Celtic Courier: Week of Oct. 27-31

Dear Staff,

"Vision to See, Faith to Believe, Courage to Do"

What a gorgeous fall weekend! We hope you have had the opportunity to pause and gaze upon nature's array of brilliant hues of golds and reds.  As we pulled the front drapes today, the morning sun sparkled on our maple tree while scarlet and mustard leaves took our breath away.  We cannot wait to bike ride to Glacier Ridge Metro Park this afternoon and enjoy nature's beautiful pallet for 12-14 miles in the warm sunshine.  I cannot help to think of Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay" realizing that November is only a week away.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay. 

What a gorgeous sight to have in our front yard!

Enjoy the day with your families!

Friday night our football team lost 48-46 in a game filled with scoring plays and action.  It was a special Senior night for the players, cheerleaders and band members made even more special with many football alums returning for Mark Hundley's last home game.  Saturday our Girls XC ran at Pick North.  Although the team did not qualify for States, Carly Davis finished 7th overall and will go on to States next weekend. Our Girls Soccer team lost in a heart-breaker to Davidson, losing after 10 Sudden Death Penalty Kicks after OT and the regular Penalty Kick OT.

That's Angie Saiter, XC Coach, taking their traditional Selfie with the team  just prior to the Regionals! Much thanks to Kenny Schuster and Angie for their dedicated coaching.

Important Exam Info: On our first Working Wednesday I spoke with as many chairs as possible on the topic of common exams and the discussion at our recent Principal Meeting.  Because high school teachers have not had embedded collaboration time until second quarter, here is the info for semester 1 exams:

All exams should be building or district common.  Please remember the goal is to work toward district common exams, but the district and we realize it is better to give a valid and reliable building common rather than a district common that has been developed without the necessary collaboration time.

If you have questions about your semester 1 exam, please speak to an administrator.

This Week--

This week is OGT Fall Administration Week.  Please remember we have a number of new students who are testing as well as students who failed one or more sections.  It is very difficult and stressful for them to miss class every day this week so please work with them to make-up only that work necessary.

Tuesday-- Parent Breakfast in Guidance at 7 AM.

Working Wednesday-- Based on your responses to the Google Doc, your teams utilized this time very well.  Please remember that this document should be completed each Working Wednesday and that your work should focus on PLC Work and the 4 Questions.  Two additional documents are due by the end of the week: Pyramid of Interventions for your team (sent earlier in the Google Doc by Mike Aurin) and your team's SMART goals if they are not completed (Google Doc sent by me).

Please also remember to review our building's norms as part of Working Wed.

1. All team members will come to meetings promptly, stay the entire meeting and positively contribute to achieve the goal of the meeting.

2. All team members will focus on improving instruction on an ongoing basis through PLC work.

3. All team members will respect all opinions and ideas and collaborate regularly with other team members.

It is very important that your same-subject team comes together interdependently and collaboratively to ensure the same learning targets are taught in the same scope and sequence, develop valid and reliable common assessments, analyze data collaboratively in order to inform your instruction, develop collaborative intervention strategies, and develop common enrichment.  

Please remember that your same-subject team should have the same Homework policies and the same test re-take and test-correction interventions. Otherwise, students are either unlucky or lucky to have extra time and support to learn, which should not and does not happen in PLC work. We recognize this is hard work and requires a great deal of collaboration time and extra time and support from us.  

If your team is struggling to have enough time to do this important work, as we have many new teachers or teachers with new preps or wide philosophical differences, please contact us to schedule PD days. Our job is to help and support you so that every student can learn at the highest possible levels.

Need PLC resources? This valuable resource has reproducibles for your team work and good PLC information for educators.

All of your teams are working hard and PLC work is not a destination, it is a journey. As long as your team is working to get better every day, then your team is on the PLC road. Some teams are farther along than other teams and that is OK. Our mantra on our PLC journey is the same as Joseph Saphier exhorted us to do as teachers in the classroom: "This is hard work. You can do it. We will help you."

Also on Wednesday, we are hosting a Social Media Information Meeting for parents from across the district 7-8 PM in our CPA. If you would like to learn more about social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Yik Yak, Vine, Kick and how our students are utilizing them please feel free to come, either as a staff member or as a parent yourself. Chuck Collier will present important legal info regarding social media, the admin team will present info regarding school policies that apply to social media usage, and Jerome students will present social media info from a student viewpoint.

Thursday-- Trick or Treat in Dublin and many surrounding communities, 6-8 PM.

