Celtic Courier: Dec. 1-5

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

Dear Staff,

We hope you have had a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving break with your families! We had a great Thanksgiving, eating too much and taking a hike in the woods of Jeff's brother's home in Galena, finding turkey feathers and tracks of the wings ruffling in the leaves.  The day ended with about 8 wild turkeys walking up the hill of the woods in their backyard and then one-by-one running to get lift and then flying up in their backyard trees close to their home.  Just an amazing sight of these portly yet graceful toms and hens.

On Thanksgiving Day our Marching Band  represented us well in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade and also visited sites in Philly and New York. 

The weekend ended with a great OSU victory over TTUN (That Team Up North) yet bittersweet with the loss of another starting quarterback.  Hard to believe.  We had over 20 friends who flew in from all over the US meet on campus as the old Buckeyes reminisced about this greatest college rivalry, back to the days when only one Big Ten team went to a bowl each year-- the Rose Bowl, and the winner of the OSU-Michigan game determined who would go to the Rose Bowl and who would stay home with the rest of the Big Ten teams.  Bitterly contested games.

The Sankey family tradition lives, going onto the field after a Buckeye victory over *ichigan! Even the new Buckeye baby enjoyed it! :)

The video is inside the new team tunnel leaving the field as we all sang our favorite Buckeye song. :)


This week we start winter sports and getting ready for exams Dec. 16-19 (Tuesday - Friday).  This year we have a Friday exam.  For lunch on Dec. 19 the admin team is providing a staff holiday luncheon before Winter Break.

PD recommendations for this week:  Please try to take time to read these two remarkable and short articles: What kind of mark are you leaving? and the Importance of doing work that matters.  These two articles do an excellence job of highlighting the importance of the work we do, as well as the work that we are choosing for our students to complete.  Do our students believe the work we are assigning them is significant, or is it just a worksheet to complete? Have we asked them? Can we make sure that the work that we assign them does matter?

This Week:

Monday: Central office sent us a draft copy of a PARCC calendar for input over break and we will meet as an admin team to review it.  As we get more info we will share it with you.

Tuesday: Adjusted bell schedule for 20-minute extended homeroom.  We will complete one of our required safety drills in homeroom, watching a video on safety.  You will receive more information from Andy.

Wednesday: Working Wednesday.  Thank you for your continued input on Working Wednesdays.  Please use this time to continue to align as a building same-subject team on preparing students for exams and creating a quality common assessment.

Please remember that your building same-subject team should employ PLC practices to also come up with a same-subject team approach to these important 3 aspects of the exam.

1. Common exam preparation strategies and materials.  These should not vary by individual teachers on a team as it will affect your exam data.  Be sure your team is very tight on exam preparation so that it is fair for ALL students in your subject, not just the students in your room.

2. The exam itself.  Please make sure the exam is common as well as anything else that may affect the exam testing environment, materials etc.  For example, all teachers on your team should use the exam class period prior to the exam time itself for targeted preparation based on your formative data on the learning targets. In addition, decide as a team what materials, such as notecards with formulas, calculators, visual aides, journals, etc that all students in your subject should be able to use on the exam.  This should also not vary on your team.

3. Followup to the exam.  Again, start planning how your team will follow-up with students after the exam as a team.  The entire team should be very tight on going over the exam with students, providing extra time and support for students who do not perform well, data analysis of questions to decide the validity and reliability of the exam etc.  In full-year courses, the exam should become formative assessment to inform you of the quality of your instruction and drive instruction second semester.

Please incorporate these talking points into your same-subject team time.

Thursday: Department Chair Meeting 7:15 in media center.  Please let me know how items you have for the agenda.

Friday: YPA Breakfast.  YPA students will miss the first two periods of school.

Have a terrific week!  We appreciate all that you do.  Dublin Jerome: A school where every student counts or nobody counts.

Cathy

Celtic Courier: Happy Thanksgiving/Beat Michigan Week

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

Dear Staff,

We hope you have had a great weekend with your families as the weather gives us a little break from all of the unseasonably cold weather we have had.

Last week we enjoyed welcoming the Celebrate America Tour featuring former OSU Assistant coach Bill Myles and former OSU and NFL player Roy Hall Jr.

