​In Mr. Dave Taylor’s Introduction to Engineering course, students have many experiences connected to solving real-world issues. In Mr. Taylor’s latest unit, he charged his students with designing a concrete bridge with the challenge of holding as much weight as possible while using as little material as necessary. Students were given one 80lb. bag of concrete and 8 yards of wire reinforcements.
 
The unit opened up with students researching the field of civil engineering, learning about salary, education required, and all of the sub disciplines. Mr. Taylor then had his students participate in the Question Formulation Technique (QFT). The QFT is an inquiry-based process that helps students generate many questions around a topic, or Q Focus. A Q Focus can be a statement, an image, a video, a song, or more, but it is never a question. The first time he did the QFT with students, he gave them a picture of a 19th Century aqueduct. This sparked many types of questions from students as they wondered about the construction, design, and history of the image. Once they were hooked, Mr. Taylor provided another Q Focus to get students to deeply think about their upcoming project: “We will build scale reinforced concrete bridges that accurately model real functioning bridges designed by civil engineers.” Students once again generated questions based on the statement, sparking their interest in the project at hand.

The students researched bridge design, including regulations from the Montana Department of Transportation and even the Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. From there, students engaged in the engineering design process. Working in groups, they made 3D models using Fusion 360 and continued to iterate their designs until they were satisfied with the finished product. One of the key challenges was figuring out how to make a mold to design their bridge, as they had to think about their design from a different perspective to design an inverse mold. Once they were finished, they went into Mr. Farrand’s wood shop with their final designs and physically constructed their molds with wood. Students determined how much water and wire reinforcement they wanted to use, where to place that reinforcement, and also considered how to remove their bridge from the mold without it sticking to the wood and cracking or breaking. 

​After a seven day curing process, students were ready to test out their bridges! Mr. Brisky came up with a chain hoist system as a way to evenly place weights on students’ bridges. Group A used 77.5 lbs. of concrete mix while Group B used 35.5 lbs. of mix. While Group A was able to hold 335lbs. compared to Group B’s 148.5lbs., Group B ultimately won because they held more weight with a lot less material.
 
Students were fascinated by this unit and want to try additional experiments, such as playing with the amount of water and reinforcement to see if they can improve their designs. Well done, panthers! 

By: Brendan Keiser, CA BOCES Professional Development

It’s nearing the end of the school year and detailed reports on growth and achievement are a necessity. Having visibility over progress for reading lessons, books read, assessments and detailed individual student reports has now become even easier.
 
All of our schools and students have access to Reading Eggs and Math Seeds. This is something you have heard, and used, for at least 5 years. But what may not be as familiar is the Reporting tool that provides teachers and administrators with class totals and clear averages. With a few clicks, you can drill-down much further to easily identify learning gaps, achievement, effort, improvement and more.

Teachers love the Chart View. Displayed are the class totals for time on the program, reading lessons completed, end of map quizzes completed, books read, spelling lessons completed, Lexile growth, stories written and earned rewards. With the graphic snapshots, you can see how total results are spread across the months within the year as well as progress across a class.

Table view gives you the data you need to determine the next steps in teaching and learning. With this view you can view by student or by column to identify gaps in learning and progress. The initial lesson will reflect a student’s placement based on the result of the diagnostic placement test for Reading Eggs/Math Seeds. Simply select a student from this view to get the detailed individual results.
 
The reports dashboard for Reading Eggs/Math Seeds provides teachers with an opportunity to use data to drive instruction by drilling down into each section for in-depth class and individual reports. It is an easy way to analyze student growth, strengths and weaknesses.
​
If you have any questions or want to find out more, please reach out!

​By:  Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

​As the winter snows melt and sunshine begins to extend and warm up each day, you know Spring is in the air.  At Gail N. Chapman elementary school in Randolph, 2nd grade students ‘Catapulted into Spring’ with a STEM activity that consisted of two parts.  Each student was given a bag of various materials that could be used for each part.  In part one, students could use pieces of wood, rubber bands, tape, and a spoon to create a catapult that would fly a plastic egg into the air. In part two, students needed to create a nest type structure to catch the egg.   The structure could be made out of toothpicks, lollipop sticks, jelly beans, gumdrops, marshmallows, and grass clippings.  

​The first part of the STEM challenge focused on leverage and force, as students needed to be sure their catapults could take an egg at least 6” into the air.  They experimented with various lengths for their catapult, and how much force would be needed to get the proper height and distance they were looking for.  

