Notes

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