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.

This week’s intern time coincided with the Network 5 classroom walkthrough experience. I was able to engage with my work team and the BC team in observing classroom instruction. As a leadership experience it was invaluable to have a “foot in both camps” so to speak. The results of the walkthrough supported both my work and administrative experience.

The evidence captured indicated that core instruction is strong at BC. Additionally, we noticed that students and teachers are meaningfully engaged in instruction with a focus on intended learning. The gap that was discussed was the absence of a strategic TIER 2 to support students who are struggling with core.

The ongoing action step for me will be to follow up with Dana, Suzanne and Audrey about addressing this issue.

I am including the feedback sheet that was generated by the walkthrough to this email.

classroom_walk-through_feedback_beech-court