leadership in high schools

6 teachers with general and special education have attended the High Schools New Face Conference developed and directed by the Joint management teams of the Western New York BOCES.  Here is the impact so far:

1. 3 teacher blogs
2. 1 administrator blog
3. 2 teacher web pages
4. Teacher use of 7 smart boards which has led to interactive student learning and engagement
5. use of USB memory sticks by faculty and students
6. Teacher use of IPODs
7. a more positive outlook of student outcomes by all who work with them
8. Program collaboration with local colleges sparked by student visitations and resulting in grater student enrollments in post-secondary education
9. Program collaboration with local agencies including Chautauqua Works this past summer 2008, resulting in student employment both on and off campus
10. school wide support and collaboration with local capacity artists and the Southern Chautauqua County Arts Council which has led to a NYS arts council grant last year which brought local puppeteers into our school programs and the writing of a bigger grant that will lead hopefully to school wide arts infusion. 
11. The opening of a self-contained high school classroom focussed on a wholistic approach to education including work force preparation and the development of work ready skills – computer data entry, desk top publishing etc.
12. The implementation of two English Literature grants – Read Across America and the Cornell University Reading project in 2008.  Novels supported by both programs include To Kill A Mockingbird and Celebrating Abraham Lincoln.
13. Recognition by NAMI, National Association for the Mentally ILL and the donation of 6 copies of the book Crazy by Pete Early.  On Oct. 12, 2008 I attended the authors presentation at Jamestown Community College, Jamestown, NY and had him sign two copies of his book for Jim Hedlund and Phyllis Caloren, High School English Teachers who work with adolescent “consumers”. 
14. Monthly student assemblies/field trips aimed at broadening the perspectives of high school students on a variety of issues
15. Weekly departmental team meetings – high school, middle school and elementary aimed at increasing professional dialogue between teachers and with the administration. 
16. A set faculty meeting agenda celebrating teachers, instructional innovation, use of technology and sharing of new teaching strategies/ideas. 

The next phase of this 2 year project is to monitor the impact of High Schools New Face Conferences in 06/07/08 on the entire campus of Hewes including instructors in our Career and Technical Programs.  A wiki developed for this purpose will send out invitations to all who attended these conferences;  a summary report will be developed and shared with other Erie 2 CC BOCES Centers in order to study the impact of this learning adventure on instruction and student learning.