Cabell Chargers
Week of February 1- February 5 Vol.1 Edition 22
Principal's Note
Hello Staff,
Last week was a great week of collaboration and learning for several of our teachers. A group of our teachers spent a day at Dan D Rogers where they participated in observation and debrief, writing a problem of practice, case consultancy and planning around a take-away from the visit. Likewise, six teachers participated in MAP Resource training that equipped them with a deeper understanding of analyzing and interpreting MAP scores, and using the data to inform instructional practice and engaging students in meaningful goal-setting exercises.This week, four staff members will be attending the TCEA Convention and Exposition in Austin. At this convention, our staff members will explore best practices for engaging students, increasing productivity, and innovating teaching and learning through the use of technology. Our PL Coordinator, Ciane Grossman, will be presenting and tweeting! Look out for her Tweets. We believe that these learning experiences for staff will have a direct positive impact on student learning and achievement. Hence, we will continue to expose our staff to these exciting learning opportunities as they come up.
Our new approach to tutoring for 3rd - 5th grade begins this week. I am equally excited for our upper grade students who will greatly benefit from this intervention. I am aware that this approach necessitated some change or adjustment to staff schedules and plans, and so I thank you for embracing this effort. Our student achievement data demands us to act courageously right now. The bottom-line is that our student academic achievement depends on us. Final guidelines and expectations will be shared with staff during the day on Monday.
Have a great week!
Action Required
- Job-Alike Session, Monday 2/1, 4:00-5:30p
- Tutoring 3rd-5th, begins Tuesday 2/2
Upcoming Events
ACP Writing, all week (2/1-5)
Junior Achievement, Friday 3/11
Design Thinking
What is Design Thinking? Design thinking is dependent on the idea of trying new things, reflecting on their success and making the adjustments necessary for the next attempt. Embracing this mindset encourages a dramatic shift in practice while allowing a safe place to try new things without a fear of failing.
How does Design Thinking apply to teachers and school leaders at Cabell? We are able to generate new ideas to solve a problem, prototype, test, and iterate for maximum student benefit. With Design Thinking, we can make sure that next gen learning is truly student-centered.
Thinking back to Cabell’s original application to become a Personalized Learning campus, our problem was that the majority of staff taught traditionally in a one-size-fits-all framework and struggled to meet the range of student’s needs. Consequently, students didn’t have a voice in their learning, were unengaged, unmotivated, and were not learning at their full potential. The Cabell team focused on numbers 1 through 4 during the planning stage last year (see the diagram below).Now that we are in Year 1, we are in the most difficult stage of the Design Thinking process since we are continuously building, testing, and learning about the different components that we are implementing. In addition, we are continually faced with decisions involving scaling back, shifting, or scrapping our ideas (see the diagram below). We also learn to adapt to new changes and challenges that we are faced with. We are so fortunate to have the best staff at Cabell! Remember to breathe, don’t be afraid to fail, and share your successes!
Habits of Mind: Strive for accuracy
Mission Statement
our mission is to promote student success through a high quality education. For every child to succeed, we must hold students and ourselves to high expectations. Only the courageous pursuit of excellence will lead to success.
Email: fhypolite@dallasisd.org
Website: http://www.dallasisd.org/Page/2240
Location: William L Cabell Elementary School, Templeton Trail, Dallas, TX, United States
Phone: (972) 794-2400
Twitter: @cabellpl