The Spartan Standard
Creating Coherent Systems That Promote Learning For All
Our Mission: Why We Do The Right Thing
- Academic rigor across the curriculum fostering lifelong intellectual curiousity
- A climate of respect, fairness, equality, and security promoting individual confidence and responsibility
- A culture of collaboration between school, family, and community
- A proactive network of student support
- Exciting, unprecedented opportunities for student involvement
- Creative and artistic expression
- State of the Art Technology
Something to Think About
Mary Rose's Schedule (Subject to Change)
WEEK SEVEN:
Monday, August 31: Intervention/PLC Collaboration Schedule
7:30 Parent Meeting
8:30 Asst. Principals re: Complaints
12:30 Williams Visit
1:39 PLC Collaboration
3:15 Staff Interview
3:45 A-Team
Tuesday, September 1: GRADES DUE
8:00 Staff Meeting
12:45 C. Wilson, M. Higareda, J. Ospina Meeting re: Student-Athlete Support
Wednesday, September 2: Blood Drive
8:00 Staff Meeting
2:50 FAC @ Room 202 (Mr. Love's Room)
6:00 12th Grade Parent Meeting @ PAC
Thursday, September 3:
9:00 Principal PLC @ SYH
12:39 Department Chair Mtg. @ Learning Lab
4:00 Technology Committee Mtg. @ PAC
Friday, September 4: REPORT CARD DAY
7:45 Calendar
7:00 Varsity Football @ San Marcos
WEEK EIGHT:
Monday, September 7:
LABOR DAY: Holiday, NO SCHOOL
Tuesday, September 8:
7:30 Classroom visits
3:30 A-Team
Wednesday, September 9:
8:00 Classroom Visits
2:50 Faculty Meeting @ Learning Lab
Thursday, September 10:
7:30 Classroom Visits
Friday, September 11: Assembly Schedule
7:45 Calendar
11:30 Assembly
5:00 Staff Tailgate @ Grass Area next to stadium by Baseball Field
7:00 Varsity Football vs. Sweetwater
Saturday, September 12:
8:00 Saturday School (J. Lara)
Kudos, Thanks, & Transitions
- Thank you to all staff for supporting our ASB in holding a very special assembly that was shown in Fox 5 news. Special thank you to DiAnne Cabe for coordinating this big event that positively highlighted the spirit of our school. Very special thanks also go out to Marla Navarette, Eduardo Romero, Jessica Tejada, Valerie Ingram, Tony Atienza, Vanessa Albanez Yee, and Patrick Doerr for the group performances at such short notice and to Matt Asano and Charles Batchman for their assistance with tech.
- FALL Sports is under way! Thank you to the following staff for taking the time to coach or assist our coaches to engage our students in our Fall Season Athletics: Daryl Butterfield, Kris Larsen, John De Jesus, Joey Espinoza, Lily Sandoval, and Jose Medrano. Kudos!
- Please give a warm Spartan welcome Karla Ybanez. She will be providing clerical support to the Categorical Office.
Walkthrough Feedback and Focus
The A-Team and I have set our goal this year to ensure that each classroom gets visited every week by one of us. We believe that being in classrooms will lower disciplinary issues, not to mention send a message to students that we are around and present. To this end, please know that you will receive feedback, but not at every visit.
As we walk through this week, we will be looking for the following:
- What is the DLT and how does my agenda or class activity support its completion/mastery?
- How am I developing creating opportunities for structured student interaction?
PLC Collaboration
- Please work on the agenda that you had agreed upon based on your last PLC collaboration.
- A reminder that everyone is expected to stay on campus until the end of the PLC time. Thank you for your professionalism.
- Consider the following suggestion: Specifically concentrate your planning around anticipating student difficulties or misconceptions in your lessons. From your experience or from data you have, what misconceptions or difficulties do students have with the lesson/unit you are/will be presenting? How do you/will you plan differently to address anticipated misconceptions or difficulties in learning of students? I truly believe that by just doing this will make a big difference in student learning, engagement, and achievement.
- Minutes should include products (lessons, CFA's, adjusted lesson plans, specific agreements on instructional strategy use) that should be uploaded to our CANVAS page. I want to see the result/s of your collaboration. Please see your Curriculum Coach for assistance, if needed.
Thank you for your focused engagement and hard work!
FOCUSING ON MASTERY (from "Teaching Practices from America's Best Urban Schools")
When we FOCUS ON MASTERY, we plan for deep understanding of lessons for all students that have explicit, specific, and clear objectives.
- Focusing on getting students to understand specific content or skills
- Planning with a focus on increasing the likelihood students will understand the specific concept/skill by the end of the lesson
- Constantly monitoring and assessing to determine if students are making sense of the lesson content and adapting instruction accordingly
- Aiming to get students to demonstrate a thorough understanding of a concept or skill
- Working to keep students engaged in efforts to better understand the lesson's objective
- Expecting each and every student to work toward mastrey of challenging objectives, providing support to students who need special assistance, and providing enrichment opportunities that keep students feeling challenged
- Refusing to allow students to sit passively and fail
What It Isn't:
- Focusing on "covering" a set of concepts, skills, or pages during the period/day/unit
- Planning with a focus on covering the pages in the text, following the manual, or completing available worksheet pages
- Focusing on covering the lesson precisely as it was planned
- Aiming to get students to demonstrate a surface-level understanding
- Working to keep students busy throughout the class period
- Expecting students with specific learning needs to pursue different, lesser, and often unrelated learning objectives and expecting students who demonstrate success quickly to sit and wait
- Allowing students to sit quietly and do little, as long as they do not disrupt the teacher or their classmates
For The Common Good
- MANDATED REPORTER TRAINING: The deadline is August 31. Again, I sent the link for the training and you should choose the Educator 90-120 minute training link. This is the training where if you score 80% or better on the Final Exam, you will receive a certificate of completion via E-mail. Please give a copy of the certificate or forward the E-mail to Araceli Guzman and we will, in turn, forward to Human Resources.
- STAFF TAILGATE GET-TOGETHER: I think I may get it right this year...we will be having our Staff Tailgate Party at the first home league football game, on September 11 versus Sweetwater High School. Invitation will follow. Family and friends welcome! Bring a dish to share!