The #DexterParkPride
Every Child. Every Day.
The Dexter Park Innovation School
Vision
At the Dexter Park Innovation School we celebrate each other’s differences and strive to meet the needs of all students through collaboration among staff, family, and community. By providing an inclusive, welcoming environment and sustainable instruction carried out with fidelity, we will nurture the whole child and meet individual needs. We believe all students can find success.
Mission Statement
The Dexter Park Innovation School will strive to provide an inclusive environment with instructional practices designed to meet individual needs. All students will be provided with differentiated educational opportunities to increase achievement. Our mission is for all students to gain skills, both academic and social, in order to be successful in the future.
Core Beliefs
We believe that all students who attend The Dexter Park Innovation School:
Can learn
Have a right to feel:
Safe
Welcome
Respected
Successful
Adult Community Guidelines
We will strive to recognize and respect the perspectives and ideas of all staff, while assuming we all have positive intent for our students.
We will work together to create an adult learning community in which all members feel valued and respected.
We will communicate our ideas, concerns, or needs for support openly, honestly, and respectfully.
We will help each other identify root causes of problems and consequences without judgement to problem solve as a team.
We will work together to create and protect time in our schedules to share, discuss, and collaborate with fellow educators.
Rising Above
This year I have been personally exploring my "Whys", both personally and professionally, making sure that my goals and actions are purposeful and draw me towards those visions. What I have discovered in myself since I have been in Orange and seeing the vast work that you do for students, is that I have a burning passion for doing what is right for kids every day and meeting ALL of their needs. This is come through watching the work you do, seeing the challenges you and our students face every day, and how this work is so vastly underappreciated or recognized. This is why reading "The Energy Bus" was so influential to me, and I hope that you discover similar things about yourself as we read, learn and grow together.
I will admit to all of you that Monday was a struggle, as we received our most recent MCAS data. Having poured all of our blood, sweat and tears into the last two years creating the Innovation School, I honestly was a little excited to see how this would translate into our student achievement results. We as a school have done more in two years that most schools do in ten (and we did it quite successfully I might add). As I looked the data over, I felt defeated. I felt like I had let you down, our students down, and in one word, I felt incompetent. And after speaking with many of you this week, I know you feel the same way. You give yourselves to your work and your students and when it doesn't translate the way you hope, you quite simply feel deflated.
So what do we do now? I have the answer: exactly what we have been doing because we know it is the right thing to do. What I am coming to understand is that we have a greater purpose and a greater vision. It is why we are discovering our passions this year and choosing positivity when it can be so easy to complain about what we don't have or the resources that other schools or towns have. We are strengthening the adult community because we know that how we work together and support one another in times of difficulty has an impact on students. We are called to this profession and to this school because "if it were easy, everyone would do it".
WE are going to keep our bus on track. WE are going to continue building a school community that supports each and every child, each and every day. WE are going to ignore the "noise", stay focused on the vision of our school, and not anything or anyone tell us different. It is my hope that we continue to uncover and remember the deeper meaning behind the work we do so that we continue to impact lives. As you watch Emily Esfahani Smith's TedTalk, think about the 4 pillars how it relates to your life (personal and professional) as well as the goals you have for your students. If you are this DP bus, you share our purpose and it has never and never will be scores because our work transcends.
And finally, WE tell our story. We choose to focus on what we have and not what we don't. We don't play the play the victim to a skewed system that fails to get it right. We tell others how despite this, we are doing things that others around the state are watching and wanting to emulate. We are proud to say that we work in a building where we do more with less. We continue to move forward and forge ahead because the vision of our school pulls us to something greater and our purpose is bigger than how we are judged by a data point. We stick together because we get it and no one else does.
I believe in the work we are doing. I believe in us and I believe in each and every one of you, and I have never been more proud to be the Principal of the Dexter Park Innovation School.
Yours truly,
Chris
This Week at Dexter Park
Lemonade War is On Next Week!
Positive Behavior Support Update
Our Dexter Park Promises
Positive Phone Calls Home
Current phone call count= 3
This Year's Keynote
Staff Book Study
Get Staff Updates to Your Phone!
Upcoming Events
October 26th: Firefighter Phil Program @ 9:15 a.m. (Grades 3-5)/Goals and Plans to Chris!
October 27th: No School (PD @ Mahar)
October 31st: Vocabulary Parade @ 9:00 a.m.
November 2nd/3rd: Parent Teacher Conferences
Quotes of the Week (If you want the full article, let me know!)
“Historians aren’t very happy with Ken Burns. He’s a simplifier; we complicate. He makes myths; we bust them. And he celebrates the nation, while we critique it… We pretend we don’t envy his fame and fortune, but of course we do. We’re like high-school kids who don’t get asked to the prom, then say they never wanted to go in the first place.”
Jonathan Zimmerman in “What’s So Bad About Ken Burns?” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 13, 2017 (Vol. LXIV, #7, p. A52), http://bit.ly/2yNT7vK
“What schools must stop doing is teaching the puzzle pieces and then never letting students put the puzzle together.” Susan Riley in “The ‘A’ in STEAM Completes the Puzzle” in Education Week, October 4, 2017 (Vol. 37, #7, p. 22), subscriber availability at http://bit.ly/2ypruGe
“Smartphones have become so entangled with our existence that, even when we’re not peering or pawing at them, they tug at our attention, diverting precious cognitive resources. Just suppressing the desire to check our phone, which we do routinely and subconsciously throughout the day, can debilitate our thinking…” Nicholas Carr
“With optimism, trepidation, and, at times, annoyance, we’ve witnessed young people’s digital dexterity and astonishing screen stamina.” Sarah McGrew, Teresa Ortega, Joel Breakstone, and Sam Wineburg in “The Challenge That’s Bigger Than Fake News” in American Educator, Fall 2017, http://bit.ly/2xMa6wE
“Young adolescents – due to their impulsivity, neurological make-up, and inclination to push physical boundaries – are primed to make interesting and potentially harmful decisions about their own health.” Dru Tomlin in “Culture and Community” in AMLE Magazine, October 2017 (Vol. 5, #4, p. 5), www.amle.org
Need Some Information?
About Us
Email: christopherdodge@orange-elem.org
Website: http://dexterparkprincipal.blogspot.com/
Location: 3 Dexter Street, Orange, MA, United States
Phone: 978-544-6080
Facebook: facebook.com/dexterparkinnovationschool
Twitter: @PrincipalDodge1