Principal's Message 12/8/08

MESSAGE FROM DR. LYLES

Dear Mr. Michelman,
As I hope you could see, I really enjoyed my visit to your school, and my only regret was that it was so short. So, first of all, let me say thank you and forgive me for not sending you this note immediately. Thank you for the commitment and dedication you show your students each and every day.

You have clearly taken important steps to put systems in place to support student achievement and build a community of learners. It was good to hear you talk about common planning time for teachers, using data and organizing your sixth graders to insure a smoother transition and to minimize distracting movement throughout the day. I can also appreciate that although there was an initial focus on discipline and creating an orderly learning environment you recognize the need to focus more on instruction.

You and your team have made significant progress, but I know you believe you have only just begun. As I said, I was only there for a very short time, so I only have snapshot impressions, but I have a few generic observations, questions and suggestions.

· I hope you will find the Blueprint helpful in charting a course for success. Engage your entire school community in assessing your strengths and challenges in each of the key elements.

· What is the evidence that there are high expectations for all members of your community? What are the artifacts that proclaim that every child is expected to set their sights on college? It was great to hear that you are teaching a group of students an accelerated program in math. How do you provide opportunities across the board for every student?

· I encourage you to collaboratively develop a rubric for rigor, with input from all the members of your community. We saw that teachers seem to use their own standards from class to class. It is something we talk about repeatedly, but we do not always have the same definition, and we certainly don’t always agree what it looks like. This might be a useful activity so that you can put the rigor litmus test to everything you do.

· I could also ask for the evidence that you do indeed have a professional learning community, and how you promote and support continuous learning in your school. What is actually going on in the planning meetings, for example. I saw, because of an unfortunate situation with the arts, that you and your teachers seem committed to take advantage of professional development opportunities. Have they had the chance to visit other schools, and see promising practices in action? Also, it is important that you support your own continuous learning. It should be as thoughtful and deliberate as everything else you do. Unfortunately, with a very full plate, that is often what gets pushed aside. Develop a Professional Learning Plan for Mr. Michelman. Determine what you want and need to know and learn, and how you think you can do that best. When you can articulate that easily, others will be able to support YOU. And, I will continue to think of how I can support you.

And, even though you did not receive a planning grant award, I hope you will continue the process you have started, and take advantage of the opportunities provided by Teaching and Learning, the Community Learning Support Organization and other offices within the department. I look forward to following the journey you and your school community embark upon together.

For The Children,

Marcia V. Lyles, Ed.D.
Deputy Chancellor
Office of Teaching and Learning
52 Chambers Street
New York, NY 10007
212-374-5115
Please note new e-mail address: mvlyles@schools.nyc.gov

REFLECTION

Dr. Lyles advice was very helpful. It was good to hear that some of her recommendations have been some of the ideas we have already taken into consideration setting up our focus groups. I notice that our meetings need more direction. In the instructional cabinet took a step back to set up goals and objectives to make sure we are all moving in the same direction. This is something to consider in your grade team meetings. If you are not working toward a cause then you are just meeting. This could be dissuade people from wanting to attend as they would find more value in using the time for other efforts.

In the end, it is easy to read her recommendations because we have the same goal…raising student achievement. I know this is your goal as well. Instead of waiting to find out if the achievement is raised, we need to incorporate methods to measure whether we are on track or not before we find out when it is too late. The focus groups are allowing us to see what continuous measurement looks like and how useful it is. The dialogue developing around these concept is directly related to our goal. It encourages everyone who engages in these conversations to be more aware of their students and, believe it or not, makes it exciting to explore ways to find methods that work. I have not walked away from one of these conversations without feeling more passionate about this process. I encourage you to participate in one to see how productive they are.

ATTENDANCE FOR THE WEEK

Monday (12/1): 89%
Tuesday (12/2): 91%
Wednesday (12/3): 92%
Thursday (12/4): 92%
Friday (12/5): 88%

How exciting is the school on Mondays and Fridays? How do we make it more exciting? It is becoming more apparent that this is going to need a whole school effort to change this pattern.

STAFF BIRTHDAYS:

Josh Allen December 7th
Hilda Tirado December 18th
Deborah DeStaffan December 28th

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” --Harry S. Truman