​The second part of their STEM challenge required their catapulted eggs to be caught in a nest type structure and they were not to touch the ground.  Students discussed various creative ways to accomplish this and were left to explore their own engineering and design.  Conversations about what design to use, and what materials worked best were taking place all over the classroom.  Once time had elapsed for their construction and building, it was time for each student to attempt to catapult their egg into their created nest.  No matter how many students were able to launch their eggs into the nest, all students succeeded in having fun and experimenting with leverage and engineering.   

By: Rob Griffith, CA BOCES Professional Development

Our annual Scholastic Challenge competition was held at Portville Central School on April 6, 2019
​Here are the results!

Junior Division - 1st place
Scio Central School (Trivia Tigers)
​Coach - Tammy Straight, Derek Ketchner, Will Broach, Jordan White, Gregory Wesche
​

Instructional greatness is the theme in Friendship Central School.  Teachers here have dedicated time and effort into making every moment in school count.  They have worked countless hours to help all students achieve success.  One way they have accomplished this is through data driven instruction. 

Planning instruction based on assessments is hard work.  Teachers in Friendship are diligently working at unpacking standards, aligning curriculum and planning lessons using the data from CA BOCES-created benchmark assessments.  This teacher tool gives educators the knowledge and understanding of student learning.  It also provides a foundation for teacher professional development.   

​Teachers engage in collegial and collaborative conversations on a regular basis.  There are numerous benefits to these conversations such as creating professional community, learning, and a culture where knowledge and respect are highly valued.  These educators are responsible for transforming classrooms as they share ideas and expertise.  The support they receive from colleagues is inspiring.  Ultimately, these professionals develop and maintain the culture of cooperation so that teachers continue to learn and students achieve.  The work in Friendship is transformational and teachers are the heart of this work. 

​By: Michelle Rickicki, CA BOCES Professional Development

On March 11th, over 100 local educators, administrators and community leaders gathered at the Restorative Practices Symposium to explore, learn and experience from experts and practitioners in the field.  The event was organized in response to the increasing interest in restorative practices in the region.  The morning consisted of a keynote speaker and three practitioner presentations, while the afternoon allowed participants to experience different aspects of restorative practices based upon interest.  Let’s take a look at what we learned about throughout the morning!

The keynote speaker, Dr. Tom Cavanagh of Colorado State University shared evidence and research specific to restorative practice in schools.  He noted the significance of creating a culture of care using the principles and practices of restorative justice in the school environment.  Dr. Cavanagh’s work with Hinkley High School in Aurora, Colorado was a great example of the application of a “culture of care” and related positive outcomes.  Based on his research, Dr. Cavanagh concluded the implications for restorative schools include improved graduation rates, decreased discipline referrals, increased learning time and greater equity.

Deb Golley and Mollie Lapi, of CA BOCES Exceptional Education Programs spoke about the implementation process and daily practices within special education programs.  They shared the reality of the 80/20 rule with restorative practices.  The majority (80%) of practices are proactive, leaving the reactive practices happening much less of the time (20%).  Therefore, reinforcing that restorative schools are heavily invested in practices that build relationships and community.  This investment enables the responsive practices, such as conferences or corrective circles, to have greater influence and success in repairing harm and relationships when harm has occurred.

Representatives from East High School in the Rochester City School District, Dr. Lia Festenstein and Michelle Garcia offered insight into the revitalization of climate and culture in an urban school, through the implementation of restorative practices.  Garcia introduced the social discipline window and noted that the ideal restorative response is a combination of high control (limit setting, discipline) and high support (encouragement, nurturing).  Dr. Festenstein highlighted the process and stages of implementation and shared details of the journey from year one into year four.  Finally, Dr. Festenstein spoke of the noteworthy impact that restorative practices has had at EAST.  Outcomes include, a decrease in school referrals and suspensions, a decrease in the severity of school offenses and a narrowing discipline gap that disproportionately punishes students of color.
​
Finally, participants heard from local superintendent Lori DiCarlo.  DiCarlo walked participants through the three tiers of restorative practices.  She illustrated how the multi-tiered system of support aligns with the restorative practices continuum and what this looks like at Randolph Academy UFSD.  For each of the three tiers, DiCarlo gave examples of what the practice looks like, how it is implemented and what the benefits are. 
 
By: Katie Mendell, CA BOCES Community Schools Coordinator