Sipley School Weekly Howl
Week of Monday, January 23, 2017
What Is Your SHINE?
I don't know about you, but I struggle through the months of January and February. Not being out in the sun, huddled indoors, paying the bills from the holiday season, cleaning up from the holiday season, and pouring through quantitative data this time of year all bring some level of anxiety to my life. Our professional development day, experiencing SHINE, couldn't have come at a better time for me! I found that I had to allow myself to leave the work behind and open my mind to a day of self resurrection. I hope that you enjoyed that day and have taken time to think about your SHINE!
As I think about our school, I look to the many qualitative aspects of our school successes. Allow me to share one with you. This past summer, we received a number of new students from one town home/apartment area that I won't name. There were complaints of fights prior to the school year starting as the new students struggled to acclimate themselves in our school community. Problems continued when school started as students walked home from school. Some parents shared that they felt they needed to move and I assured them that we have never had problems before, and to give us time. I assured them that our community is a good one and they can gain happiness in their home community. I talked to many parents and many students. As the students built relationships, as they gained exposure to the way we conduct ourselves at Sipley, and as they watched other student interactions, all of those problems were eliminated. That my friends is one hell of a success story. Of course that can't be measured on paper, but it is evidence of our worth. In fact, I would suggest that this example is far more important than any quantitative measurement found in schools. Thanks for all that you did to accomplish that! I encourage everyone to grab a sticky note and write down one positive thing that you recently experienced. Put that sticky note somewhere where it is visible to you.
Formative Assessment - WOOP
Our Wish is "Formative Assessment for Purposeful Instruction." Our school leadership team is set to share our WOOP with our Board. The work has just begun! I will be sharing weekly updates of our progress toward achieving our goals, sent to Mr. Wolcott. So, we have this WOOP, now what? It needs to guide our work.
Therefore, I took the liberty to sketch some work to help me think about the road ahead, providing our team with some sort of success criteria that can serve as a road map. My sketch is below. I see myself printing that sketch out for all teachers, then using that sketch in walk-throughs as I note evidence of the work happening in the classroom in relation to formative assessment.
As I observe our PLCs and listen to some of our obstacles, I am brought back to the most important part of our WOOP, the obstacle and the plan which states that if we need more time, we get it! In my opinion, if we do not take the time to plan, we are never going to get to the meat of formative assessment, such as developing teacher and student clarity related to prioritized standards, nor do we embed hinge questions that inform us of learning, nor do we base feedback to students based on evidence of learning, and we do not get to levels of instruction that are more student centered. Over time, that is what we need to get to. Therefore, I am offering grade level teams time to coplan units by acquiring a substitute, providing teachers with time. With good planning in place, I hope to see further steps in areas of clarity and feedback that lead to self-directed learning and are student centered. See my visual below.
As Mr. Wolcott asks of me, I ask you to consider your work in relation to our WOOP. What are you doing to grow your capacity in this important area of teaching and learning?
To Do Items
- Please send me your F&P levels
- Send me your math fact fluency grades (that you report)
- Begin working on your report card grades
- Schedule a day when you and your grade level partner can co-plan for the upcoming reading unit
- Push yourselves to use your existing plan time to work with your grade level partner to plan lessons (outside of the PLC). Work as if it is your own PLC.
- Take time to write down something positive that you experienced or accomplished.
- Be positive.
- Make some sort of positive connection with a parent (note, phone call, e-mail)
A Glance at the Week Ahead
Sunday - Happy Birthday to Bill Spear!!!
Monday - Start of Quarter 3
Monday - ALL Staff meeting - 3:00 - 4:00
Monday - School Board Meeting - Please attend as we share our WOOP!
Tuesday - I have an admin meeting in the morning and then a meeting to learn more about ECRA and the access that teachers will gain.
Wednesday - I have a learning meeting at the PDC from 8:00 - 9:30
Thursday - District Spelling Bee - Come out and watch our students! 6:30 at JJHS.
Friday - Wear your You Make a Difference Shirts!