Monday Points Octocber 29, 2012

Monday Points



Mr. A - demonstrates physics of the Barbie Bounce

This week brings November and our first ever Guest Writer! From your Shared Leadership Team, our very own master of Math at New Start, Casey Alexander. Take it away Casey…

Celebration Point:

This past week marked two milestones for the year at New Start: curriculum night and our first Brag Day.  I'm happy to say that both exceeded my personal expectations.  New Start Night was lightly attended, but the staff represented our school in an excellent fashion.  Teachers showed off the work their students have been creating, and we had some great chats with some of the parents in attendance.  Jackie's Motown playlist gave the event a relaxed party atmosphere, and gave me something to talk to Lisa and Angelia's dad about (he's a music lover).  It was one of many examples of how we are evolving as a school to offer a richer, more comprehensive school experience in our alternative universe.

Another thing that has evolved (very much for the better) is our Brag Day assembly.  Thursday's gathering was, in my opinion, the best assembly we've ever had as a school.  Kids were cheering and engaged, the music made it lively (and gave me an excuse to dance), and we gave out more awards than ever before.  All of which is worth mentioning in a celebration post.  Good job, New Starters.

Data Point:

The election is right around the corner, and we all know that Washington is voting on a charter schools initiative (for the third time).  This data point is a little unorthodox, but I though I would take this opportunity to give you a figure to share with your friends and family.  Stanford University recently did a study, and found that only 17 percent of charter schools do markedly better than their public school counterparts.  The alarming thing, though, is that 37 percent do markedly worse than public schools.

The other thing to share is that New Start is a charter school!  We try new things to help students who don't connect with their normal schools, and we do it all within the structure of the public school system.  We are a model of some of the successes people want from charter schools, and we should be proud of that.

Instructional Point:

Recently, we've had some a couple of group discussions that have gotten me thinking about how to further improve our students' school experiences.  First, we had a PCT on project based learning, during which we shared ideas we had about good, content specific, high quality projects for our students.  The second was a discussion we had at the New Start staff meeting about making more enrichment activities available to our students.  As far as I see it, these two things go hand in hand, and really digging into them could possibly take our school to the next level.

I want to create a culture at our school where students are willing to try new things and try to figure them out on their own.  This is where project based learning comes in.  I believe that a thoughtful, well planned project can be an excellent way for a student to synthesize concepts and apply things they've learned.  It can demonstrate learning and understanding while also helping students build the “21st Century Skills” we're starting to hear more about.  But more than anything, a good project with the right student could get them to look at school differently.  Like, not just a series of worksheets, but an opportunity to improve.

I also think that more projects could, over time, improve our attendance.  I've noticed that some students will make a point of being in class when they know that their group is depending on them.  If we can get more students to be willing to depend on their peers, then it seems conceivable that we could actually use peer pressure for good.  As opposed to the evil it is usually associated with.  I know that I'm going to start assigning more projects as we move forward, and I hope you all think about this too.

Guest Writer Point:

The last point leads me to enrichment opportunities.  To me, this means looking for ways for students to see the benefits of school without necessarily receiving credit.  Some of our students play sports at schools in our district, which is one example of enriching their physical education.  We don't have, and have never had, any successful extra-curricular activities.  This bums me out; I would love to have the opportunity to see my students doing things they care about outside of the classroom.  And these opportunities are the things that can keep kids coming back to school.

Obviously, our students are at New Start because, for whatever reason, comprehensive high school didn't work for them.  This means that providing enrichment is going to have to look different, but I think it also means that we need to work hard on it.  And we need to start soon.  So I would like to have us start thinking of fun, interesting enrichment activities for our school.  Done right, it will keep moving our school in a better direction.

Thank you Casey!

now on with my usuals...

PCT Point: November 2, 2012 Team Time or District Job Alike.

This Friday, you direct your collaboration! If you are not sure who to join, I would recommend your Data Team. Please send me an email to let me know who you will be collaborating with. Thank you.

