February 20 PLC Posting
Summary Report for English Language Arts and Social Studies
In the English Language Arts and Social Studies PLCs this week, teachers deconstructed standards. Each grade level presented standards and objectives for an upcoming unit. As a team, we broke these learning targets into specific skills, knowledge, reasoning skills and student created products. Within the next month, students will be introduced to these learning targets and begin their work toward proficiency. Teachers will critique and brainstorm ways to assess the learning targets for these units at our next PLC meeting.
Offerings for February 23
Study Hall / Reading Zones
Cafeteria
Library
Mr. Kragt’s Room
Mr. Clark’s Room
Jazz Band
Spanish Lab
Room 1
Individual Teacher Rooms per Teacher invite
February 16 Principal Letter
Dear Parents,
Thank you so much for your support and flexibility as we initiated the delayed start here at the middle school. Each week gets a little smoother. Over 50% of the students are showing up for the early session. Teachers are using that time to pull smaller groups of students for reteaching of concepts, retaking tests, and help with assignments. We added Spanish Lab time this week to our list of offerings. Please watch the middle school page of the website for updates. At the end of the day each Monday you can find an updated posting on the website regarding offerings for students, as well as summaries on what is being done in the teacher collaboration meetings.
MEAP reports will be coming home next week. Remember that the results reflect the new, more rigorous standards from the state. We have our work cut out for us.
We have conferences coming up on the evenings of March 7th and 8th from 5:00 – 8:00. As we did in the fall, the first night (Wednesday the 7th) will have teachers meeting with parents in their classrooms and the second night (the 8th) will have teachers stationed in the gym. The teachers look forward to that opportunity to talk with you. If you have concerns that may require a longer meeting time, please set that up with the teachers in advance. You may pick up your child’s mid-term grade report at that time. Thanks.
Incomplete homework is a major frustration and primary reason for poor grades at the middle school level. Particularly, this time of year is the worst. As I have done my own questioning and evaluation, I am finding that the volume of homework is typically not excessive and most homework would take less time than the efforts some students put in to avoid it. We have several options for homework support here at school. These options include after school lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the delayed start time on Thursdays, and homework time in lieu of Integrated Studies for two sessions per week. In addition, most teachers offer times before or after school throughout the week for individual assistance. Many give up their own lunch time as well. I will tell you that the main goal of the teachers here is your child’s success. They are looking for that responsibility component, however, as they understand what a necessary skill and attitude that is in life. I have also included the following link that provides some information you may find helpful: http://www.pta.org/2045.htm. Let’s work together to provide students the structure and support they need to practice and refine the skills they will use for a lifetime.
We appreciate being able to partner with you in preparing your kids for the future.
John
Professional Learning Community Meetings
The past two weeks in PLC teachers have been establishing structures to make the meeting times productive and efficient. The format for the upcoming sessions are as follows:
Session 1 Identifying critical learning targets, agreeing on the level of rigor required and framing the targets into student-friendly language.
Session 2 Creating assessments to provide feedback to students, teachers and parents in regards to these learning targets.
Session 3 Planning instructional strategies for the teaching of the material.
Session 4 Looking at student results and making adjustments to instruction based on student data..
This week the ELA and Social Studies core teams begin this process. Please stay tuned to the website as the results of each meeting will be posted on the web the following Monday.
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