To: Michael GreenFrom: John ShoupCC: School Board membersDate: 2.04.09 Re: December and January Review
Here is an overview of the key activities we worked on in relation to teaching and learning the last two months.
Monday's: Enough is enough with students failing classes. This was the theme of December and January staff development work. On December 1st I invited the entire staff to the meeting to discuss data and refocusing our energies on what our fundamental purposes is: "To ensure that all students learn, graduate and are challenged." I believe that Monday was the beginning of an important change in our school. The next two Monday's were used for department collaboration and were follow ups to the December 1st all staff meeting. The focus of those meetings was on developing goals, power standards and common assessments for each course we teach. Much more work is to be done in this area. In January, we used the first Monday back from break to learn more about a CRISS strategy, but the content was all around the "Big Idea." The other Monday was used for developing new collaborative teams that will eventually be used to develop additional interventions for struggling students.
Finals: Finals went well with a high percentage of student attendance for the tests.
Other information: As you are aware we have also been using the month of January to finalize our plans to implement Opportunity Time. The task force met 10 times in months of December and January. We have made presentations to the school board, staff and will present to students this Friday. The parent meeting is scheduled for February 11th. We are implementing our new schedule on February10th. I also want to mention that I began senior interviews during the last week of January. We are using the Moodle program this year for students to fill out their surveys. So far kids have been responding well to the switch to a technology based survey. I still meet with every student, but they no longer have to fill out their survey using paper and pencil.