PST - 5

Greetings: I hope your summer is going well. I apologize for posting a day late. A few Hiring updates. We are completed for now... We will have a number of new teachers in the building the building next year and some should be joining us during our PST. Steven Udolff - 8th Language Arts, Kelly Shipley and Robyn Sloan - Science, Jenny Petit - Social Studies, and Jill Fischaber - Orchestra. If you are able, complete Part 2 by this Thursday's meeting. Kathleen brought up a great point about SSR by reading ability. Unfortunately it is just not feasible given our current resources. SSR+ is really about geography and lockers for the foreseeable future. Adding a few sections of Advanced Science was tricky enough.

See you Thursday... comment away.

PST-4

This week we begin reading I Read It, But I Don't Get It by Chris Tovani. For some of you this is a repeat and for others new. But... Literacy is the cornerstone of closing the achievement gap! At-risk kids tend to have first and foremost a reading gap, rather than an achievement gap.

Read through the first 4 chapters.

Post Away!

PST -3

Wow. The Montano training concerning academic competence across the curriculum was fantastic. Altona's team included myself, Laurie, MaryEllen, Jenay, Jake (our new AP), Victor, and Josh. A great part of the week was learning new classroom instructional strategies (well, some new, some not so new). In short, the course was devoted to understanding and working with students that do not have Academic Language Skills. Those students may be ELLs, but they are also a large number of students that have moved through they system without learning that their Public Voice and Private Voice are different modalities of linguistics. We can argue about why students do not have either Academic Language or a Public Voice, or concentrate on what we are going to do about it. This PST is one part of the solution - identifying strategies that you will use on a routine basis to close the achievement gap, and how will Academic Labs function. In short - Academic Labs must be about ensuring Academic Competence. Think about that and we'll discuss on Tuesday's meeting. By the end of the week, you should have completed Instruction that Works for English Language Learners.

Comment away. For those of you that attended the Montano training, you may want to reflect during this round of posting as well.

PST 2

Great meeting last week! There will be two posts before our next meeting. By our next meeting we will complete Classroom Instruction that works with English Language Learners. This week's reading and posting will cover chapters 4 - 9! We are into specific strategies. A few of my own aha moments thus far:

1. We need to identify students that are literate in their primary language versus those that are illiterate, or woefully behind. The degree of a student's literacy in their primary language drive the tactics required to work with an ELL student.
2. I just keep returning to the things we are doing well, particularly having specific objectives for each period of instruction.

This week a team from Altona is attending Dr. Montano's class. I will have a separate post on this next week as it will clarify our Academic Labs.

See you in a few, comment away!

PST 1

Our goal for the first week is to get through Chapter 3 of Classroom Instruction That Works With English Language Learners. You individual goal throughout the Summer is to identify 8-10 strategies that you will use on a regular basis to help close the achievement gap. The group goal is to identify 6-7 strategies that the building will adopt to close the achievement gap that all of us will use. Chapter 1 is worth reviewing carefully as it summarizes previous books that we have read (Classroom Instruction That Works, The Art & Science Of Teaching, Etc.) A research based strategy works when it can become replicated. Every educator has a set of instructional repertoires that may work for them... but they may not work for others. We want to find the biggest bang for the buck!

Comment Away!

A Nation of Wimps - Book Talk 1

Back in December I shared the article, linked on this site, and have just started the book: A Nation Of Wimps. I'm reading this with three points of view, that all blur together: As a parent, as an educator, and as a citizen. I have often wondered about the recent generations that we are raising. Of course technology is exposing them to a way of life that none of us really can comprehend or understand. But another force is at work and that can be summed up as our society's efforts to attempt to protect our children from all possible harm. My own anecdotal experiences as an educator are backed up by the research. James Fay - the founder of Love and Logic surveyed 1700 teachers about the most difficult aspect of teaching today. The one thing they cited (BTW this after our last decade of school violence) was parents who would not allow the kids to learn about the world in real ways. I have seen this, and have organized these individual confrontations/discussions as conundrums.

1. Parents want a rigorous education, as long as their student receives good grades and homework does not interfere with a myriad of extracurricular activities.
2. Parents want a welcoming environment, that at the same time ensures structure and safety.
3. Parents want a disciplined school environment, as long as their child does not suffer negative consequences.

The school has become an environment of confrontation. The sad fact is that in 99% of our confrontations we have the same goal - the well being of the student. Parents are protecting their children, educators are trying to develop the trait of self-reliance. Thus Altona Middle School change our school's mission.

Altona Middle School’s Mission: Altona Middle School is a place where each individual student will create their own opportunities through Core, Enrichment, and Extracurricular achievement! Educators, parents and students have an equal responsibility to prepare every Altona student to be self-reliant and academically competent so they are able to thrive in an increasingly complex world. Altona Middle School’s Mission:Altona Middle School is a place where each individual student will create their own opportunities through Core, Enrichment, and Extracurricular achievement! Educators, parents and students have an equal responsibility to prepare every Altona student to be self-reliant and academically competent so they are able to thrive in an increasingly complex world.

Chapter One; Hothouse Parenting articulated what I've believed for some time. And, truth be told - I'm guilty of some of it as a parent myself.

Comment away!

The Final Sprint

I liken the school year to a series of sprints. We move like crazy, then take a week off (Thanksgiving), move like crazy, then take two weeks off (Winter Break), really sprint towards CSAP, then take a week off (Spring Break), then the final dash towards summer break. I've often said that if we could redesign the school calendar we would not do it this way. Let's take a break from teaching and learning for 11 weeks, then start all over again.

That is why Altona will at least have summer learning and summer school (remediation and enrichment). Although I think the district calendar should be changed (I'm on the committee), at least we can figure out how to keep a majority of students learning throughout the summer!