Many would not relay the story I am about to tell, however, most of you know I always feel compelled to explain "why" a decision has been made. Last week, I missed my annual doctor's appointment. Yes, the one scheduled 18 months in advance. I did not think twice about it, I will reschedule. I missed it because the NKFD was in our building determining that the air quality was safe for our students, staff, and guests to be present in the building.
Fast forward to last Thursday night, I left school earlier than usual to stop home before my meeting at Rhode Island Foundation from 5-6:30 pm. I had confirmed my space on Monday. Once home, I looked up the email to get the address for the building in Providence and to print the agenda. As I scanned the email from Monday, I was mortified. The meeting was October 7, not 8. On Monday, I had responded that I was looking forward to it.
After my initial embarrassment and apologetic email to the facilitator at RIF, came reflection. If I do not have balance as the leader of the building then how can I effectively lead?
This morning (Friday) as I write this, I am laser focused. Our big goal is improving student learning. Looking at student work with your colleagues and learning from one another throughout the year is our collective goal. All of our work will revolve around this idea.
In my attempt to balance, I decided to be kind to myself and enjoy the weekend. That is why this is posted on Monday evening. Enjoy.
Teachers as Learners
For our October faculty meeting we will complete a whole-school protocol to prepare each department for the good work you will do on the Professional Development Day on November 6, 2015. The name of the protocol is ATLAS--Learning From Student Work Protocol. It will focus on student work in response to a relatively open-ended assignment. Its function is to get a fresh perspective on a student’s work in the absence of much contextual information. Good for situations where the presenter is wondering about the student’s work and the implications of that work for teaching/learning. This is the one protocol where it is possible to use work nobody in the group “owns,” or work from students everyone in the group shares, since the teacher is relatively anonymous.
The person who brings the work gives a minimal, one-sentence overview of the student and the assignment before the group begins. If the person who brought the work is also the teacher of the student, she/he must be willing to sit back and listen, and must want to know what new sets of eyes see that the student is working on before joining the conversation. Otherwise, the person who brought the work joins the conversation from the very beginning. (Adapted from School Reform Initiative, Inc)
We will have 3-4 groups of approximately 12 teachers completing this protocol in a fishbowl style where all of the faculty that are not part of the protocol can observe one of the groups and participate in their debrief. If you have an assignment you think may work for this protocol please let me know. I will finalize over the next two days.
Students as Learners
Students in Sydney Culbertson’s class were testing their map skills, including using grids, to find locations in the building. Here they are pictured in the main office. They were to find Ms. Taylor’s desk and ask her for a joke. In Ms. Taylor’s absence, Mrs. Andrew was happy to fill in.
Joe is on the right and Brandon is next to him. Mrs. Mongeon is in the back and Mrs. Culbertson is on the left. While Sydney is not a new teacher in this district she is new to our building this year. Her hands on approach with the students is paying dividends. The students, TAs and teacher are all very happy with the atmosphere in the room. Thanks Syd!
Mrs. Judi O’Brien created quite a stir this past week with her Banned book display in the Media Center. One student was so upset that it was against his views as a Libertarian he sent me a very detailed op-ed piece through student email. I assured him it was to celebrate our “Freedom to Read” and to highlight the week of September 27- October 3 where we celebrate free and open access to information. As you can see Mrs. O’Brien’s display was very realistic. I encouraged Josh to go see Mrs. O’Brien to discuss the importance of our freedom.
Student Services Office
Ah, the cell phone, ironically named because we are sometimes "jailed" by this little device.
The Student Services office is handling cell phones a little differently this year. We had a little turnover during the summer, so the details may have not been properly communicated. My apologies for that. I wanted to share the decision and the rationale.
When a student is asked for their phone, cooperative students get detention and can pick up the phone at the end of the day. Multiple infractions build to higher discipline interventions. If you confiscate a phone, call our clerks, we will come get the phone and save you a trip to the office.
Uncooperative students will have their device confiscated and parents will need to pick it up in addition to a consequence of detention ranging to ISS depending on the severity. Failure to relinquish is usually handled by the deans and we can send the student home for the day. We do not want teachers to have this battle, please report it to a dean via Aspen.
The rationale for the cell phone change has three parts:
1. At the thought of not getting their phone at the end of the day, students often escalate to a higher level quickly, resulting in more severe consequences, ISS instead of detention for example. There are many battles the deans fight, and in the interest of keeping the school safe and creating a positive cultural shift, this was not the battle to die for.
2. The second rationale was that we were also angering/punishing parents by making them come in for a device that is socially and widely acceptable in other parts of the world. Like it or not, kids and parents are dependent on their devices for other tasks.
3. We (SSO) no longer wanted the liability of storing devices because of their value and potential damage while in our possession. I'll also add as an observer, the level of tolerance for devices varies in the building therefore making it somewhat cloudy. I know specific teachers are very clear, but others allow the devices as part of instruction, we don't want to get caught up in our design.
Check out this brief article on the subject, it's a national dilemma:
Health and Wellness
We discussed balance already at the top :-)
Upcoming Events/Important Dates
Tues, Oct 13th - School Committee Meeting, 7 pm, Auditorium
Wed, Oct 14th - PSATs (in-school)
Mon-Fri, Oct 19th-23rd - Spirit Week
Videos Worth Watching (only 4 minutes)
From Cindy Zito:
Over the last few years we have had assemblies for our students dealing with empathy, anti-bullying campaigns, etc. The link below is a video entitled Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care. I volunteer at South County Hospital and part of my training was to view this short piece; although the setting is in a hospital, it relates to what we do with our students, on a daily basis, especially our most at-risk students returning to our school, after being out-of-school for a various of reasons.
Worth watching
Food for Thought
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."
~Mother Theresa
~Mother Theresa
Until next time, Think, Create, Innovate...Denise
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