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