How about that weather? MSMS has experienced quite the heat wave this week! Teachers and students are doing their best to stay cool and hydrated! A big thanks to MOT for supplying the teachers with fans for their classrooms. It would have been almost unbearable without them!
This week we had our William's visit. Without the help of teachers, students, and MOT staff, Suzie, and Ms. Carter we would not have been as successful! As the team went around to the different classrooms, Mr. Garcia (Director of Secondary Schools) made note of some awesome teaching and student engagement. A couple of shout outs to Mr. Lopez who had a clear and measurable objective and the lesson was well planned out, Ms. Morales whose class was in line and on task, Ms. Bentley's class was on a roll with students were working in collaborative groups! Keep up the great work, and way to make a great impression!
We are continuing our work in our committees, including working on our PBIS forms and getting teacher buy in on how to help support students, and implement positive interventions at the lowest level first, before behavior becomes an issue. The Professional Development committee has sent out a needs assessment to determine the types of PD that teachers want/need in order to further their pedagogy. Having teacher chosen and teacher led PD, helps create a collaborative culture where teachers are working together to help prepare our students for the 21st century. Our Leadership Committee will be looking at NWEA testing and parent conferences. We are going to be determining a couple of choices for schedules that will help support students during the testing time (to reduce the amount of testing time), as well as provide opportunities for teachers to meet and build relationships with parents and students at parent-teacher conferences.
Next week will be starting to implement word of the week during the announcements. Each week we will have a word of the week to encourage students to increase their vocabulary as well as provide opportunity for students to earn Trojan Tickets. The rules for word of the week are as follows:
1. The word has to be pronounced correctly.
2. The word must be used correctly in a sentence (and not the sentence that I use as an example).
3. The student cannot come up to you (the teacher) and say the same sentence more than once in the week (and get a reward-Trojan Ticket).
We are also going to be starting to set goals for behavior each week and rewarding students, teachers, and houses when administration see students behaving based on the goals. For example, we might set the goal to be no referrals, and if the students make that goal we will release them early for break or lunch.
We are quickly moving through the year. As time flies we sometimes forget to take a second and reflect on the work that we have done and the impact we have on students. I would like to say a big thank you to the staff for rallying around the continual effort to create a positive school culture. Through our efforts to keep open communication, and transparency we have been able to focus on the students, and not on the minutia that can easily spiral out of control. The hard work of the teachers and their willingness to try new things, is not only refreshing, it is truly rewarding to hear about and see the students becoming more and more engaged and excited about school. Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see what next week brings!
This week we had our William's visit. Without the help of teachers, students, and MOT staff, Suzie, and Ms. Carter we would not have been as successful! As the team went around to the different classrooms, Mr. Garcia (Director of Secondary Schools) made note of some awesome teaching and student engagement. A couple of shout outs to Mr. Lopez who had a clear and measurable objective and the lesson was well planned out, Ms. Morales whose class was in line and on task, Ms. Bentley's class was on a roll with students were working in collaborative groups! Keep up the great work, and way to make a great impression!
We are continuing our work in our committees, including working on our PBIS forms and getting teacher buy in on how to help support students, and implement positive interventions at the lowest level first, before behavior becomes an issue. The Professional Development committee has sent out a needs assessment to determine the types of PD that teachers want/need in order to further their pedagogy. Having teacher chosen and teacher led PD, helps create a collaborative culture where teachers are working together to help prepare our students for the 21st century. Our Leadership Committee will be looking at NWEA testing and parent conferences. We are going to be determining a couple of choices for schedules that will help support students during the testing time (to reduce the amount of testing time), as well as provide opportunities for teachers to meet and build relationships with parents and students at parent-teacher conferences.
Next week will be starting to implement word of the week during the announcements. Each week we will have a word of the week to encourage students to increase their vocabulary as well as provide opportunity for students to earn Trojan Tickets. The rules for word of the week are as follows:
1. The word has to be pronounced correctly.
2. The word must be used correctly in a sentence (and not the sentence that I use as an example).
3. The student cannot come up to you (the teacher) and say the same sentence more than once in the week (and get a reward-Trojan Ticket).
We are also going to be starting to set goals for behavior each week and rewarding students, teachers, and houses when administration see students behaving based on the goals. For example, we might set the goal to be no referrals, and if the students make that goal we will release them early for break or lunch.
We are quickly moving through the year. As time flies we sometimes forget to take a second and reflect on the work that we have done and the impact we have on students. I would like to say a big thank you to the staff for rallying around the continual effort to create a positive school culture. Through our efforts to keep open communication, and transparency we have been able to focus on the students, and not on the minutia that can easily spiral out of control. The hard work of the teachers and their willingness to try new things, is not only refreshing, it is truly rewarding to hear about and see the students becoming more and more engaged and excited about school. Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see what next week brings!