Professional Development
Ms. Cherney and I spent this past Sunday and Monday at the Texas ASCD Conference in Frisco. We were able to hear James Popham, Deborah Pickering, Ken Kay, and others speak about current educational issues including the need to reform grading, the need for formative assessment, and the need for 21st Century skills.
Quote from Ken Kay..."In our schools, we tell students 100 times what to do. On the 101st time, we ask them if they remember what we told them 100 times. The real skill set is the student taking new information and knowing what to do with it."
"The amount of technical information doubles every 24 months; by 2020, it will double every 72 hours. What are the implications for our work?"
Update on AYP/SPA
GLAD Training has been scheduled for December 3rd and 4th for Core Departments.
GLAD Workshop Training will be the last week of January (2 days for ELA and 2 days for Math) and the last week of February (2 days for Social Studies and 2 days for Science).
Two consultants will teach strategy and research regarding English Language Learners (good strategies for all students) in December. They will return in January/February to teach our kids while we observe and learn. Then, they will plan with us. It should be a great learning experience for us!
Wide Reading: We will begin Wide Reading in January; more information to follow at our November SPA. To alleviate some concerns: we are providing a bookshelf for each 3rd period classroom, along with reading materials. We will work through details with you at the November session.
Counseling Corner
With the economic struggles our nation has faced, we are seeing the impacts here at home. Our counselors reminded us yesterday that we have families without electricity, struggling with hunger, and needing clothes. Please be mindful that we have students struggling to meet basic needs.
It is a great time to clean out the closet! Please bring any clothes you can donate (infant to adult) to D107 for our PTSA Clothes Closet. They are running short on supply, especially for socks and underwear.
Administrative Reminders
An email from a teacher...
"This past weekend we had an activity--so many of the kids say that 5th period teachers do not play the announcements so they didn't know."
Please turn on the announcements in 5th period.
Turn in summatives one week in advance in your folder on the S drive. You should have 3 summatives submitted this 9 weeks.
