Great Things Going On
On Thursday January 30th Center Schools hosted three representatives from the Colorado Legacy Foundation who were on site to review the progress the district is making in relation to several grants it has received from the organization.
At the beginning of the visit Contracted Counselor Katrina Ruggles shared progress being made related to school health initiatives funded by the Colorado Legacy Foundation. During her presentation, Katrina shared the results of nine years of Colorado Healthy Kids survey results. Some highlights of her presentation included evidence of a drastic drop in student use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, with alcohol dropping from 55% of students reporting use in 2005 to only 20% of students reporting such use in 2012. Katrina was also able to show data that offers evidence of how incidents of students showing a low commitment to school have decreased while opportunities for positive-social involvement at school have increased. Finally, based on Healthy Kids Colorado survey results, and a tremendous focus on anti-bullying programs in our schools, students report they are bullied at a 20% lower rate in 2012 than they were back in 2005. Our Colorado Legacy Foundation visitors were quite amazed at the evidence we have of improved student climate and health conditions running parallel to our improved student growth results on state academic tests.
At the beginning of the visit Contracted Counselor Katrina Ruggles shared progress being made related to school health initiatives funded by the Colorado Legacy Foundation. During her presentation, Katrina shared the results of nine years of Colorado Healthy Kids survey results. Some highlights of her presentation included evidence of a drastic drop in student use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, with alcohol dropping from 55% of students reporting use in 2005 to only 20% of students reporting such use in 2012. Katrina was also able to show data that offers evidence of how incidents of students showing a low commitment to school have decreased while opportunities for positive-social involvement at school have increased. Finally, based on Healthy Kids Colorado survey results, and a tremendous focus on anti-bullying programs in our schools, students report they are bullied at a 20% lower rate in 2012 than they were back in 2005. Our Colorado Legacy Foundation visitors were quite amazed at the evidence we have of improved student climate and health conditions running parallel to our improved student growth results on state academic tests.
When Mrs. Ruggles was done presenting, Center Virtual Academy director Chris Vance shared the work he and Academic Resource Center director Joy Werner have been doing related to their duties as SB 191 Integration Liaisons. Mr. Vance displayed the “San Luis Valley Evaluation Calculator” that he and Monte Vista School District’s Dirk Oden have created and refined to help school district administrators evaluate teachers based on measures of student learning. Our Legacy Foundation visitors were amazed at the quality of this work being done in the San Luis Valley and stated that, though evaluating teachers in relation to how much they help students learn will be a requirement in Colorado, they have seen nothing quite like this effort in the entire state. This evaluation calculator will be presented and taught to SLV teachers and administrators at an All San Luis Valley Teacher PLC event that will take place right here in Center on Friday February 7th.
After this presentation I shared information related to the San Luis Valley’s implementation of a Legacy Foundation Extended Learning Opportunities grant. Though we only garnered $55,000 out of this grant opportunity, Center Schools director of instruction Lori Cooper has been able to secure free staff development and technology services to enough teachers throughout our region to support the implementation of nearly 1,000 iPads in classrooms. Though our grant has only purchased 115 student tablet devices, the use of this instructional technology is spreading throughout the entire San Luis Valley as a result of Lori’s efforts.
After this presentation I shared information related to the San Luis Valley’s implementation of a Legacy Foundation Extended Learning Opportunities grant. Though we only garnered $55,000 out of this grant opportunity, Center Schools director of instruction Lori Cooper has been able to secure free staff development and technology services to enough teachers throughout our region to support the implementation of nearly 1,000 iPads in classrooms. Though our grant has only purchased 115 student tablet devices, the use of this instructional technology is spreading throughout the entire San Luis Valley as a result of Lori’s efforts.
Wednesday’s visit by Colorado Legacy Foundation representatives, and Tuesday’s visit by staff members from the East Otero School District in La Junta, caused me to reflect quite a bit as to just how much Center Schools has changed in the past few years. During a series of classroom visits on these days we stopped in a 5th grade reading class to observe how one of our teacher is using iPads and Edmodo to actually “flip” her instruction. To support her lesson on this particular day, 5th grade teacher Zoraya Vazquez had her students watch a video related to some reading techniques outlined in our curriculum while at home, then had each student respond to a prompt about this content on her class Edmodo page. Ms. Vazquez then showed us how she will grade the work of each student on the Edmodo site, and how each student will then have the opportunity to read and respond to the work posted by their classmates.
Next, upon entering a high school foreign language class, visitors to our school were quickly shown how the teacher, Stefan Welsh, assigns and monitors work students are doing using Rosetta Stone foreign language instruction software. Doing so allows our kids to be exposed to a much wider variety of language instruction, such as Portuguese, French, Italian, and Mandarin. As Mr. Welsh’s students began their classwork he showed us how he is able to see how fast his students are progressing through the coursework they have been assigned, and how he supports them when they get stuck. As an added bonus, we caught Mr. Welsh administering a daily “brain break” by having his students draw “fit sticks” from a cup that advised them as to a movement activity they would need to do for 2 minutes. Our Legacy Foundation visitors were thrilled to see this scientifically based technique in practice as they were responsible for sharing it all over the state earlier this Fall.
Then upon visiting Diego Martinez’s 10th grade math class our visitors observed students using laptop computers to access Kahn Academy videos that help them work through a checklist of math skills related to the daily concepts they are supposed to be learning according to the Colorado Sample Curriculum. Each day during this class students complete work at the pace they are able to, at the exact level they are achieving, with the support of their teacher who helps them work through difficult math concepts they may stuck on, and who periodically checks student progress on a one-to-one basis.
