Great Things Going On
This week Center Schools would like to welcome a new Americorps Vista worker, Mr. Paul Basille, who comes to the San Luis Valley from Massachusetts. Paul will be spending the year working with Center Schools contracted counselor Katrina Ruggles on efforts related to parent involvement, preparing students for college, and creating a healthy work and learning environment within the school distrcit. Welcome aboard Paul. We all look forward to getting to know you better!
Though we are only two weeks into the school year I must say I very much appreciate the outstanding effort I have observed our teachers and principals putting forth in relation to weekly lesson planning. Each and every week elementary staff members submit copies of their next week’s plans to their principal, as well as to me and our director of instruction Lori Cooper. By the end of each weekend Haskin Elementary principals Mrs. Kulp and Mrs. Vance carefully review all plans for quality and make suggestions for how they may be improved to better focus instruction on key curriculum items and possibly to increase the rigor of the lessons experienced by students. Meanwhile, our middle and high school staff members spend part of their weekend preparing their plans and submitting them to our principals who offer quality feedback early each week. This sounds like a simple quality control process, but I am aware of very few districts in Colorado who actually put forth the effort do this as a regular practice. The purpose of this hard work is clearly outlined in our core belief that “quality planning, instruction, and assessments lead to higher achievement for ALL students.” I think a better way to express the importance of this process is to ask each of you this question: which classroom would you prefer your child go into, the one in which the teacher has a clear plan for what will be taught, how your child will be engaged in the learning, and how he or she will measure whether or not your child learned the key concept being taught, or perhaps the one in which the teacher has only roughly outlined what they will be teaching?
Though we are only two weeks into the school year I must say I very much appreciate the outstanding effort I have observed our teachers and principals putting forth in relation to weekly lesson planning. Each and every week elementary staff members submit copies of their next week’s plans to their principal, as well as to me and our director of instruction Lori Cooper. By the end of each weekend Haskin Elementary principals Mrs. Kulp and Mrs. Vance carefully review all plans for quality and make suggestions for how they may be improved to better focus instruction on key curriculum items and possibly to increase the rigor of the lessons experienced by students. Meanwhile, our middle and high school staff members spend part of their weekend preparing their plans and submitting them to our principals who offer quality feedback early each week. This sounds like a simple quality control process, but I am aware of very few districts in Colorado who actually put forth the effort do this as a regular practice. The purpose of this hard work is clearly outlined in our core belief that “quality planning, instruction, and assessments lead to higher achievement for ALL students.” I think a better way to express the importance of this process is to ask each of you this question: which classroom would you prefer your child go into, the one in which the teacher has a clear plan for what will be taught, how your child will be engaged in the learning, and how he or she will measure whether or not your child learned the key concept being taught, or perhaps the one in which the teacher has only roughly outlined what they will be teaching?
Finally, this week I would like to offer a shout out to Julio Paez and our entire Center Schools technology department. Julio and his crew have been working hard all summer preparing all of the K-12 iPads for students use for the 2014-15 school year. With a deadline approaching to distribute all devices this week, and after experiencing problems with support from AirWatch (the program that is supposed to allow the district to load and remove apps from devices) Julio and the crew found a workaround solution and spent many extra hours getting it done. Along with regular department members Ascencion Najera and Teddy Garcia, as well as summer student technology assistants Airik Garcia and Elise Rodriguez, Julio worked late into the evening on Friday as well as all weekend Saturday and Sunday in order to have iPads ready for middle and high school student pre-registration on Tuesday August 26th, and for all the elementary students for the week after Labor Day. They prepared well over 600 iPads by loading all of the apps from the Internet and by personally configuring every single device by hand. This is a great example of Julio and his department living up to our core belief to “pursue excellence in ALL they do EVERY day!”
Big Things We Are Working On
The major focus of our work this week will be to transition from our three week Jump Start program to our regular academic school year in grades 6-12. In doing so each middle and high school student, whether required to attend Jump Start or not, will be tested in NWEA reading, math, and language mechanics to determine the extent of their annual growth and learning retention in order to help us better understand their personal instructional needs for the coming school year. Student orientations will take place this year to distribute technology devices and to communicate basic school processes.
End of Jump Start NWEA testing is of extreme importance to those students who were required to attend. This is an opportunity for each of them to provide us with the evidence we need to promote them to the next grade level, or to award them their high school credits in math, language arts, and science. Though this sounds like the testing stakes are extremely high, because of the tremendous motivation of our kids to grow, and because of the wonderful teaching of our outstanding instructional staff, year after year we find we have to retain very few students at grade level as a result of the process.
End of Jump Start NWEA testing is of extreme importance to those students who were required to attend. This is an opportunity for each of them to provide us with the evidence we need to promote them to the next grade level, or to award them their high school credits in math, language arts, and science. Though this sounds like the testing stakes are extremely high, because of the tremendous motivation of our kids to grow, and because of the wonderful teaching of our outstanding instructional staff, year after year we find we have to retain very few students at grade level as a result of the process.
The Past Week
Early last week I worked with director of finance Betty Casanova on administrative office evaluation processes and on communications items ahead of my bereavement leave for the rest of the week. Though I was out of the office on Wednesday and Thursday, I also worked on preparing items for the district’s August payroll process on those days, and I reviewed lesson plan and instructional feedback being offered to teachers by our building principals.
The Week Ahead
On Tuesday afternoon I will be meeting with a committee of folks who hope to submit an application for a Safe Routes to School grant that would improve bus, walking and bicycle access to our school campus. All students will receive their personal technology devices for use during the school year on Tuesday as well. On Wednesday evening Skoglund will hold a 6th grade parent-student orientation meeting. Also on Wednesday and Thursday Jump Start students will be taking their end of session NWEA tests so we can determine if they have made adequate growth in key subjects to justify moving them to the next grade level or to allow high school students to earn their course credits. There will be no school on Friday as K-5 teachers will be reviewing the literacy plans of each students and the 6-12 staff will be reorganizing their work spaces for the start of regular school on Tuesday September 2nd.
Extra Points
I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone once again for their understanding as I was gone this past week tending to personal matters related to the passing of my father. Our visit to Arizona was wonderful as we had the blessing of bringing the majority of our family members together in one place for one last time. While there we spent time sorting through pictures, memories, his personal items, and sharing our favorite stories of our life with him. I guess life on Northaire Avenue in Northwest Tucson, Arizona will never be the same as Dad bought the house there in 1973 and occupied it constantly until just this year.
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George