The Welcome Back Blog

THE WELCOME BACK BLOG!

We left off in June with the following message, and I would like to paste it here to start the year on the same track...

...We are all going to be engaged in, and touched by the concept of Turn Around Plans and School Improvement as we begin our work this school year.  The district office and schools have been very busy looking at student growth, curriculum, benchmarks, assessment, discipline, attendance and other data as they plan for next year.  This is important stuff, because it's this "stuff" that will be what we are constantly thinking about, planning with, and using to drive the work.  So, what is the "work?"  

From my perspective, our work that lies ahead is to make sure that we take a solid look in the mirror every day.  How do we plan, what do we plan and why do we plan it?  Our kids come to us, many with deficits in their learning, gaps and other components that make our work EVEN more of a struggle, but all the more necessary.  As schools wrap up this year, many meetings are focused already on how we will achieve better results for kids, with higher standards, and more supports.  And again, you may be asking yourself, what might this mean for me?

"Struggle" is that space- past discomfort, where and only where growth happens.  That no pain, no gain philosophy is what makes competitors faster and stronger, because we all know, without struggle, there is no improvement.  

So, in faculty meetings, department meetings, common planning meetings- you will hear words like "assess performance, specific feedback, monitoring, systems, vision, targets.."  Know that these will and do relate to all of us.  As we begin the last week of the 2018/19 school year, know, too, that we are all in this together, and that for me, the work of a Turnaround District may be misrepresented in it's namesake.  We should see ourselves as not turning around, but turning it UP!  

So, what's NEW?

• You may have seen an email with a link to a Google Form for Lesson Planning. This is a platform we will use in Middle School CPTs and some Department Meetings to calibrate lesson planning and plan tasks based on the National Core Arts Standards.  I took the workshop model* (*district is using workshop model across the board) and typed in all of your standards into a drop down menu so all you have to do is type in the task details and simply choose from the menu of standards.
• We will be using Quaver for K-5 Music!
• Grades 6-8 Music Classes will have a special surprise in September!  Amazon has "adopted" your classrooms, and will be donating a set of 5 Chromebooks, USB Mics, and Makey Makeys for you to incorporate into your task planning.  This music tech station is for you to use to plan tasks using a music making app- but you can also use it to design new musical instruments (Makey Makey does that!) and other tech related stuff...  Congrats! We will have some time during the first half day to learn how to use this tech.
• We will not be using RI Phil's Link Up this year- I have ordered recorders for you- I will be sending these over as soon as they arrive.  We will use the Quaver Curriculum and Recorder Karate to drive recorder learning.  In lieu of performing at the RI Phil in May, we will discuss the potential to perform at the FRPS Annual 5th Grade Spelling Bee!

Planning Ahead:

Monthly Department Meetings:

September:

• K-5 Art and Music- Thursday, September 26th- 3:45 at Silvia
• 6-8 Art and Music- Wednesday, September 25th- 3:45 at Morton
• Durfee Faculty Meeting- Sept 10, Department Meeting- Sept 18- 2:45.

Instrument Demos for Band and Orchestra:

• Principals, your band and orchestra teachers will be in touch regarding scheduling engaging demos to recruit band and orchestra students in grades 4, 5 and 6! Stay tuned for details!

Professional Development:

• October 1st is the first Release Time day for the District- I will share the agenda in the next couple of weeks.

Supplies...

If you submitted supply orders in May, they should be almost all delivered- Russ Lewis is waiting on a few things that are back ordered.  

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Jackie