Spanish-American Institute
Faculty
and Staff Meeting and Workshop Minutes
September 8, 2007
TO: All Faculty=
and
Staff
Schedule: The Faculty and Staff Meeting started at 10:30
am. The Workshop convened at =
11:15 am.
and ended at 1:00 pm.
Attendance: J. Arbai, F.A. Bush, E. Castillo, =
L.
Concepcion, G. Diaz, D.V. Ferraro, J. Gaylan, L. Grajo, L. Hernandez,, E.
Manliclic, M. Marcus, D.I. Mumkaya, E. Nibeyro, N. Panganiban, C. Prager, E.
Ramos, P. Schiffman, A. Tulda=
nes,
A. Verbine, B. Zohairi.
President’s
Report: Mr. Ferraro welcomed everyone.
ACICS Self-Study and Site Visit: He reported that the Self-Study process is almost
complete. We can look forward=
to an
ACICS evaluation site visit some time next year.
Computer Room Use: Faculty in non-computer courses may bring their
students to the Computer Room for lesson-related activity. Please first coordinate the visit =
with
Dr. Prager.
I-Pods: Mr.
Ferraro thanked M. Marcus, A. Verbine, and
Classroom Doors: He asked faculty to make sure that the space beh=
ind
classroom doors remained free so that students arriving late could enter
easily.
Lockers:
Faculty
should clean out lockers of material they no longer use. If using a locker that was previou=
sly
used by a faculty member who is no longer at the school, faculty are asked =
to
dispose of the contents, except for textbooks, tapes, videos, etc. that bel=
ong
to the school. Please return =
any
such items to Mr. Ferraro.
Hot Beverage Service: The free high-quality hot beverage service to
celebrate the school’s anniversary was very well received. Faculty and staff will continue to
receive hot beverages without cost.
Students will be charged a modest amount going forward.
Chair
Reports
=
L. Hernandez, Business Chair:
Lilliam
Hernandez spoke about the wealth of material available for teaching on the
Internet. She illustrated with
several math-teaching activities from the Internet.
&=
nbsp; Faculty: ESL faculty expressed concern =
about
excessive repetition of the same lessons in different ESL classes at the sa=
me
level each day or week. Sever=
al
recommendations were made about how to “repeat” material
constructively. We will revie=
w the
unit start schedule again with faculty.
Academic Dean's Report
Workshop: “Video-Prompted Lessons̵=
2;The NorthStar Model”
q predicting
q focusing
q checking comprehension=
q discussing
q writing
1. Working with students =
to
“decode” the questions.
Make sure students understand the question’s different parts.<=
span
style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Make sure students understand that=
they
need to respond to everything the questions asks=
.
2. Brainstorming possible
responses to each part of the questions and listing these possible response=
s on
the board so that students have the raw material with which to work.
3. Guiding them in the
development of their written response.&nbs=
p;
For
example, the NorthStar Intermediate’s video writing question is: “Write about your personal
style and how it has or hasn’t changed over the years. What factors in you life have infl=
uenced
the way you dress” ?
Decoding the Question: The question has three components,=
each
of which students must respond in their writing—
1. Their personal style.<= o:p>
2. Changes, if any, over =
the
years.
3. Factors in their life =
that
influenced their way of dressing.
Brainstorming Material: Ask several students to talk about their persona=
l style. Write their answers on the board u=
nder
the first part of the question. Do
the same for the second and third question elements.
Guiding the Writing: Ask students how many paragraphs they think they
might need to answer the writing question (at least 3). Brainstorm some topic sentences fo=
r each
paragraph.