Then upon visiting Diego Martinez’s 10th grade math class our visitors observed students using laptop computers to access Kahn Academy videos that help them work through a checklist of math skills related to the daily concepts they are supposed to be learning according to the Colorado Sample Curriculum. Each day during this class students complete work at the pace they are able to, at the exact level they are achieving, with the support of their teacher who helps them work through difficult math concepts they may stuck on, and who periodically checks student progress on a one-to-one basis.
When we dropped in on a Haskin Elementary 3rd grade math classroom we learned how the teacher, Jessica Stevens, often uses her teacher iPad as a document camera to show students how to solve math problems on her classroom Promethean display board. Ms. Steven’s father actually invented a $25 contraption for her that mounts her iPad above a work surface so this can be done. In doing so, Ms. Stevens is able to save more than $1,000 by not having to purchase a document camera, and she is also able to record her demonstrations of math techniques to be loaded on the iPads of students who may be in need of follow up instruction and support.
Finally, after visiting with Lindamood-Bell site coordinator Melissa Garcia we were taken to observe Haskin Elementary special education teacher LJ Garcia administering a Lindamood-Bell reading intervention to a small group of kindergarteners. Because of the outstanding training and support Mr. Garcia has received, he was able to expertly take his students through the process of phonetically building words using similar word endings. This year we are extremely excited to be offering intensive interventions like this to students as young as Kindergarten, and Mr. Garcia is great at providing this type of instruction.
I know that each of these classroom visitation experiences we stumbled upon would not have taken place here in Center only 4 short years ago. To say the least, our visitors from the Legacy Foundation and from La Junta Schools commented about how we in Center Schools are already implementing many of the best practices we are all being encouraged to use to drive higher student achievement. This, of course, is a testament to the willingness of our teaching and administrative staff to learn new instructional techniques and to put in the hard work it takes to use them for the benefit of our kids. This is just another example of how Center Schools employees and students continually seek ways to display excellence in all they do every day.
Finally, after visiting with Lindamood-Bell site coordinator Melissa Garcia we were taken to observe Haskin Elementary special education teacher LJ Garcia administering a Lindamood-Bell reading intervention to a small group of kindergarteners. Because of the outstanding training and support Mr. Garcia has received, he was able to expertly take his students through the process of phonetically building words using similar word endings. This year we are extremely excited to be offering intensive interventions like this to students as young as Kindergarten, and Mr. Garcia is great at providing this type of instruction.
I know that each of these classroom visitation experiences we stumbled upon would not have taken place here in Center only 4 short years ago. To say the least, our visitors from the Legacy Foundation and from La Junta Schools commented about how we in Center Schools are already implementing many of the best practices we are all being encouraged to use to drive higher student achievement. This, of course, is a testament to the willingness of our teaching and administrative staff to learn new instructional techniques and to put in the hard work it takes to use them for the benefit of our kids. This is just another example of how Center Schools employees and students continually seek ways to display excellence in all they do every day.
Big Things We Are Working On
The 2014 Colorado legislative session is already in full swing and the Center School District is keeping an eye on how schools will be funded in the coming year. At this juncture it appears some legislators would like to channel more dollars toward at-risk student populations, while many folks would simply like any new funding that is allocated to school districts to come in the form of replacing as much of the 1 billion dollar negative factor that has been racked up during the last 5 years. As always, Center Schools will work to advocate for the funding needed to support our children in achieving the state instructional standards we have been charged with teaching.
As stated above, Center Schools and the entire San Luis Valley is currently hard at work implementing the measures of student learning portion of the SB 191 teacher and administrator evaluation process, and has been preparing to do this by training teacher leaders from around the region in how to use the San Luis Valley Evaluation Calculator. Center Schools will host a regional PLC meeting on Friday February 7th to train teachers to conduct this process.
As stated above, Center Schools and the entire San Luis Valley is currently hard at work implementing the measures of student learning portion of the SB 191 teacher and administrator evaluation process, and has been preparing to do this by training teacher leaders from around the region in how to use the San Luis Valley Evaluation Calculator. Center Schools will host a regional PLC meeting on Friday February 7th to train teachers to conduct this process.
The Past Week
During the past week I worked on Race to the top of the Valley collaborative items, including preparing 3rd quarterly assessments to be loaded to the Dream platform and preparing for the February 7th All Valley PLC. On Monday and Wednesday evenings I was at the SLV BOCES Board Room supporting the work Chris Vance and Joy Werner are doing to train teachers to facilitate February 7th PLC work. On Tuesday Center Schools hosted a team of visitors from the La Junta School District. They were here to learn about the ways we have been able to steadily grow the achievement of our at-risk student population. On Wednesday I spent a good portion of the day hosting Colorado Legacy Foundation visitors who were on site to chart the progress of our SB 191 liaison grant, our healthy students-healthy schools grant, and our valley wide extended learning opportunities grant. On Thursday I had my monthly Early Steps to School Success program site meeting, and the good folks from Lindamood-Bell were be on site to honor Haskin Elementary students and staff members for progressing from an accreditation rating of Turnaround to Performance during the past three years. As an unexpected surprise, the folks at Lindamood-bell made a $5,000 donation to Haskin Elementary School in honor of this good work! On Friday I worked in the district and conducted some legislative advocacy work.
The Week Ahead
I am taking some personal leave time on Monday and Tuesday of this week. On Wednesday and Thursday I will be in Denver for the CASE Winter Leadership Conference. On Friday I will be back in Center for our final San Luis Valley All Valley PLC session of the year. On Saturday I will be meeting in Center with our board of education to participate in a Colorado Association of School Boards education session on the legalities of operating a school board.
Thanks for listening once again.
George
Thanks for listening once again.
George