Roberts Middle School
May 4, 2015
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
PIE time at Roberts means "not yet"
I hope everyone had a restful weekend. This past week the administrative team met for the first time. It was truly wonderful to witness the exchange of ideas among the team. I cannot wait for all of you to meet. I jump on every opportunity I get to brag about the collective group of teachers that will be working at Roberts! The experience within the staff ranges from rookies to veterans. I firmly believe that this will be an asset for our students. What I am most proud of is how passionate my staff is about their role as educators. As we will be learning from each other, it is important to have a “growth mindset”. I had to shift my “fixed mindset” in order to grow. Carol Dweck said, “Praise should deal, not with the child’s personality attributes, but with his efforts and achievements.” She stresses the importance of learning by failure. At Roberts I want you to take the calculated risk to make your lessons have meaningful outcomes for your students. It is ok to make mistakes, as long as we are able to gain beneficial knowledge in the process. Often times we teach kids to have a “fixed mindset”. Fixed mindset students do not want to risk failure by challenging themselves to learn new rigorous concepts. Dr. Dweck emphasizes the importance of praising a student’s “effort” rather than labeling a student as smart. When a student is not able to demonstrate conceptual mastery, it is important to let them know that they have not failed. We will be focusing on a “growth mindset” during our PIE time. We will treat PIE time at Roberts as a laboratory of learning. This will be our time in the morning to focus on the students who have not mastered the concepts. I want all of our students and faculty at Roberts to have a growth mindset. I will be explaining more about PIE time during our faculty meetings in August.
Watch this TED Talk with Carol Dweck
Special Education: Interested in being a co-teacher?
We will be supporting our high needs special education students who are in general education classes by implementing a co-teach model in our reading and math classes. This means our co-teach classes will have a certified special education teacher and certified general education teacher for the entire class period allowing both teachers to provide instruction for all students. Co-teaching allows for maximum support of academic diversity and provides students with equal access to the curriculum. General education teachers would have only 1-2 sections of co-teach classes and likely would have minimal, if any, additional sections of regular inclusion students. There are many benefits to implementing a co-teach model including:
- Two certified teachers in the classroom
- Full class period of support
- Collaborative planning to come up with the most creative and effective lesson plans for all students
- Most Significant Impact: Increased allowance for small group and individualized instruction
Flight Route for the week
Arrival Time: 4:30
Destination: Community School
Please don't forget your online activity prior to the meeting
May 5th : Mission Statement Committee: The goal of this committee is to help formulate a sustainable mission statement for the school.
May 6th: Structure/Routines/Discipline Committee: The goal of this committee is to start the process of creating and designing school wide rules based on Conscious Discipline.
May 7th: Social Committee: The task of this committee will be to help implement activities that are designed to foster relationships both inside and outside of school.