Wildcat Weekly
January 27, 2020
Our Promise
Every student in Dallas School District is known by name, strength, and need, and graduates ready for career, college, and community.
What on Jamie's Mind?
This gets deep, hang in there, we’ll get through this together!
For those of you who are frequent visitors to our Weekly, you might have noticed that I have recently been sharing more of my stories and reflections lately. I have always tried to make connections with the real-world and the work we are trying to do here. I don’t know if it is working, but I try to promote a human side to the work that we all do. We all have families and lives outside of school and often these two worlds meld together bringing us a wonderful perspective.
I have started back doing quite a bit of reading. I have to admit, lately, I have not done much in terms of professional growth for myself and feel like a hypocrite as I always encourage you all to keep learning and growing as professionals. I can’t really pinpoint any one reason for this but this past year has been a whirlwind and I have caught myself in taking on an attitude that the important work of connecting our kids with meaningful learning is beyond our reach. I have felt a difference in the way that I lead and how I work.
I can't say that I have rested on our laurels, although we have made huge steps in deeper learning, making positive connections with kids even when they don't want it and have an amazing staff that cares for each other. I would say that I have allowed the system to determine what I can and cannot control.
Some of you might know I suffer from really high expectations. It's like a fever!
Honestly, leading up to Exhibition was disappointing for me in the low level of student involvement. I truly have to take the blame on this one as I did little to lead us to create a scenario for meeting the expectation. Attitude reflects leadership!
My frustration with myself is that I feel that we have plateaued as a staff and that rests on my shoulders. Don’t get me wrong we have done amazing work getting to where we are and I see growth. There are many reasons we can use to explain why this past year has been so difficult. This is what makes our growth critical, despite all that is working against us, our kids deserve our best and I somewhere along the way let this fact become secondary to how hard the job is.
It’s been said that we have the freedom to grow as professionals, take risks, make mistakes and be treated as professionals and that is what makes working at LaCreole so special. All great to hear. Our climate is that we love and support each other and I agree LaCreole is an amazing place to be and we need to keep focused on that because we need each other to lead for one another and for our kids.
Have I given in to those things that I can't control or am I continually hacking away at the things I can?
Yes, I have, my lack of growth this past year is on me. I have to accept where I am and strive to do better. I need to lead better for you all and plan to do this moving forward. I ask each of you to consider this question for yourselves.
I'm really glad our kids had the opportunity to share their learning at Exhibition! Thank you!
In retrospect, despite my perceived expectations, this iteration of Exhibition Night was a huge success! The students that were present were amazing! The quality was high and our kids felt good about themselves. I suppose appreciating the quality over quantity is important, and I really don't know how much better we can get, but I have to wonder how we can work together to find out.
Those are my thoughts. I look forward to this upcoming semester!
Glad you're here!
Winter Exhibition 2020
Our friend Jason Snider sent us this link as a kind reminder that he misses us!
Staff Character Dare
We are Character Strong!
Extended Advisory: Advisory Grade 6 (Year One Track)
1/30/20 - L17 - SOFTEN Listening
Objectives:
- Students will reflect on their own character and identify ways they could improve it.
- Students will know each part of the acronym SOFTEN in connection to skills of listening.
- Students will be able to demonstrate the SOFTEN listening model.
Coming Up On Our Calendar
Coming Up On Our Calendar
1/27 - Monday - Planning Day - No Students
1/28 - Tuesday - Early Release Schedule - Board Work Session @2:45 in Library
1/30 - Thursday - Extended Advisory - Morning Assembly Schedule
1/31 - Student Leadership Dance - 7:00 - 8:30
We will communicate Fire Drill details this week...hopefully we will get lucky!
Coming Up In PLC
January/February
1/28 - Board Work Session @2:45 in the library
2/4 - Content Area PLC
2/11 - Safety Protocol review
2/18 - Character Strong
2/25 - Content Area PLC
Board Work Session Agenda and Questions for Next Week
Work Session with Staff
- Introductions
- What student data are we reviewing during PLC time to identify individual student needs?
- What are we doing when individual student growth is not happening?
- What’s most important to you as a staff?
- What is working for you and what is not?
Wakelet Tool!
Remember to use our hashtag #lacreolerocks when sharing!