In strong school cultures, people articulate two core beliefs through how they behave
ALL Kids Can Learn at High Levels!
ALL Kids Will Learn at High Levels Because of What WE Do!
Resource of the Week
When either engaged or hearing a conversation in many different settings about a "return to normal" instruction, I've heard the phrase, "we can't just simply go back to the way we did things prior to this experience"...or something like that. We have learned so much about flexibility, digital tools, ways to engage students, etc...that we cannot go backwards, we must move forward. As many of our instruction shifts back to in-person "with your teacher" learning and as we plan for next year, it's important to think about the pieces from the past year's experience that need to come along on the ride. The article this week shares some of those practices worth considering as we move forward.
"Enduring Practices from Remote Teaching" - Samantha Pack
Schedule Adjustments Start this Week
Our 8th grade team kicks off the adjustments to our schedule and learning plan. Starting on Monday, one group will be consolidated into the others, and the schedule will be adjusted so that our core teachers will move from group to group providing "face to face" instruction. At the surface, this seems like it might be a small adjustment, but there are ripple effects all across the school. The 8th grade Applied Academic rotation will be adjusted to just an AB format, the 8th grade lunch period will move up in the day, and more students will get more support. I believe I have communicated with everyone affected and we are ready, but there are always little things that may come up...if you think of something or have a question, please let me know right away.
Next up is our 7th grade, who will be starting their adjustment on Thursday (4/15). One group is consolidating and we had to adjust some lunch/recess/team study times to accommodate this adjustment....there is still a little work to be done before Thursday.
6th Grade will start their adjustment next Thursday (4/22). We'll work out the finer details throughout the week. 5th grade will remain much the same, however there may be some adjustment to lunch/recess times which I'll communicate in the week ahead.
Forward Testing
Forward Testing begins next Monday (4/19) for all grades. Each team is working on a grade specific plan for testing. All students should have practiced with the Online Testing Tools during Homeroom this past week, and have started to talk about things they will most likely see on the exam during class times.
I'll be working with teachers to coordinate a little review for the students to work through prior to taking the test each day. Our goal is to bring some important things that were in the "stored memory" portion of the student brain up to the "active memory" part of the brain, strengthening the synapse connection...this practice has shown to improve student performance on an exam.
Leaders of Learning Book Study Update
We completed Session #3 of our book study this past Thursday, and we had some good discussions around what a guaranteed & viable curriculum looks like and also about the ongoing monitoring of student learning. This was perhaps the "messiest" part of the book study conversations, providing a starting point to guide the decisions about how we will spend our collaborative time with similar goal-oriented collaborators. We built action steps, and will not work to refine our collaboration plan for next year.
Through many of the conversations with teachers afterwards, it is fun to hear about the invigorating ideas and thoughts about we can put this system in place, and really having focused, goal-oriented collaboration times.
We have already started to institute some of the learning from this book into our practices, and will continue to refine this process with each remaining week, culminating with a collaboration plan for next year. Our plan will undoubtedly be refined as we learn, and we'll have to monitor our group's effectiveness along the way, but certainly exciting steps ahead.
We cannot be complacent with being just a "good" school....we must all strive and hunger to make research-based adjustments to our plan to be better than just "good"...the challenge involved going from "good to great" can be uncomfortable at times, but it ultimately makes our work more fun and rewarding.
The Newest Addition to the Puma Family!
Congratulations to Morgan Serstad and her family on the addition of Sullivan Scott Serstad. He arrived this past Monday evening! She said everything went well and is going great now.
No comments:
Post a Comment