9/22/17 Happy Birthday, Nick Cave!

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 This week, I traveled through 18 K-5 art and music classrooms across the district and was so impressed by the relationships you are building with your students.  This bond you are creating with kids has impact far beyond what you would ever imagine.  Consider this short exert from Morning Meeting:
In the spring of my first year as a secondary school teacher, I got a letter from a student for whom I had a particular fondness, letting me know that she was dropping out of school. School wasn’t making much sense to her and little that she was being asked to learn held much interest for her.  She wrote, almost apologetically, that school just wasn’t a place she felt she belonged. More than twenty years later, her words still seem profoundly sad to me: I will always remember how you said “Hi, Sue” as I walked into eighth period. It made me feel like it really mattered that I came. 
It touched and pained me that something which seemed so small to me, an act I hadn’t even been aware of, had meant so much to her. I vowed to learn something from it and became more intentional about greeting my students. I stationed myself by the door and tried to say a little something to each one as they entered, or at least to make eye contact and smile at every student, not just the ones like Sue for whom I had an instinctive affinity. Gradually I realized how much I was learning at my post by the door. I observed who bounced in with head up and smile wide, whose eyes were red-rimmed from tears shed in the girls’ room at lunch, who mumbled a response into his collar and averted his eyes every day for an entire semester. I didn’t know what to do about much of it, but at least I was learning how to notice.
Let's continue to "notice" and be mindful of each and every student, letting them know that it MATTERS that they come to school, it MATTERS that they sing with us, draw with us, play with us, and learn with us.  Also, let ME say that it MATTERS TO ME AND TO YOUR KIDS that YOU COME to school, too!  Our attendance has been awesome, so let's keep it up!

Whassup:

  • I have completed the Yellow School Bus Grant requests for all five schools who will be attending the NBSO's Orchestra as Ecosystem performance at the Zeiterion in March 2018.  Fingers crossed!
  • I would like to request from principals that you be allowed to come to a PD opportunity with your art and music colleagues that is aligned to this year's SIP strategies (blended learning).  I will be asking teachers in art and music to model their simple and super effective strategies for blending learning in the classroom using technology and/or station work- we have some awesome stuff happening!  Please reach out to building leaders in the next week to ask if you are able to attend!  More details and locations to follow in next week's blog.
  • Durfee Band will be traveling to Dartmouth High School next weekend to participate in the US Bands Dartmouth Home Show.  This is going to be awesome for our kids!  
  • District Orchestra students will be coming to Durfee on Thursday the 28th after school for String Rental Night.  This is a "CRAZY FUN" night, just ask the Orchestra Directors!  It's where students come with parents to be fitted and assigned to a string instrument, and this Herculean task is completed for the entire district in one night!  WHEW!!

Department Pow Wows:

  • Thursday, September 28th will also be the first monthly department meeting.  Here is what I have planned...
    • K-5 Music @ Silvia 3:45- Amelia Nixon RI Phil PD
    • K-5 Art @ Silvia 3:45- Steph hosts us as we work on maps/Kindle Books
    • 6-8 Art @ Kuss 3:45- Sondra and Karen host as we work on maps
    • 6-8 Music @Kuss 3:45- Bill hosts MS Music teachers- goal is to plan for an All City Chorus Festival in the Spring of 2018
  • Durfee Department Meeting is Wednesday, September 27th- we will be working on end of course expectations/assessments.

Evaluation Stuff:


  • This week in middle school and high school CPTs, we have shared common Student Learning Goal sentence frames for teachers to draft their goals from.  In addition, I have some sample Professional Practice Goals for you to use.  I will include those in a document in this email for you.
  • These Goal Samples are aligned to both the Literacy Goal for the district as well as strategies that we are focusing on.  Please reach out to me if you need support as you develop your goal!  It's the first step in plotting your "learning" road map for the year!
  • The first step in the evaluation process is a Self Assessment. This is simply a reflection of where you are in relationship to the Rubric.  I have included this document in your folders as well as the goals doc.
  • Each school has created a School Improvement Plan (SIP) that will drive the work for improving student learning. These plans adhere to goals around Literacy, Numeracy and SEL/Attendance. High Schools have additional goals around graduation. As you draft your goals, please consider using the shared team goal for you to adopt if your building leadership allows- this goal will tie directly to the Literacy District Goal, but will be relevant to students' visual and music literacy and using content specific language to defend, critique and explain their reasoning. (See doc shared in email)
  • It will be our goal to support our schools and students in this focused growth as we excel our students' abilities to communicate with and about the arts.  As we create art and music student learning goals, these will support the school literacy goal as we ask students to improve their ability to communicate using specific content language as they defend their choice making, support their claims, and critique student work (their own and others).

Dates:

  • 9/23 Training on SMART Goals/Goal Setting/Plan Development/Evidence Collection
  • 10/6 Self Assessment and Goals submitted
  • 10/13 Review and Approve Goals
  • 10/27 Ed Plan due 
  • 11/3 Review of plan complete
  • Unannounced observation by 11/7

Have a great weekend!
Jackie


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