Focus on the Fabulous
Core Belief #3 states that quality instruction, planning and assessments lead to high achievement for ALL students. This belief is played out on a daily basis in the middle school. The level of instruction that I observe in the classrooms on my weekly walk-throughs provides evidence of the time and energy teachers are taking to provide solid instruction for our students. Teachers identify the phases of the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model and describe what they will be doing at each phase to ensure that kids have solid direct instruction, time to engage in the new information with the teacher, and then they have the opportunity to practice this new learning on their own.
Mr. Koerber is doing a great job with his ESL classes. When I dropped by earlier in the week he had students rotating through stations in which they were focusing on specific skills related to language development and comprehension skills.
It was fun to get into Ms. Dolan’s science classes this week. Her 8th grade students were finishing up their Rube Goldberg projects. Students worked in small groups to design machines that accomplished a simple task through a number of steps that involved a chain reaction. Kids were able to discuss Newton’s Laws and how they were at work in the machines they’d designed. Her 7th grade students have created cell models that are displayed in the case next to Mrs. Weatherford’s room. It’s great to see the kids getting excited about science!
Our Explore students are working hard on their History Fair projects. Mr. Vigil is the History Fair coordinator and is working with Mrs. Rice and Miss McEvoy and all of our Explore students to get their projects together for our school contest which will take place on December 18th.
Congratulations to Center High School for once again being recognized by CDE as a Center of Excellence!
Mr. Koerber is doing a great job with his ESL classes. When I dropped by earlier in the week he had students rotating through stations in which they were focusing on specific skills related to language development and comprehension skills.
It was fun to get into Ms. Dolan’s science classes this week. Her 8th grade students were finishing up their Rube Goldberg projects. Students worked in small groups to design machines that accomplished a simple task through a number of steps that involved a chain reaction. Kids were able to discuss Newton’s Laws and how they were at work in the machines they’d designed. Her 7th grade students have created cell models that are displayed in the case next to Mrs. Weatherford’s room. It’s great to see the kids getting excited about science!
Our Explore students are working hard on their History Fair projects. Mr. Vigil is the History Fair coordinator and is working with Mrs. Rice and Miss McEvoy and all of our Explore students to get their projects together for our school contest which will take place on December 18th.
Congratulations to Center High School for once again being recognized by CDE as a Center of Excellence!
Rewind
Monday morning I was able to get into a number of classrooms, evaluate instruction and provide feedback on lesson plans. I had an administrative team meeting later that morning and a meeting to discuss roles and responsibilities in regards to the RTI/MTSS process and IEP meetings. Tuesday I spent the morning in Sargent with ten other secondary administrators from around the Valley. We conducted walk-throughs in the middle and high school and had some great conversations around instruction, challenges we face and steps we are taking to address those challenges. Our middle school boys hosted Moffat/Mtn. Valley on Tuesday night and traveled to Monte on Thursday. Both the 7th and 8th grade teams had wins against the Pirates. I did a lot of work to get prepared for our NWEA testing that will take place this coming week. I set goals for all the middle school students and got those out to teachers. I also met with Julio to take steps to make sure our laptops and I pads are ready for testing. Friday afternoon I supervised the high school JV tournament in Sargent. On Saturday I watched our Varsity girls play in Sangre de Cristo. Our high school teams are off to a great start!
Fast Forward
Monday morning I will review lesson plans and schedule walk-throughs for the week. During 7th period, I will be going into 6th grade classes with the tech crew to get I pads set up for Tuesday morning’s testing. Sixth grade students will be required to leave their Ipads at school that evening. I will be meeting with middle school staff at 3:30 pm in the Community Room to review testing protocol. We will be conducting NWEA testing for middle school students on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Afternoon classes will run on a regular schedule. We hope to complete testing in two days and conduct make-ups on Thursday. I have a couple of meetings scheduled on Tuesday and that evening our monthly Accountability and Board meetings will be held. Our middle school boys’ basketball team will begin tournament play on Tuesday. The tournament will continue at OMS on Friday and Saturday. Wednesday evening will be our winter band concert. The concert will start at 7:00 pm and will be held in the main gym. Come out and support our musicians! Friday there will be an All Valley Administrators PLC in Alamosa.