Welcome to 2016
This “party in a box” came with supplies to ring in the new year. Celebratory noise makers, tiaras and hats all served to remind us that we can’t go back and make a new start, but we can make a new ending.
Reflections:
While writing Christmas cards for those supporters of our students at Winfield Middle School, I began to notice something. A theme developed--former strangers had become friends. People once considered merely as co-workers are now considered to be vital companions and contributors to the success of the building. The “my” is shifting to the “our.” “My school” becomes “our school.” Likewise, in a quest to get to know every student, they are corporately and individually earning a place in my heart. The simple act of using students’ names in an affirming or positive sentence, not corrective but endorsing and pleasant illicites a positive response from them so many times. Even one of our most distant, reserved students is making great progress. Early greetings might have earned a grunt and a glance, but recent replies range from reciprocal to even being student initiated. Remembering just a brief or minor detail of their life and using a quiet voice to greet them builds great social capital. People notice and appreciate it, even if their manners are not tuned or developed well enough to respond according to typical decorum. Ironically, students receiving less positive praise and encouragement need it most. Their actions stifle and repel the very treatment they strive and hunger for while developing and learning social skills and nuances. AllanMendler* even builds an intervention around deliberate forming of relationships.
*2:10 Intervention - Talk to a student for just 2 minutes every day for 10 days and see what happens!
Professional Trainer John Hattie shares this chart regarding school interventions, techniques and influences and their correlated impacts on student achievement.
PBiS Big 5 Data
I wondered if this was strictly anecdotal since bus drivers and substitutes, who used to dread the Middle School, have remarked a noticeable and obvious shift in the culture and attitudes of the students. However, our PBiS Big 5 Data continues to confirm the progress. Major Office Discipline Referrals per day have been steadily dropping all year as compared to the few years prior. Longitudinal data shows the student body at Winfield Middle School has, collectively, been breaking behavior records all year long. They have improved from over 12 major write ups a day to many days with none at all. An average of 3 a day is now the statistical normal. This great improvement keeps them in class, learning both content as well as “soft skills.” Those soft skills will prove most beneficial when future employment opportunities present themselves. Students seem nicer and more pleasant by using good manners with their teachers and chipper attitudes with me. Watching them respond to the Warrior Way Tickets, earned when they are responsible, safe or respectful is especially satisfying when they ask for them by name: Mix Bucks or McCracken Money. They incentive tickets are valued the same, but kids seem eager to mess up the principal’s gray hair and not the counselor’s brown. (Parents, ask students about what Pink or Purple means.)
Welcome to 2016. Feel free to turn it into whatever you’d like. Each of us helps or hinders. The phrase, “do no harm” is often time mistakenly attributed to the Hippocratic Oath, yet it still rings true in principle to us today. We work along-side our students day in and day out, learning about them, learning with them and learning for them.
What might be our next goal? We have had successes, such as PBiS, the one way hall, recent improvements in our eValuate data, and our Ac Lab Challenge Assemblies. Each of these trophies represents more than just a successful event, but also individuals working as a team, playing individual parts while the entire unit reaches its goals.
Housekeeping:
The 7th graders went to...see the play Peter and the Starcatcher, which sounds amazing! Well done team. We fed everyone, got them there and back safe, sound, and incident free. The play was fun, although some students gave it a noteworthy critique. They thought the early portion “lacked depth and character development!”
Early numbers on the 8th Grade ELA skills assessment...reflect positive growth from advanced to proficiency!
Attendance Challenge - We are beginning a new contest for students to participate in, with an opportunity to win a pizza party. Beginning with our Ac Labs the first week, we will then rotate through each class period during subsequent weeks The first class in each hour to have 5 class periods with perfect attendance will win pizza or fresh cookies delivered to their room that hour! Our attendance goal from the State of Missouri is 90% of the students, 90% of the time. This translates to a student missing less than (175 x .1 = 17.5 ) 17.5 days per year, or we fall below the mandated state goal.
Here is a parent questionnaire we have been working on. http://goo.gl/forms/oOh1lJr3xu This is yet another way for us to gather parent feedback. Please open the link and take the survey.
Character Word for January - INTEGRITY
We will discuss this word at school. Please consider using these terms at home as well. At school, our discussion will include the following activities:
Determine a definition -
Create posters -
Make up examples and non-examples -
Schedule for Jan 5-8, 2016
Monday
Teachers meet together for Professional Development
Tuesday
Students back to school - Consider their growth and development just over these past 2 weeks. It may be astounding!
Semester Grades will be sent/emailed home today with students.
Wednesday
Early Release
Thursday
Wagner Photo Shoot
Friday
Conclusion:
I have been revisiting John Hattie and his extensive work on teaching, pedagogy and learning about learning. Below are some of my current ponderings. He says a great deal about teaching, leading, and helping others learn about themselves so they might learn better.
From 10:34 into the following TED Video.
“At-a-Boy!”
All this is to bring up a personal story from growing up. I can remember wanting to earn authentic praise, endorsement or an “at-a-boy!” I tried to get it from someone who knew my history, knew my skill set and knew the efforts. It seemed when my mother would say something, she was obligated but if a teacher noticed extra effort or improvement, I could parlay that encouragement into at least a week of hard work, all to compound the praise and seek even more.
Let’s continue tackling the challenges in front of us. Our prior successes reinforce the fact that we can reach any goal we agree to tackle!
Have a remarkable second semester.
Tom McCracken
No comments:
Post a Comment