build skills they need to be successful.  A College Board consultant for five years, Kathy is trained in a variety of strategies to get all students, not just AP, to buy in and implement techniques for improvement.  Cost: $185 includes The College Board manual, lunches, and breaks.

Building Success for Social Studies
8:30 a.m. -- 3:30 p.m., March 31 and April 1, Heln dining Hall

Gwen Cash, Clear Creek High School, Clear Lake ISD, Houston
Gwendolyn Cash received her B.A. and M.Ed. from the University of Texas at Austin and teaches Advanced Placement and Regular U.S. History at Clear Creek High School.  She is a trained College Board consultant, conducting workshops in Texas and Oklahoma as well as workshops for region service centers and school districts in AP and Pre-AP U.S. History and Building Success.  Gwen is currently serving on the AP Advisory Council for the Southwest Region of the College Board and is on the development team of teachers for the AP Social Studies Vertical Teams Guide.  Fee is $185 which includes manual, lunches and breaks.

Vertical Teams -- English     Two-Day Conference
8:30 a.m. -- 3:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, April 7 and 8, 2000

Jane Goodner, Smithson Valley High School, Comal ISD, New Braunfels
(formerly of Sterling High, Baytown)
Designed for administrators and teachers of AP English Literature, AP English Language, High School English, Middle School English, Pre-AP English, this conference will offer a review of The College Board Vertical Teams text, which is useful for working with AP objectives at various grade levels.  At the conclusion of the two days, each teacher will have:

• Goals and objectives for the vertical team
• A curricular unit
• Original grade-appropriate essay prompts and multiple choice questions
• Rubrics developed to score holistically
• Course agreements for students and parents

MS Powerpoint
8:30 a.m. -- 3:30 p.m., Friday, April 7, Beck Center Lab

Christine Smallwood, Computer Science Professor, Texas Lutheran University
Christine will teach planning, creating and editing a presentation, using designs and templates, using layouts, inserting tables, deleting slides, rotating objects in a slide, inserting and creating charts and graphs, navigating the slide show, creating handouts and notes, using a kiosk to automate a slide show, animation, sound and video, inserting clip art, formatting slides, and using the Web with hyperlinks.  Cost is $95 which includes lunch.

Polariod Education Program
3:00 p.m. -- 5:00 p.m., Thursday, April 27, 2000
Hein Dining Room Hall

Visual Learning Workshop with Tim Gangwer
An acclaimed teacher workshop that addresses the use on instant photography and visual learning strategies.  Learn techniques of effective visual storytelling with a discussion of how to organize, edit, and present visual elements.  This is a multi-level, multi-subject workshop.  Improve your students’ creative writing.  Cost if $40 includes a Polaroid 300 series camera, film and curriculum materials.
 
 

Name:_____________________________________ School:_____________________________________

Address:___________________________________ City:__________ State:__________ Zip:__________

Home Phone:______________________ Work Phone:______________________

SSN:______________________________________

Make checks payable to Texas Lutheran University.

Dear High School Counselors/Career Counselors,

Please share this information with parents of students coming to Texas Tech in the fall of 2000.

We are offering an intensive, day-long workshop entitled “Getting Ready for College.”  This workshop is appropriate for students planning to enter any college or university, not  just Texas Tech.  It is especially designed for high school juniors and seniors and entering college freshmen to clarify their career interests, abilities, personality style, values, strengths, study skills, and appropriate academic majors.  This workshop provides 5-6 hours of testing in interests, abilities, values and personality.  The program is 4 fold:

First, you receive a packet of tests and inventories which explore interests personality, academic majors, work values and study skills.  The inventories are completed at home by the student long before the one day intensive workshop.

Second, is a day-long intensive workshop where we analyze the results of the tests and inventories.  We clarify academic majors and career directions.  The workshop then reviews 25 key factors that can promote a very successful freshman year.  The results of the testing and one day workshop is to develop a “street smart” freshman who knows themselves and understands the university environment, challenges and opportunities.  The resulting effect is:

• Knowledge of their interests, abilities, values/strengths, clarifying academic major and career decisions

• Knowledge of personality characteristics that can help or hinder them in their educational directions

• Understand the reason for success or failure in college, and get maximum results form academic efforts

• The development of personal goals and directions in their lives

• The knowledge of college study skills, time management and academic strategies for use in college

Third, all participants will receive an audio tape set that covers all topics of the workshop and more.

Fourth, optional bi weekly meetings will be held throughout the Fall Semester where participants can discuss and work out academic adjustment issues.

The Getting Ready for College workshop has been presented at state and national conferences and three international conferences.  This one-day intensive approach with pre-workshop testing has shown significant results on improving students’ adjustment to college and improving their freshman GPA.  The June and July workshops are also available to students who may go to a university other than Texas Tech.
 

For more detailed information on the workshop, presenter, topics and the inventories, visit our website at http://www.ttu.edu/~center/grfc.html

HOW DO I REGISTER?
Just fill out the form below indicating your choice of session and return with your check in the amount of $95.00, payable to Texas Tech University.  Send to: Texas Tech University Counseling Center, P.O. Box 45008, Lubbock, Texas, 79409-5008.  (You can also register for the Fall sessions by coming by the registration table during Feshman Orientation in the summer.  This program is beyond normal services to students, therefore the reason for the additional costs -- you don’t add this to your normal class registration schedule.)  The student will immediately be sent a packet of inventories.  It will take approximately 5 hours to complete the testing at home.  Send all the materials back in the return envelope provided in the packet as soon as possible.  All materials will have been scored and waiting by the time the workshop begins.  (The deadline is at least 3 weeks prior to your session to allow for scoring of all inventories.)

WORKSHOPS:  SUMMER 2000

June 13  Tuesday     Name: _________________________________SSN:______-______-______

June 17  Saturday

June 20 Tuesday     Home Address:_{__________________________________________________________}

June 24  Saturday

June 27  Tuesday     City:_____________________________State:_____________ZIP:_________

July 15  Saturday

July 19  Wednesday     Home Phone:(          )___________________________________________

July 23  Saturday

Campus/Local Phone: (          )__________________________

August 19  Saturday

August 26  Saturday     If you would like to pay by credit card:

August 27  Sunday       Name on card:_{_________________________________________________________}

_{__American Express  __Discover  __Master Card  __Visa}

_{Expiration Date:_______________________}

_{Card Number:__________________________________}

_{Signature:_____________________________________}

Please indicate your choice of sessions and return with your payment of $95.00, payable to Texas Tech University, P.O. Box 45008, Lubbock, Texas, 79409-5008.  Please be sure to return the completed packet as soon as possible.  No refunds will be given after the last scheduled workshop.  For more information call (806) 742-3674.  Thank You.

Represents a  workshop one day before a Freshman Orientation session.