Welcome back to Monday Points after a well deserved break last week. I hope the long last weekend was a good one for you. I attended a fascinating conference on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Math that I look forward to sharing with you throughout the rest of the year, and into next. This week though, we wrap up February, Session 4, and begin with a new cohort of Success Academy. Let’s get Started…
Celebration Points:
I feel like I want to celebrate every time I see students performing in class to the Distinguished level of teaching on the Charlotte Danielson. So I must share, I was in a class the other day on a random walk through and I witnessed a student in front of the class explaining the classroom expectations for behavior for the period. The teacher stood in support on the side. I was elated to see such a thing in one of our classrooms. The leading student’s peers listened on as the student clarified what her expectations were while the teacher was reading a book to them that day. Well done teacher you know who-you-are! Those are distinguished students. And I saw evidence of distinguished teaching. Celebrate.
Guest Writer: Leadership Team Member, Bruce Dearborn
As we seek perpetually how we can get better, please pause and ask yourselves this question. In fact, ask each other “why are you successful?” We are successful, you know. We take the kids at whom the system has thrown everything they have, and somehow we pick up the pieces and, voila! a successful youth emerges. Is it them? Is it something I have done; someone else?
A few of you are venturing to a WALA conference this week. There, in addition to observing decades-old traditions, you will attend workshops put on by your colleagues. They get to do this because they have a success. Ask them the BIG question. When they want to say “how” they do that, just bring them back to the BIG question. When they say stuff like “we get the student to believe in themselves,” or, “they experience success,” then, ask them “How do you do that?” And then, come back and tell us what they said, and what you said.
In 1978 I attended my first WALA conference at The Evergreen State College. We stayed in dorms, ate cafeteria food and mostly talked about how to keep our alternative programs alive. By the late 90’s we occupied an entire convention center, had a notorious keynote speaker and Dr. Terri Bergeson came every time. She started as a SpEd teacher and she “got it.” However, even she did not know how we did it. (She gave new meaning to the word celebrity – boy, did she love to celebrate!!)
Instructional Point: Common Core
Heads up! Together for the next year or so we will be learning about the Common Core State Standards. Some of you may know the conditions for this transition from our own state standards (the EALR, GLE and GLO) over the next few years. The short of it is, in exchange for our state’s waiver from federal NCLB, Washington state is to adopt a new set of learning standards that is on par with a majority of other states across the nation. These standards are “The Common Core”, a term you will hear a lot about in our future.
Indeed, the CCSS is with us now. Books and dissertations have been written about the implications and meaning of the common core. Common core is far too vast to cover in this weekly blog, or years worth of Monday Points. For the purpose of this week’s message I will tell you what I know today. I am sufficed to say that the Common Core represents:
· Shifts in the form of “Anchor” standards to national English Language Arts (ELA) that are thematic and increasingly more rigorous throughout grade levels.
· A raised bar for what students are learning in elementary grades, and even higher expectations for what students should know and be able to do in secondary education.
· The same is true for Math, and how we approach the teaching of math in 8 explicit Math Standard Practices, they call “MSP”s.
· The anchor standards of common core can be integrated into instruction for electives, CTE, and college and career preparation.
· The common core is an approach to teaching standards that is applicable to how we teach now, but is perhaps even more observable when implemented in all classrooms.
We are embarking on a journey into the Common Core, today, and for years to come. We will learn what the CCSS looks like in classrooms, and across content areas. Get set for us to learn together, The Common Core.
PCT Point: This Friday, March 1, PCT is Team Time. You are to independently direct how you will spend your collaboration and learning time. It is also a District Job Alike Day. There will be opportunities to professionally collaborate with job alike colleagues across the district. I will be at the WALA conference on Friday with our leadership team. Please send me a message and let me know your intentions for your own professional growth and development this Friday afternoon.
Mike’s Schedule:
Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Feb 25
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Feb 26
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Feb 27
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Feb 28
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Mar 1
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Weekly Letter
Teach Success Academy
New Spaces Meeting (Woodside)
Sped Meeting
M/Teacher
Community Strategic Planning Event (Evening)
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In Classrooms
Teach Success Academy
Observation Writing
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Teach Success Academy
In Classrooms
Alt Ed Leadership Team Meeting
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In Classrooms
M/Jackie
Graduate Success Academy
Weekly Administrative Meeting
Drive to Chelan for WALA Conference
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Washington Association for Learning Alternatives (WALA) Conference (All Day)
Drive Home
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Have a great week!
Mike
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