Friday-- Halloween Dress-up Day for Jerome. Prizes for best staff costumes and best departmental theme and dress-up. Football at Westerville Central.

Have a terrific last week of October! Next week's Courier will certainly feature Halloween costumes. Have fun!

Cathy

Celtic Courier: Week of 10/20-10/24

"Vision to See, Faith to Believe, Courage to Do"

Dear Staff,

What a wonderful weekend to be a Celtic!! Starting on Thursday our Girls Volleyball Team upset Liberty in their first Tourney game, and Girls Soccer upset Watterson in their first Tourney game also.  Friday night our Football team won 42-6 over Canal, and Saturday our Boys Soccer game also won their first Tourney game. Girls XC advanced to the Regionals and Tennis Vickie Chang and Rhiannon James finished 4th in the Div I Girls Doubles State Tourney!

In addition, our Girls Golf Team made OHSAA history by winning their 4th straight Div I State Championship in tough conditions.  Congratulations to CD Butcher who has established the most elite Girls Golf program in Ohio history!  Wow! Also congrats to Fred Seely our JV coach.

Coaches and players hold up 4 fingers signifying 4 straight State Championships!!

Great to see Craig Zesiger and Bryan Arnold at the State Golf Tourney cheering on our Girls!

Carly Davis proudly displays her 2nd place District Overall finish trophy.  The Girls Team also finished 2nd overall and advances to the Regionals next weekend! Carly also set a new school record! Again!

Saturday was capped by our Marching Band serving us hosts with the Scioto and Coffman bands for the first Dublin Band Invitational!  Fabulous show!

Today our Girls Tennis Team is competing in the State Team Tennis Tourney Final 4.  We will let you know how we do.  What a weekend!!  We hope you enjoyed the long weekend with your families.

This Week--

Monday: Please remember all grades are due by the end of the day on Monday and they must be accurate as George will start printing grade cards on Tuesday.  Please remember that every grade change you do starting on Tuesday necessitates George to re-print a report card for each student and grade changed.  Please help George out by making sure your grades are in on time and accurate.  She so much appreciates your help.

Tuesday: Tuesday and Wed are our required Insurance Benefit required conferences.  Please make sure you have signed up for a conference or you will have to attend one at another building. Girls Soccer Tourney game at Pick Central at 7 AM.

Wednesday: Our first Working Wednesday from 7:15 - 8:10 AM.  This time is required for every certified staff member to meet.  If you do not have a counterpart in the building you may meet in another building or electronically.We will be sending out the norms and the required Google doc documentation form that each singleton and each same-subject team complete.  Only one form per team.

What is the work?  Answering as a same-subject team these questions COLLABORATIVELY on an ongoing basis.

1. What is it we want students to learn? (scope and sequence of standards and learning targets). (District goal- learning targets)

2. How do we know if they have learned it?  (common diagnostic, formative and summative assessments, rubrics, etc) If you have not completed your team's SMART goal, they are due by the end of October.  Each department received a Google Doc to complete.  (District goal of Assessment)

3. How do we respond if they do not learn it? (COLLABORATIVELY developing a team pyramid of interventions.) Mike Aurin previously sent you a Google Doc to be completed by the end of October on your team's pyramid of interventions.  The purpose of this pyramid is to provide EXTRA time and support for students to learn.  Come together on items such as re-takes, test corrections, homework policies and grading policies, all that affect student learning opportunities. (District goal feedback and differentiation).  This is the one question on which we are most different so please take time to come together.  Providing students extra time and support for learning is an integral part and function of every PLC.

4. How do we respond if they already know it? Collaboratively implement enrichment and differentiation for students who are advanced in your subject area. (District goal feedback and differentiation)

It is very important that our Working Wednesdays demonstrate a collective commitment by each member of the team to focus on this important student learning focus work.

Also Wednesday-- Boys Soccer game at home vs. Kilbourne.

Thursday: New Teachers to Jerome meeting on PLC Work, 7:15 AM in the main office conference room.

Also Volleyball Tourney game at Whitehall.

Friday: PTO will provide a staff luncheon instead of breakfast.  PAC meeting during all three lunches. A special Friday night-- Home football vs. Westerville South and Senior Night for band, cheerleaders and football.  Also Mark Hundley's last home game as the only football coach we have had at Jerome.  Come out and support the Celtics and Mark!

Looking ahead:

Oct. 27-31: OGT Fall administration Week.  Please work with these students and give extra time for them to make up work from their OGT testing.  Not only does this include students who failed one or more sections last spring, but it includes all of our new juniors or seniors who moved in from another state.  Please do what you can to support these students.

