SCHS Feeder PST
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Notes from meeting #1.
We began our conversation by outlining our purposes and intents.
This past year the 4 principals began meeting on a regular basis and we began discussing how to become a stronger feeder system. As we developed ideas it was clear that we should have a PST to brainstorm other initiatives with elements from our respective faculties.
Our PST purpose is to identify, plan and implement some common areas to work on together. Most importantly, to have a plan in place by the end of the PST to begin working together for the 2010/11 school year.
Yesterday we compared/contrasted two schools goals, and we will continue that with the other two schools goals next week.
Ideas:
School Goals (keeping in mind goal setting and accountability will change with the new state accreditation requirements). We will have CSAP results before the PST ends.
PBS
Closing gaps
Summer Schools
Tutoring
Homework Clubs
21st Century Skills
Leadership
Vocabulary – I’ll have selected readings next week
Adopt a feeder charity
College in Colorado
Transitions
Increased communication (IEP, ALP, ILP, At-risk, etc.)
Teacher swap days
Questions or thoughts?
Did anyone come up with other ideas?
What should a true k-12 feeder experience be like?
Next meeting:
Compare/contrast school goals
Vocab Readings
Narrow the possible things to work together
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7 comments:
I appreciated the comment made at the first meeting about looking at broad goals as well as more specific goals. The broad goals could be things like common school goals, leadership/mentorship programs between the schools, and service projects that all schools are working on together. Some more specific goals could be similar vocabulary, curricular discussions/mapping, and possibly common daily structures. An example of “daily structures” could be DSOAH. What has worked very well at Altona is the DSOAH (Date, Standard, Objective, Activities, and Homework) that all teachers display in the classroom daily as well as on Virtual Campus. It has allowed teachers to be more organized, but better yet, it has encouraged students and parents to be more independent. There is little need to email a teacher if a student misses a class; the student and parent can look at Virtual Campus to find out what activities/content they missed.
Since our first two meetings have passed, I think the comment that stands out to me the most is Rowan's suggestion that whatever we do as a first step needs to be small and manageable. If we can't come up with something that most teachers will be able to get behind without a tremendous amount of training/motivation/time commitment/etc... it will be difficult to create buy-in and will be difficult to implement. That being said, I do think that specialized groups (NHS/NJHS, student council, etc...) can work on projects to bring our school communities together in ways that may begin to build the bridges to more academically focused tasks in the future.
I agree that we need to start off with a few things that we can all focus on and be successful with for the first year that will benefit our students. I do think that whatever we do though needs to be purposeful and meaningful to the students.
I like the ideas that we have discussed so far and think many of them would be impactful for our students. I would like to see two goals come out of this group. I would like to see a focused academic goal and some implementation of a more personal connection between the schools. For the academic goal, I love the idea of building our goal to align with the language of the 21st Century Skills as outlined by the new state standards. These skills sum up what a good education is and are worthy goals toward which we can devote our energies at all levels. My concern, however, is that by their generality, they lose some of their power to create change. I would like to see us create a smaller, more specific plan that aligns with these goals that could be implemented at each level. I think this plan will take some time to develop, but our ideas of starting with something like note taking/study skills or a common vocabulary is a good place to begin.
As far as the personal connection between the schools, I would like to see this happen between both the staff and the students. The idea of having teachers in 5th and 6th grade and then 8th and 9th grade meet to discuss goals and curricula is a good place to start with the staff connection. I also like the idea of connecting up the student groups we already have in place, NHS & Student Council for example. These groups could help create a mentoring or tutoring connection between the schools that would begin to bridge the barrier that students often perceive between the schools.
It's been interesting to get folks together from the Silver Creek feeder system and to begin the process of figuring out how to work more effectively for our students. Having some consistent structure, particularly around the trsansitions from elementary school to miidle school and from middle school to high school, will certainly ease some of the difficulties that the students encounter. As a counselor, I've seen that when students struggle academically during transitions it impacts their emotional well-being and vice versa. Getting this PST together is a great first step towards better communication between levels, improved goal setting for students exiting each level and more focused interventions when students fall short of those goals.
I am delighted to be part of this feeder system. I think it is a system that can greatly impact our students in many areas. Consistency is so important for all students and I believe that by focusing on large-scale and small-scale factors, we will be able to accomplish this. Although it will take time for us to get some plans into place, I hope that our time and effort takes most of the work out for the other staff members at our school. The benefits will be great.
I like the ideas that have been mentioned. I think daily structure and curriculum discussions are important. Increased communication and leadership programs would be very beneficial. I like Rowan's idea of initiating a connection between the schools with groups like NHS and Student Council. Like he said, these groups are already in place, making things simpler.
I was not able to make the last meeting but I do look forward to focusing in on more of these ideas tomorrow.
Getting this group started seems to be a great accomplishment in and of itself, as evidenced by the huge list of ways we think this group can be effective.
Since I teach a lot of 9th graders, I am particularly interested in the 5/6 and 8/9 grade alignment work. This could mean discussing needs of particular students, aligning curriculum, and getting together to look at student work and align expectations for it.
But I also like the ideas about broader connections through NHS and academic goals. This group provides a communication pathway that could allow teachers to create classroom projects that involve several schools - along the lines of how Lauren Kohn brought her Creative Writing students to Blue Mountain. I can think of lots of ways older students at Altona and SC could benefit from doing service learning at the other schools - but perhaps there are opportunities for the elementary school students to come to AMS and SC?
Jamie
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