Updates -- 26 October 2012

Happy Friday!

Where to begin?  How about with Halloween?

Halloween
As last year, several concerns have been expressed about holiday parties which some teachers have scheduled to coincide with Halloween.  I know my opinions are somewhat unpopular, but here's what I still think about all that.  I think real school should happen on Halloween, therefore:

• Unless parties are aligned with standards and instruction, they're probably not the best use of instructional time. 
• If parties are aligned with standards and instruction, please ensure they don't impact or interrupt other school programs, schedules, or special classes, including but not limited to RTI.
• For safety reasons, children (and teachers, too, natch) should not wear Halloween costumes at school... Kinders have their City Hall costume-visit walking field-trip each year on Halloween, and for this reason they are excepted (albeit somewhat reluctantly) from this expectation.

Fire Safety Clowns

We've an opportunity to have the Summit Fire Safety Clown show here again this year.  They would like to visit on Friday, 16 November.  If you're interested in having your class attend their show, you need to let me know by next Tuesday, 30 October so that we can arrange for no show, one show, or two, depending on your level of interest.

Superintendent Hickman's visit

It was with great pride that I accompanied FUSD Superintendent Barbara Hickman around our building earlier in the week.  In general she appeared to be quite pleased with what she observed.  No matter your role here, thanks for being engaged directly with your students, focused intently on content and academics, and in complete control of your domain.  I was awfully proud of you.

Lockdown Debrief

A darn good job with the lockdown drill on Thursday.  Pretty much everybody had the situation dialed.  Thanks for taking it seriously.  As we all know, there's good reason to be well-practiced at this.  It could happen...

Two-hour meeting

Teachers, we will convene in the Library on Friday afternoon, 02 November, for our first legitimate two-hour meeting of the year.  Lunch will be served and collegial time will be had beginning at 1:00.  Please bring your laptops.  We will be investigating ways to strengthen our Tier 1 instruction.

Calendar

• Monday, 29 October
• Taiko Drumming begins!
• Thursday, 01 Nov
• Science Fair Kickoff Day
• Friday, 02 Nov
• 4th & 5th Grades Recycling Assembly, 9:15 in the Gym
• 2-hour Professional Development Meeting, 1:00 in the Library

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Updates - 19 October 2012

Hello everyone,

I hope your conferences went well.  Thanks for your careful preparation and attention to this essential opportunity to cultivate cooperation between what we do here and what happens at home.

Lockdown Drill
We will conduct a brief but important lockdown drill next week at 9:00 AM, on Thursday, 25 October.

It is important to quickly review this procedure with your students prior to the drill.  

During the drill students should remain in their seats and must be absolutely quiet.  When the announcement, "Marshall School, this is a lockdown," is given you should lock your classroom door.  Windows should be shuttered.  DO NOT use the orange card to indicate your presence.  A member of the office staff will call your classroom to ensure you have all your students in-place.  No one is permitted to enter or leave your room for any reason until the "All clear," is given.

Flagstaff Athletic Club
Don't forget October is the month we non-members get to enjoy the benefits of the Flagstaff Athletic Club for free!  Malinda and Jan have passes if you're so inclined.

Calendar

• Monday, 22 October
• No Coe, Ballard has the helm
• Thursday, 25 October
• Lockdown drill, 9:00 AM

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Updates -- 12 October 2012

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the end of the first-grading period.  I hope you are proud of what you've been able to accomplish as professionals on behalf of your students.  I, for one, continue to be very pleased with the work that you're doing!  Thanks.

Welcome!

Please take a moment next week to introduce yourself to Ellen Hobson, our new Art teacher.  She started today and will begin teaching classes on Monday. On behalf of all of us on her interview committee: we're thrilled to have her here!

Parent Teacher Conferences

I hope you're looking forward to Parent Teacher Conferences next week.  I know these long days talking and talking and talking can be taxing, but they're an important opportunity to cultivate cooperation and collaboration between home and school.  Thanks for your commitment to preparing for them and making them meaningful.

