The work of school improvement is hard. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Truly getting better as a whole organization presents many challenges. It also presents many opportunities for growth of ourselves as adult learners and for our students. Just like our students, we need to continue to learn and grow as professionals. We need to continue to be curious about things that we see and hear. We need to continue to be open to new ideas, new perspectives, and new ways of being and doing. To truly improve, we need to do what we ask of our students; we need to take risks, try new techniques, learn from our failures, and demonstrate persistence when tasks prove difficult.
Installing the Blueprint challenges each of us in our own ways. It challenges our beliefs, our history, and it challenges what we are comfortable with. When faced with these type of challenges to our normal, it's reasonable to expect that we might pause, hesitate, or dig in to our position a little bit because it feels really uncomfortable to change. It's reasonable to expect that we need more time to let this idea settle in, to look at more data, to give it time to work before moving to the next step. All of these are normal, expected, and understandable reactions to change. I get it. I understand. I really do. But I think we can do more than that. I've seen it and I really believe it is a powerful way to reach all of our students, from the very top to the very bottom on the list of achievers, and to help them achieve success.
What I know is that if we don't step out of our comfort zone, remain resistant to change, and wait to try new improvement strategies, the students we teach might not get our collective best efforts. Students will continue to go through school and get a year older (and for many of them, farther behind) each grade. The top students will continue to score pretty well on standardized measures, while those learners who struggle continue to struggle, disconnect from school, and find other - far less productive ways to spend their time.
What adds more urgency is that the group who struggles isn't as small as you might think. Only around half of students who graduate with a TCAPS diploma meet both EBRW (Evidence Based Reading and Writing) and Math requirements for college readiness on the SAT. Half. I know...it's higher than the State and Regional average, but it's not a statistic that I think we should be particularly proud of. Half. It's just a number and just a test, but that test is pretty good at predicting future performance and further academic success. I believe that with the talent and resources available to us, we can do better than half.
You might remember a quote in this blog a couple of weeks ago that was something like every organization being perfectly designed to get the results it's getting. The purpose of the Blueprint is to change the way the organization functions to improve the results, meaning better results for our students, better chances for them to succeed in college and careers, and be more prepared citizens, ready to join our community.
It's hard work. There are new systems, a new instructional model, a new way of doing many of the things we've done for a while now. These are pretty high stakes, though. Half of our students really need us to take these chances, try these new things, and to get it right. Their futures depend on it.
DYK: Word of the day: Felidae...There are 36 species of cats in this family. Species in this family are found in all areas of the world, except for Australia and Antarctica. They vary in size from the domestic cat to the lion.
Deep Thoughts:
"Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things." - Peter Drucker
Article of the Week:
Many northern Michigan school buses did not pass safety inspection - TCAPS again passes them all! 98 "Green" and 1 "Yellow". Great job!
Making Students Partners in Data-Driven Approaches to Learning
Examining Links Between Academic Performance and Food Stamps
Thanks & Appreciation:
- Principals who attended the Mi-Excel Leadership class Monday and Tuesday!
- Thanks to our fantastic bus mechanics, bus drivers, and transportation personnel for another outstanding safety inspection and making sure all of our students get to school safely!
- Thank you staff at WSH for the celebration of students at your academic awards!
- Thank you Music Boosters for all you do to support our District and our talented musicians and performers!
- Coaches and trainers: Thank you for taking care of our student athletes this week during this unseasonably warm weather!
- Thanks to every teacher learning a new program or learning new curriculum units and assessments!
- Thanks Than Dykstra for helping me celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day!
- Thanks Grant Chandler for spending time with your favorite district (TCAPS) this week!
- Thank you administrative assistants for being able to do 47 different projects at the same time while being continuously interrupted!
- Thank you to Matt Griesinger, TCW Boys Varsity Soccer Coach, for the positive example you are setting for our young men, our parents, and for positively representing our school. It is appreciated!"Your boy's soccer coach was exemplary in every sense of the word. Everything from the coach was positive, encouraging and tactically coaching the players to be successful on the field of play. The coaching throughout the game was top notch. He displayed support and respect for the officials. You have an elite coach that you and your school should be very proud to have on your coaching staff. He represented Traverse City West very well."
Dave Martin, Assistant Referee - Midland Dow vs Traverse City West
- Our elementary social studies team have been hard at work on returning social studies to its proper place in the lives of our elementary students. The Michigan Open Book Project is a multi-year initiative funded as part of the Technology Readiness Infrastructure Grant (TRIG) which will empower groups of master teachers to come together, collaborate, and develop an open education resource for use in classrooms around Michigan. Stay tuned for more information from Rose Gallagher and our elementary social studies leaders!
