Common Sense
Thomas Jefferson Feeder Pattern News - December 15, 2014
About the Title
TJ Feeder Pattern News in Brief
Walnut Hill ES K-3 Spelling Bee a Nail-Biter
National Center for Urban School Transformation School of Excellence Finalist Walnut Hill ES held its annual K-3 Spelling Bee on Friday.
This years event lasted 11 rounds until a winner was crowned! Congratulations to all of the staff and students involved in this yearly tradition!
Cary MS Students Visit Texas A&M
The students toured the campus and met with current students at the college campus. At the conclusion of the trip, Principal Vaughan announced that we may have some future Aggies among us!
Sudie Williams ES Participates in Dallas Mayor's Race
Students and staff from Sudie Williams Elementary participated in in the Dallas Mayor's Race this Saturday morning at Reunion Park in downtown.
The Dallas Mayor's Race 5K, launched in 2003, encourages students in our community to become more physically active
Executive Director's Message
As the semester ends, please accept my heartfelt thanks for the work you've done with teachers, staff, and students so far this school year. I look forward to reviewing ACP data, culture survey data, and your mid-year progress reviews to assess how far you've moved the needle during the fall of 2014.
Please maintain a strong academic tone at your campuses through the completion of the semester. Whether your students are testing or engaged in continued instruction, every moment counts.
Thank you and have a great week with students!
Timothy J. Hise
Executive Director, Thomas Jefferson Feeder Pattern
The Reading Paradox
from Marshall Memo #564
In an Education Gadfly article, Kathleen Porter-Magee says that teaching in a standards-based era has led many teachers to start with the end in sight, backwards-mapping the year and teaching one bite-sized standard after another. This works with some subjects, especially math, and it works with primary-grade reading, where students need to learn to decode and build a basic vocabulary. But it hasn’t worked very well with reading after third grade, says Porter-Magee: “Beyond the foundational reading skills, standards in this realm don’t articulate the content that students need to learn to become good readers. Instead, standards describe the habits and skills of ‘good readers.’ Good readers can, for instance, identify the main idea of a text. They can understand ‘shades of meaning’ and can even use evidence to support comprehension and analysis.” A decade of trying to teach reading standard by standard hasn’t brought about robust gains in U.S. reading achievement, especially in the upper grades.
So how do teachers get their students to high levels of reading proficiency on standards that don’t fit the normal standards-based approach? “After students learn how to read,” says Porter-Magee, “the ‘outcome-focused’ instruction that characterizes the standards era needs to adapt as the classroom shifts to English language arts. Then we must stop trying to teach reading the way we teach math. Rather, we need to view the skills and habits described by the standards as tools – tools that can and should be honed over time, in service of understanding and analyzing great texts, but that are not the ‘content’ of reading instruction.”
“The Reading Paradox: How Standards Mislead Teachers” by Kathleen Porter-Magee in The Education Gadfly, December 3, 2014 (Vol. 14, #49),
http://edexcellence.net/articles/the-reading-paradox-how-standards-mislead-teachers
Cary MS Visits Aggie-land
Lunch & Learn with Dallas ISD TEI Team
The TEI team is excited to announce optional lunchtime campus sessions called “Lunch & Learn with TEI” for teachers to connect with TEI staff members and receive answers to their questions about the Teacher Excellence Initiative. Please click this link if you are interested in having TEI staff members come to your campus to share information with teachers and answer their TEI-related questions during your teachers’ lunch period. If interested, after completing the survey a member of the TEI team will follow-up with you directly to confirm your session content and scheduling preferences. Given that DTR-eligible teachers will most likely use the winter break to complete the DTR application in preparation for the January 22, 2015 application deadline, the TEI team is suggesting that most “Lunch & Learn with TEI” sessions occur prior to the deadline.
Fishman Prize for Superlative Teaching
Region 10 State Accountability Training Offered for Principals
- January 21 (2-5pm) - Dallas ISD Administration Building
- January 22 (2-5pm) - Haskell Building
- January 27 (2-5pm) - Dallas ISD Administration Building
If you wish to register for one of the sessions, call 972-925-6714 or email cchernosky@dallasisd.org. Registration is capped at 30 participants per session.
Leadership Quote of the Week
Week At-a-Glance
- Campus Visits
Tuesday, December 16
- Campus Visits
- Principal Assessment Center
Wednesday, December 17
- Campus Visits
- Districtwide Principals' Meeting @ Hulcy MS (1-5pm)
Thursday, December 18
- TJ Feeder Principals' Holiday Breakfast @ The Original Pancake House (7:30-9am)
- Campus Visits
Friday, December 19
- End of 3rd Six Weeks
On The Horizon
December 18: Dallas ISD School Board Meeting
December 22-January 2: Winter Break
January 5: Student Holiday/Professional Development
January 6: Six Weeks 4 Begins
January 6: TEI Expert Meeting @ Foster ES (4-6pm)
January 7: Principal Focus Group
January 9: TJ Feeder Meeting @ Knight ES (8:30am-12pm)
January 12-14: Dallas ISD Written Composition Benchmark
January 12-16: Parent Conference Week
January 14: Teacher Focus Group @ Polk ES (4-5:30pm)
January 16: Cycle 5 Data Meetings (Elementary)
January 19: MLK Holiday (Students & Staff)
January 21: Districtwide Principals' Meeting
January 23: Cycle 5 Data Meeting (Middle) @ Greiner MS
January 28: Districtwide Assistant Principals' Meeting @ Hulcy MS
January 30: Cycle 5 Data Meeting (High) @ Jefferson HS
Action Items
- STAR Chart - December 15
- Personal Graduation Plans - December 17
- Career Cruising MS/HS School Lead Training - January 5
- Student Transfer Application Process - January 6
- Spring Woodcock Munoz Testing - January 12
- myEDmath.com Recruitment Tool - January 15
- Science & Social Studies Field Trip Funding - January 30
Thomas Jefferson Feeder Pattern
Email: thise@dallasisd.org
Website: www.dallasisd.org
Location: 408 N Haskell Ave, Dallas, TX, United States
Phone: (972) 925-3061
Facebook: facebook.com/tjfeeder.pattern
Twitter: @tj_feeder_pattern