Principal's Message 5/12/08

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

I want to take the time to wish all of our mothers and grandmothers a happy mother’s day. This job can be challenging balancing personal life and working. It amazes me even more when you are able to still maintain your dedication to JHS 13 and meet the needs of your own children and/or grandchildren. Please help me to recognize these wonderful mothers/grandmothers:

Esther DeJesus
Vivian Doles
Latanya Phelps
Hilda Tirado
Cheryl White-Grier
Alicia Rodriguez
Josie Silverio
Jeanette Vega
Cassandra Williams
Debra Blanding
Selina Lashley-Hall
Mildred Diaz
Alyssa Negron
Pamela Proctor
Lenore Grandizio
Rosa Calvet
Carmen Triunfel
Shirley McLean
Dawn Powell
Ginette Coton
Rachel Rivera
Chinyere Emma-Iwuoha

TEACHER (STAFF) APPRECIATION WEEK

In addition to celebrating mothers and grandmothers on Sunday, we will be taking the time to share our appreciation of our staff. Here is a list of the many things the administration, parents, students, and community appreciate about you.
We appreciate that….
The first bell and last bell of the day do not determine your hours
Your cell phone bill could be cheaper if you had the hours in the day to call parents
You are flexible day in and day out to the many events that take place in the day
The list of typical symptoms of people staying home is much shorter for you than it is for most others
Your classroom/office is not only the four walls you are stationed but it includes the entire building
Even though your schedule is filled, you still find time to take on the day to day events with our children
The words “hard work” hardly give an idea of how much you put into your job.
You are able to come in day after day ready to make a difference in the world
Even though the school is not where you would like it to be, you are still eager to find a way so that it is.
You don’t get paid nearly enough for the hard work you do
Although your principal is pain in the rear, you still give him every effort even when you have so little left.
You collaborate with your colleagues despite your differences and difficult days you take on
You have so many great ideas to make our school a better place
You have a strong vision of what is right for our children
You take on so many new initiatives and you trust that they will help our children.
You take the time to read this website and support the principal’s efforts to be technologically savvy.
You open your mind to suggestions made by others.
You welcome guests into your room and become anxious for the feedback.
You still maintain your committees, teams, clubs, and long hours despite the recent budget cuts
You maintain a strong line of communication where we can all be on the same page.
You support your colleagues even though you barely have time to support yourself.
You volunteer yourself for a group initiative before you wait for someone else to step up.
You look out for your colleagues and administrators.
You recognize the hard work of your students.
You believe in our children despite what statistics tell us.
You give our students pride.
You care so much.
You forgive our students for the mistakes they make and starting over with them the next day.
You put together field trips just so the students can finally see what this world has to offer.
You step up for the big challenges our school faces.
You convert your vacations into extra planning time.
You take the time to fill out all of our surveys.
You attend all the meetings week after week.
You give up your preps to cover classes.
You help our students set goals beyond what they would have created on their own.
You improve day after day, week after week, and year after year.
You are incredible people.
You are a better person today than you were yesterday, last week, and last year.
You make the principal so proud to be a part of this community.

ELA TEST RESULTS ARE IN

The results of the ELA test are in. If you click on “Data” under the website guide, it will reveal a few charts on the school as a whole and a class-by-class breakdown as well. We did a tremendous job preparing our students for the test. Congratulations to all of you for your hard work, especially to the ELA department! In the Principal’s Message next week, I will go more in depth about the results and set out some steps on how we can plan for next year. Here are some statistics thanks to Ms. Calvet:

Students 10 scaled score points or less away from Level 3:
6th---21 7th---15 8th;---21

STATS for 2008: ELA BY GRADE
6th.
26% levels 3/4
72% level 2
2% level 1

7th.
46% levels 3/4
50% level 2
4% level 1

8th.
23.4% levels 3/4
71.6% level 2
5% level 1

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE
(Repeat of last week since there were no meetings last week)

There will be two meetings this week. There will be one on Monday from 3:15 to 4:15 and Thursday from 3:15 to 4:15. The committee will be addressing issues surrounding the structure, implementation, and effectiveness of the school-wide discipline code. In our last meeting, we focused on the dress code and parts of the discipline code that we would like to improve for next year.

- Dress Code: We are currently cracking down on students violating the dress code. Our focus is on students wearing hoodies; shirts without collars; and jeans beneath their black pants. Any student seen out of dress code at any time during the school day should be identified and must serve a detention. Please note that the dress code has been amended to allow students to wear skirts of the appropriate length and shorts that are of the same material as their black pants.