As you know, this week is a shortened week with students and staff in school Monday and Tuesday and then enjoying a well-deserved Thanksgiving Break with your families.  We hope you enjoy the closeness and joy of spending time with your families, whether you stay close or travel. We all have so much for which to be thankful.

I am so thankful to have each of you in the Jerome family and for all of your hard work and dedication to our students.  You genuinely care about our students as people first and it shows in the many emails, phone calls, counselor meetings, SST and IEP meetings we have every week.

I also wanted to share that for Jeff and me this Thanksgiving will be very special.  On Thursday night our daughter Jennifer and her husband Ryan brought us over a very large box.  As we opened it, we found another box, and yes, another box.  Buried deep in a small box and lots of tissue paper was ultrasound images of our very first grandchild and we have been walking on air ever since.  Just ask me to see it-- I have it on my phone and would be happy to share it!

I think back on our lives and how blessed we have been and so will say a special prayer of thanks for one of life's greatest blessings.  At a very dark time in our lives we were so afraid that we would never get to experience the joys of children and grandchildren and so every day of Jennifer's childhood and even still today we relish her life.  And now, we could not be more excited for this new heartbeat in our lives.  Today Jennifer and I will enjoy shopping for her and the new baby!! She is due May 29-- graduation weekend!

Have a terrific Thanksgiving if we do not get the opportunity to wish it to each of you in person. Travel safe and enjoy the love in your families.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  And this is also Beat M*ch*g*n Week, the greatest rivalry in College Sports. Enjoy wearing your favorite College Jersey or shirt on Tuesday! Go Bucks!  Beat the Blue!

Have a great week!
Cathy

Bill Myles shared memories of growing up in segregation to working with great coaches such as Woody Hayes at OSU.

Christine Slater-Jones enjoys winning the free OSU football tickets provided by Roy Hall, Jr.  Christine was going to take her brother, a Buckeye fan, who has spent the last 20 years in the Air Force.

Roy Hall, Jr. gave an inspirational message of devoting your life to helping others.  Roy has established his Driven
foundation to just that, helping those less fortunate.  He also reminded us all that "excuses are the crutches of life."

Celtic Courier: Week of Nov. 17- Nov. 21

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

Dear Staff,

Brrrrrrrrrrrr. Cold. Wind chill.  Snow accumulation possible.  It is hard to believe that it is mid-November and not mid-December with this weather forecast.  We hope you have had a great weekend with your families and that you have fun family times keeping you warm.

What a wonderful week we had last week!

Jerome Staff, CAP Mentors, and community members gather in the gym before Challenge Day.  Because of all of you, freshmen now know how we are all more alike than different.  Freshmen who needed extra help and support were referred for counseling.

We also celebrated Veteran's Day!  Here Jerome teacher and Naval veteran Steve Dickman poses with Dave Weinz, a regular Jerome sub.  Dave, who is battling bladder cancer, is one of our favorite Jerome family members.  Dave is a Marine Cops veteran, a retired Colonel, who starting serving during the Vietnam War and retired for good in 2002.  Semper Fi!

As you know, Monday is a PD Day.  Friday you received an email with the final district locations or the 9:30 - noon time slot and also a copy of the district survey for this time slot.  Only one member from your team needs to complete the survey.  One last look at the schedule for the day--

Workday: 7:15 - 2:50 PM

Schedule:

7:15 AM - 8 AM: Meet at home building with building same-subject team and make sure everyone has a shared understanding of the work of the day.

8- 9 AM: Whole-staff meeting in cafeteria.  Please sit in same-subject teams. We will review the district FIP survey and provide practical PD on learning targets, assessment and differentiation.

9:30 - Noon: Meet in your district-assigned location for PLC and common assessment work.

Noon- 1 PM: Lunch on your own.

1 PM - 2:30 PM: Report back to your home building for "Working on the Work" in your same-subject teams.  Please remember this is PD time and not for departmental meeting (unless focusing on PD), individual teacher work or making copies.

2:30- 2:50 PM: Meet as a whole-staff in the cafeteria.  Whole-staff sharing of ideas and work from day.