Oct. 29: Working Wednesday

Oct. 31: Halloween Dress-Up Day.  Prizes to individual staff members and to departments.  Will Math prevail?  Guidance? English?

Nov. 4: Election Day

Nov. 6: Department Chair Meeting 7:15 AM

Parent-Teacher Conferences 3-6:30 PM.

Have a terrific week!  Remember, as Jon Gordon reminds us, "Culture is dynamic, not static. Every person on your team and organization creates your culture by what they think, say and do each day."

Help our ride on our Energy Bus be a positive one every day by embodying positive thoughts, words and actions.

Cathy

Celtic Courier: Oct. 13-17

"Vision to See, Faith to Believe, Courage to Do"

Dear Staff,

What a beautiful fall weekend!   We hope you enjoyed the weekend with your families.  Our family ventured to the Africa Exhibit at the Zoo this weekend and each of us took a turn at feeding the giraffes.  How spectacular to come face-to-face with these beautiful animals and have them pluck a piece of lettuce from our hands with their 18-inch long black tongues that feel like fine sandpaper.  Amazing!

What a great weekend to be a Celtic!  Our football team defeated Scioto in a great comeback victory.  After being down 16-0, the Celtics won 36-31 with a great goal-line stand in the last minute of play as Scioto had 1st and goal and failed to score.  Congrats Mark Hundley and Kevin Jackson for a memorable win!

What are high school sports really about?  On Friday both the Scioto and Celtic football teams provided the true meaning of high school sports.  Both teams lined up at the South endzone in Pre-game and let Senior John Wagner, who is confined to a wheelchair, score a ceremonial touchdown!  John has rarely missed a practice or a game in his 4 years on the football team.  What a great moment! See the video below.

In addition, our Girls XC team took second in the OCC's with our own Carly Davis winning the OCC Tourney with a new school record time of 18:23!  Proud Mom, Lori!  Ellee Bullock won the Div 1 District singles tennis tourney!

I sent you via email Kim Miller's blog regarding our Working Wednesday.  As you communicate with your students regarding our first one on Oct. 22, please continue to state the collaborative value of professional time with colleagues as well as providing accurate information.  All students can continue to arrive at their regular time. All class periods except period 5 are only reduced by 4 minutes.  Students may choose to arrive by 8:15 AM.  Period 1 starts at 8:20 AM.

This Week-- School Lunch Week.  If you eat in our cafeteria and enjoy the job being done by Barb Weinberg and all of her cafeteria workers, please take time to let them know.  Great job, Barb!!

1. Monday-- The School Board meeting originally scheduled for Monday has been cancelled due to 3 board members being out of town.  Our National Merit Recognition will be re-scheduled.

2. Wednesday-- 2-hour late arrival for all seniors and non-testing freshmen and sophomores.  This is a required test for all Juniors and is high stakes as it is the National Merit Qualifying Test for juniors.  Mike Aurin sent out the PSAT bell schedule to be followed on this day.

3. Thursday-- End of first quarter.  Please remember all grades are due my the end of the day on Monday, Oct. 20.

On Thursday, Cheri Higgins, our US Army National Guard recruiter, is providing lunch for all staff in the teacher's lounge.

Many of our team's are in tourney play this week with our Girls Golf Team in the State Tourney Friday and Saturday!

Looking ahead--

Oct. 20, Monday-- Grades due by end of the school day.

Oct. 22: First Working Wednesday 7:15 - 8:10.  Tardy Bell 8:15.  First period 8:20 AM

Oct. 23: New Teachers Meeting in main office conference room 7:15 AM.  Topic: PLC Work

Oct. 24: Report Cards Home.  Last Home Football game for this year. PAC Meeting 5th period.

Oct. 31: Halloween All-School Dress-up Day-- Start planning your costumes.  Prizes for staff departments and individuals.

Nov. 6: Parent-Teacher Conference Day 3-6:30 PM.

Week in Review--

Thanks for your generosity on PINK and blue jean Friday, we were able to collect over $100 to give to Breast Cancer Research.  We combined our money with our Football Celtic Kick-off Club fundraiser and pink shirt sale.  Thanks so much!

Abby Erfurt sports her PINK!

Maureen Baker enjoys her poster of Love from fellow staff members!

Kelly Snyder and students are also joining the Pink-Out!

Did you know we had AP PE? :)  Neither did I until I saw Nate Maust and some of his students in PE Elective sport these shirts made by DBA on Thursday!  In case you haven't seen them, they are really a fun shirt and the kids love them (and so does Nate)!!  Love the humor Nate!  We are sure these will be collector's items!

