School Improvement Plan Feedback: SOAR Protocol

The feedback from the SOAR protocol we used on Friday with our school improvement plan is very helpful and interesting.  I will provide a summary and some commentary here; however, if you are interested in reading all of the feedback, click here.  There are very few revisions to the School Improvement Plan, and you may Click here to review it again, if you like.  If you have feedback not covered in this protocol (questions, concerns, etc.), be sure to stop by and share these with me (or e-mail them to me).

Thanks again for your time and attention to this process.  We are all involved in the success of our school and the implementation of this plan.

Strengths
Faculty members listed a variety of strengths and very few were repeats of one another.  I believe this to be an advantage: the SIP is strong enough to warrant a list of several strengths rather than a few repeated ones. A few that stand out to me are:

• Including several voices,
• Aligning the format to our Marzano work, and
• Creating manageable and effective goals.

Commentary

I do not have much commentary on this section except to thank everyone for sharing the strengths of the document so generously.

Opportunities

The list of opportunities was also diverse. I think it's clear that we understand that successful implementation will lead to an increase in achievement, a decrease in negative behaviors, and an improvement in staff morale.  In addition, several teachers noted the opportunity for collaboration and other colleagial conversations.  A few specific opportunities that stand out to me are:

• Those that indicate we can benefit from more conversations (about anything from new ideas to race, gender, and ability) and
• Those that mention the necessity of more time.

Commentary

Unfortunately, more time is a difficult resource to provide, and when I am able to provide it, it might be difficult sometimes to prioritize how you want to use that time.  This year, in addition to giving time to departments on professional development days (a regular Hixson Middle School Practice), I am providing time on fourth Mondays as well.  If you want to work on new ideas, reflect on your teaching, share ideas, etc., you may use that time as long as you communicate that to me.  In addition, Dr. Roberts budgets for a sub for each teacher in the building.  That means you can decide to take a day to work on anything that is priority to you (sometimes departments have used this money in other ways).  You may contact your curriculum coordinator and advocate for time as well. 

Aspirations

Our aspirations are both varied and aligned with our goals.  There is great organization value to this alignment.  Thank you for being so thoughtful.  Three aspirations stand out to me:

• Implementing a 1:1 environment with appropriate technical support and development for teachers,
• Implementing proficiency scales consistently and well, 
• Supporting one another with the implementation of Discovery, and
• Including elective and non-core teachers in the RtI process.

Commentary

• Our LMT and tech department are working and planning to make sure students and faculty have what they need to implement a 1:1 environment effectively.  We will learn by doing and will need to flexible with one another and ourselves.  This is the year to begin conversations and use what time we have to work out some of these details.
• The district C & I department is work on creating district-wide essential learning goals and scales that will be Board-approved and become our curriculum.  In the meantime, use what is effective and makes sense for you.
• We can use team representative meeting time and fourth Monday time to work together on Discovery.  A specific question was about the effectiveness of just 25 minutes of time. At this time, based on what we know from research and experience at workshops, etc., 25 minutes (and even less) can be effective.
• We are working on ways to include non-team teachers in data meetings and other RtI-related practices, including finding coverage for teachers during these meetings.

Results

Faculty mentioned several results we might see, including an increase in MAP, AIMSweb, SRI, and other scores and a decrease in discipline referrals.  Other results that were mentioned include:

• An increase in student engagement, and
• An improved learning climate for students and for teachers.

Commentary

I do not have much commentary to add as I believe these long- and short-term results will be valuable indicators.  In early October, I will ask that you use the proficiency scales in the SIP to rate yourself anonymously.  I hope that when we return at various points in the year to these scales, our overall scores will improve as well.

8/30 Faculty Meeting Information

We will meet in the cafeteria tomorrow, 8/30, from 12:30 to 1:30pm.  You will have between 11am and 12:30pm for lunch on your own. 

We have three agenda points to cover:

•  A brief review of Hixson’s 2013 Annual Performance Report Summary,
• Time to give feedback on our School Improvement Plan using a SOAR protocol, and
•  Some general updates.

You can prepare for this meeting by:

• Previewing the 11-slide PowerPoint by clicking here.
•  Clicking here to read or skim the School Improvement Plan; you might also consider   
• Downloading it onto a device of your choosing or  bringing a hard copy, and
•  Focusing on the three goals, primarily, for feedback as I gave a brief summary of the first three pages during my opening remarks.
• Bringing a pen or pencil in case you want to make or take notes.