If you have questions, please let an administrator know.

Wednesday: Interims due.  Please make sure all student work is graded and up-to-date.  Gold card names are due on Thursday and Friday to Debbie Lindeman.  No names should be submitted after that as it is important we give the feedback to students as timely as possible.  Counselors meet with each Gold Card student and privileges are withheld based on Gold Cards.

Also Working Wednesday for collaborative PLC work.  A good time to continue Monday's PD work.

First Student Council Town Hall meeting after school on Wednesday.  Much thanks to Lacey and Kelly for their leadership with Student Council.

Thursday: Celebrate America Tour in the CPA from 7 AM - 7:45 AM featuring former OSU Coach Bill Myles and player Roy Hall, both motivational speakers.  This event is open to students, parents and staff courtesy of Jerome parent Brett Bohl.  Feel free to stop in.

Seussical the Musical starts Thursday at 7 PM, a fantastic and fun family event.

Friday: PTO-sponsored staff breakfast. Also PAC meeting 5th period.

Buckeye-a-thon at Scioto High School for students of all 3 high schools from 6 -11 PM to support Cancer research.  You will be hearing about fundraisers during the week for this worthy cause.  All 3 high schools are holding fundraisers at lunches or homerooms and coming together Friday night to raise money.

Also Seussical the Musical, 7 PM.

Saturday: Seussical the Musical, 2 PM and 7 PM.

Looking ahead:

No School Nov. 26-28.  Thanksgiving Break.

Dec. 3: Working Wednesday

Dec. 4: Department Chair Meeting 7:15 AM in media center


Have a great week!
Cathy

Brad Richardson greeted a group from Westfall Schools last week to DBA.  If you have any time during the day, drop by DBA and see this fantastic experiential, innovative learning program.  DBA is also learning how to do embroidery in addition to silk-screen.  Drop by and see this business in action.

Celtic Courier: Week of Nov. 10- 14

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

Dear Staff,

What a great week to be a Buckeye and Browns fan!  Wow!  Not only did the Brownies knock off the Bengals Thursday but the Buckeyes upset M*ch*g*n State! We hope you enjoyed the weekend with your families, no matter for whom you were rooting!

We have certainly appreciated all of your comments on Working Wednesdays.  We know it takes time and dedication to Team to utilize this focus on the district goals of Learning Targets, Formative Assessment and Differentiation through our PLC Work.  It also requires teams holding other team members accountable both for attendance and work, but truly that is the work of a Professional Learning Community, and sometimes it is the hardest work.  Please let us know how we can continue to support you in this important work that truly makes the difference in ensuring student learning for every student.

As we focus on preparing our students for our semester exams, I would like to review four areas of research that come together every day in our work with colleagues and with our students:

1. The positive energy of Jon Gordon's  Energy Bus.  Without being an enthusiastic and positive PLC team member with colleagues and with our students every day in our classrooms, we cannot generate the enthusiasm and positive energy that our colleagues and students need to be successful learners.

2. Carol Dweck's Mindset, the psychology of success. Dweck's research proves that teachers with a growth mindset see themselves as seeing every child and themselves as learners, capable of setting high standards with nurturing environments.  Teachers with fixed mindsets identify early in the year who they believe can learn and who can't, and as early as September or October are asking students to drop classes as they will fail.  Growth mindset teachers set high standards for every student, not just the ones who are already achieving in that subject matter, and communicate the growth mindset to the students that they CAN do the work.  As Saphier states, "This is hard work. You can do it. I will help you."  Continue to strive to be a growth-mindset educator, both with each other and our students.

3. John Hattie's Visible Learning.  You only have 48 minutes per class period, or 44 minutes on Working Wednesdays, and it is extremely important that you are applying those practices that maximizes impact on learning.  Yes, almost everything an educator does impacts learning, but as Hattie points out, if it doesn't have an impact of .4 or more, then you are not going to move the student one year's worth of growth. Hattie's research clearly articulates those items that impact learning the most. One of the most effective at .75 is feedback to students and utilizing feedback from student performance to inform instruction.  The more timely and specific the feedback to students through formative assessment the more learning occurs.  Another significant one is Response to Intervention at a 1.07, which is one of the reasons we are asking you to focus on your team's Pyramid of Interventions.

