The Balance Beam

The class tonight was an opportunity for us to share our OD projects for the first time. The mini-protocol was very valuable as a way to calibrate my efforts and set objectives for finishing up mu work. Both of my colleagues have done great work and offered solid feedback that will help my efforts. In addition, we began to work on the next set of principal standards. I am going to share the Google Docs work with the class next week so we can create a common document that will be useful to all of us. I need to review my systems scan and get the graphic organizers from class to do my histomap.

My time at Beach Court today began with me meeting with Frank to tie up some loose ends around the data for my OD. He was able to provide me with all of the missing data and some good details to add to my budget analysis and systems selections. We also sat in to do an evaluation on a first grade ELA-S teacher. She demonstrated some really strong practices and quite amazing CM. I typically judge primary grade ELA-S classrooms by how comprehensible the lesson and intended learnings are to me a minimally competent Spanish speaker. In this case I now know the “how-to” process for making plastilina=play-doh J. I also subbed for an hour in the ¾ classroom to allow the teacher to go over and work out the details for the changes that will occur from our data meeting on Monday. I really enjoyed teaching the poetry lesson, one of my instructional favorite topics (although I pretty much detest poetry recreationally) because it allows the kids to really think differently. The lesson was well planned and the students did a good job.

The Beach Court staff collaborated today to begin professional development around “backward design”. The session was co-facilitated by the facilitator and a fifth grade teacher who had used the process to work through her poetry unit. We were provided with a template and given a clear and scaffolded account of how Melissa used the template to plan, monitor and adjust her instruction. At the end of the session I met with the two math/science teachers and we applied the template to their upcoming units. It was a useful process and I believe it will help them focus the upcoming unit. I will be meeting with them again on December 11^th and we will continue to refine the plan. I believe this may be a good leverage point to target my upcoming work around the UBD book and its strategies.

The RtI team along with Audrey, Dana, Frank and I gathered to collect and analyze data for the ¾ classroom in an effort to redesign instruction to get the class ready for CSAP. It was an amazing day that yielded some very useful and meaningful result and generated an entirely new differentiated small group instructional plan that we are hoping will get these students better prepared for the CSAP test and closer to being ob grade level in reading. I have attached the two key artifacts from the work that includes the completed data worksheet and the new instructional schedule. I am looking forward to reviewing the progress monitoring data to check for effectiveness in a few weeks.

bc_tier2_data

ogrady_lit_sched

Today I provided sub coverage to Ms. Bustillos the ELA-S kindergarten teacher so she could do some planning with the facilitator. What a day!!! WE worked on an Avenues lesson around signs. The students were well behaved and helpful. I really enjoyed getting back into the classroom and I know that the time was productive and appreciated. While I do not intend to be a “sub” regularly at Beach Court I believe that my willingness to thoughtfully be a team player will help develop trust and openness with staff as long as I do not allow it to be abused.

Today’s session allowed us the opportunity to become more familiar with the Colorado Laws that govern education. We dug into the law books and resources and engaged in useful conversations around the complexity and responsibility of leading a school from a legal viewpoint. The time spent also included doing a protocol where we asked to respond to the article, “What Young Principals Need to Know” and then discussing its use and application. I needed to leave early and will add info after I see everyone next week.

Today at BC I was able to have a very productive meeting with Audrey around the upcoming planning and implementation of Tier 2 support. We have lined up all the PD and prepared the designated classroom for diagnostic testing. Once the planning was completed I took the remainder of the morning to write the Late Start planning document for the first session. Additionally I requested necessary data from Assessment and Research to create the excel spreadsheet. The classrooms were all engaged in Junior Achievement today.

Today we worked on reviewing legal cases to share with the class. They were intriguing as vignettes into situations we will eventually have to face in our roles as principals. It was valuable to hear not only the views of the legal minds but also of my colleagues who have experienced many similar episodes in their teaching experiences. In addition, we began some earnest work on the principal standards. We are generating a GOOGLE doc that I will try to attach to this post. The goal is to collect and share our interpretations about how/what/why these standards impact our future daily practice.

Here is a link to the doc: Spreadsheet (You will need a Google account to sign in)

Today’s time was spent primarily on an intense but highly productive planning meeting. Audrey, Suzanne, Amy, Dana, Frank and I engaged in an amazing conversation around planning the rollout and implementation of a Tier 2 structure for ELA-E students at BC. Amy’s expertise and inquiry approach was instrumental to developing a plan that included strategic and thoughtful decision-making around student needs, teacher concerns, implementation obstacles and resources both human and capital. As a first step some diagnostic testing and targeting of the ¾ classroom were agreed upon. Upcoming responsibilities for me include supporting and attending the planned PD. Additionally, I will be generating a spreadsheet to collect and analyze student data in the targeted classroom. I will attach the preliminary version I created but it is likely I will be adjusting this worksheet in the future.

bc_tier2_data

Today we spent time sharing the graphic organizers that were introduced in the last session. I did not complete mine but was fortunate enough to see some great examples being shared.

The class displayed several interesting and useful versions of the organizers. I am hopeful that I can use some in the future to help create some depth and organization to my OD. I will try to attach the blank graphic organizers to this post.