Week 6

Happy National One Hit Wonder Day

September 28 - Collaboration Day & RPDC Site visit
September 29 - Beta meeting
October 2 - Custodian Appreciation Day

October 4 - Denise Hatch - Birthday
October 10 - Terrie Sullivan - Birthday

October 12 - Denise Nichols - Birthday
October 13 - 6th grade Collaboration Day
October 13 - Beta Induction
October 14 - Faculty Meeting
October 14 - Grade window opens
October 15 - 5th grade Collaboration Day
October 15 - Visit from CKH - Process Champions
October 15 - Deana Ward - Birthday
October 15 - Earthquake Drill @ 10:15
October 15 - Board Meeting @ 7:00
October 16 - End of 1st Quarter

October 18 - Grade window closes @ Midnight
October 19 - Parent Teacher Conferences
October 20 - Cindy Tanner - Birthday
October 22 - Wings Party
October 23 - No School

October 26 - Collaboration Day
October 26 - Board Work Session
October 29 - Karen Emmons Birthday
October 31 - Halloween

Last week, I asked for some feedback on how things are going. I thought I would share some of the results and some of the things I am going to work on.

Question 1) Name one thing you feel is going well this year.

• Capturing Kids Hearts
• Building procedures (arrival, departure, AM/Lunch routines, etc)
• Everyone is having fun and students are learning!!
• Collaboration within my pod and within my subject area team
• The construction is not slowing us down!
• Overall morale seems better in the building
• I am glad to see how well everyone has adapted to the playground and the construction going on.

There were others, but were similar to those above. I have to agree with all of these. Of course we can always do better, but these things seem to be going well.

Question 2) Name one thing you would like to see me do better.

• Talk to people vs surveys:-)
• Get breakfast on collaboration days.
• Give more direct answers to questions. Sometimes you pose an answer to a question as a question. This does encourage thought, but sometimes I just want you to tell me yes or no.
• Spread the wealth a little better. It seems that only a select few ever get asked to do anything.
• pick one form of tech and stick with it, right now we blog, we have google classroom, we have Twitter, we have FB, email, and Sis
• Become more involved in discipline
• Have a presence in ALL classrooms.
• Stop having a "launch" at faculty meetings and just let us leave!  

Again, there were others, and lots of positive comments (much appreciated). Some of these I will definitely work on. I will get out of the office more and talk to people more. I will get donuts for our meeting on Monday. 

I probably won't give more direct answers for a variety of reasons. First, I don't always know the answer. Second, I do want to encourage thought. And lastly, that's just who I am:)

I am working on spreading the wealth as far as tasks go although sometimes nobody wants the job I offer.

I probably won't stick with one form of tech either. Mainly because each of these serves a different purpose. I blog as a way to express my thoughts. I send you the link anytime I add something. Google classroom is a great way to share items with a group and you should get a notification when something is added or changed. Twitter is a great resource, but I don't use it on a regular basis and Facebook is a way to communicate with parents. I do email, a lot and Sis is a necessary evil for student management. All serve different purposes.

Becoming more involved in discipline is something I really need to do this although I am having trouble finding the time (not to mention the last time I tried to help Angie, I got bit three times). I don't know about you all, but I truly appreciate all that Angie does for our school. It's a big job. This one, I will work on.

I will work on getting to more classrooms. I try to hit the ones where I know kids are and I try to get to everyone before they are too far into their lessons. I don't want to become a distraction that takes away from learning. So, that means I have to really move to get to everywhere, but if you are in a room that I am missing, let me know so I can pop in.

As far as the "launch", as a CKH school, we will continue to have launches. In fact, all of you should be doing launches as well. Now, I could get better at doing launches, but we will continue to have them.

Question 3) Name one thing you need to make you a better teacher.

• Patience
• Computers
• my pod mates to trade on time
• organization
• 2 of me
• Time
• Feedback from administrators
• Funds for PD

Some of these things I can work on (and I am working on them), and some I can't help with.

Question 4) Name one thing you would like to see changed for next year.

• make the functional room that and have a separate behavior room for the more sever students
• More time for vertical teaming
• Students should not be in classrooms without a teacher - ex: before school and during inside recess.
• Academic lab to be used more effectively.
• I don't want to continue teaching a writing class. If we are teaching cross-curricular like we should be then this would be covered in the core classes.
• Honestly? Other than having to walk 1/4 mile to my car...all is well. And that walk is good for me.
• Going one-on-one with computers.
• 4 person pods, science lab
• writing block... It needs an overhaul, I feel like I'm doing someone else's job.
• I would like to start up Club Days
• more resource room paraprofessionals...oh and not paying for parking
• Science to have either push in or pull out since this is a tested area
• I think the Writing Standards really need to be OWNED by a dept. It could be done by a Writing Dept that teaches writing. Or, break the standards up and give them departments that match their area. There are some writing standards that lend themselves to reading, others to science, others fit with social studies, or even math. Break the standards up, assign them to a dept. and then someone will OWN them and make it their responsibility. Right now, they are just too massive to say "everyone find time for these." It isn't intentional, but because of that, I think the standards end up at the bottom of everyone's "to do" list.
• Instead of Academic Lab I would like to see an intervention lab
• I would like to see every class begin and end on the same time schedule.
• Schedule needs to be organized better  

That is a lot to take in, so as next year approaches, we will probably have more conversations about some of these things. The one comment that struck a chord with me was the notion that by teaching writing you are doing someone else's job. We are all teachers. Our approach should be to teach kids. When we start getting into the argument of who is responsible for what and my content is more important that yours, we are losing sight of the real reason we are here.

Question 5) Name one thing that is a strength of the middle school.

• Nearly all of the answers to this question were about our teachers and our teamwork.

We do a great job of working together and doing what is best for our kids. This truly is a phenomenal staff. Thank you for letting me be a part of that.

Some One Hit Wonders...

Have a great weekend!