Have a terrific week on the Jerome Energy Bus!  Remember-- Think Positive-- because thoughts are like the steering wheel that moves our bus in the right direction!  Growth Mindsets only!

Cathy

Celtic Courier: Week of Oct. 6-10

"Vision to See, Faith to Believe, Courage to Do"

Dear Staff,

It is hard to believe that a few days ago we were still in summer clothes and now the lows are in the 30s and 40s.  Wow!  Is is early October or November?  Hopefully we still have some more warm days ahead.  This weekend was an exciting one for the Celtics, with football winning in triple overtime 42-41 at Westerville North by blocking an extra point.  Our band competed in two OMEA band competitions on Saturday and brought home 2 Grand Championships, making an unheard of streak of 8 straight Grand Championships!! Wow!  What a great weekend to be a Celtic!

Much thanks to all of you for your professionalism and leadership on Parent-Teacher Conferences last week.  It was our largest parent turn-out on a conference night, reflective of our growing numbers and also to you focusing on learning by reaching out to our parents as partners in the learning process.  Parents mentioned your willingness to go above and beyond to assure student success, and we appreciate your work.

Please be sure that you plan your assessments and projects very carefully going into the end of the grading period; consider ending your grades for this quarter on Monday, Oct. 13 or Tuesday, Oct. 14.  Why? Oct. 15 is a two-hour delay with shortened classes due to the PSAT and the quarter ends Oct. 16 with no school on Oct. 17.  If you plan assessments or projects due on Oct. 16, students with extended time or who miss school will have little or no time for assessment re-takes or corrections as grades are due at the end of the day Oct. 20.  Please provide the optimal time for mastery learning for our students.

Chief Academic Officer Kim Miller has provided information to the school board regarding Working Wednesdays for tomorrow's board meeting and is a strong advocate for high school embedded collaboration time.  We will provide an update to you at this week's staff meeting at which Kim will attend on a proposed time line if we receive approval from the board and Dr. Hoadley.  We are grateful to her and Dusty Miller and to all three high schools administrations who also strongly advocate for this time as well as each of you for your input and feedback, especially our department chairs.

As you come together in your same-subject collaborative teams, please access allthingsplc as a great resource.

This week--

Monday: Please remember that during Homeroom we will conduct our first required Safety Drill.  There is no adjusted bell schedule and Officer Collier and Andy Wilkinson will facilitate this drill during our homeroom period.

During this week all admins will be collaborating with you on Pre-Conferences and in formal observations.  If you have any questions at all, please contact your respective administrator.

Wednesday: Staff meeting at 7:15 AM.  Please be on time as we have 2 guests, Kim Miller, our Chief Academic Officer, and a guest from the Dublin Education Foundation, as well as Eval and other PLC items to discuss.

Friday we play Scioto in football and are hoping to see many of you at this exciting contest!  It is a Tackle for the Cure game with proceeds from sales of pink Tackle for the Cure T-shirts and sweatshirts supporting breast cancer research.  Friday will be a pink-out and hopefully we will have raised a lot of money to support our staff members fighting this valiant fight.  Purchase a shirt and come out and cheer on the Celtics vs. Scioto at Jerome.

Looking ahead--

Oct. 15: Two-hour delay; PSAT for all juniors and testing sophomores and freshmen.  We are testing over 700 students in this important National Merit Qualifying Test for all juniors.

Oct. 16: End of first quarter.  Staff luncheon provided by the National Guard and our recruiter Cheri Higgins.

Oct. 17: No School; Conference Comp Day

Oct. 20: Grades due end of school day

Oct. 24: Grade Cards home

Highlights from last week:

Friday's Denim-Out was a huge success, with many blue jean jackets making a comeback.

Jackie Ahlfeld and Carol Jacobsen show off their blue jean jackets.

Matt Williams and student Catherine join the denim-out!

Friday was also a zoo at Jerome, with the Columbus Zoo bringing a baby penguin, an armadillo, and  baby cougar twins. Many students and staff enjoyed seeing the animals up close and on TV.  Much thanks to Jamie Pearson and Trevor Woods for providing Jerome this opportunity.

Carter Elsass conducted a great live interview while the animals pawed and crawled on the broadcast desk. Pictured is one of the baby cougars.

The student cast and crew really enjoyed having the animals on the set, pictured here with the baby penguin.

Have a terrific first full week of October!  Remember, no energy vampires allowed on our Energy Bus!  Stay positive and bring a Growth Mindset every day! #thedublindifference

Cathy