Crystal's Corner
December 11, 2015
GOAL #1: STUDENT GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
LES participated on Wednesday, December 9 during Computer Science and Education Week (December 7-13). LES PreK - grade 3 students participated in this new type of literacy that strengthens 21st century skills, including logical thinking, problem solving, perseverance, collaboration and communication. As you can see in the photos below, you don't have to be a middle or high school techie to do coding.
1st graders explore coding.
1st grader and Pre-K student try their hand at coding.
K-3 tech teacher Linda Miller works with 1st graders.
GOAL #2: CULTURE OF LEARNING FOR ALL
CR & LA met Monday afternoon and CIAPD met the following morning.
A large part of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday was consumed with lice...identifying inconsistencies, finding inaccurate information in various publications, formulating/reinforcing what our practice is moving forward, and preparing a communication piece for Wednesday's BOE meeting.
Erin and I met with the nurses beginning shortly before CR & LA Monday afternoon as part of the research about our lice practices.
I met with the secretaries again on Tuesday for more work on developing an evaluation rubric for central and school office personnel. I also updated them on the complexity of calculating the retro pay as secretaries are key communicator within their buildings.
We thought last year's meetings fulfilled the requirement of meeting with a District Evaluation Advisory Committee (DEAC)/School Improvement Panel (ScIP) but the state has said we need to continue meeting this year and next. Thus we met Wednesday afternoon before the BOE meeting. The main purpose of the meeting was to relate what LTEA negotiated regarding a staff member getting the written observation before a discussion with the administrator. Previously, the staff member received the written info within My Learning Plan at the post-observation conference. Again, LTEA negotiated to have it before.
I met this afternoon with a central office administrator.
GOAL #3: LOCAL & GLOBAL COMMUNITY
LTPS was well represented this week as various personnel attended/presented at their respective organizations. Tom presented to NJASBO on Tuesday about how to read the Board Secretary's report. Andrew attended an NJASA meeting on Wednesday in conjunction with the Joint Committee on the Public Schools. Lana presented on and was part of a panel discussion about branding at a workshop of the New Jersey School Public Relations Association on Thursday.
I'm participating on a panel next week at the NJ School Development Council meeting at Rutgers. The panel will address Recruiting/Hiring/Retaining Educators of Color.
Last week I mentioned a LHS choir would sing at Lawrenceville Main Street's "Holidays in the Village" on Sunday, December 6. Below is tweet of Mandy Johnson directing one of our choirs in Weeden Park at the event.
GOAL #4: FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
Tom and I met with the County BA and Interim Executive Superintendent today at the annual meeting to share generalities about our budget priorities and concerns. The meetings are done in groups and Robbinsville and West Windsor reps were also present.
SUPERINTENDENT GOALS & PDP ACTIVITIES
Goal 1: Strategic Plan - No activity this week.
Goal 2: Evaluation Systems - I met with the secretaries this week to continue working on their rubrics.
Goal 3: NWEA Reading - No activity this week.
Goal 4: Instructional Rounds - Round 2 will commence in January.
Goal 5: Community Participation - Next week, I will be a panelist for the NJSDC Open Dialogue on Recruiting and Enabling Minorities and Women. Familiar faces Drs. Danita Ishibashi and David Roman will join me.