The Balance Beam

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’s work at Beach Court began with a conversation about how RtI is a meaningful and thoughtful shift in thinking about how we serve all students. The school gym teacher and I conversed about how the new model could help “capture” struggling students sooner. Her concern was centered on the appearance that we wait too long to act on student need using an intervention approach. This has been a theme that I have picked up on in both my research and in conversation with staff. I am beginning to see a potential focus for my leadership action. Frank and I also talked about the role of behavior in the RtI framework.

I was flattered this morning when Frank announced congratulations for Dominique and I on the birth of Julia to the staff. Many teachers and students wished me well. J

The morning continued with a meeting with a parent concerned about a student with lice. This fear was confirmed a short time later when Frank and I, along with the school secretary checked the student’s hair.

I sat in on the third grade class as they interviewed Mr. Roti for their feature articles. He was engaging and funny.

Afterwards, I was able to sit in on two SGO planning meetings. Both teachers had written really good objectives and were open to feedback and support for adjusting them slightly. In both cases, I was helpful in reframing the idea of pre/post testing to a more standards-based approach and the collection of a BOE to demonstrate students have met standards. Frank was supportive and provided me with positive feedback about his learning and how the ideas will support teachers. Additionally, I planned to meet with the teachers afterwards and continue to support them as they planned to implement the strategies.

I noticed today that there was open dialogue around objectives and what it will take to succeed. I also became aware and the speed at which “crises” comes at the principal. If I logged them correctly Frank had to solve at least 23 “problems” this morning. WOW! I also am getting a sense that RtI and the SIT process will need some additional support here.

My awareness of the multi-faceted elements of the leadership role is becoming more acute as I begin to examine and reflect more thoughtfully. I am seeing so many subtle ways in which the development that Frank has done around a strong collaborative team impacts students and staff.

In the future, I should try to record and reflect on the time I spend at the school more quickly. I feel like I should keep the ideas fresh in my head rather than taking so much time to kind of “mull them over”.