Mike’s Schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Oct 29	Oct 30	Oct 31	Nov 1	Nov 2
Session Transition Planning In Classrooms CH M/Parent M/PSO Pres. CHOICE Data Team HIPP Data Team Sped Meeting School Board Meeting	M/John Boyd New Start In Classrooms PSSC Presentation	Learning Walk HS3 In Classrooms Alt Ed Leadership  Team	In Classrooms Observation M/Counselor ELL Workshop Data Book Study Group	Principal Meeting Steering Team Supervise Team Time Sped Team Meeting Monday Points

Professional Growth Note: Thursday after school we begin our 5-Part ELL Workshop Series. Extra service pay, clock hours, snacks, and practical practice improvement, all for you!  After school until 4:45. Thursday Nov 1. Hope to see you there.

Have a great week.

Mike

Monday Points Oct 22, 2012

Celebration Points:

Session Two is off to a great start at New Start. There are many celebrations to be found in student performance data coming out of last session, and I will discuss more in Data Points below. The highlights for me though are a first ever Principal’s List and Honor Roll at New Start. 14 students alone had straight A’s last session. That’s just a tad less than 10% of our students with nothing less than an A in all four classes. Our office will begin posting the Principal List (Straight A students) and Honor Roll (3.5 or better) this week. Make sure and let your stellar students know (and those who might need a little push, too).  This week we celebrate at New Start Night (Tuesday), and our Brag Day Assembly Thursday. Go Sharks!

Instructional Point:

As you know, the Charlotte Danielson Framework is structured around four (4) primary domains. Material and observable evidence of our work in each domain can be collected, but it would appear this might be easier in some domains than others. In fact, Charlotte Danielson herself, points to the domains of Classroom Environment (2) and Instruction (3) as those which are most easily observable. When looking at the components and elements of these domains, it is clear the evidence of responding to misbehavior, using questioning techniques, or assessment in instruction may be captured, and recorded, by an astute observer (or even a video camera). As such I have seen a tendency for teachers to look first to these domains when choosing goals they will set for the year.  This is perfectly understandable and appropriate, but I would offer that the domains of Planning, Preparation (1) and Professional Responsibility are not -- at all -- lost for providing proof in our daily practice. There is much evidence to be physically collected in the “less observable” domains. As we become more familiar with the domains of Charlotte Danielson, and we find ourselves more frequently perusing the framework smartcard, I suggest you think about how each action and behavior might be captured and presented to a third party. Ask yourself, often, “What would that look like?”

Data Points:

There is encouraging end of session data coming out of New Start. In addition to our ten new students from Success Academy this session (wrote about this last week), we are referring less students than ever to alternate placements for poor performance while with us. 28 students came off of Academic Probation this session. That is more than ever. With our higher enrollments this year, that means only about 15% of our students are on academic probation. Per the PBIS/RTI Triangle, our students fit in nicely for Tier II & III intervention. I look forward to tracking these numbers more closely each session to learn more about the overall academic performance of our students.

 

PCT Point: Community Collaboration Time (CCT) October 26

This Friday, October 26 all staff will engage in Community Collaboration for our PCT time. You will receive email directions from your leadership team as to how our annual “CCT” works. Look for an email coming soon.

My Schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Oct 22	Oct 23	Oct 24	Oct 25	Oct 26
In Classrooms Fire Drill Classified Goals Meetings M/Parents M/PSO Pres. In Classrooms Sped Meeting	M/John Boyd In Classrooms NS Staff Meeting ALE Policy Writing NS Curriculum Night	District Learning Walk New Start Advisory Chat In Classrooms Science Data Team IEP Meeting	Observation In Classrooms NS Brag Day Assembly District ALE Meeting In Classrooms	New Start Partners Meeting PCT – Community Collaboration Sped Meeting Monday Points

Professional Growth Note: This week you should be at page 15 in Pedagogy of Confidence. I was mistaken in my calculation last week when I told you something else. Six pages a week should be fine to get you through Chapter 3 by December 7.

