"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
No comments:
Post a Comment