Robert Samelson

11/27/2017
EDUC 450-003
EDUC 450 Staff Meeting Reflection

On October 25, I attended three meetings with my co-operating teacher, Mr. Bruce

Holbert. The three meetings were a general staff meeting, an advisory staff meeting, and then a

department meeting. The general staff meeting began with a shout-out, having staff members

basically giving kudos to other staff members in regards to recent accomplishments they had

done. Then the topic transitioned to the changes in how purchasing cards will be used and

finished off with discussing upcoming athletics and the results of the schools athletics from the

previous week. Following the staff meeting, each teacher went to their respective advisory

meeting. The core of the advisory meeting was going over any celebrations, concerns, and

questions of the advisory process and the discussing of CC, or Career Cruising, a program

within PSD for students to track out potential careers that match their interests. The final meeting

was a Social Studies Department meeting, which went over various topics regarding the Social

Studies Department.

I felt that staff meetings and department meetings are highly necessary for teachers to

attend and was illuminating to see what these kind of meetings consist of. The Staff meeting that

I attended, however, was not that informative and was mostly focused on the shout out at the

beginning. Much of the information covered during the meeting simply could have been

disseminated through an email. The department meeting showed how diverse of an environment

a social studies can be.

It may be due to a lack of exposure to it, but I am not the biggest fan of the advisory

concept that Fossil Ridge incorporates. I feel that this can be something dealt with as a single

class during either a students freshmen or sophomore year (we had a course called Critical
Skills when I was a sophomore at Fort Collins High), or something that a counselor can be

utilized for, as opposed to having content teachers supervising it. In addition, I felt it was

inefficient to have the department meeting at the other end of the school from the advisory

meeting. This does also stem from (as it appeared to) not having departments having their offices

and classrooms in the same area and having them scattered throughout the school. Fort Collins

has a more efficient system, having departments located in like hallways, along with their

classrooms.