The Spartan Standard
Creating Coherent Systems That Promote Learning For All
Words to Inspire...
Mary Rose's Schedule
WEEK ONE:
Monday, July 21: Pre-Service Day7:00 Breakfast
8:00 Staff PD
11:00 Lunch
11:30 Master Schedule
12:00 Parent Meeting
2:55 FAC Meeting @ New Library
4:00 A-Team
Tuesday, July 22: Pre-Service Day
7:00 Breakfast
8:00 Staff PD
11:00 Lunch
12:30 Master Schedule
Wednesday, July 23: First Semester Begins
7:45 iPad Distribution @ Library
8:00 Student follow-up
8:10 Classroom visits
9:00 Parent Meeting
11:00 Mr. Leyba
12:15 Teacher Mtg.
1:00 Master Schedule
1:30 Teacher Interview
3:30 A-Team Debrief re: First Day
Thursday, July 24:
7:15 Parent Meeting
7:45 Teacher Mtg.
8:30 Counselors/Registrar
9:15 Asst. Principal
10:00 Teacher Mtg.
10:15 Staff Mtg.
12:30 Teacher Follow-up
12:45 CIS/Resource
1:00 Teacher Mtg.
Friday, July 25:
7:45 Calendar @ Learning Lab
9:30 Classroom visits re: Master Schedule changes
11:30 CIS
12:15 Teacher Mtg.
12:45 Teacher Mtg.
1:00 M. Lawlor
1:30 Classroom visits re: Master Schedule changes
3:30 A-Team
WEEK TWO:
Monday, July 28: Intervention Day
7:45 Walkthroughs
2:00 Staff Mtg.
1:30 PLC Meetings
3:30 A-Team
Tuesday, July 29:
7:45 Walkthroughs
4:00 FANHS Mtg. re: Conference Presentation
Wednesday, July 30:
8:00 C. Yarbezek, Apple Trainer
9:00 Principal PLC @ Learning Lab
12:45 Walkthroughs
Thursday, July 31:
8:30 Marines
11:30 Walkthroughs
Friday, August 1: Assembly Schedule
7:45 Calendar
8:30 Walkthroughs
9:00 Teacher Meeting
9:45 Master Schedule
1140 Assembly
1:00 Master Schedule w/ H. Bender & Counselors
7:00 Pippin @ EHS
Saturday, August 2:
8:00 Saturday School
8:30 FANHS National Conference @ Kona Kai
Opening Day Feedback
The Good News:
- The hallways were clear before 7:45 AM.
- The campus was calm. After lunch, the campus was generally clean.
- Teachers quickly set the tone for the school year.
- Even in the face of distressing news about one of our recent graduates, teachers and staff supported students who were affected, if they had any, and continued on with establishing expectations and routines.
- All staff were helpful with students, parents, and with each other.
- Forty (40) more parents came in to clear residency so their children can attend school.
- More parents came in to set up enrollment appointments.
The Challenges:
- There was confusion regarding the schedule for Wednesday-Friday. It was Advisory/Assembly schedule. We needed t give more specific instructions with regards to keeping students and when to release them.
- Not all teachers were clear about what to discuss in the student handbook and how to discuss all the items.
- We discovered that not all the iPads delivered to us were ready for distribution. This was out of our control so we had to cancel our iPad deployment and then identify which iPads were configured correctly so they can be distributed to students. We were able to distribute 200 out of the 642 that we received. Kudos to Alain Garnica-Mendoza, Eric Christensen, and Bill House for coming up with Plan B on the fly.
- Students were sent back and forth between the gym and the Main Office for locator card issues. In our desire to get students to class as quickly as possible, duplicate locators were inadvertently printed. I had to delay dropping students to ensure that we did not drop those who were in school.
- Not all teacher computers were hooked up, working properly, or connected to printers and document cameras. This resulted in problems with taking attendance and communicating via E-mail.
Walkthrough Feedback: Week One
- Teachers conveyed expectations and started with getting to know activities or delved straight into content area instruction from the very first day of school.
- Academic routines (notebook organization, notetaking, vocabulary structure, etc.) were being modeled in classes.
- Some classes were structured to encourage student interaction: sentence starters, active word walls, and seats arranged in groups of two or four were seen.
