- Be in the halls between classes and greet students at the door: a simple enough concept, but hard in practice. I know that five minutes between classes is valuable time that you need to meet with a student or make an adjustment to your lesson, but it really is vital that you make an effort to do this as often as possible... really at least twice a day.
- Continue to expect a certain standard of behavior:
- don't let students sleep during class... (please DO NOT let them sleep... wake them up, warn them, give them a 15 minute detention, and if it persists, report it to the office)
- don't let them go to their locker without a pass...
- don't let them use their cell phone inappropriately.... etc.
Thanks for reading... here are a few more important items to note:
Lockdown
The lockdown drill went fairly well yesterday. Unlike the 'practice' drill we did right before exams, this actual lockdown drill was our yearly requirement for the state of Ohio. Some people were confused by the difference between a practice lockdown and a lockdown drill. Here it is...
During the practice, we will give verbal directions over the PA to send the lockdown email, lock your door, BUT CONTINUE TEACHING.
During the lockdown drill, we will use the phrase: "Please proceed to lockdown the building." This means shut off the lights, lock and close your door, send the attendance email, and get your students to a location that cannot be seen from the door (tell them to be quiet).
Make sure you leave directions for your substitute if you are out so that they know what to do in the case of a lockdown (or fire/tornado). Remember to remain in lockdown until the 'ALL CLEAR' papers are under your door. PLEASE RETURN THESE 'ALL CLEAR' papers to the office.
In a continuous effort to use and share more data, I will continue to add things to the 'Destination Data' tab here on the blog.
The most recent addition is a rough spreadsheet on the acheivement gap on the sophomore administration of the OGT between Student's with Disabilities (IEP students) and Non-Disabled Students. This data goes back to 2008 and is broken down by content area and is listed in percentages. I have also added columns for averages.
The average gap between these groups is: 45%. This is significant.
Many of you have heard me use the phrase recently: Improvement Year 3. Essentially, this means we will be getting more attention from the state, namely the State Support Team 6 (SST6). You will also be hearing us talk a great deal about the Ohio Improvement Process (aka: OIP). Don't worry... this is nothing terrible and it fits in with Race to the Top, FIP, SLO's, Curriculum Mapping, and the new evaluation system. Sounds like a lot, I know, but let's take baby steps! We are currently revamping our OGT intervention plan for sophomores, giving more attention to at risk students, especially in reading and mathematics, as this will help us get out of School Improvement status.
Stay tuned for details and more info, but this is enough for now!
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
Birthdays
11/27 Mary Jo Alig
12/1 Mary Meyer
