OENSU June 2008 Showcase Days
What We Know Now

Date: June 12–13, 2008 (barring further cancelation for snow days) June 11 is a full day for cohort preparation. The JH will be open if your group wants to see your room for final preparation.

Time: 7:45 for breakfast, 8:30 presentations begin, 3:30 the day is over

Place: North Country Union Junior High

Numbers: Our attendance for the showcase will likely be near 300 people. We have 34 cohort groups that will be presenting over two days. Each group could expect an average of 40ish people. However, we will not know ahead of time how many will be attending each session, therefore you can estimate between 30 and 60 people depending on your room assignment.
****We have 4 large rooms at the JH that can hold more than 40.
****We have large classrooms that can cozily hold 30.
****We want to keep the cafeteria open, so we are not planning presentations to be in that room. This will be our social gathering place: breakfast, lunch, breaks, debriefing.
****With each group potentially presenting twice, you can attend six other presentations during the two Showcase days. (When you are not presenting, you are expected to attend other sessions.)
****We have time slots of 30, 45 and 90 minutes. Please contact me soon, kcurtiss@povn.com about your workshop title and short description. At that time we can discuss the time slot we would like your group to take.

Handouts: Please plan for a minimum of handouts, as we don’t have any way of knowing how many will be in each session. You will know your room assignment at least a week before. Any type of handout will need to be copied at your home school and brought with you to the Showcase. If copying is a huge issue, contact Judy at the curriculum office.

AV: Due to compatibility issues, each group will need to bring their own computer and projector. The rooms will be arranged ahead of time with chairs in place and a projection surface available. This will minimize your set up time. If there are other AV concerns, please contact Judy Boucher.
Set Up /Break Down Time: There are 15 minute breaks between each session. Please insure that someone in your group will be breaking down your equipment as soon as you are finished, as the next group will be anxious to get set up right away.

Participants Feedback: Each group will receive feedback from their participants in a quick and easy manner, which should be collected by your group at the end of each session.

Debriefing: There will be time in the scheduled two days, for your group to meet together to debrief your cohort and Showcase experiences.

Web Site Publication: An abstract of your group’s topic/learning and time to complete it will be the final ‘assignment’ for your group, Friday afternoon at the end of the Showcase. The intention is for your group’s learning to be available district-wide. The abstract will include a few questions about your topic, your learning, and will list cohort members’ names, emails and schools. All groups will be requested to complete this information at the Showcase, so the web site can be enhanced during the summer. (Prior requests for electronic submission of your cohort’s material can be ignored!)

Relicensing Credits: You will receive a certificate for 70 hours at the completion of the Showcase days on Friday afternoon.

Graduate Course: Your final grade will be a combination of two sets of material.

1. Your two writing prompts that have been graded by Dr. Erwin.
2. Your final self-evaluation using the cohort rubric that you have been using while meeting with your advisor this year. This time, it’s just you, not your group or advisor. Circle what is the most accurate reflection of your experience, substantiate your claim on the back of the rubric and turn it in with the cover sheet.


A cover sheet will be provided for you at the Showcase, to complete and sign. Attach this to your self-evaluation.

Remember to touch base with your advisor before Spring Break and again before the end of the school year, a total of three times this year.
All graduate course materials are due to the curriculum office no later than June 20. Some of you may want to complete your materials at the Showcase, turn it in and be done. Others may want to give yourselves a few days to consider your Showcase experience. Either way is fine, but please do not complete your final self-assessment until you have presented to your audience, received their feedback and have had a few moments with your group to debrief that experience.

Showcase Presentations: As you are doing your final preparation for your presentation, please consider;
****You don’t need to show all your data at the presentation. You can talk about what you did and how you did it, but your data is for your group’s learning. What you do want to show is some results of your data gathering, interesting trends or data that surprised you and insights you’ve gained from the data. A graph or chart is good especially if it’s dramatic.
****You’re secondary data is important to share in your presentation. These are the stories, insights and comments made by students/parents that validated, surprised or generated thinking for your group. Secondary data is not the numbers, it’s the experiences.
****Remember what you know about good teaching: engage your audience, have fun, generate learning for them, have fun, construct meaning and have fun and laugh a bit. It’s all good!

Questions: contact Kathy Curtiss, kcurtiss@povn.com
Ps: Although the District web site is “Under Construction”, the links to all the Professional Development pages are still there. Look to the bars on the left side of the opening page.

Click here for Final Cohort Abstract for OENSU. This abstract is to be completed Friday afternoon at the Showcase.