- Not all classes had DLT's. Let me reiterate that DLT's inform your students what skill they will be mastering and how they will show you that they have mastered it. An agenda is not a DLT. A standard is not a DLT. It's great to say your DLT verbally, but please write it down so you can refer to it every so often.
- For those who had DLT's, majority were in the Emerging Implementation. Only a few were constructed according to the template. All DLT's should have the following components: Timeframe, Verb/Bloom's Taxonomy, Concept/Skill, Activity/Measurable Verb, Product or Assessment.
- Many classes were pre-testing students to gather data on their skills.
- Academic language was being developed in classes. Teachers asked questions which alled students to answer using the vocabulary they were learning. Vocabulary words were defined by or for students and written down as notes.
- Students were given some opportunities to work together and talk to each other by answering worksheets together, creating dialogue, or practicing conversation. There was not clear structure to the collaboration or conversation.
- Instruction was bell to bell.
Walkthrough Foci
As we walk through, we will be looking for the following:
- How is my classroom arranged to promote a safe and engaging learning environment?
- What is the DLT and how does my agenda or class activity support its completion/mastery?
- How am I developing academic language through structured student interaction?
- How am I moving towards collaboration and structured student interaction?
- For Monday: How is Intervention time being used to support or enrich students?
Master Schedule Update
- All no-shows were contacted and dropped on July 23 to make room for new enrollees. We dropped about 85 no-shows.
- We have appointments for 130 students from July 28-July 31. We continue to accept new students.
- We anticipate that we will have 2500 students by the end of the week. As a result, we have opened new classes to accommodate the projected needs of our new enrollees.
- The growth in classes will be handled by a combination of postings and 1/6 stipends. All 1/6 stipends were offered last week. Three positions will be posted August 1. In the meantime, we will have substitutes covering these classes. Please welcome our subs and assist them by providing materials. Every attempt has been made to get substitutes who are credentialed in the areas they will be covering.
- All class changes will be effective Monday, July 28. Hilda Bender has the plan to move students from class to class, if need be. If you will be receiving students, please wait in your classroom. If your students will be moving to another teacher, please wait with them in your classroom until an administrator, counselor, or campus assistant comes to escort your students.
- Some of the classes that we opened will build daily. Please welcome the students. Thank you for your flexibility.
- Our growth has also necessitated the need to share rooms. Thank you to all who have, and will, open their doors to our new staff.
- Our counselors are multitasking: making class changes, seeing students who have requested changes, assigning classes to new enrollees, and balancing classes. Thank you for your patience as we move towards fulfilling contractual obligations. The 180 Reports are being run everyday.
- I would like to think that I had spoken to everybody whose schedule will undergo a change or who will be sharing classrooms. If I missed you, please accept my apologies and let me know.
- Hilda Bender will be posting the master schedule tomorrow as soon as we verify its accuracy.
- All classes will be at cap and balanced by Tuesday, August 5.
PLC Collaboration
- You are to work on the agenda that you had agreed upon based on last week's PLC collaboration.
- Please consult the handout given last week if you need clarification on PLC tasks and products.
- Minutes and products are to be turned in to me via E-mail, hard copy, or best yet, via CANVAS (we all need to start using it anyway...). Ask Jennifer Fuller how.
For The Common Good
- iPAD Deployment Part II: Alain Garnica-Mendoza will be working on a plan with Bill House and Eric Christensen to distribute iPads to the rest of our 9th graders. Please look out for E-mails from Alain regarding next steps.
- New Partnership: The San Ysidro Health Clinic will be providing health services to our students through their Mobil Unit (which will be parked in the back parking lot near the Learning Center) and mental health services (on campus) twice a week, on Thursdays and Fridays, starting September 4. We are excited to get this partnership going, which had been approved in May.
- New Traffic Routes in the Back Parking Lot: Please review the E-mail sent by the Assistant Principals regarding the new traffic routes to enter and exit our gated parking lot. The discussion was very lively in the calendar meeting and this is the plan that resulted from it.
- Chained Gates: It has come to my attention that staff members and coaches (who I consider staff) open gates on L Street (by the Youth Center) that lead into campus and leave the gates unlocked. The gates are there to keep intruders out. Please do not make it easy for them to trespass by allowing them to simply walk in through an unlocked gate that is unsupervised. Please help Chula Vista High School be a secure campus by ensuring that visitors have no other choice but to come to the Main Office because it is the only unlocked and supervised entrance to the school.