Success & Failure Together

 

 

 Someone posted this on Facebook this weekend and it struck me; first as funny, but then as the truth.  It is so easy to get into our same routines and practices because we know they work and the outcome always feels safe.  Seriously, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," right?!? 

While there is a little truth in that statement, Andy Stanley, a Leadership Enthusiast, reminds us that success and failure go together.  When we work on anything  worthwhile (a marriage/relationship, coach a team, teach/impact youth) we should always expect it to be an uphill battle and expect that we will fail.  The key to success is to never make excuses for these failures, only adjustments.  Learning from mistakes is the most powerful way to move forward.

Failure in life is inevitable.  I think we must teach our children this and model the importance of never letting fear get in the way of progress and learning.  

As you move into this week, I want to challenge all of you to "stink" at something this week!  Take a risk, expect failure and celebrate the success that comes from it.   You will be glad you did!  

HERE is an article from Forbes about the power of failing as well!

Important Information: 

Best Practices of the Week:  

                    CREATING Engaging Lessons: 

     
     * Carol Schwoeppe had a great interest approach this week as she talked about the future of work.  She showed a video clip of the Jetsons (I am not sure the kids knew who they were - but I did!)  Interest Approaches are a great way to get student's attention and build engagement and excitement into the lesson.  

         

 * Seth Gehlhausen told his PLC team that he has noticed an 80% increase in student participation by using playing cards in his room.  Each students gets a playing card and he draws - basically selecting students randomly to answer questions or participate.  This is one great example of a total participation technique and a great formative assessment tool.  See Seth for details!  

               COLLABORATING Teams:

           * Social Studies team set goals to try some visible learning strategies around disciplinary literacy last week.  They each tried a new strategy and then at their PLC on Friday they shared their struggles and successes!  It was a great day of learning and collaborating!

House Leader Meeting - We will have a House Leader Meeting for teachers on Thursday, September 29th at 7:30 a.m.  Lauren would like to brainstorm some surprise and delight ideas and create a schedule for small competitions.  We will also have our quarterly competition on Friday, October 14th - details to come!  See you this Thursday morning!

AVID - Tuesday, a small group of junior high teachers will travel to Paoli to learn about a program called AVID.  We learned about this opportunity through our Early College Network.  Basically, AVID is a system that could be really helpful in developing those important executive functioning skills for our students - there is a whole school and tier 2 system - we are thinking we would focus on grades 6-8.   We know we will learn a lot from our friends down the road!  

        We will also be hosting a lunch and learn on Friday, September 30th from an AVID representative.  Our friends from Crawford County are going to come to the meeting as well to learn with us. 

MTSS - As we end the first 9 weeks, we would like to start collecting names of students that are struggling academically so our MTSS team can meet.   Please fill out the following form for students that are struggling in your class.  It is quick and easy.  Please add names by October 5th.  

           MTSS Form 

College GO! Week - Just a reminder this is College Go! Week!  Teachers are encouraged to wear jeans and also a shirt or something to represent where they gained their training from!  Thanks to Dana for pulling the week together.

Welcome Alyssa - Some of you may start seeing a familiar face this week.  Alyssa Hill is going to be an assistant for us.  She is going to school on-line for education and wanted to gain some experiences. No better place to learn than at school!  We are happy to have her join us!

        

Engaging Students

    Twitter can such a great way to network with other great educators across the country.  Tyler Rablin posted a great thread about the importance of  working with students, instilling confidence, promoting engagement, understanding their fears and treating them with respect and dignity each day.  Can we get an AMEN?

"Today I sat down with a student who hasn't done anything in class so far (7 days in).  All I told him was that I will give him feedback and another shot on it no matter what.     Guess who turned something in today?  It highlighted something important for me.

To everyone who's going to be like, "So we don't expect kids to try?!  We just let them do whatever they want and get as many chances as they want?! How's that going to help them in life?!" . . .  you are missing an absolutely crucial piece of what's happening here.  

Are some students prioritizing other things and often doing a really bad job at it?  Yes.  There are a thousand other things kids may want to do instead of trying to learn.  But, I've found that " "laziness"  is rarely the real reason kids aren't willing to engage in an assignment.  I've found two major reasons why students are afraid to even start an assignment (which is different than not finishing an assignment).  

The first is this: If a student is worried they might not be successful on the task, then not attempting it allows them to hold onto hope that they could have been successful on it.  If I don't attempt something, I don't have any evidence to support the fact that I am "not good enough," and for students who lack academic confidence, they are so afraid of confronting that reality that they attempt to preserve their own ego, their identity, their hope (or however you want to phrase it) by not attempting it at all.  In this case, not attempting to try is a defense mechanism.  

The other reason I see for not even starting an assignment is that they already feel like they've lost the ability to be successful.  This typically comes down to grading practices that don't value growth.  If my goal is an A and my teacher is averaging my assignments over time, if I get an irreversible D on an assignment, I might have already lost the ability to reach my goal.  (Let's ignore the problematic aspect of using a measure as a goal for now.)  While we would like kids to see growth as the goal, that's not the educational culture we exist in.  when the possibility of meeting a goal gets taken away, it shouldn't surprise us that someone doesn't want to work towards the goal.  

Does this mean we don't also include consequences?  Sure, at some point, yes.  But, I don't think we need to sacrifice the humanity of what we do with kids to get them to comply.  There's a balance.  There has to be a balance, but in that balance, humanity has to come first.  If we can help a student course correct and develop different habits early, we have to try.  Promising them that they will get feedback and another shot is one of the best ways I have found to help a student be willing to attempt something in our classes when they've lost the drive, desire, or ability to even begin." 

