Principal's Conference NASSP (February 24-27)
San Francisco, Ca.
Fieldale Collinsville Middle School
Social Equity Defined- Merging the Key Components of Rigor, Relevance and Differentiated Instruction to Create High Academic Expectations For All
Vision. Producing "lifelong learners"
Key Ingredients
Habitat of continual Learning:
Effective classroom management
Risk taker
Believes in success for all students
Secret to success? OWNERSHIP!
Secret to inclusion? When you visit a classroom which is co-taught it is impossible to figure out who the reg Ed or sp Ed teacher is...
Do hierarchies exist in schools? Make community
Shouldn't every student have an IEP. All students have a portfolio. Every teacher is made aware of all student learning styles. "I need you to teach me about the civil war but I need you to act it out for me to learn it"
KNOW ALL YOUR STUDENTS AS INDIVIDUALS
Learning must be seen as developmental and celebrate small victories
Literacy in Brockton HS
literacy strategies
Foldables- become their own graphic organizers
Middle school North Royalton SD
Most read paper in swedes
Communication is not always what it seems Most outrageous moments. NBC
Need to get out to communicate and biggest issue is handling the management issues to allow that to happen
Are you a middle school? A true middle school? Then you have teaming and ENCORE is considered important
Ability to create interdisciplinary connections
Desire to keep all courses in tact
Develop core/encore
Special Ed needs to be assigned to the grade level team and not isolated
Anti study hall. Productivity. They do not know how to use them. The kids that need them do not know how to use them and the ones who know how to use them do not need them.
Lunch Room. Need an administrator and teachers in the lunch room. Please and thank you signs. Students must say please and thank you in cafe -Staff must say hello. How are you? Get kids to ask adults how they are. Respectful conversation
Leadership council- put the kids in charge...
How do we make decisions. superstars/backbones/mediocre 10-70-20
Try not to make decisions based on the mediocre
Middle school- you give the mediocre 10 things they want there is an 11th one next
Breakthrough Coaching
Administrators have to be out and about. Goal should be to know all names.
Commitment to parent involvement
One day per week for content meetings curriculum based
One day a week to share best practices and professional development
PLC -Student and staff recognition, staff development and operations and procedures
How do you make a school all about the kids?
First year as a principal good idea to have a total review of student handbook, expectations
Teaming is at the HEART of all we do to make decisions
Fight for no crossovers in staffing
TEAM. Cheering each other on. (video)
All movement has to be prior and private conversations
Team leader changer to team coordinator. Everyone is responsible for teaming
Lol. In middle school learn the "f" word--flexible
Content area reading. Not just social studies. Teaches reading in the content area for social studies
No study hall. An intervention period -closely monitored by teachers!
Student personalization 4 part orientation program. WEB pep rally to get excited about coming to middle school -WEB Leaders
The students and teachers have to run the school- the positive ones. No negativity
Visitacion Valley MS
San Francisco, Ca
Safe school with activities during the school day, before school, after school and even at lunch
Post cards home for doing something good. Also good phone calls.
%Intervention specialists attend team meetings
Menominee Indian Middle School
From chaos to collaboration
Collaboration
Common planning time
Uninterrupted planning time at the beginning of the day
Department meetings - Team meetings
4 indicators- johns Hopkins
Family Failing English Failing Math In School less than 80% of the time
Positive behavior management program
Direct teaching of expectations and procedures for the first three days
Teacher goals in binders (quarterly)
Points can be earned for special things like a ski trip or bowling or roller skating etc. Snow tubing. At school? Right on campus
Positive Behavior Team
PBIS.org
Positive behavioral interventions and supports
Current events shown daily at every level for 10 minutes. At the end of the quarter they all get a 10 question test about the current events.
Change as Whitaker notes is procedural, cultural or structural.
First step: Identify the change and determine exactly why it is needed.
- Form a leadership team and ask them to prioritize what changes are needed most. Also determine how to go about implementing actions to make the change, small or big.
Procedural change is low level or technical alteration.
Structural change is more complex and involves a change in management or organization.
In structural change it is important for the group to agree on the most important change on the list. A plan for presentation has to be decided upon. Casual or formal presentation?
Also figure out how to elicit constructive responses only.
Cultural change involves the specific manner in which schools do things.
In changing culture you change the schools soul and spirit. This level of change requires support from many levels of players.
Feb 26
Leading is about learning
the lead learner is the learning leader
Find the innovators
Professional development is best when you amend the ones that want to go- not the ones YOU want to go. The ones that want to go come back and share
Robert Kennedy quote there are those
Digital leadership
What does the principal need to know?
What do you need to be able to do?
How do you work with the IT experts?
Key points
-Engagement
-digital learning environment 1 to 1 technology for every student
-24/7 is a necessity
Does technology make teachers better? It will not make a bad teacher good but a good teacher berthed and it IS the way Kidd learn
The journey from mediocre to great
The importance of good data
core beliefs- focus on the right things
Try to let teachers know they are lucky to be a teacher in the school
This is the place to be!
Leadership style: creating a climate that drives performance
HIRE the right people
An effective leaders changes style 10 to 12 times per day. You can't sit and say okay I am going to this meeting and I will use this style...
You need to constantly turn things on and off
Cowboys captains loners
Why change fails?
Lack of urgency
No focus
Absence of commitment by teachers
Need
Collab leadership
Personalization
Curriculum and instruction
Change secrets
1Focus and vision. Focus is power. Gps is a good visual because it tells you where you are when you turn it on
2Data. Every teacher. How can you differentiate lessons if you do not know where the kiddie reading level is
3Start small. Don't run to the faculty and tell them we are going to do this
Get quick wins
Get the book Tipping Point
4work the willing find them
5be obsessed with implementation and implement with fidelity
Technology is a tool not a means to an end
Need distributed leadership
We can't expect teachers to work differently if we are not willing to work differently
In the process circle for guiding change you need to monitor not just assume it is happening
WRITING LABS FOR SUMMER SCHOOL
READING LABS Focus on learning
The grades game
Like sports.....
Practice. Classwork and homework! They do not count towards the grade.
Scrimmages: might affect grade or not- up to teacher
Quizzes
Projects
Labs
Game Day:
Tests
Any assessment of mastery
Standards based grade book
Decide what gets graded
Homework - two four letter words!
Questions about homework
-do they do it
-do they do it well
-is it erases
-how is it graded
-how much did teacher teach it
-did teacher go over it
-who is doing it. Students or parents?
Homeworkers 4 groups
Group 1 too easy
Group 2 too hard
Group 3 will not do it. Reasons...
Group 4 exactly right
Middle level luncheon speaker
Talk about the challenges and remember what we are here for
Eisenhower said
Opening General Assembly Friday 4 pm
