Monday, August 22

Today's Content:

• Building Culture:  The Falcon Way

• Continuous Improvement:  Mission Statement Collaboration

• #CelebrateMonday: On a personal note

Falcon Focus: Falcon Way

Welcome back, NRMS! After a summer of careful reflection, challenging conversations, and lots of hard work, our teachers and staff have built an amazing culture building program!

For many of us, driving our attendance zone last Monday was an eye-opening experience about the distances that some of our students have to travel, and the social and economic disparity between many of our students. It is essential that NRMS becomes a place to be, not just a place to go.  

Through Falcon Time, students will have the opportunity to bridge that gap.  Students will build school pride, work collaboratively on real issues, learn about and practice citizenship, and reach out to our community, making this a better place to be.

So far, so good.  We've studied the data, we've got a goal, and we've laid out a plan.  However, the newness will soon wear off and we'll get into the 6-week grind.  As you move into your day-to-day routine, make time to think back on the foundation that we are laying and the kind of school we truly want to build.  And if you haven't yet submitted your feedback on Monday's Student Orientation, please take a few moments to do so now; your thoughts will help shape Day 1 for 2017.  Click here to take the survey.

Falcon Focus: Continuous Improvement

As BISD revisits and realigns Continuous Improvement across the district, Thursday's professional development was spent laying the groundwork for improvement at NRMS. Our first CI milestone is the creation of mission statements throughout our campus.  After evaluating expectations and analyzing campus data, we got to the "why".  Why continuous improvement?  And why mission statements?

• Question 1:  Let’s talk about the why…Why should we go through this with our colleagues?  How will you do it?
• Question 2:  What are your beliefs about students, learning and school community?
• Question 3:  What behaviors will you need to model and see in your colleagues  in order to represent your beliefs?
• Question 4:  What did you hear?  Summarize what your groups have talked about.  What beliefs did you decide were most important?

Ultimately, the reason CI matters is that it ensures that all of our students have opportunities for growth.  It gives students ownership over their own learning, teaches students to advocate for themselves, and prevents any students from slipping through the cracks, whether they are our more struggling learners or most gifted innovators.

As you develop mission statements with your classes, please reflect on the sense of purpose that we need to foster in our students to help them be the best learners they can be.  They are all here to learn, and they all deserve an equal opportunity to do so.


Falcon Focus: Personal Note

As this first week gets moving, I just want to say that I am truly honored and humbled to be working alongside you. The dedication and passion for students that everyone showed last week as we unveiled Falcon Way plans was truly inspiring.  I literally had to lean over to Ann and say, "I think we're doing something really good here."  You are all doing something really good here.  Yesterday, you were my reason to #CelebrateMonday.  Thank you for that.

If have any questions or would like some help implementing these or other strategies, please let me know.  And remember...

It's a great day to be a Falcon!