It's the Week to Wrap up the First Semester!

Gosh that first week back at school went by fast!  Lots of you have welcomed me to my new office and new role, thanks so much, your support means the world to me.  Other than the Lady T-Bird's close win on Friday and some progress on our bathroom remodeling project, our big event of the weekend was that Adam came home on Saturday afternoon with a sweet dog from the humane society.  (He’s quite a believer in the philosophy of sometimes forgiveness is easier to get than permission; and once again it worked out for him, we all just laughed and loved on the new dog!)  I hope you had also had a good weekend!

Just a quick FYI regarding the mission statement that we came up with prior to Christmas break….

A question has came up as to "why did we do that when the PDC committee had just recently devoted lots of time and energy to coming up with a new mission statement?"  That’s a great question that deserves some attention.  The main reason is that the mission statement drafted by the PDC committee is for our district.  For the sake of coming up with a school improvement plan that is specific to K-8, we really needed to draft a separate mission statement.  The district mission statement still defines the direction for the district and we are certainly a part of that.  I believe that K-8 really needed to work together as a collaborative group to draft a statement that defines what’s most important to us and where we are headed so that we are certain that we are all headed to the same place for the same purpose.  (Besides for the fact that it’s just a good practice for us to share a common vision, KSDE was requiring us to do it since they see K-8 and the high school as two schools.) 

The mission statement that we left that meeting with was…

The Skyline Elementary/Junior High community will 

provide a safe and caring environment of engaged, passionate learners 

and successful 21st Century citizens. 

One staff member suggested the following rewrite of the statement since the first draft really does not describe the impact of our work on students.  The change in wording is very slight, but the word 'develop' describing our role as educators and the unity implied by the word 'community' are both pretty significant.  Her suggested rewrite is:      

The Skyline Elementary/Junior High School will

provide a safe and caring COMMUNITY TO DEVELOP engaged, passionate learners

and successful 21st Century citizens.

Would you please think about that change in wording and if you are able to see the blog, comment back here with any suggestions you have.  (Or if you can't blog, email me, and I'll post it.)  If coming to a consensus will require more than a blogging conversation then we will finish up this process at the next faculty meeting, otherwise we’ll be done and ready to move on before then. 

Lets move on to a few things we have going on this week…….

  

One of the shifts that I hope we will make, at least within the grade school, is for all of us to become more aware of and involved in what is going on across the different classrooms and grade levels.  One of the things that research backs up is that when we all put our heads together to reach ALL kids that student performance will skyrocket.  OK, that might be a little dramatic – but it will go up!  So I will be telling you a few things going on that may not seem relevant to you at first, but it’s all important when you look at the ‘big picture’.

Monday – 5^th & 6^th grade teachers along with Marcia, Dani, Denise, Brenda & DeGaye will meet to go over the students’ Aimsweb math test scores.  We hope to look at the data from that test and then collaborate to come up with plans that will result in students learning even more.  Gathering meaningful data and then collaborating to improve student performance is something that we will be putting more emphasis on across all grades. 

Tuesday – At the beginning of the year we formed a Professional Learning Community for the 5^th/6^th grade Project Based Learning program. On Tuesday they will be meeting to work together in a team approach to support those teachers, encourage student learning and ensure the success of that program. 

Wednesday – Administrative Council meets after school.  So be sure and let your reps (I believe that is Michelle and Ruth Ann for K-6) know of questions/concerns that you would like to see addressed by that group.    

And Friday we will wrap up another semester.  According to the calendar it looks like you will have Friday afternoon and Monday to take care of some of the work you to do close one semester and begin another. 

I plan to start spending more time in your classrooms.  My goal is to sit down and observe in at least three classrooms a week.  Being in your rooms helps me get to know you better as a teacher, helps me know the students better and just gives me a better picture of our learning environment as a whole.  As I mentioned earlier in the year, when I’m in your classroom feel free to ignore me or put me to work, whatever works best with what you have going on at the moment.  I am finding that watching you teach and students learn tends to really provide me with a huge emotional boost, thanks for being that kind of staff!  I am amazed and encouraged over and over again at the energy and engagement I see the classrooms. 

If you ever doubt for a second how important your work is, just keep in mind one of my favorite quotes…

“Teaching creates all other professions.”        

Thanks for all you do and have a great week!

Becca