Sipley Weekly Howl
Week of Monday, April 3, 2017
If we are truly interested in transforming schools and meeting the needs of urban youth of color who are the most disenfranchised within them, educators must create safe and trusting environments that are respectful of students' culture. Teaching ALL students requires recognition of the spaces in which ALL reside, and an understanding of how to see, enter into, and draw from these spaces.
Great Professional Development Opportunity
I'd Like to Introduce...
Ben Lafferty as our LRC Director! Ben has accepted a position as LRCD of John L. Sipley School. Ben brings forth a love of literacy and technology integration aimed at engaging learners, two of biggest things our staff was seeking. Ben is exactly what our staff asked for and more! Ben reads children literature and uses his knowledge of literature as he pairs that knowledge with the interests of students. Ben is currently a Library Media Center Specialist at Nathan Hale Middle School where he has worked for two years. Prior to that position he was Technology Coordinator and Technology Instructor while working at Stone Scholastic Academy.
Ben is going to serve Sipley students and staff well. In many respects, he will serve as a second coach as he works with teachers to increase student engagement through innovative ideas.
Our interview included two phases. The first was questioning where Ben met with Tarah, Cyndi, Angela, and I. The second was teaching a lesson where we can see his ideas and the way in which he engages learners. If you'd like to see Ben in action, check out the link below. When you click on the link below, you'll need to sign up for an account on the Swivl Cloud site.
After Spring Break
The number of office visits has escalated. We had more than three office discipline referrals per day, which is near the 75th national percentile and not where John L. Sipley School should be. I am calling on staff to Be the Change. We will kick Monday off with a Skill Blitz (schedule will be sent via e-mail) and teachers are asked to use Monday afternoon (or more) for team building.
I am also asking for preventative measures to be used by staff. This includes staff building relationships with students, building in structures that allow our students to use their voice within the classroom, which can be done through Kagan Cooperative Structures, and continually sharing classroom expectations. CHAMPS is a great resource to share the expectations of students. See the next section.
I am shifting my role to take charge of the emotional well-being of students. I have one student that I am meeting with daily through check-in/check-out. I am piloting new strategies in Culleen's class in hopes that the work I do with her students can be replicated in classrooms next school year. As I visit classrooms, I will be observing teaching and learning through a lens of social emotional learning and examining the relationships that exist between teacher and student and between students.
With a focus on relationship building, the inclusion of Kagan Structures as we meet the needs of our students, and providing students with clear expectations, we will decrease office visits and increase time students spend in classrooms and make classroom spaces more enjoyable for all.
CHAMPS
The acronym CHAMPS is used the make students aware of your expectations as they work independently or in groups.
C = Conversation - Can students engage in conversation? At what level? With whom? How many students are involved in conversation?
H = Help - How do students get questions answered? How do they get your attention? If students have to wait, what do they do while they wait?
A = Activity - What is the expected end product of this activity?
M = Movement - Can students move throughout their work? What is acceptable movement? To sharpen a pencil? To get material? To go to the washroom?
P = Participation - What behaviors will show students are participating fully and responsibly. What behaviors show the student is not participating?
S = Success
I am convinced that if teachers take time to make the expectations clear to students prior to releasing them to work that we will diminish the chance of misbehavior. Read more on CHAMPS.
Work I am Piloting in Culleen's Class
I read For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too over break. During my doctoral studies, this is the type of material that I read on a continual basis. This is the body of work that my dissertation focused upon, however, the struggle to infuse my passions into my work, has been limited. Funny thing about this is that my own limitation is also the finding of my research - transformative leadership focused on social justice is a huge struggle in public schools and likely not possible due to the many neoliberal ideologies that negatively impact schooling today. It was a refreshing find as I literally stumbled on it as I chose books to read over break.
This book was powerful! It contained real strategies, which was missing in the theoretical work I read during my studies. This is one of the rare texts that provided THE HOW! My theoretical knowledge of social justice and equity paired with the HOW found in this book, provide me with a real possibility of integrating the work of Christopher Emdin. My hope is that the work done in Culleen's class can be replicated in all classrooms in 2017-2018.
My work will include the development of cogenerative (we generate together) dialogue through cogens or a group of 4 students that will provide us with what they need as learners in our classroom; through co-teaching methods where students teach and provide us with a lens for which they need to learn; cosmopolitanism - to develop classroom identity and to develop cosmo duos where two students are paired together to depend on one another for each other's learning; through context where Culleen and I acquire a close sense of the culture of our students where we are hyper focused on them as young people; and finally through content - yes, the last focus, because we can't have their minds if we do not have them. Check out these elements through this video - he describes what I just shared at about the 10 minute mark of the video.
Conversations This Week
The District held two full-day kindergarten information nights. If you're interested in learning what was presented, please see the link below...
Supervision Schedule
A Glance at the Week Ahead
Monday Morning - Skill Blitz
Monday Afternoon - Significant 72 Activities
Tuesday - Gym is closed due to voting - lunch in classrooms
Wednesday - Kindergarten Registration - 3:30 - 7:00
Thursday - Damon Schmidt's Birthday!!!
Friday - I will be at DAC on Friday to discuss interviews for the Instructional Coach Assigned to Sipley School