This Week
Fahari's Weekly Staff Memo: 9/22/14 - 9/26/14
A Message from Fahari's Principal: Stephanie Clagnaz, Ed.D.
How have you made yourself vulnerable to your team?
Building trust is not easy. It doesn't occur in one meeting. Teams must work at it all the time. As a team works toward building trust, authentic work can begin. Lencioni teaches us that a key to building trust is for individuals to make themselves vulnerable; to admit their weaknesses; to ask for help. It is important that the team leader models this behavior by making sure that s/he demonstrates vulnerability. The leader must be genuine. One way that teams increase trust is to share stories with one another. Even though this takes time away from other tasks, the time spent is well worth the investment.
Patrick Lencioni teaches us:
Members of teams with an absence of trust . . .
- Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from one another
- Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback
- Hesitate to offer help outside their own areas of responsibility
- Jump to conclusions about the intentions and aptitudes of others without attempting to clarify them
- Fail to recognize and tap into one another’s skills and experiences
- Waste time and energy managing their behaviors for effect
- Hold grudges
- Dread meetings and find reasons to avoid spending time together
Members of trusting teams . . .
- Admit weaknesses and mistakes
- Ask for help
- Accept questions and input about their areas of responsibility
- Give one another the benefit of the doubt before arriving at a negative conclusion
- Take risks in offering feedback and assistance
- Appreciate and tap into one another’s skills and experiences
- Focus time and energy on important issues, not politics
- Offer and accept apologies without hesitation
- Look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group
Have you made yourself vulnerable with your team? Are you asking for help when needed? Are you making your weaknesses evident so your team can support you?
Operations Updates:
Jared Roebuck, Assistant Principal for Administration and Culture
School Wide Procedures:
Attendance: If a student arrives to homeroom after 7:30, please remember to mark the student late on your bubble sheets.
Lunch: Monday’s morning meeting will focus on lunch procedures. We’ve received lots of great feedback and are making some adjustments.
Dismissal: Tuesday’s morning meeting will focus on dismissal. Again, lots of great feedback that has resulted in forthcoming adjustments to dismissal procedure.
Culture Team News!
Culture Team:
Mr. Santiago - Dean of Students
Ms. Walker - Director of Student Culture
Mr. Roebuck - Assistant Principal for Administration and Culture
Grade Level Weekly Culture Events:
This week we begin having our Grade Level Weekly Culture Events. Each week, a different grade will have a culture event that celebrates our students or builds community. Please be on the lookout for the following items from Ms. Walker:
Culture Events Calendar
Work Plans for specific culture events
The 8th grade culture event for next week is Dress for Success Day on Wednesday, September 24th, 2014.
Data, Technology and Testing Updates!
Jonathan Destine, Director of Data, Technology and Testing:
Tech Tip of The Week:
Battery Degradation – When charging your devices (laptops, phones, etc.) it is important to not let them charge overnight. Overcharging your battery will result in a loss of battery life over time. Lithium ion batteries have an internal “cut-off” switch that stops charging at full capacity; however all batteries have internal charging cycles and deteriorate over time. Devices typically require 1-2 hours of charging to reach 100% battery life.
Tech Trainings:
Next week our ELA department will pilot our chromebook rollout. I will be present in each ELA classroom over the course of 3 days to ensure our students can use the devices to publish a writing piece and staff can complement their instruction in the Google environment. We will go over the logistics around cart procedures, logging in, generating a Google doc, and accessing digital classroom resources.
Data Updates:
Baseline Assessment data will be available this weekend in Math, ELA, and Science. Be on the lookout for this information!
Parent Engagement Updates!
Thank you to ALL staff who helped to make "Meet the Teacher Night" a success! Parents walked away with a better understanding of our academic programs and how to best support students this school year. Let's continue to send the message of "partnership" by communicating regularly with families.
A few tips for consistent communication:
- Utilize the mode of communication that works best for you and the family. Many families may prefer a quick text check-in over a lengthy phone conversation.
- Teachers - 2-3 family check-ins per day = 10 to 15 per week. Committing to a family communication schedule will ensure regular engagement with all families.
- Co-teachers - If possible, divide your class into 2 sections so that each teacher is responsible for communication with 15 students. Commit to communicating (via phone, text or email) with each family at least once every 2 weeks.
As always, please reach out to me for ongoing support with students and families.
~Ms. Clarke, Director of Family Engagement
Upcoming Events
Board Meeting
Wednesday, September 24th, 2014
Fahari Academy @ 6:30pm
Rosh Hashanah - SCHOOL CLOSED! (No after school clubs Wednesday, Thursday or Friday).
Thursday, September 25th, 2014
Friday, September 26th, 2014
Midterm Term - Quarter One
Wednesday, October 8th, 2014
Who Will Be Out Next Week:
Stephanie Clagnaz
Daniela Luis
Joseph Zoboi
Adunni Clarke
Tuesday, September 23rd:
Daniela Luis
Crystal Fernandez (AM out)
Brandi Robinson (AM out)
Adunni Clarke (AM out)
Wednesday, September 24th:
Kim Hunter (PM)
Deneen Yomba (PM)