                                                                                    - Tyler Rablin @Mr_Rablin, ELA Teacher

Important Information: 

Faculty Meeting:  We will have our first faculty meeting on Tuesday, September 20th at 7:25 a.m. in the high school library.  We will have a few updates and our counselors will be sharing some classroom management tips/tricks.  A light breakfast will be served.

Assistant Swop - The elementary had a handful of assistants already decide to do something else and move out of our school family, causing some changes for our building.  Brandi Devillez is going to move to the elementary and we will welcome Charlie Baumeister on Monday to take her place.  Charlie will actually work from 6:45 - 12:45 daily.  There are a few other small changes that have taken place as well.  You can find the assistant schedules on the table titled "assistant schedules" on the document HERE.  This document is also a great quick glance of students with IEPs and 504 plans.  Please remember it is confidential.  If you have an assistant at any time of the day, you may check this document to make sure there are no changes!  Thanks!

For your planning:  To help you think ahead, I wanted you to know that our next PD day, October 24th, you will have a majority of the time to work in your PLC team on your curriculum (scope and sequence, assessments, table grading - whatever your team needs).  You can use this time to plan for quarter 2.  More details will be forthcoming, but thought it may be helpful to know.

            * 1st Quarter Scope and Sequence and Power Standard assessments will be due to Jody the last Friday of October.  (This is after you will have time to finalize everything at the PD day)

            * Marzano Elements - reminder your personal growth goal is due in SFS by October 7th (this is what we worked on during our PD day last time, so hopefully you are finished already or have a good start!)  All of the documents you need to track your progress can be found in the Teacher Resource folder under Marzano Elements!

            * WIN Changes - reminder about our WIN changes and priority days:  Monday - English, Tuesday - Math, Wednesday - Island, Thursday - Social Studies, Friday - Science     Looking forward to hearing how you worked out two days a week to focus on reteaching bubble students!

Vocabulary Strategy - Emma Bettag has been working hard to build vocabulary in her math classes!  She started a word wall for students and she adds to it as she teaches them the core content!  Robert Marzano, educational researcher, talks a lot about the importance of building vocabulary for students in order to promote learning!  HERE is a link to Marzano's 6 step process!  Remember, you only do this process for the 20-25 words you are focusing on for the year!!  Thanks, Emma, for sharing a best practice!

 

Word Wall Wisdom - 

Power of Education

 Each year, the Commission for Higher Education releases a College Readiness Report and recommendations for what Indiana should do to increase education attainment for students.  This year's report, after the pandemic, is an interesting one.  I wanted to share their research with you: 

Findings State Wide: 

* Drop in number of students attending college, significantly after the pandemic

* 62% of students earning dual credits went to college in 2020 (Early College Matters)

* 86% of students who earned Academic Honors Diploma attended college after high school (Diploma types matters)

* Equity gaps worsened during the pandemic - students on free and reduced lunch have a greater chance not to attend college and black high school graduates saw the largest decline between 2019-2020 (Remediation Matters)

* State and national research continues to clearly show education beyond high school is valuable based on wages earned, civic participation and quality of life.  Students who have more education are likely to out-live their uneducated peers.  (Early College/CTE Matter)

* Indiana is a most at risk state of job loss due to automation and artificial intelligence as nearly 2 million working-age Hoosiers do not have postsecondary credentials that are needed for this future of work. (Post-Secondary Education Matters)

Helping students continue their education beyond a high school diploma is essential for our students, community and state.  Our Early College High School Program and extensive CTE pathways are leading the state and helping us ensure that all students have the opportunity to gain vital skills beyond high school.  All of you are making a positive impact on our future - you should be proud!

Remember, the definition of College for All is:  4 year degree, 2 year degree, Apprenticeships, Industry Certifications, Military Training!  Don't confuse it with University for All!  

If you want to read the full report, you can find it below.  Thanks for all you do for our students each and everyday.  It matters.                  College Readiness Report/Recommendations

Important Information: 

* Updates for WIN/Scope & Sequence Requirements:   Phil and I made some changes to WIN based on the feedback we received at the PD Day last week.  Please find a list of changes and procedures HERE.  Your PLC Facilitators will be sharing this at your meetings this week as well.   Also, on this document you will find a requirement to turn in your first quarter scope and sequence/power standard assessments the last Friday of October to Jody.  We will continue to talk about this in the coming days.

 * Evaluations - We have been working hard to get a long observation in for all of our teachers by October 7th.  Just a reminder that you can find our notes from long/short or walk-throughs by logging into your SFS system!  After each long observation, we will meet with you - it is always great to be able to see all of the great things happening in our building! 

* STEM Certification - Dana, Vanessa and Debbie are helping us prepare paperwork and documentation to be recognized as a STEM Certified school.  This designation shows that we continue to provide project based learning, work place challenges, dual credits, certifications and collaborative approach to learning up front!  The process is a little overwhelming, but we hope the certification will show others the work all of you do daily!  We have a preliminary application meeting this Friday, virtually.

*THANK YOU - It was so great seeing all of you at the Sunrise Pep Session.  The students had a great time and they always look forward to their teachers/coaches participating.  I know it was an early morning, but I think the culture it builds is amazing!!  Who doesn't want to wake up to Jackson Allen playing Metallica!  Seriously, all of you make PC special!

Important Dates: 

* October 7 - Professional Goals Due in SFS

* September 12 - School Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m. - Library

* September 15 - RECN Network Meeting in Plainfield (Dana, Ty, Vanessa, Jody)