November

AVID Meeting Minutes Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2011: 1 st  Period

Attendees: S. Albinder, R. Banks, D. Bjornstad, D. Butera, E. Carroll, A. Caruso, F. Cho, C. D’Aversa, M. DeConzo, L. D’Ottavio, D. Fornabaio, V. Glassman, M. Hankin, T. Hepworth, D. Isaac, J. Korten, E. Olivieri, C. Panazzola, L. Pillarella, M. Pizzano, Liz Ricci, V. Roberts, Kori Tjomhom, E. Tkach, A. Urban-Rahn, S. Williams,

Absent: K. Urso, M. Pona, T. Hernandez, E. Tkach, T. Dale

Last week, Cynthia Cooper of the DOE Office of AVID met with Jen and Vicky during a Technical Support Visit. Jen distributed a list (attached) of all the important questions we should be asking ourselves as a program, especially if we are going to fulfill Dr. Curtis’s vision to infuse AVID methodology throughout the school.

Jen would like to develop training strands (one in each core subject area) for the January 30 PD Day. Ms. Cooper offered to help us arrange inter-visitations with programs in other schools - perhaps McKee and Jackie O which also has a partnership with Roundabout Theatre (Jen mentioned the availability of tickets to Roundabout performances).

We should be building towards becoming an AVID Demonstration School. To help us towards that goal, we should work more actively with the AVID Essential Binder. Internal inter-visitations were suggested. Some felt that this may put staff in an uncomfortable position and had the potential for divisiveness if negative feedback were to take center stage. Donato suggested that individual teachers may invite colleagues to their classroom if they wanted to showcase a particular AVID methodology. Sam, hoped that by visiting one another and other schools, we could get fresh ideas that might further the goal of moving AVID into all Curtis classrooms.

Anne lamented the lack of tutors on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Jen indicated that we may fill that void by placing AVID Juniors into positions of responsibility in the freshmen classes.

Jen shared that Ms. Cooper hoped that each AVID group would develop their own identity – Team names (perhaps reflecting a particular college) with inter-team competitions tracked on a data board. Ron disliked the idea of publicly displaying individual student data. Sam had some ideas for making it work (Friday as Pendant Maintenance Day). Donato wants to plan for a Holiday Party (tentatively the evening of Dec. 21). Jen would like to begin an AVID Club on Wednesdays at 10 th  period.

Vicky will begin to meet with individual Guidance Counselors regarding problem AVID students.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jen asked the Team to select three items from the report on which we might focus.