Alt Ed Week May 7, 2012

Our first full week of May lay ahead. Staff meetings, New Start Night and Middle School Proficiency exams coming up…

Bravo Zulu!

Bravo Zulu to Andrea Love, and those who helped support our two-day effort last week to knock out Senior Project Presentations. Andrea has had ownership of this project for many years, and the projects and presentations are simply getting better every year. Andrea coordinated the final presentations for our seniors. In the last few years we have successfully integrated the presentations into the regular school day so to give our soon graduating class a more authentic experience, and prepare our underclassmen for what’s to come. More on Senior Projects in the next section, but first I wanted to say Thank You Andrea for another great week of presentations and Bravo Zulu for a job well done!

Instructional Point: Practice makes perfect.

A long touted skill of the 21^st Century is that we know our students must have a handle on before graduating, is the skill of “Presentation”.  In any walk of life through college and career we know students will need the ability and confidence to prepare and deliver a presentation to small and large groups of people. Senior (culminating) Projects offer a great opportunity to hone this skill.

Throughout presentations at New Start last week, a number of us came to a realization when evaluating presentations: our students don’t do this enough. Great projects, indeed, with a lot of good content, learning and reflection. However, when it came time to present, even after some rehearsal our seniors “raced” through the presentations. Generally speaking of course, our student’s nerves and discomfort clouded the overall potential of an outstanding presentation.

It seemed clear to me that our students do not get enough practice in front of the podium presenting what they have done and learned. I want to be clear, we saw some great presentations last week. In total, our seniors did very well stepping up to the head of the class to share our projects with us…But I think we can push them even further. It’s practice.  Let me tell you about a school I once visited.

In 2006 I took a group of teachers to visit some alternative small school models in New York City. One school in midtown Manhattan was named “School of the Future”. SoF is a 400 student, 6-10^th grade model, with a capstone upper class institute (11&12^th). SoF is located in an eight story building. First floor was reception, admin, and support. Top floor was library, an assembly area and cafeteria (with rooftop seating). What was interesting were the floors in between. 6th grade was on the second floor, 7^th grade on the third floor, and so on to the seniors on seventh floor.



School of the Future in midtown

On the school website http://www.sof.edu/ , they have a tab exclusively for Senior Exhibitions. In fact, the entire experience of the SoF student from sixth grade on, is preparing to present every single year to their culminating presentation. At SoF, to move on up to the next grade level - “The next floor” – you must present and pass according to several rubrics (which are posted on the website) After seven years of presenting and moving up floors at School of the Future, that Senior Project Presentation (exhibition) is one hearty and robust demonstration.

Granted SoF is an extreme example of what the “culminating Project” can look like, but not impossible. In our own district, Big Picture MS/HS has something close to the SoF annual exhibition model.



This week my point is this. If I were teaching a regular class, any class, I would make stand-up formal presentations by students a consistent and significant part of my curriculum. Practice makes perfect.  

Friday PCT: May 11, 2012 This Friday CHOICE will meet with me in Mr. Wheeler’s room. Like New Start last week, we will continue our SIP planning for next year. New Start you go into team time mode for PCT. This means you will collaborate with a colleague for at least 90 minutes on Friday afternoon. Please let me know who you will be meeting with.

My Schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
NS/SWYFS/NS	NS/ ERAC/CH	NS/ CH / NS	NS/ CH / NS	New Start/CHOICE
May 7	May 8	May 9	May 10	May 11
Student Planning Meeting Morning Office SWYFS Monitor visit Evaluation Writing Weekly Counselor Transition Project Planning	Evaluation Meeting Weekly Registrar District Ale Meeting District Principal Meeting CH Meet w/Parent	Evaluation Meetings Becca Update Staff Meeting Prep Evaluation Meetings CH SOC Meet w/Parent New Start Staff Meeting School Board Meeting	Evaluation Writing Meet w/SPU Advisor Staff Meeting Prep Evaluation Meetings Meet w/ Parent CHOICE Staff Meeting New Start Night	HEA Update Meeting PCT Prep SIP Writing PCT – CHOICE SIP Pro Cert Work

A Correction: My apologies that last week I got the name wrong for the Captain of the Adventuress. I have since corrected on the blog entry, but still wanted to let you know, and thank Capt. Daniel Evans for a great trip with our kids a few weeks ago.

Busy week ahead. At CHOICE we jump into MSP testing. At New Start we are getting ready for New Start Night. We all will have staff meetings this week. So, enjoy the rest of this sunny Sunday in May. We have another big week coming up.

Go Sharks!

Mike