Tuesday, September 20

Today's Content:

• Continuous Improvement:  Mission Statements Schoolwide

• Digital Communication: Band Weekly Webinars

Falcon Focus: Mission Statements Schoolwide

Over the past several weeks, Falcons have created mission statements to clarify our goals and to provide purpose to our day-to-day.  With personalized phrasing as diverse as our population, these mission statements will serve as the foundation of our work this year, both as a campus and in our classrooms.

For mission statements to work, stakeholders must have ownership in the writing process. This allows individuals to recognize the why behind the work, and creates a focal point when distractions become, well, distracting.

Both teachers and students have embraced this process, drafting and revising missions, pledging their commitment with a signature, and revisiting the mission at the start of each class or PLC.  Some classes have even taken it a step farther, using TPR (Total Physical Response) to attach active meaning to the words of their mission.  TPR is a brain-based learning strategy that will help these students really connect to their goals in each class.  You can watch students in Mrs. Hutson's 7th Grade ELA and Mrs. Grosenbach's ELAR classes using gestures in the videos below, and read some examples of the hard work done these first few weeks of school.

Classroom Mission Statements

Students collaborated to develop their class mission statements across the campus.

Mrs. Hutson's Class Mission Statement
Watch students recite their class mission below.

Mrs. Grosenbach's Class Mission Statement
Watch students recite their mission statement below.

Department Mission Statements

Wondering what the department mission statements are?  Here you go.

Reminder - all classes should have mission statements posted ASAP, if not already.  Also, developing a mission statements with your classes is only a first step. These must be revisited throughout the year, used as a touchstone to guide decision-making, to truly impact student learning. More to come on this as the year progresses!

Falcon Focus: Band Weekly Webinars

As I was scrolling through my Twitter feed a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon a retweet by @tersadavis.

Ummm...this is so cool!  What a fantastic (and entertaining) way to share expectations and information with students and families.  Mr. Lewis and Mrs. Serrano used iMovie as their video tool, and plan to continue posting webinars each Friday evening.  The videos even have special effects!

Follow the antics of Mr. Lewis and Mrs. Serrano on Twitter @NRichlandBand and be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel for band updates.

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!

Tuesday, May 31

Today's Content:

• Authentic Learning:  Ekphrasis Night at Barnes and Noble

• Professional Learning Communities:  PLC Feedback

• Shifting Culture: Falcon Way Summer Planning

Falcon Focus: The Ekphrasis Project

by Gina Bergman  A cross-curricular collaboration between Falcon artists and 7th grade Pre-AP writers, the Ekphrasis Project highlights exemplary written responses across genres based on selected award winning artwork.  On Thursday evening, May 26^th at Barnes & Noble Booksellers at the North East Mall the 7^th grade Pre-AP writers read their works in conjunction with a display of artwork before a crowd of bookstore patrons, parents, faculty, and fellow students. The evening was highlighted with an opening poem/song acapella performance by Isabel Beasley based on Owen Stubblefield’s artwork Still Life with Boots and Skull. The evenings final piece was a once in a lifetime performance of burgeoning playwright Kyle Dickman’s response to Beverly Ontiveros’ artwork Majestic.  Sandwiched in between the song and the play were many great poems and short stories birthed through analysis and imagination. The evening was put together by ELAR Department Chair, Sarah Kelly and Rebekah McKnight, art teacher extraordinaire. 

Falcon Focus: PLC Feedback


To end the year, each department used the last data meeting to reflect on the effectiveness of our PLCs.  Through the discussion, teachers identified both PLC strengths and suggestions for improvement.  Repeated positives for this year included 1) having the opportunity to work with other grade levels, 2) being inspired by other grade levels to try different strategies, 3) collaborating with others to utilize individual expertise, and 4) having lots of time for planning.  Common ideas for change included 1) adding some structure to the PLC process to expand productivity (not just lesson planning), 2) allowing grade levels to sometimes work as a team independently from the department PLC, 3) finding a way to reach out to other departments to allow for more cross-curricular learning, and 4) changing data reflection to happen in real-time.

As we move forward and work on plans for 2016-17, all this valuable information will help determine how we can best utilize our PLCs to enhance student learning.  If you'd like to read the plus/deltas in their entirety, click on the images below for each department.

Click on the image go to the Writing PLC Notes in Padlet

Click on the image go to the Reading PLC Notes in Padlet

Click on the image go to the Social Studies PLC Notes in Padlet

Click on the image go to the Science PLC Notes in Padlet

Falcon Focus: Falcon Way Summer Groups

As the school year wraps up, work is just getting started on some of the different pieces that will make up our Falcon Way for next year.  Whether you've contributed your ideas thus far or not, everyone is invited to help grow the culture that we want for our school.  Changing our culture truly will take a village, so we would love to hear from you.

Summer Planning Groups include:

• Advisory - Appreciation activities
• Advisory - Community service
• Advisory - Family activities
• Advisory - Responsibility
• Advisory - Hall/announcements/campus challenges
• Faculty/staff - getting to know you
• Pep rallies & showcase pieces
• Student orientation

Today during dessert, be on the lookout for an orange handout for signing up.  We will have quick "orientation" meetings tomorrow after dismissal.

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!

Friday, December 4

Today's Content:

• SIOP: Flipped Classroom in Lindsay Cato's 7th Grade Science
• Problem of Practice: Writing & thinking critically about students' art
• Tier 1 Priorities:  Check-in from the 11/18 faculty meeting

Falcon Focus:  SIOP

Lindsay Cato has started flipping her classroom by recording previews of her daily lessons.  Each 3-7 minute video includes the daily warm-up, a brief explanation of concepts and activities for the day, and key academic vocabulary.  Students will have access to the videos via YouTube, and are also encouraged to come in before or after school.  The target audience are her LEP students; however, it will benefit all of her kids!  

Lindsay's first Screencastify broadcast

If you have any questions about Screencastify or are interested in flipping parts of your class, talk to Lindsay, Mary Terry, or Rashel Larson.

Falcon Focus: Problem of Practice

Rebekah Luckett's select art class created still lifes of objects personal to them.  Students were instructed to select 7 objects so dear to them that the would want to rescue them above all other possessions.  After completing the art work using a variety of mediums, students then went on to reflect on and write about their artwork.  Why were these objects important?  What do those objects reveal about me as an individual?  

The class then reflected on each other.  How had the other artworks impacted them?  What did they notice about the other students' pieces?  Finally, they summed up the group reflections in a hashtag.  #checkoutthefronthallway



Falcon Focus: Tier 1 Priorities

Finally, a follow-up to our faculty meeting on 11/18.  At the end of the meeting we used Padlet as a means to reflect on the Tier 1 priorities and instructional practices that we are focusing on across the different content areas.  Clearly, there's quite a bit of overlap from one content area to another, and you guys did a great job of reflecting on specific strategies and areas you wanted to focus on in your classroom.

Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the Tier 1 Priorties, or if there is some way that I can support you in implementing any of this.  I hope everyone has a great day, and remember...

It's a great day to be a Falcon!