Principal's Message 2/23/09

RETURNING FROM BREAK

As usual, I am looking forward to seeing you all upon our return on Monday. I hope you have all taken the time to get ahead on your planning to reduce the stress level when you return. Most importantly, I hope you took advantage of the time to get some well-deserved rest and relaxation. It’s imperative we spend this week getting used to the full school day again. Routines and procedures will be your number one tools in getting back to the full swing of things. Remind your students how much you missed them. Believe it or not, they missed you.

MATH EXAM

When we get back, we will only have ten and a half days to prepare our students for their math exam starting on March 10th. The powerful work Ms. Iorizzo is doing with the Math Department has been quite impressive. Extra support outside of their regular classroom can only help out our school’s goal of scoring an A on our progress report. Remember, the progress of our students is the largest contribution to this measurement of our success. If you need any suggestions on what you can do within your classroom, please refer to the Principal’s Message on February 2nd. You can also ask Ms. Iorizzo what you can do to support the math department.

PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES

Just a reminder, we have our parent-teacher conferences on February 26th from 1 to 3 and 6 to 8. Sixth and Eighth grade teachers will continue to use the appointment method which produced our highest attendance in history for this event. We are hoping to beat November’s numbers.

A couple of pointers for teachers when you meet with parents, your meeting is a great opportunity to forge a partnership with the family to further develop the student in your classroom. Discipline should not be the main topic whether the student is high on the ladder or not. The focus on the conversation is where the child stands academically and what needs to be done to raise the achievement level of him or her. A basic format, which has proven to be successful in the past, is to open with a compliment or two about the student. This should move into what the child is capable of doing if you were to receive 100% effort. Slowly from there, move into any blockades that might exist. Finish the meeting with steps that the child, the parent, and you will take to make sure the current marking period will be different from the last one. I recommend recording the next steps on a document that you can keep track of and file in a folder for the child. This is especially important for your focus group students. In fact, I would share what your goals are for the child with the parent. This way, you can support the parent in helping out the child at home in achieving the benchmarks and goals you set up for him or her.

It is very important to have as much documentation as possible to show why a child received a specific grade and any contact you attempted to make with the home. The less you have to show the more questions that will arise. If the parent does not think the grade is valid and you have no way to prove your point, this will only lead to a lack of faith in your professionalism. The same goes for a child who failed with little to no communication made to the home to share that with the family. This is a hard battle to win in the end. It takes so much time to rebuild the relationship. It’s very important to maintain strong trust with the family so you can work together to support the child.

FOCUS GROUPS

Next Monday, we will get additional time to work within your departments to continue the work on the focus groups. Just like the last staff meeting, we will get the last period of the day along with the 45 minutes to meet with your department to extend the progress we have made thus far. Sixth grade teachers will report to the same groups they were with on February 2nd. Also, in the next month, we will be providing a half day and double period meeting time for grade teams to strengthen the work taking place in those meetings. Administration understands that conversations can be limited when you only have about 40 minutes to meet during the week on a given day. Our goal is to seek the proper support to make the focus group successful. Right now, time is the number one tool to help you all out. We are working diligently to produce that for you.

Have a great week!

ATTENDANCE FOR THE WEEK (Before Break)

Monday: 88%
Tuesday: 89%
Wednesday: 88%
Thursday: 84%
Friday: 86%

Birthdays:

Esther DeJesus February 22nd
Sheryl-Ann Mayers February 24th
Phil Williamson February 24th

Quote of the Week

”When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his or her equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self.”---Confucius