You should soon receive the most recent issue of The Marshall Magnet to distribute to parents during conferences.  I understand the imposition this creates, but I'd really appreciate it if you would please, as you're passing the newsletter along, take a moment to mention the article on the second page that reviews our Tax Credit program.  Remember: every classroom, and every student at Marshall benefits in multiple ways from our ability to collect these contributions.  Without them our Magnet programs will cease to be.   

Flagstaff Community Foundation Fundraiser

We received over $6000.00 this week from the Flagstaff Community Foundation to sustain our Suzuki violin program.  This money will be essential in enabling us to acquire new instruments as well as making it possible for us to get broken violins fixed.

The owners of Kachina Downtown have designated this Sunday evening, 14 October, as Nate Avery Night.  A portion of the proceeds received between 3:00 PM until closing will be donated to the Flagstaff Community Foundation in Nate's name.

Calendar

• Monday, 15 October
• Grading period 2 begins
• Science kits due
• Wednesday, 17 October
• Parent Teacher Conferences, 11:45 dismissal
• Coe at Elementary Admin at Puente, 7:30-10:30
• Thursday, 18 October
• Parent Teacher Conferences, 11:45 dismissal
• Friday, 19 October
• Parent Teacher Conferences, 11:45 dismissal
• No Coe; Ballard has the helm
• Monday, 22 October
• No Coe; Ballard has the helm

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Updates -- 05 Oct. 2012

Hello everyone,

I had an opportunity to talk with the PTO this week at their monthly meeting.  Near the end of the meeting, after my regular principal's report, the question, "How does the state figure your school letter grade and what are you doing about it?"  was asked.  By way of answering that complicated question, I did my best to explain how our score is calculated based on averages of our AIMS and Stanford scores, how the state weighs the achievement of our lowest quartile of students more heavily than any other, and how our scores last year were not merely insufficient to earn us a "B" due to one cohort group's low achievement, but because our overall achievement wasn't sufficient to increase our score even if we'd made miraculous progress with our most challenging cohort group.

And then I told them, just as I've told you: I don't understand the state's formula well enough to make calculated and strategic plans to master its algorithm.  I don't really "get" how to plan and teach "better" in order to go from say 68 percent success to 73 percent success, or whatever.  I do "get" how to benchmark and track student achievement.  And I also "get" how to use well-researched interventions to help students learn in smaller groups in areas where they've shown us they have a deficit.  But as far as setting number/percentage kinds of goals and then teaching "better" to achieve them, I'm often left with little insight.  To me, this part of the standardized-testing, student-achievement paradigm in which we now exist mostly feels like it's just a huge puzzle... and we've lost the box top... and we're just trying to fit pieces in here and there as we find them with no clue what the big-picture might really be.

What I nevertheless believe, however, is that we are all well-trained, highly-qualified, experienced educators with a job to do: passionately teach kids as best-we-can.  I believe that Marshall is full of marvelous, hard-working professionals, an array of truly unique programs, and a host of other assets that belong only to us and exist for us to use to the benefit of all of our students.

So I told the PTO: we're going to continue to pay attention to test scores and student achievement.  And we're going to plan and teach in order to improve our school letter grade next year.  And we're going to do those things deliberately; we're not giving up!  But instead of always thinking and talking and focusing on numbers, I'd like us to focus on Greatness instead.  I told them that the posters all around the building are a small part of this.  But, more to the point, I told the members of the PTO that it's one of my goals to try to remind you of your own Greatness on a regular basis, and also to tell you of my desire to see you to continue to strive toward an ever-greater standard for your own professional practice each and every day. I told them that I truly believe that by being committed to doing these things we will easily achieve what we've set out to do.

The riddle, the puzzle of our state's school letter grade rankings may be something we never fully understand.  But you are great teachers.  And, as fellow great-person Ed Gavagan says in the video below, "training, skill, and a little bit of luck pushes back against the chaos."  I believe that, too.

Grab a Kleenex and watch it when you have a few minutes.


Calendar

• Monday, 08 Oct
• Coe at Admin Council, 1:00-4:00
• Wednesday, 10 Oct
• Picture Day!
• Thursday, 11 Oct
• Coe at Flagstaff Community Foundation, 10:00-2:00
• Friday, 12 Oct
• Flagstaff High School Homecoming Parade on Bonito St, 10:30
• End of Grading Period One

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