Your feedback is very important to me, and I want to make sure that I used the information I collected last spring to create the best goals for us.  You may recall that I based these on what might be possible for Hixson Middle School, ways we might strengthen our relationships, and how might we create a more just and equitable school.

The remainder of the afternoon is dedicated to department work.

August 26, 2013

The March on Washington occurred 50 years ago this week.  I appreciate the synchronicity of recalling Dr. King's words during our Rachel's Challenge assembly immediately before such an anniversary: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."  

Monday's Faculty Meeting: You Choose
Many of you have indicated how you will spend your Fourth Monday Faculty Meeting.  If you have not, click here to do so, please.

Open House will be on Wednesday, August 28th, beginning at 6:30pm.  You can look at the schedule and some notes by clicking here.  Open House is important to our relationships with parents/guardians and is never perfect, so please be flexible, as you always are.  I know you are diligent with what and how you present to parents.

August 30th

• Morning: Friday, August 30th is a district PD day. Dr. Simpson will be sharing information regarding the morning sessions: these will take place at the high school and will involve a deeper consideration of design questions 2-5 from The Art and Science of Teaching.  
• Lunch: You will have lunch on your own (from 11am-12:30pm).
• Faculty Meeting: We will meet as a faculty in the cafeteria from 12:30-1:30pm.  My goal for this meeting is to present a little of our MAP data as a whole and as it relates to our School Improvement Plan.  It will be helpful if you skim the current draft of our SIP by clicking here as I also plan to gather some of your feedback before my final revision and presentation to Dr. Simpson.
• Afternoon: You will have from 1:30-3:30pm to work as departments.  Because there have been some changes with department leaders, I am asking that department leaders e-mail me by clicking here to confirm their leadership role, please.  I will share more information about 8/30 in my response to that e-mail.
• The building closes at 4:30pm.

September's Thinking Strategy

Proficient learners use background knowledge to connect to new information.  You can find more information about September's Thinking Strategy (making connections and building background knowledge) by clicking here.  

Previewing new content is one of our Marzano strategies, the desired effect of which is that students will be able to link prior knowledge to new content.  All of our classrooms will benefit from this month's thinking strategy.

New Information: Field Trips
Faculty must deposit all funds collected from students.  The teachers should complete the deposit slip and document student name, amount paid and cash/check number.  Faculty may not take the cash to pay for any portion of the field trip.  The purchase order for the trip and the bus must be processed prior to the field trip.  Teachers may elect to pay for items/events and turn their receipts in for reimbursement.  We can use the MasterCard to pay for reservations, but only if a purchase order has completely cleared our routing system.

District Benefits Meeting
Generally, we spend an hour at the beginning of each year reviewing benefit updates and information with JoAnn Kite or another central office representative.  This year, we will not have such a meeting.  Much of this information is online; click here to view a PowerPoint presentation about our district benefits and how to access the information online.

Hixson Day at the Ballpark was both fun and hot. I am glad Dr. Miller facilitated this opportunity for our staff and our community.

I will be out of the building Wednesday afternoon to meet with curriculum coordinators and part of Thursday morning for a doctor's appointment. Have a great week!

Further Thinking about Unit Design

"We do not start with content; we start with what students are expected to be able to do with content.  What would real use of content look like? What should students ultimately be able to say and do with content if they 'get it'? And if that's what real learning looks like, what should be taught--and how--to make it most likely that teaching leads to fluent, flexible, and lasting learning?"  --Wiggins & McTight, 2011, p. 7.
As we continue to think purposefully about our planning, I wanted to offer some further thinking about unit design.  Once you have determined what is essential in your curriculum, or what is essential to the two units you department has decided to revisit, you will organize your unit information into three parts:

1.  Desired Results: What students will know, understand, and do (KUD).

2.  Acceptable Evidence:  What the summative assessment will look like and what level of proficiency is considered acceptable.

3.  Learning Experiences and Instruction: Some sample learning experiences.

I will spend some time in future blog posts writing about each of these three parts.  I will also spend some time with department chairs and anyone else who is interested explaining this information.
One of the keys is to balance when you read and access this information.  My goal is to have it accessible to you so that when you begin the work on your unit plan, you have had an opportunity to read and think about these expectations.
My goal for putting this out here now is so that you can begin to get a sense of what all of this will begin to look like.  Our School Improvement Plan (SIP) is written using a similar format.  You may want to take a look at it to see a kind of example.
This work will be challenging, and I believe it will be rewarding as well.