Tuesday Telegram – November 3, 2015
October was an amazing month for Elbert County Schools. In addition to earning AdvancED District Accreditation for the first time in the history of our school district, we recognized five, well-deserving Teachers of the Year, and put the finishing touches on the planning phases of our Five-Year Strategic Plan. Congratulations to every employee in our district on these accomplishments!
November is Parent Engagement Month – Every year the state of Georgia recognizes the month of November as Parent Engagement Month, and schools across the state highlight the role parents play in a student’s education. Additionally, the third week in November is American Education Week. During the week, all parents are invited to visit their child’s school to experience a normal school day. Your principals will be sharing more American Education Week information with you in the coming days.
Congrats to Bridgette Matthews and the School Nutrition staff – Director of School Nutrition Bridgette Matthews and staff have recently received recognition across the state and nation. Elbert County Schools was recognized with the Golden Radish Award, a prestigious state-wide farm to school distinction which acknowledges the outstanding leadership of school representatives building comprehensive farm to school programs.
The school district was recognized for its efforts to educate students on nutrition and agriculture by State School Superintendent Richard Woods, Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black, Public Health Commissioner Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, and Georgia Organics Board Chair Mandy Mahoney.
Additionally, the New York Times shared some very positive comments from Mrs. Matthews in its October 6, 2015 article, Schools Report Varying Results in Their Efforts to Comply With Nutrition Guidelines. Congratulations to Mrs. Matthews and all school nutrition staff on a job well done!
Core Essential: Collaborative Culture – Richard DuFour in “How PLCs Do Data Right” reflects on his early years of teaching and says, “It never occurred to me to review the results of assessments with colleagues, to use this evidence of student learning to inform and improve my teaching, or to provide students with additional time and support to master the content.” According to DuFour, students who performed well were a testament to his terrific teaching, and students who didn’t do well either lacked ability or hadn’t worked hard enough.
In our school district, an expectation of our Core Essentials is that teachers are working in collaborative teams to achieve common goals for which they are mutually accountable. At the heart of the PLC/Data Team process, our teams are analyzing the results of common assessments and monitoring the progress of students.
I love the five (5) key questions that DuFour suggests teams ask as they do this work. If your PLC/Data Team is not using similar questions to guide its work, I encourage you to adopt these.
- Which students were unable to demonstrate proficiency on this assessment (or on these standards)?
- Which students are highly proficient and would benefit from extended or accelerated learning?
- What can I learn from colleagues who got excellent results in an area where my students struggled?
- What are we going to do about areas where none of us achieved the results we expected?
- How will we use this data to improve instruction?
Food for Thought – “Perception is driven by the perceiver—past experiences and perspectives determine, to a large degree, what others see when they see you coming.” ~Stephen Gower The first five people to send me an email with “Treasury of Tips” in the subject line will get a free copy of Mr. Gower’s book. I will respond to the first five emails. If you don’t get a response from me, the books have already been claimed.
Looking ahead, the arrival of November leaves us with seven weeks of teaching and learning until Winter Break. The week of Thanksgiving will offer us a great intermission before we move into the final weeks of the semester with high stakes End of Course Assessments, SLOs, and benchmark assessments. Thank you for making our mission, vision, and beliefs real in your actions, as we nurture the growth and achievement of “Every Student, Every Day.”