North High School
Staff Bulletin - February 17, 2020
_______________________________________________
Literacy Goal: North High School will raise the percent of students proficient on the Open Response from fall to spring by 10% in 2019-2020.
Actions Being Taken to Improve Literacy
- Daily Writing - Writing activities every day to boost our student writing
- Departments with different responsibilities in teaching areas of the OR Rubric
- Advisory students tracking their progress on OR
- Working on quality task creation and examining student work from those tasks
Math Goal: North High School will raise the percent of students proficient on the High School Math Assessment from fall to spring by 10% in 2019-2020.
- Understanding and applying the Common Core's 8 Mathematical Practices in all classrooms
- Advisory students tracking their progress on the BME Assessment
- Develop an auxiliary leadership team to focus on math data assessments
- Working on quality task creation and examining student work from those tasks
_______________________________________________
Parent Teacher Conference Information
We will be following the same format as the Fall:
Staff will provide grade reports to parents at the front doors. Teachers will be in their classrooms and meet with parents as they visit. Here is what teachers need to do over the following week to prepare:
Grades – Monday, February 24 at 4:00 PM grades will need to be in Canvas. We are going to print grade reports this Spring.
Advisory – Call up each student, one-by-one to call or text a parent to invite them to conferences.
Freshman and Sophomore Teams – Target high needs parents for personal invites. Possibly even schedule a few “team” problem solving meetings with appropriate people.
Conference Day Information:
Teachers need to be in their rooms, ready to go at 3:05 on Wednesday and 8:00 AM Thursday.
- Meals and Personal Needs – We have scheduled times, and informed parents, that you will be unavailable between 11:00-11:45 AM for Lunch (on your own) and 4:30-5:00 PM for Supper (provided).
Conferences end at 5:45 PM on Tuesday and 8:00 PM on Thursday. We will stop handing out grade reports at 7:45 PM. The doors will also close at that time. Administration will announce to inform parents that conference will be ending soon and when they end.
_______________________________________________
Parent Walkthrough Information
Purpose: With public education taking hits both nationally and locally, it is important for us to ensure our parents understand our work. The goal of inviting parents in for walkthroughs is to show them the "behind the scenes" work of teaching and learning. North High School is one of the largest, most diverse high schools in the State of Iowa. What our students achieve and teachers accomplish defy statistics on schools with similar demographics. Our greatest outcome is for the visiting parents to share with their friends and community our accomplishments.
Plan: We will be reviewing our goals with the parents and focusing them on what we will be looking for in walk throughs. We will focus on literacy (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). We will point out content and language targets, identify moments within the lesson where students were practicing literacy components. We will have 6-7 groups of 3-4 adults. We expect to have each group visit three classrooms and spend around 10-12 minutes in each room. When we transition to the next rooms, we will discuss what was seen in regard to literacy and elaborated communication. We will be asking the parents two questions: What did you like? What did you wonder?
8:15-8:30 am North High School Building Goals and Plan
What are walkthroughs and what do we look for in the observation?
8:30-9:15 am Classroom Walkthroughs
9:15-9:35 am Debrief Walkthroughs and Closing
Picture: When we visit classrooms, it will look like CIP or Administrative Walkthroughs. We will spread out around the room and watch. We will coach parents to ask, "What are you learning today?" with the ideal answer derived from the posted learning target. We know that the answers will vary depending on which student is asked. As employees, we know the kids better and understand the difference in answers. We will watch for the elements that a non-educator would miss.
Part: Our education system should be built on this: leaders lead, teachers teach, students learn. A teacher's part is to plan quality teaching and learning activities. An ideal situation will be for our visitors to witness your tried and true activities. Since we are looking for literacy components, students should be engaged in reading, writing, and/or speaking. We aren't requiring a "dog and pony" we ask that you be intentional with all planning to incorporate construction of knowledge and elaborated communication activities Whether you are testing or not, we will conduct the walkthrough as it is part of the high school experience.
