The Weekly Roar
Notes from Nick Novak: Saturday March 25, 2017
Kudos
...to Greg Bulger for helping sub for admin this past week.
...to student services for hosting a successful College Night this past week. Very important info for our juniors and their parents.
...to all the teachers who did such an awesome job greeting students at their door this week. I know it was great looking down the downstairs B wing and seeing a strong presence in the hall and teachers connecting with their students as soon as they walked in to class. More hallway accolades to come? Let's check out what's happening in the N-Hall, A-Hall, out at the villa! Great job everyone.
FYI
1) The next SIT meeting is Monday 3/27 at 2:15pm in the student services seminar room. Come participate in a discussion about the topics students feel like they are missing (and staff know they need [e.g-study skills, organizational skills, etc]) and how we plan to address these issues next year.
2) Tuesday 3/28 is "Tardy Tuesday." We'll be conducting a tardy sweep after the bell to start 5th period. I'll be letting students know via the AM announcements that "at some point today, we'll be doing this, so they need to get to class on time or be caught in the tardy sweep." You folks know when it will take place, but they won't. I'll send out more specific directions, but the basic gist is that we'll announce for teachers to close their doors and not admit students and administrators/other staff will be out in the halls to collect names of students who were late for potential consequences.
3) The next IEQ walkthrough is Tuesday afternoon. Please refer to the announcement Gilbert sent out and address those items that pertain to your room. Thanks.
4) It's Lionstime on Wednesday. The upcoming "testing season" will probably impact our ability to have Lionstime (the county is trying to develop a consistent plan for all high schools), so make good use of the ones we do have!
5) I will be out of the building at a conference on Thursday and Friday. Shawn is in charge on Thursday and Dale is in charge on Friday. Thanks.
Staff Birthdays
3/26 Ronda Harrison
3/26 Leanne Peters
3/28 Sonya Sutter
3/31 Cathy Bloedorn
4/1 Kennedy Opoku
4/1 Emily Warner
"Instructional Tidbit"
Discipline-Specific Writing
The seven courses students take present a variety of writing tasks for them to tackle:
*They may be asked to write an essay analyzing how literary elements such as imagery, figurative language, and tone depict the speaker's feelings about his mother.
*Or perhaps students are required to write a lab report in which they document their predictions, methodology, and findings on a lab exploration of acids and bases.
*They might need to take on the role of a city planner and compose a persuasive speech to the planning board about why a certain building design should be implemented.
* Or maybe students are working on a review of a play they just saw on a field trip.
Each of these tasks have different demands and, although a student may excel in one class or be proficient in one type of writing, he or she may struggle with other disciplines/forms. As this brief "Solve a Teaching Problem" article from Carnegie Mellon suggests, three basic strategies can help students improve their discipline-specific skills:
1) Identify the key features of writing in your discipline-Focus on the purpose of the task. How do explanatory and argumentative essays differ in structure, content, and style?
2) Make your expectations explicit- Have students consider what conventions need to be followed. Is it okay to write in first or second person? Is passive voice acceptable? Performance rubrics help clarify for students what is high quality and what is not.
3) Model how you approach writing tasks- Doing a "talk-aloud" as you discuss the pre-writing questions students should be asking themselves, the planning they do to organize their thoughts, and the revision process they engage in to work toward a final draft. Although experts do many of these things unconsciously and automatically, students need to see and hear how this process unfolds.
Low-Stakes Writing
Mission
In partnership with families and the community, it is the mission of Howard High School to cultivate an environment of collaboration, empowerment, and engagement that exhibits world-class support for staff and inspires students to thrive in a dynamic world.
Email: nnovak@hcpss.org
Website: http://hohs.hcpss.org/
Phone: 410-313-2867
Twitter: @PrincipalNovak