- Planning for Next Year: Beginning next week, the discipline committee will be planning for next year. We will be focusing on improving our interventions and improving the logistics of our discipline code. If you have any suggestions for the discipline committee, please attend our next meeting.

- Topics for next week: Next week, the committee will be focusing on strengthening our system of interventions for students who quickly rise up the discipline ladder.

CHILD STUDY TEAM

What is the role of the “Case Manager”?...

The hope of the Child Study Team is that the Case Manager shall participate in brainstorming as we together search for answers:

… “what do we know?”… “what do we need to find out?” “what does this piece of information tell us?”… “how does that experience affect this child’s ability to learn?”… “what do we need to do to learn more about that situation?” … “who can do an in-depth interview with this child to learn more about___?”… “what type of outreach would we like to make to this child’s parents?” …“How shall this outreach differ from what we have done before?”… “what new strategies might be helpful to us as we teach this student?”…

“now that we know that child has medical condition X, how shall this knowledge (this data) help to guide our work with this child?”… “what community resources (CBO’s) might it be helpful for us to coordinate efforts with in order to work with this child and his/her family?”… “how does this child’s learning- style affect his/her learning and our instruction?”…“ how does the data we have collected thus far give us insight about this child’s strengths and deficits?”… “where has this child experienced the most success?”…

“what unique strengths, interests and abilities does this child have that we can highlight to improve teaching and learning?”… “what can we learn from those adults with whom this child shares an especially positive bond?”… “what additional questions and curiosities do I now have about this child?”...

Our brainstorming process yields fascinating and important information. As you come to the child study team meeting as the Case Manager—we ask not so much that you come with answers, but that you come with questions. As we all brainstorm together, answers will emerge that shall focus our thinking, and guide our interventions.

… As the point- person for everyone involved with the student you shall receive a copy of the info-chart completed during the child study meeting and you shall be asked to follow up with the planned interventions.

You may wish to delegate parts of this follow-up as needed. For example, the case manager might ask another teacher on the team to check out some specific information about the parent’s __x__ . You may ask a guidance and counseling colleague to check into the results of student’s most recent _x__. The case manager may ask another teacher to check back about the details of ___x__. Then the Case Manager shall check back with the Child Study Team to report these updates.

Let us remember, this is a work-in-progress. Please do not hesitate to add suggestions, recommendations and additional questions to the discussion of “The- way- we shall -work” as our school’s Child Study Team.

We thank the pioneers….who have served as Case Managers over the last several weeks… We look forward to our continued refinement of the Child Study Team process.

Working together is success…


COMMUNITY CORNER

This week promises to be busy starting off with our Mother's Day Brunch Monday May 11, at 11 am. Letters to 8th grade parents are going out detailing Senior Events this spring. Graduation has been finalized at Riverbank State Park for Monday June 16th, 2008 at 2:00pm. We are participating in a trip to Shea Stadium this week, and planning a WII Event with Champs. Anyone wanting to volunteer in events or with any fundraising ideas please see Ms. Negron. Thank you and have a great week.

ATTENDANCE
This Attendance Interval report lists the number and percent of students whose Year-to-Date (YTD) attendance falls within each attendance interval. That is, the report calculates the number and percent of students whose YTD attendance rate is 100% (Perfect attendance), the number and percent of students whose YTD attendance is 90% through 99%, and so on. The report includes students on register as of the effective date; the YTD attendance is calculated as of the effective date.
100% (Perfect) 15 4.4
90TO 99% 198 58.4
80% TO 89% 70 20.6
70% TO 79% 31 9.1
60% TO 69% 13 3.8
50% TO 59% 9 2.6
40% TO 49% 0 0.0
30% TO 39% 1 0.2
20% TO 29% 1 0.2
10% TO 19% 0 0.0
1% TO 9% 1 0.2
0% (No Show) 0 0.0
Total Students 339

It looks like the rain had an impact on our attendance this week. Be sure to speak to any students who were not in school last week and urge them to make it into the building. If we all send the same message to these students, we can make a difference.

May your preparations meet your vision, your colleagues provide information, and no risk blind you from your mission. Have a great week….

Birthdays:
Rachel Levene May 1st
Danita Scott May 2nd
David Deatherage May 2nd
Leslie Tatum May 12th
Rosa Calvet May 15th
John Ciano May 19th
Cassandra Williams May 21st
Zoe Markoupulus May 28th

Quote of the Week
“I long to accomplish a great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”