Sipley School Weekly Howl
Week of Monday, April 13, 2017
Inspiring Education and Innovation
In partnership with family and community, Woodridge School District 68 provides a comprehensive educational foundation for all children in a safe, caring environment, preparing them to be productive, responsible, and successful members of society.
What Changes Have You Made?
(THIS WAS DISCUSSED IN OUR MONDAY MEETING - BUT I WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE WHO WASN'T HERE HEARS THE SAME MESSAGE)
We met in mid February to discuss a need to change our current work. I asked staff to address behaviors and send students to my office for misbehavior. This has unearthed problems, which is great. Those problems have become visible versus hidden and as a result, we have scheduled four Teacher-Assistance-Team Meetings to support the teacher and student. By the way, prior to that I believe he had one other TAT all year! I have been able to work with other staff on supporting students. I myself have began doing Check-in/Check-out with a student. Without seeing the problem, we can't fix the problem. So, I am pleased that we have taken this important step.
When we talked in February, I called on staff to be more proactive, more observant, to be on time and present, to focus on relationships, and to hold students accountable for their choices. Students have been sent to my office and I have been dealing with those behaviors since that time. When we talked at that time, I shared the belief that we would see a rise in office discipline referrals and that over time, the number of office discipline referrals would diminish. Furthermore, I believed that we would only be seeing repeat offenders after we made some adjustments at all levels of our school. Since that meeting in mid-February, our ODRs have increased, which again, was expected. Our behaviors escalated above the 75th national percentile and an average of 3 ODRs/day. In the last 80 months of school, this has only occurred 3 times. And there seems to be no current end in sight, which prompts me to ask, have other changes been made? What have staff members done differently since our meeting? Do others want change to occur? Has anyone looked into the mirror? Sipley: we are not a 75th national percentile school with respect to behavior.
As I think about the work of principal and the behavioral support I need to provide to teachers and students, I wonder what changes each staff member made since that meeting in mid-February. Because if all that has changed since that meeting is that we are sending students to the office for misbehavior without any changes at the classroom level, the most important level, then we are not working as a team to achieve sustainable and positive change that our students, teachers, staff, and parents need. Since the time we talked, I have done some of my own work in improving myself and my work. I read, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood...and the Rest of Y'all Too. I am reading Freedom to Change right now. I also grabbed a copy of CHAMPS, which I plan on reading by August. The information I am reading is impacting my daily work. In addition, I added the Wordles to boost staff morale. I contacted a principal in Plainfield to learn about their lunchroom. I spoke to my wife and educator after her workshop by Randy Sprick and heard of a positive way to improve tardies and attendance. I sent over 100 letters to parents addressing tardies and attendance. I made greater connections with students who need support and worked to put supports in place. I am also currently working on evaluating our entire work, which will be discussed more in depth at our next Monday meeting. On Friday morning, I asked staff to reflect on what changes they have made since our meeting in February. Please reflect on this over the weekend. Feel free to send me a note/e-mail on your reflection as it can be healthy for individuals to do that.
Before I conclude this long section, include in your reflection the following: IF I never send a student to the office for misbehavior, yet my students are referred to the office for misbehavior in the lunchroom, on the playground, in the art room, in music, in gym, in the washroom, and in the hallway, what does that say about me and my work? What can I do that I am not doing to alter and prevent that from happening? I always shared this with my students (and my children at home) - "You act very well in front of me. I expect that when you are not with me that you are that same person when you are with me (my students were my children and I would do anything for them). If you misbehave outside of our learning space, your discipline is going to be greater than what you receive from a teacher or principal because what you do outside of our class misrepresents you, your classmates, your parents, and myself. Be who you are at all times." Please know that I did not and do not view consequence in the same manner as punishment, so know that.
Discipline or Punishment
Are these two words synonymous?
I hope not.
Discipline is guiding and teaching; done with a child; requires understanding, time, and patience, teaches problem solving and builds a positive self-image; and develops long-term self-control and cooperation. Punishment is control by fear, power, and coercion; is done to the child; elicits anger, guild, resentment, and deceit; impairs communication and wholesome teacher-child relationships; and stops undesired behavior in the specific situation temporarily, but behavior often is exhibited in other ways.
Excerpt from Supporting Children in Their Home, School, and Community - by Sailor.
Want more information - Watch Craig Boykin - He will give you something to think about - Watch from 41:55 - 1:19 of the video below, which was just released!
WOOP
Make sure that you are completing your weekly WOOP Check-In. I heard from a staff member that the weekly check-in is valuable. The person also shared that the links are helpful as she tries new ways to check for student understanding. This brought a smile to my face. I hope this is true for others.
As I reflect on the things we have done over the past 8 years and have seen those things disappear it makes me wonder if our work on formative assessment, something all teachers must do all the time, will become stagnant (because this can't disappear). I hope that isn't the case, but history tells me that it is possible. We have seen things such as Thoughtful Classroom, our book studies on teaching boys, our sparse implementation of CHAMPS, implementation of Kagan, and our own consistency on addressing school-wide behaviors come and go. Some might suggest that we do not spend enough time on them, which may be true. As I read Freedom to Change, I am reminded that though someone is introduced to new ways of doing, the person will not implement change if they are unwilling to. Fullan suggests that change must come from within and change rarely comes about through top-down measures. Perhaps I have not done a good enough job as a leader in supporting such change or keeping a single focus. I am doing some soul searching as I look into the mirror and examine my own work. Perhaps I haven't been the cheerleader you need for change to occur. Perhaps I need to be more like the coach in the video below :)
So... GET INTO FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT, PLAN FOR IT, PLACE IT INTO AN IMPORTANT PORTION OF YOUR LESSON, USE IT TO ADJUST YOUR TEACHING, MAKE IT PURPOSEFUL, TRY A NEW STRATEGY, YOU CAN DO IT, YOU CAN DO IT, YOU CAN DO IT, DON'T GIVE UP BECUASE OF PARCC TESTING 4TH AND 6TH GRADE, YOU HAVE TEACHING TO DO NEXT WEEK, DO IT, DON'T LET IT SLIDE, WE HAVE 8 MORE WEEKS TO BUILD COMFORT, DO IT, DO IT, DO IT, YOU GOT THIS!
Keep Classrooms Accessible!
New Speech and Language Pathologist
A Glance at the Week Ahead
Monday - 4th and 6th grades begin PARCC testing - Monday Morning
Monday - Quarter 3 grades are due
Monday - New District Website will be launched
Tuesday - Admin meeting
Tuesday - 5th grade State Science Test - Afternoon
Tuesday - No Cook Night/Day - Doggie Diner - Danielle, see if Scaletta wants a hot dog!
Wednesday - Kindergarten Planning Meeting
Thursday - Report Cards go home
Thursday - 1st and 2nd grade Field Trip
Friday - No School - Spring Holiday