4. PLC Work. All of the most significant educational researchers, including DuFour, Stiggins, Marzano, Dylan William and others, voice strong support for teachers working in collaborative teams to focus on student learning every day and the 4 questions.  It is not a destination, but a remarkable journey and certainly our commitment to these best practices make the difference for our students on a number of external indicators, including OGT, ACT, SAT, PSAT and PISA.  Thank you for your ongoing work.

Thanks for striving to get better every day.

This Week--

This week is Challenge Day Week.  Words cannot adequately express appreciation to Andy Zweizig and Gretchen George for spending endless hours bringing Challenge Day to Jerome to change lives.  Please know that the majority of freshmen and also CAP mentors will miss class at least one day this week.  Please provide students with extra time to make up work.

Much thanks to every staff member who is taking time to attend and facilitate Challenge Day.  We know it is difficult to miss classes, prepare lesson plans, and have an emotionally draining day and we appreciate your efforts very much.  It is by having your commitment and we are able to provide this opportunity to our students and we so much appreciate it.

Monday-- Challenge Day begins.

Tuesday-- Veteran's Day.  Please be sure and watch the announcements for a special tribute to Veterans.  Please try to take time in your classes to also model appreciation to Veterans so that our students can learn from you the importance of Veterans in our lives.  Also Challenge Day.

Parent Winter Sports Meeting: 6 PM

Wednesday-- Challenge Day. Also Staff Meeting at 7:15 AM in Band Room.  Doug Baker is presenting at all 19 Buildings and he will open our staff meeting.  Andy Zweizig will be communicating to staff members who are working Challenge Day the time to report as all students will be on the Working Wednesday delayed bell schedule.  Some staff will be missing at least part of the staff meeting.  The Science Department will be doing the first staff meeting departmental presentation.  Each department will take a turn presenting at a staff meeting, relating best practices to either the district goals or PLC 4 questions.

Also College Signing Day at 3 PM in our cafeteria.

Also NHS Induction at 7 PM.  Much thanks to Michael Cook and the NHS Faculty Council for your hard work and dedication to our new Induction Class.

Thursday-- Challenge Day. The School Board will also recognize our 14 National Merit Finalists, 2 National Hispanic Scholars, and State Champion Girls Golf and Girls Tennis teams.  A great night to be a Celtic!


Friday: PAC Governing Board meeting 7:20 AM.  We also have our Building Goals Meeting with Dusty Miller and Kim Miller at 10:30 AM.  We will take time on Nov. 17 PD Day to review our Building goals and Action Steps.

Looking ahead--

Nov. 17: No School for Students. PD Day for all Staff.

We had a good meeting with our Department Chairs with regards to plans for 11/17 and also with Central office.  The bulk of the day will be "Working on the Work."  The district is currently identifying the subjects which will have district-common exams and will communicate those to us early this week.  As soon as we get more information, we will pass it along, including the final schedule for the day.  The workday time is the same as a normal workday: 7:15 - 2:50.  All HS staff will begin the day in their respective buildings.

Nov. 19: Interim Day.  Please make sure your grades are up-to-date to better inform students and parents.  Privileges and Gold Cards are determined by these grades.

Have a terrific week!

Cathy

Celtic Courier: Week of Nov. 3 - Nov. 7

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

Dear Staff,

We hope you have had a wonderful Halloween weekend and that you and your family stayed warm in this unusually cold start to November!

What a terrific Halloween dress-up day!  The costumes were amazing and we appreciate you all coming together as a family to have Halloween fun together!  The fun and terrific photos are below.

Congrats to proud Mom Lori Davis-- Carly finished 8th overall in State XC meet and was the top Dublin finisher.  Congrats also to Brian Stevens-- not only did the Marching Band earn all 1's at the State Band Contest Saturday (thanks also Micah!) but also the Ohio State Marching Band performance at halftime featured Brian's drill design-- yes-- that is the maneuvers that band performs on the field!  Wow!  Way to go!