_______________________________________________
Last Week's Average Daily Attendance: 90.38% (-0.63% from last week)
_______________________________________________
CPR in Advisory
Week of -JPL (S209)
3-Feb Hubert-JPL (S209); Embrock-AW (Rm 335)
17-Feb Schriener-JPL (S209); Nieman-AW (Rm 335)
2-Mar Olorundami-JPL (S209); T. Clark-AW (Rm 335)
16-Mar Monk-AW (Rm 335); Malone-Mason/Banks/Bush-Hanson (A-L)-JPL (S209)
30-Mar Malone-Mason/Banks/Bush-Hanson (M-Z)-JPL (S209); Malone-Mason/Banks/Bush-Hanson (A-L)-AW (Rm 335)
13-Apr Malone-Mason/Banks/Bush-Hanson (M-Z)-JPL (S209); Seniors-AW (Rm 335)
27-Apr Seniors/ELL-JPL (S209); Seniors/ELL-AW (Rm 335)
11-May Seniors/ELL-JPL (S209); Seniors/ELL-AW (Rm 335)
_______________________________________________
Weekly Strategy Challenge - Practice This Strategy In Class!
Instructional Strategy - Wait Time
Here are some reasons I have heard from teachers who do not use wait time:
- "I don't have time."
- "The kids have it, so I am just moving on."
- "We have to get through this curriculum."
- "I just don't think about it when I get into the lesson."
What does wait-time cost in regard to time? If you ask 25 questions in a class period and deliberately use 6-second wait time, it is 2.5 minutes. Wait time is vitally important to allow students time to process learning and information. It levels the playing field for all students. When I was a teacher, I had a spot in the back of my classroom for my cues. I put a sign up that said, "Wait time". I also explicitly taught my classes about wait time. In hindsight I should have done it with all my classes instead of just my traditional classes. I taught them wait time, its purpose, and my expectation.
Here is what you need to know about wait time:
- Minds work fast, and the amount of additional time necessary to improve the quality of answers may be small, but even 3-5 seconds is the key to students success.
- Students responses are likely to increase in length and correctness.
- The number of failures to respond is likely to decrease... Less "I don't knows".
- The number of students who volunteer to answer is likely to increase.
- The use of evidence in answers is likely to increase.
How can you ensure more time? Try these:
- "I'm waiting for more hands."
- "I'd like to see at least fifteen hands before we hear an answer."
- "I'm waiting for someone who can connect what we just learned to something we have learned in the past."
- "I will start taking answers in ten seconds."
_______________________________________________
Department and Safety Meeting Notes
_______________________________________________
Advisory Calendar of Events
We understand that the Advisory is slowly slipping back into old habits. Currently, the Freshman and Sophomore teams are developing different systems of working with students during advisory. Once they run through their process, we will work to systemize it 9-12. Additionally, we are working to streamline all interventions into a manageable, understandable flow. Each must work together to support our work. Here are a few key points:
- Homeroom Reorganization - The reorganization leveled the work throughout the entire staff. We now have homerooms ranging from 17-24 students. Having the same group of students builds consistency and allows us to focus on a small group of students.
- Interviews - The interviews are important so that we can have utilize relational power to influence our advisory students. Having a one-on-one conversations build that connection. It also provides us information in regard to who is motivated, who has supports at home, who can stay after school, and who is willing to support peers. This is information we can use to propel future work.
- Grade Checks - We are in the process of developing a consistent approach to grade checks. Freshman and Sophomore Teams are working with the process. Once identified we will teach that to the entire staff. It will be important that each staff member to consistently apply the procedure once established.
This week, we have a more relaxed focus. Use this time to focus on building relationships, focusing on successfully completing work, and encouraging them to attend conferences with their parents.
Tuesday:
Grade Reviews - Have students open canvas and review their gradebook with each one.
Wednesday:
Work Time
Thursday:
Work Time
Friday:
Work Time
_______________________________________________
Upcoming Dates
Below are currently scheduled events that will take place during the school day. These will interrupt academic work.
- Tuesday, February 18 - Parent Open House and Walkthroughs (1st and 2nd Blocks)
- Tuesday, April 21 - ACT for Juniors - No other students in attendance
- Tuesday, April 28 - ISASP Testing - Writing and Language Tests - The ISASP testing dates will have alternative schedules. It will be similar to last years with a testing block in the morning and shortened blocks in the afternoon.
- Wednesday, April 29 - ISASP Testing - Math, Reading, and Science
_______________________________________________
Monday Morning Music
_______________________________________________
Reminders and Checklists
All Staff:
- Safe School Training is released. Here is the link: https://siouxcityschools-ia.safeschools.com/ There are five training's on this year's module. Total time indicated is 129 minutes. Due dates are varied.
- All New Course - ACES
Certified Staff:
- Sign up for duties with Chris. If you sign up now, you will have a choice. If you wait, you will be assigned to an open duty.