Monday Minute – February 2, 2015

Happy Ground Hog Day!  The month of February is upon us and today we celebrate Ground Hog Day.  I just read where Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and we can expect six more weeks of winter.  The NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center says the famous ground hog’s forecasts have shown “no predictive skill” in recent years.  I’m thinking the furry marmot got it right this year.  Time will tell!  Now on to more important matters.

Advanc-ED Staff Surveys – On January 21, all Elbert County teachers and staff were emailed a link to the Advanc-ED staff survey, a key component of our internal review process.  As of today, 131 staff members have responded to the survey.  We sincerely appreciate those who have completed the survey, but we need more responses to meet accreditation requirements.  Our goal is to have at least 300 responses on or before Monday, February 16.  Please go to this link to complete the survey:  http://www.advanc-ed.org/survey/public/9888449

2015-16 Academic Calendar – The Elbert County Board of Education approved the 2015-16 Academic Calendar at its January 26 meeting.  The calendar consists of 180 student days and 190 teacher days.  Click here to view the calendar.

February 16 Parent Conference Day – Strategic Objective 4 in our 2014-15 System Improvement Plan provides strategies to actively engage parents and community in supporting student achievement in Elbert County Schools.  We have regularly discussed the importance of two-way communication between our schools and families, and the upcoming February 16 Parent Conference Day gives us another great opportunity to continue building connections with parents.

Results from our November 4 Parent Conference Day, show that 1612 conferences were conducted in our schools and 99% of the feedback received from parents was positive.  Let’s work together to plan for another successful Parent Conference Day this month!

Core Essentials – Effective Instruction is one of the key Core Essentials in the Elbert County School District.  At a meeting of our Instructional Support Team last week, we studied and discussed an insightful monograph from the Marzano Center titled Teaching for Rigor: A Call for a Critical Instructional Shift. The paper describes the essential shift in classroom instruction necessary to ensure that students achieve the level of rigor required by new state academic standards. Central to this shift is the move away from teacher-centered instruction to strategies that “place students squarely at the center of the classroom, where they will grapple with challenging content individually and collaboratively, and where they will be expected to actively demonstrate their learning.”  Read and learn more about this important instructional shift by going to http://www.marzanocenter.com/files/Teaching-for-Rigor-20140318.pdf.

District Learning Walks – On January 20, administrators and members of our Instructional Support Team began the process of conducting District Learning Walks.  These learning walks place no additional expectations on teachers, and observers focus on providing non-evaluative, descriptive feedback to those who have been observed.  Our goal is to conduct approximately 130 learning walks by spring break and for this process to become embedded in the culture of our schools and district.

Legislative Session – As you probably know, there has been a great deal of interest in the early workings of the 2015 General Assembly.  There are multiple proposals that will have a huge impact public schools.  Some of these include the current transportation funding  proposal, State Health Benefits coverage for bus drivers and cafeteria workers, new age requirements for kindergarten enrollment, and a proposal to give students early access to college.  You can follow the progress of this year’s session by going to http://www.gpee.org/Legislature-2015.50.0.html.

Food for Thought – Very simple, but very true…“If you ignore it, you condone it.”

Thank you for working to serve “Every Student, Every Day.”  Please keep those in need of healing and wholeness in your thoughts and prayers.