Departments of Berlin High School

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  AttachmentSize Invitation-Veterans Day Program 2010.pdf1.11 MB

November 2010 Lunch Menus
AttachmentSize BHS November 2010.pdf131.29 KB McGee November 2010.pdf132.66 KB Hubbard November 2010.pdf136.05 KB Griswold November 2010.pdf134.98 KB Willard November 2010.pdf134.83 KB

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*** PRESS RELEASE ***

 

 

TO:                  The Herald  (Fax 860-223-8171)

                        Hartford Courant  (Fax 860-343-5220)

                         Berlin Citizen  (Fax 860-829-5733)

 

FROM:            David B. Erwin

                        Superintendent of Schools

 

DATE:            October 22, 2010

 

 

Berlin Public Schools Embark on Instructional Rounds

 

A group of teachers, all building administrators and central office administrators have been in training since the start of the school year to prepare to begin the process of instructional rounds in each of our five schools.

 

“The rounds process is an adaptation and extension of the medical rounds model, which is used routinely in medical schools and teaching hospitals to develop the diagnostic and treatment practice of physicians… In the most commonly used versions, groups of medical interns, residents, and supervising or attending physicians visit patients, observe and discuss the evidence for diagnoses, and, after a thorough analysis of the evidence, discuss possible treatments.  The medical rounds process is the major way in which physicians develop their knowledge of practice and, more importantly, the major way in which the profession builds and propagates its norms of practice.  The rounds model embodies a specific set of ideas about how practitioners work together to solve common problems and to improve their practice.  In the education context, we call this practice instructional rounds, or rounds for short.” – excerpted from Instructional Rounds in Education:  A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning by Elizabeth A. City, Richard F. Elmore, Sarah E. Fiarman, and Lee Teitel with a foreword by Andrew Lachman

 

The rounds will focus on classroom instruction.  We will look at the instructional tasks when we visit classrooms; and we are not in rooms to pass judgment on teachers.  Our goal is to enhance educational experiences for our students and

target areas that we want to improve.  As a result of the visit, the data we gather will pave the way for change or as it is referred to in the process, “the next level of work.”

 

The Center for School Change is leading the process in Connecticut with the Superintendents’ Network.  Two cohorts of superintendents exist in Connecticut and Berlin Superintendent of Schools David B. Erwin has been a member of one of the cohorts since 2005.  The Executive Director of the Center Andrew Lachman and Education Program Officer Steve Wlodarczyk lead the work in Connecticut.  The cohorts are supported by Dr. Richard F. Elmore and Dr. Lee Teitel, both professors from Harvard.

 

Lessons will be observed by small subgroups of individuals for up to a fifteen-minute segment followed by another group, and by the time the process concludes the class should have been seen in its entirety.  At the conclusion of the visits, the debriefing and analysis begins and discussion regarding the next level of work begins.  It is vital to system growth to have teachers included in the process and they are excited to be a part of the group.

 

Laura Boutelier, from the Connecticut Center for School Change, has been our trainer in Berlin and, in addition to working with our internal team, she will be presenting an overview of the instructional rounds process to the Berlin Board of Education at their retreat scheduled for Saturday, October 30.

 

The process of visiting schools begins on Tuesday, October 26, at Griswold School.  If anyone has questions or would like to learn more about the process, please feel free to contact your child’s principal or the superintendent of schools’ office at 860-828-6581.

Green Cleaning Program
AttachmentSize Green Cleaning Program.pdf93.53 KB