Viking Cheers!! Focus on the Fabulous!!
I’m not sure where to start this week because we have so many great things going on at the middle school! All of our staff works hard every day to support our students so that they can achieve at high levels and so that we can provide our kids with the best education possible. This was evident to me throughout the week in the things that I saw going on in the classrooms, in conversations I had with various staff members, and in reviewing plans and data results. I see the commitment everyone has to quality education.
One piece of evidence I have in regards to how hard our staff is and has been working comes from several conversations I’ve had with high school teachers and staff about how well the freshmen class is doing this year. The freshmen had some great results on several recent assessments, including NWEA and EXPLORE, with students scoring higher than they ever have before. We know how the 8th graders performed last year on CSAP with the highest percentage of students scoring Proficient or Advanced across the board in reading, writing, math and science in Skoglund history. These positive results are representative of the great instruction these kids have been receiving for the last number of years. I appreciate the high school staff recognizing the contributions that the middle school teachers have made in raising student academic achievement. This is a team effort and we are all thrilled to see our students excel!
On Thursday, during our Monte/Center PLC, we took some time visiting classrooms, looking specifically for the use of engagement strategies. Our first stop in the middle school was in Mrs. Martinez’s classroom and I can’t tell you how impressed I was with her instruction. Within the short time we were in her room she implemented several effective teaching techniques and engagement strategies including choral response, quick response and no opt out. When a student was unable to answer the question she asked, she effectively used the No Opt Out strategy by using other students to help the struggling student. This support enabled the struggling student to arrive at the correct response. The quality of instruction we observed that day will lead to high student achievement. Next we stopped into the para room where Mrs. Villagomez was working in a literacy circle with some of Mrs. Atencio’s students. Mrs. Villagomez had all of her group engaged as they were making predictions about the story they were reading. She was using some effective prompting strategies and was requiring students to give evidence to support their predictions. Her commitment to our kids and excellence is evident in all she does!
One piece of evidence I have in regards to how hard our staff is and has been working comes from several conversations I’ve had with high school teachers and staff about how well the freshmen class is doing this year. The freshmen had some great results on several recent assessments, including NWEA and EXPLORE, with students scoring higher than they ever have before. We know how the 8th graders performed last year on CSAP with the highest percentage of students scoring Proficient or Advanced across the board in reading, writing, math and science in Skoglund history. These positive results are representative of the great instruction these kids have been receiving for the last number of years. I appreciate the high school staff recognizing the contributions that the middle school teachers have made in raising student academic achievement. This is a team effort and we are all thrilled to see our students excel!
On Thursday, during our Monte/Center PLC, we took some time visiting classrooms, looking specifically for the use of engagement strategies. Our first stop in the middle school was in Mrs. Martinez’s classroom and I can’t tell you how impressed I was with her instruction. Within the short time we were in her room she implemented several effective teaching techniques and engagement strategies including choral response, quick response and no opt out. When a student was unable to answer the question she asked, she effectively used the No Opt Out strategy by using other students to help the struggling student. This support enabled the struggling student to arrive at the correct response. The quality of instruction we observed that day will lead to high student achievement. Next we stopped into the para room where Mrs. Villagomez was working in a literacy circle with some of Mrs. Atencio’s students. Mrs. Villagomez had all of her group engaged as they were making predictions about the story they were reading. She was using some effective prompting strategies and was requiring students to give evidence to support their predictions. Her commitment to our kids and excellence is evident in all she does!
Ticket to Reading
Skoglund's Top Readers with ASC men's basketball players
Another example of seeing our Core Beliefs in action includes the success our 7th grade students are having with our TTRR program. Our 7th graders, as a class, have read over 125 books since we started the program in January. This accomplishment is partly due to Mrs. Banning’s reinforcement of reading in her TI class and the requirement she has established that emphasizes the importance of daily reading for our students.
I could go on and on, as these are the types of things I see on a daily basis! Thank you all for your work ethic and commitment to our kids.
I also want to thank the staff who helped me to get thirty of our top readers to the ASC game on Friday night! Thanks to Carolyn Ruybal, Linda Donaldson, Gail Martinez, and Lisa Renner for giving up your personal time to take these kids to a basketball game. It was a late night for all of us, especially Linda and Carolyn since they rode the bus back to Center, but I think the kids had a great time! I know in education how often you are asked to give of your personal time and resources and I want you to know that I see it and appreciate it! If we kept track of how many hours a week everybody works, people outside of education would be amazed!
I also want to give a big thank you to all our AmeriCorp help that have made all of our lives easier the last several weeks. It has been a blessing to have the extra help and support for our teachers and students! Thank you!
I could go on and on, as these are the types of things I see on a daily basis! Thank you all for your work ethic and commitment to our kids.
I also want to thank the staff who helped me to get thirty of our top readers to the ASC game on Friday night! Thanks to Carolyn Ruybal, Linda Donaldson, Gail Martinez, and Lisa Renner for giving up your personal time to take these kids to a basketball game. It was a late night for all of us, especially Linda and Carolyn since they rode the bus back to Center, but I think the kids had a great time! I know in education how often you are asked to give of your personal time and resources and I want you to know that I see it and appreciate it! If we kept track of how many hours a week everybody works, people outside of education would be amazed!
I also want to give a big thank you to all our AmeriCorp help that have made all of our lives easier the last several weeks. It has been a blessing to have the extra help and support for our teachers and students! Thank you!
Rewind
Even though last week was a short one, it was jam packed. We had several early mornings for different meetings. Tuesday started early with a 7:00 am meeting on Bully Prevention. IEP meetings took up the majority of my time on Tuesday and I appreciate Mr. Jones attending the SPARK training in Alamosa on the middle school’s behalf. I attended the math meeting after school to continue the conversation about the math curriculum for our district. Wednesday morning we had another 7:00 am meeting for ICAP preparation. I then worked on making final arrangements for the Ticket to Reading Rewards program so that we were able to recognize our top readers after the motivational speaker presented. With Chris Day’s help, I was able to arrange for two Adams State basketball players, Robby Hanzlik and Kolby Hunt, to drop by the assembly and give our kids a pep talk about the importance of reading. They also delivered 50 free tickets to Friday night’s game to reward our kids for reading! After the ICAP activities we had our monthly PLC with teachers. The focus of the agenda was on incorporating high engagement strategies into daily instruction. PLC teams also discussed various building level decisions. Thursday, administration spent the morning at the Monte/Center PLC that Gabe Futrell and I facilitated focusing on preparation and engagement. Saturday I spent the day with the wrestlers in Del Norte. Our boys had a super start to the season and had 18 top finishers! Way to wrestle Vikings!
Forward Focus
Some of the things going on this week are the Large Group Festival at OMS on Wednesday, RTI meetings, going away party for AmeriCorp, administrative book study, summer school planning, behavior checks, PLC with Del Norte math teachers, and wrestling at Centauri.
Have a great week!
Have a great week!