"Reflections of Success"
Since beginning my tenure as chairman of the social studies department, I have been surrounded by talented teachers. The department was selected to start realignment of the social studies curriculum to standard-based. Assisted by Alice Flores (Curriculum consultant) the committee of four consisting of myself, Ben DeLeon, Steve Bsharah and Sam Myovich started creating our new course descriptions, scope and sequence and assessments called (ACES). We made presentations of our work to the California Council for the Social Studies Conferences four years in a row and were also invited to present to the California League of High Schools Conference.
We continue to make updates and make necessary adjustments to the ACES, with the work of our resource teacher Richard Watson. Realignment has been completed school wide.
After realignment, the department was again selected to begin helping teachers in the area of instructional strategies development. Assisted by Carolyn Coil (Curriculum consultant) a leadership group was formed with Steve Bsharah and me as members, in efforts to start incorporating differentiated curriculum instruction strategies. A second group was formed composed entirely of the DHS social studies department. A third group was formed this year but most our DHS social studies teachers are part of both groups. Sari Sprouse, Tammy McMahon, Alex Garcia and Steve Bsharah our veterans have been using differentiated strategies as part of their instruction in their classrooms. Newcomers Charles Kim, Cynthia Guzman and Greardo Pedraza have developed units that they are using this year as part of their instruction in their classrooms. Differentiated instructions are beginning to be used school wide by some departments.
With differentiated instruction in place in our department, the department was again selected to begin using two other instructional strategies widely used in the AVID program.
We started using Cornell Note taking three years ago and most department members are using this strategy. This year the department was part of the interactive notebook training. I appreciated the involvement of Charles Kim, Cynthia Guzman and Gerardo Pedraza in taking parting in the training.
For the future, I have been approached for help in trying to find a solution to the continuing issue of grading.
