Weekly News and Notes

A few things for this week - starting with how thankful many of us are that the Red Sox "Rolling Rally" will be on a Saturday. I know in 2004 and 2007 there were a lot of students (and staff) who wanted to go and participate, but where it was on a school day, that made some things difficult - I, for one, remember a senior English class with 14 students absent, all of whom had made their way in to Boston. But what a week - hopefully, now that the World Series is over, we can go back to normal sleep patterns (for those of us who watched the games)!

I've Posted the Objective, So What? 
- Shanley Heller

 It's been wonderful to see so many classrooms with posted objectives!  A clear well-written objective can be a powerful tool in teaching ALL students, and so today I hope to answer the question:   How has my instruction changed by just writing a clear, well-written objective so all students can see it through out the lesson?

When the teacher has to articulate what the students should be able to do or know by the end of the period in a sentence (not question), the teacher has focused in on the point of the lesson.  Not only has the teacher answered for the students "what's the point?", but the teacher's language, activity and examples are more likely to be directed to that same objective.  

How can you make this tool even more powerful?  Don't just write it and ignore it USE IT!   Point it out to the students at the beginning of the lesson, refer directly to it at appropriate times throughout the lesson, and close your lesson with it.  For all of you from the old corporate world, that is an old teaching trick corporations would teach managers in making presentations:  say it 3 times-beginning, middle and end.   If your objective is the whole point of your lesson--saying it three times in 50 minutes must be worth the time!

 Doing a discovery lesson and don't want to "give it away"?   Careful wording works great!  Research shows discovery lessons are not effective, however GUIDED discovery is an effective instructional method.  Objectives should be guides for the students.  Ex:  Find the relationship between _____________ and _______________.

Here's a quick article from Eric Hougan, National Board Certified Teacher.



Editor's Note: This piece was originally supposed to run last week, but was mistakenly left off the blog!





Voice Mails!

As many of you know, but no doubt sometimes forget, we have voice mails, and our secretaries do forward calls to them. As if we all needed something else to do, please remember to occasionally check voice mail, and if you've forgotten for a few days and get one that's a few days old, try to remember to call the parent back quickly. Frequently, parents will follow up with an email, but many times, particularly in the morning, when parents call, the secretaries put the call to voice mail rather than a classroom (particularly if you're teaching).

If you need assistance with resetting a password, or accessing voice mail, see Lynda and/or consult the P-drive.


Lockdown Drill Training

Knowing full well that there wouldn't be a unanimously agreed time for the training, we decided to poll staff. The time that had the best availability for staff was November 6 (Wednesday), with Block C for Juniors and Freshmen and Block E for Seniors and Sophomores.

The Block E assembly will also include a brief presentation to sophomores regarding Class Rings.

In terms of the length of time, plan on 15-20 minutes for the lockdown drill trainings. If you do not have a class either period, please try to make at least one of them for a refresher, so that our staff hears the message delivered to the students.

Goals

At this point, most of the building has completed setting SMART goals for the year. The energy and thoughtfulness with which everyone approached them has been greatly appreciated, and the conversations have ranged from the pragmatics of the process to the challenges in practice that we face.

We will be compiling all of the goals to try and find some commonalities - there are many - and to find ways to support everyone's goals and the process efficiently and effectively, including providing feedback on our conversations with the ed leaders. As always, if there are concerns or questions, let us know!

Study Hall and Guidance

With the centralized study halls, more students have opted to go to guidance. While we will work with Mary Dolan (when she returns) on a better routine for getting more students going to the library instead of guidance, we are asking your support.

• If a student wishes to use guidance during study - and is a senior: use the phone in the caf or your classroom and call Barbara Rockwood at extension 5118. She will let you know if the space is open - and for how many students.
• If a student has a pass from his/her counselor, allow him/her to go. Chances are the student went to guidance first anyway.
• If a student has neither, but appears to be in a state that would require immediate support, give the student a pass to guidance and let Barbara know that s/he is coming.
• If a student needs technology and cannot go to guidance and the library is not available, or the student didn't go to the library first, there are seven Netbooks in the cart in the cafeteria, and a student may use one of them. You could also give the library a call to see if it has availability and then send the student with a pass (or a group of students with a pass).
• The past couple of weeks some students who have been upset have not wanted to go to guidance because of the number of students, which is something we need to fix, so we appreciate your help.

We are pretty confident that by tightening up some procedures we can have all spaces able to be utilized by students in an effective way. If you have suggestions, feel free to offer them. The goal, obviously, is finding ways for students to access what they need, both responsibly and respectfully.


Weekly Resources can be found here. Happy reading, and enjoy the weekend!