Have a wonderful week.

Mike

Monday Points October 15, 2012

 Celebration Points:

As Session One wound down at New Start last week, I want to celebrate our second graduating class of Success Academy! This year we are piloting the transitional project by requiring all students to pass through a week of reflection and preparation with myself, our counselor, student supervisor and support para. We co-taught the weeklong class in hopes of setting our students up to do well as they enter our small learning community. Session Two begins this week. Congratulations Cohort II!

Instructional Point:

There is some great teaching going on in our classrooms. I saw what I believe to be “Distinguished” level performance by a teacher when I randomly walked into a classroom at New Start this week. The teacher had students huddled around her laptop and projector and they were collaboratively writing the final exam for the course. The teacher had students refer to the notes they had been taking all session and asked them, “What do you need to know to pass this course?” Students reflected on their notes and what had been taught. The teacher laid out a framework for the exam letting them know there would be some true/false, short answer, diagramming and such. Then students proceeded to give their input and ideas about what questions needed to be asked in order to show that they been learning. As they spoke the teacher typed the test, projecting their ideas on the screen for all to see. The students were not only engaged in the co-constructed test, they knew what to study, and were set up to do very well in the course. That’s support, and that’s students taking ownership of their learning, a “distinguishing” indicator in the CD frameworks. Thank you for some great teaching.

Data Points:

Let the data begin! The New Start Language Arts team has already engaged in screening all of our students for fluency in reading. Over 70 students have been screened. I thought it was interesting that even though we don’t have growth data (yet) our literacy teachers already had a number of observations and findings to share with me and each other, just from the baseline we are building. Each teacher has a binder with student data they are collecting. Already we found that there are some very strong readers at New Start, at least as far as fluency goes. These are our students, with us now. At our LA Data meeting I could already see this vital information was beginning to inform teachers about their instruction. How will we support our strong readers? Would it be useful for other content teachers to know which readers where the strongest in our school? I am excited to see that just in month two of school, we are already learning about our students through the collaborative use of data.

  

PCT Point: “Seniors: The Road to Graduation” October 19

This Friday, October 19, our Counselor will prepare us to properly track, coach and prepare our Seniors down the road to graduation. Our commencement date has been set as June 12, 2013 (mark your calendars). We expect another record breaking number of candidates to grace our stage, but there is still a lot to do with our students before then. See you Friday at PCT. 1:00 at Salmon Creek.

My Schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Oct 15	Oct 16	Oct 17	Oct 18	Oct 19
Open Session 2 at New Start Pro-Cert Presentation (Renton) CH PBIS Meeting In Classrooms Sped Meeting R&D Evaluation Meeting (ERAC)	Observation SIP Writing District Principals Meeting  (ERAC)	Classified Goal Setting Meetings In Classrooms Advisory Chat Classified Goal Setting Meetings Pre-Observation Meeting PBIS Team Meeting	Observation In Classrooms Policy Writing Counselor Meeting Science Data Team CHOICE Uniform Meeting	Classified Goal Setting Meeting New Start Partners Meeting PCT – Senior Day Contracts Summit Meeting Monday Points

Professional Growth Note: You should be somewhere between pages 45 and 50 in Pedagogy of Confidence. Remember to target through Chapter 3 by December 7.

New Start you begin Session Two on Monday, so let’s all be out to greet students as they arrive.

Have a good week.

Mike

Monday Points, October 8, 2012

Celebration Points:

“Forty-six New Start students at the Life after High School Fair”, is my joyous cry this week, and hopefully yours. Working hard as our counselor, Andrea did (and Advisors too), over 30% of New Start students were present and accounted for (that’s almost a third of the school!) at the fair. Furthermore each had a signed passport assignment in which they had to speak with several colleges, universities, tech schools and the military. This annual event is huge for exposing students to life after high school options. It is a great launching point for Advisory conversations. I hope my visits to your classes are helping to spark some of those as well. You are working hard to meet our mission of preparing all students for college, career and citizenship. Be proud New Start staff, quite an accomplishment.