Our football team wrapped up their season in brutal weather Friday night with a loss to Westerville Central that is the end of an era here at Jerome.  After 11 years as head coach, Mark Hundley is stepping down to spend more time with his family.  As you all know, Mark is the kind of person and man that changes lives, and we have been so fortunate to have called him Head Coach for all of these years.  Thanks, Mark, for all of your dedicated service to Jerome, our players, and their families.  Ryan Walker is facilitating a football head coach search and we will keep you informed.

Fall Sports are now officially over for us and we are on the "banquet" circuit! We look forward to Winter sports starting soon!

Thanks so much to all of you who have volunteered to participate in Challenge Day Nov. 10-13.  This is an event that helps define Dublin Jerome and after this year's Challenge Day all of our student body, except for some new students, will have engaged in Challenge Day.

Words cannot adequately express our appreciation to Andy Zweizig and Gretchen George who head up the monumental task each year!  Challenge Day emphasizes how much we are all alike rather than how we are all different, a life-changing paradigm for students and staff and one that brings us together as a family.  If you have not participated in Challenge Day, please choose to do so this year and let Andy or Gretchen know.  It is a choice you will never regret.

Our Social Media Parent Information Night last Wednesday was a huge success with over 100 parents attending.  We have received much positive feedback and appreciation for the information, which included possible school and legal consequences, specific sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Yik Yak and others and a good discussion on inappropriate videos and/or photos on students' phones. Students Chris Marek, Addison Stern and Kelly Fox did a great job at presenting student usage information.

This Week--

Kay has been called our of town this week due to illness in her family so please be patient with the office staff.  It is especially important that you take care of any absences in AESOP as Kay is not available.

Monday-- Remember to have turned back your clocks one hour as we "fall back."  Please remember to contact the parents of your students with D's and F's for first quarter or who are doing poorly second quarter and invite them to PT Conference Day on Thursday.

Tuesday-- Election Day

Wednesday-- Working Wednesday.  We continue to look at your forms, especially the barriers that you identify and make changes as we can.  One change we made last week was to give you more time to decide your team pyramid of interventions.  These are now not due until the end of November.

For those of you involved in good and deep discussions on how to provide extra time and interventions for students to learn, (PLC Question #3) you may enjoy this graphic from Rick Wormeli, a noted educational researcher:

Also Family Night.  Please do not assign Homework on this night to support the district Family Night.

Thursday-- Department Chair meeting 7:15 AM in the media center. This important meeting will discuss Nov. 17 PD Day.

Also Parent-Teacher Conference Day 3-6:30 PM.  Conference forms are in the purple Staff Cloud folder under Conferences.  Please be sure to turn in your Conference sheets prior to leaving on Thursday evening.

Looking ahead--

Nov. 10-13: Challenge Days.  Please be patient and flexible with students and fellow staff members who are participating.  Please adjust work for freshmen as the majority of freshman students are participating as well as some CAP mentors.

Nov. 11: Veteran's Day. a special day set aside to honor those who have served to give us the freedom we enjoy.

Nov. 12: Staff meeting. Doug Baker is visiting each school and will present for about 10 min.  Science Department presentation follows.

Also College Signing Day.  Please stop by the cafeteria at 3 PM to honor our student-athletes who are committing to play at the college level.

Also NHS Induction 7 PM.  Much thanks to Michael Cook and all of you who volunteered to be on the NHS Faculty Council!

Enjoy these wonderful family memories from Halloween:

The office staffs surprise Cruella by being her puppies!

Maureen, one of the flappers, and Jamie Allen join Cruella and a few puppies!

What a great Halloween family portrait!

The Science Department in search of the Great Pumpkin!

Mike and Andy-- Hans and Franz-- show off their muscles!

Words with Friends or Scrabble all spell Counseling for the Guidance Department!

Admin team!  And yes, Cruella went in full costume to a Central Office meeting for high school and middle school principals!

Matt Martin with long curly hair!

Aaaaarrrrrrrgggghhh says Ron Havlice!

Look closely-- yes, those Skittles on the gym floor are the special education teachers!

The Math Department as Pac Man!  Did you see the dots in the math department hallways! 

Have a terrific week!  We are so lucky to have each of you in the Jerome crazy family!

Cathy