Advising Syllabus

High School Advising: The Syllabus!

Trillium Charter School 2007/8

Instructor: Ken Gadbow Phone: 503-348-9849 Office hours: Fridays 12-1

Email: Ken@TrilliumCharterSchool.org

Objectives:

Students will demonstrate their understanding of the Rights and Responsibilities of the Trillium Constitution. Students will participate in Trillium’s democratic processes to engage in meaningful discourse and understand how to affect change. Students will develop Personalized Learning Plans to follow their own interests and passions at school on the path towards graduation. Students will make progress on the Trillium Framework. Students will use advising time to maintain their student planners. Students will each select and carry-out an advising community-based job[1]. Students will participate in buddy group activities. Student and advisor will keep track of the student’s graduation requirements through course selection and the completion of the Trillium Framework.

Course Overview:

Advising has been evolving over the years at Trillium, and when it is done well, is the center of what Trillium wants to be: a place where students are encouraged to pursue their own interests and demonstrate what they have accomplished to continue to grow as learners. The advising group is the core of Trillium’s democratic model.

Framework Skills:

It is up to the individual student, and the focus of his/her learning plan, to decide what Framework goals will be accomplished in Advising. Students may pursue individual projects during this time that could meet a wide range of Framework goals. At a minimum, students should consider the following Framework standards integral to Advising:

Independence:

• Use resources responsibly
• Understand how to use the school governance and constitution
• Assess your present performance
• Reflect on both what one did learn and didn’t learn
• Set goals to improve present performance
• Revisit reflections over time and use them to understand personal changes
• Demonstrate awareness of what you’ve learned and why it matters

Framework Skills (cont.):

Community Membership:

• Practice nonviolent conflict resolution through:
• Peer to peer conversation
• The mediation process
• Judicial Committee
• Engage in the school’s democratic process through:
• Class Meetings
• All School Meeting

Cooperation:

• Work in groups together for a common goal
• Give and take, compromise and make solutions
• Lead and participate
• Demonstrate sensitivity to issues of equality and inclusion in group dynamics
• Understand and fulfill the roles and responsibilities involved in group success
• Work cooperatively within diverse populations (cultural, age, class, ethnic, gender, linguistic, sexual orientation)
• Recognize when others need help and offer it
• Make choices about seating, partners, and groups that have academic and social benefits.

Code of Conduct:

All students are expected to know and uphold the Rights and Responsibilities of the Trillium Constitution. We will use the non-violent conflict resolution process that includes conversations, mediations, and the OVRR system.

Grading policies:

Advisory is graded on a Pass/Fail basis at the end of each quarter. In order to pass advising, the student must:

• Have 80% attendance over the quarter
• Demonstrate knowledge of the Rights and Responsibilities
• Participate in class meeting every Wednesday
• Participate in monthly events with our Intermediate Buddy group.
• Develop and maintain Personalized Learning Plans
• Demonstrate progress on completing skills in the Trillium Framework.
• Plan, prepare for, and carry out an exhibition of work at the end of the quarter.

Course Schedule:

Week 1: November 11 – 17

• Add/Drop classes (Add/drop ends Friday)
• Reflect on Q2 PLP and add new goals
• Update Framework
• Gather class syllabi, place in binder
• Class Meeting on Wednesday
• Setup Portfolio file.
• No School next week November 19-23

Week 2: November 25- December 1

• Place returned Q1 work in Portfolios and Q1 Report Cards in binders. Update Transcripts
• T: Scrabble/Poker and 1:1 Meetings

Week 3: December 2 – 8

• T: Scrabble/Poker and 1:1 Meetings
• Class Meeting on Wednesday
• Parent-Student-Teacher conferences this week.

Week 4: December 9-15

• T: Scrabble/Poker and 1:1 Meetings
• Parent-Teacher-Student conferences this week.

Week 5: December 16-22

• T: Scrabble/Poker and 1:1 Meetings
• Class Meeting on Wednesday
• No School Next Two Weeks, December 24^th – January 4^th

Week 6: January 6-12

• T: Scrabble/Poker and 1:1 Meetings
• Class Meeting on Wednesday

Week 7: January 13^th – 19^th

• T: Scrabble/Poker and 1:1 Meetings
• Class Meeting on Wednesday

Week 8: January 20^th – 26^th

• Prepare for Exhibition
• No school Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Week 9: January 27^th – February 2^nd

• Last week of term
• Select Q3 Classes. 1:1 Conferencing
• Small Group Exhibitions (family and mentor invites)
• Potluck celebration (family and mentor invites)

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[1] Currently advising jobs include, but are not limited to: Astrologers, Photographers, Bloggers, Horticulturalists, Meteorologists, Ichthyologists, Party Planners, Interior Decorators, Scribes.