Principal's Message 6/22/2009

LAST DANCE

Five days left in this wonderful school year…This will be my last principal’s message for the 2008-2009 school year. There are so many things I want to share with all of you which will come out on your thank you notes. I hope to have them all done by Wednesday. Then again, I have underestimated the time it takes to write them before. I make sure each note is individualized.

HAD A MOMENT

I have been reviewing the test scores this year in both ELA and Math. Almost every single class had almost 60% of their class progress or stay the same from last year. The wonderful part about some of the conversations I have had with teachers is that there is a clear indication our expectations of our students has risen in the last four years. One response, although he had over half his class raise an average of 10 to 20 points, he kept talking about the students who did not improve. Back in the day, it would have been a listing of all the challenges he faced in his classroom. He would have told me that the behavior of the students prevented him from teaching. Instead, he started exploring what else he could have done to get all of the students to progress. I was impressed. I even had to cheer him up. It’s nice to do the cheering up compared to the convincing that more can be done. It was a great moment to reflect on for J13.

ACHIEVING OUR GOALS

We needed as much participation as possible to complete a successful school year and prepare to make next school year even better. It required us to use our meetings efficiently regardless of how tired we were. Now, we are ready to go with all diagnostics for the 2009-2010 school year. We have a calendar set up for the months of September and October so the student success plans can be set up on time for our Open School Night on October 14th. We will have our goals for the upcoming school year finalized for publication on the website by the end of the week. We will also have a team development plan for our Town Hall Meetings for next year and a clear two month agenda for our teacher grade team meetings. All the expectations of the classroom will remain the same. We will be in our second year of implementing the TPS, third year with the BBC, and fourth year of the workshop model. Most of you have developed routines to maintain bulletin boards both inside and outside the classroom. Our hiring for next year is done (we only had to hire one person). With the addition of the data targeted instruction, we will be able to fine tune everything we have been working on for years. This is exciting and will prove to an advantage for us.

SUMMER

After I attend the Harvard Principal’s Institute and the National Principal’s Leadership Institute, very few logistics will need to be addressed. We will be expanding periods to 43 to 44 minutes and cutting down on the amount of time we take in the morning and afternoon. For instance, the school day will end at 2:57, still leaving three minutes to escort students to the front of the school by 3:00. The morning meeting will be less time with both the teachers and the students. This is to create more time in the classroom for the students. The minute difference will be small but will offer our Social Studies and Science department more time to complete the workshop model which has been a challenge with the 41 to 42 minutes.
Most of my time this summer will be dedicated to putting supports in place for the data driven instruction, student success plans, and the town hall meetings. The measurement of our school’s progress next year will not only be the ELA and Math scores as it has been in the past. It will also be the accomplishment of making the student success plans come to life. This can only happen if we used data to drive instruction. If those are achieved, the scores will inevitably go up. We will need the support of everyone for us to reach this success. Hence, the importance of the town hall meetings where everyone can become a part of the process of providing the best learning environment East Harlem has to offer. The town halls will prove that collaboration among all constituents in the school is a powerful force and should have happened years ago.

ATTENDANCE

Monday 79%
Tuesday 84%
Wednesday 83%
Thursday 83%
Friday 79%

STAFF BIRTHDAYS:

Sandie Murphy June 17
Terri Miles August 9
Daniel Schultz August 22
Sandy Chmielewski August 30
Wendy Perez August 31

QUOTE:

“Vacations are cheaper than paying for a psychiatrist”—Harvey Michelman