Instructional Point:

Danielson 1C has come up frequently in our goal setting meetings, so I wanted to share a bit about “Setting Instructional Outcomes”. Setting learning outcomes for students must start with you, the teacher. We’ve come a long way from merely posting objectives on the board.  In order to have a meaningful lesson aligned to the standards with opportunities to apply with a rigorous task, we must have clarity of the learning target. But then, it must swiftly be internalized by the student allowing them to understand the learning, own the learning, set goals and monitor their progress towards them.  

What is the difference between a learning target (goal) and a performance target?

When in classrooms, I will frequently bend down to students and ask “What are you learning today?”  Many times students are able to articulate what they are learning.  However, I commonly hear what they are doing, “working on a math problem,” or the topic they are focusing on, “inferences,” or – a blank stare.  Answers such as these indicate that the student’s attention is not focused on what it is he/she is supposed to be learning – it is focused on what he/she is doing.  Sometimes this is encouraged by the posting of a performance goal rather than a learning goal.  Research shows that when students are presented with learning goals they perform significantly better than students who are given performance goals or goals that focus on task completion.   In other words, it is important that the assignment remain the means, and the learning - the end!

Performance Goals	Learning Goals
Solve multi-step problems	Learn how to use the  strategy “draw a picture” to solve problems
Complete the steps for an experiment demonstrating chemical changes	Draw inferences and describe the similarities and differences between physical and chemical change

Data Points:

This year as we all dive into looking at different and new types of data together, I am sharing some demographic data from New Start that I thought was interesting. So, just for practice in the spirit of knowing our students well, here are a few data points about our students at New Start as compared to the rest of the district. (“FARM” is Free and reduced meals.) Take a look at the table below and let me know what it means to you? 

School	FARM	ELL	SPED	TOTAL
District Total	67.%	20.%	12.%	11,879
New Start	95.%	16.%	25.%	152

For my two cents, let’s not think about students here, think about resources. FARM, ELL and SPED status of schools represent a rich diversity, but certain resource challenges. New Start doubles or exceeds in two out of three of these factors.  In ELL needs we are nearly on par with the district average. I need to think and write more to draw some conclusions, but will let you ponder this interesting piece of data. Let me know what you think.

PCT Point: State Day October 12

This Friday, October 12, is a State Day for Professional Development. Certificated staff may be paid as an optional day if they work. Therefore, certificated staff is not required to report to school, so they may attend numerous trainings and conferences going on around the state and in the ESDs. Teachers may use this day for individual prep or collaborative meetings of their choosing. Classified staff are paid for a full work day. There are no classes or students on Friday. The New Start and CHOICE school buildings and offices will be open. This is a regular work day for classified staff. I would love to hear what you do, or learn, on Friday! 

Next Friday we return to our PCT Schedule: “Seniors: The Road to Graduation”

My Schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Oct 8	Oct 9	Oct 10	Oct 11	Oct 12
Success Academy Observe Mitchell In Classrooms Goals Meeting Sped Meeting	Success Academy In Classrooms Lunch Study Group CTE Meeting Contract Summit	HEA Update Success Academy In Classrooms Advisory Chat In Classrooms Student Enrichment Team School Board	Language Arts Data Team Success Academy In Classrooms Advisory Chat Success Academy In Classrooms IEP Meeting	Principal Meeting Steering Team ALE Policy Southwest Contract Monday Points

Professional Growth Note: On Friday I handed out Pedagogy of Confidence to staff. It will be our reading this year. Please put your name in the book, and read to and including Chapter 3 (up to page 52). Reading is due by the December 7, PCT, in 61 days.  (That’s less than ¾ of a page every day, or about 5 pages a week. You can do it!) Have a fabulous week everyone. Learn lots.

Mike