- Congratulations West Middle School for being the only middle school to earn the prestigious MIPA Spartan Award (Michigan Interscholastic Press Association) this year. Great work!
- Principals who are under evaluation this year will receive a notice from me that you are under evaluation this year, a general evaluation orientation session, and have a growth plan submitted and approved by me by October 15th. More information will be coming your way in the coming week.
- We have been overrun by community generosity this year and have a substantial surplus of school supplies and backpacks that have been donated for elementary students in need. If you know students who could use new backpacks or supplies, please reach out to Karyn Hertel in Communications.
- Updated 2017/18 High Quality Visions of Subject Specific Instruction (HQV): HQV visits resumed this week with some principals who were working with Grant Chandler and will be continuing throughout the school year. Principals are allowed to give you feedback and coaching around the observation. HQV observations are not to be entered into iObservation. They will be collected on a Google Form (from MI-Excel), which will enable teachers to receive immediate feedback the moment the observer leaves the room and submits the form. We have worked hard to keep HQV out of Marzano, but are excited to now be able to discuss the evaluations and data in a manner that is not directly related to evaluation. The hope is that by doing this we can minimize evaluation related anxiety and have more open conversation about instructional improvement. If we work together and are respectful of the process, these conversations can help us move the needle on student achievement and form strong partnerships.
- There has been value for teachers in knowing whether the principal is doing an HQV observation or a Marzano evaluation. HQV data was previously collected by paper and pencil in most places. Administrators in those buildings would often identify the type of observation to staff by either carrying a clipboard or paper (HQV), or carrying a laptop (Marzano). Since both Marzano and HQV will be recorded online, the principals (or teacher observers) will be using a laptop for both. Staff and principals should work together to agree on the best way to let staff know, or buildings might decide that they don't really need to know, they just would like the feedback. Principals, please work with your staff to identify how this works in your building.
- Hint: A sticky note on the back of your computer would be an easy identifier that you're doing an HQV observation.
- Principals, please remember to submit the names of your 2017/18 BAN members by September 29.
This Week in the Blueprint:
There's a pretty large IF/THEN statement regarding what the theory of action is around the Blueprint. This is great to me in many ways. First, even though it might not seem like it, we have launched several of these systems and drivers and just need some more practice, tuning, and persistence to realize significant benefits. Second, this work will transform how we operate as an entire organization, saving people time and resources while maximizing results for all students. Third, IF /THEN statements bring back fond memories of my old programming days in high school (yes, we had computers back then) and college (Quick Basic, Pascal, and even Fortran!).
So, without further explanation of why I like it so much, here it is (I hope you can find something in here to connect with too!):
THE BLUEPRINT'S THEORY OF ACTION
#oregontrailwasmyfavorite
Parker's Calendar
This Week:
Monday
- Huddle
- MI-Excel Leadership Academy - Day 1
- Joint Principals Meeting
Tuesday
- ET
- MI-Excel Leadership Academy - Day 2
Wednesday
- WSH Academic Awards
- Huddle
- MASA Conference
Thursday
- Board Curriculum Committee Meeting
- Parker/Chandler
- MASA Conference/ Blueprint Presentation
- Curriculum/Technology - B. Reynolds
- Elementary Concerns
- Music Boosters Meeting
Friday
- DAN Meeting
- Soma/Parker/CTH/McCall
- Jeff Haas Meeting
- Shelagh Fehrenbach @ TH - Math!
Monday
- Huddle
- Bond Election Capital Planning at MOGL
- STEM Meeting / Skodack
- Eval Process Mtg
- Accountability Measures/McCall
- Board Study Session
Tuesday
- ET
- Willow Hill Visit
- ELL Meeting/ K. Schneider
- Soma/Parker Bi-Weekly
Wednesday
- MI-Excel Leadership Meeting/C. Wacker
- ELA Meeting/C. Wacker
- Huddle
- JPM Agenda Setting B/ Berger/ A. Wares
- Curriculum Budget Meeting/Nesky
- Admin Intern Meeting
Thursday
- Huddle
- New Principal Marzano Training
- Parker/Chandler
- STEM/Chamber of Commerce Meeting
- Parent Meeting
Friday
- DAN Meeting
- Bond Election Capital Planning - WMS
#CEreadiesforreadingplans
#iRIP
#notanewappleproduct
#choral-aires
#talentedstudents
#tcapsmusic
#putnamcountyspellingbee
#thankyouerich
#25thannual
#buildingbridges
#jeffhaasisgreat
Thank you for all that you do! Have a great weekend!
