Sunday, June 10, 2012
Principals Message - May 2012 Edition
Dear JHS 13 Community,
The end of the year is racing in. With the excitement of summer break, I find daydreaming to be more difficult to fight off. For me, summer means sitting on a beach somewhere, the luxury of reduced working hours, more time with my son in the park and in Lasker pool, sipping on cocktails outdoors at a couple of restaurants, and time with the family. The daydreaming is great because it motivates me. It creates goals for my efforts now. In order for my daydreaming to be visions or my goals, a big investment has to be made now. June is the cost. I am willing to sacrifice the month of June to have my daydreams come true in July and August. It has to be June because that is when we are all together to do the key part for next year…PLAN AND PREPARE. The challenge is we need to close out this year at the highest point of achievement possible. The gridiron message of this Principal’s Message is “How do we use June to close out a powerful year and set up for an even better next year?” It comes down to working as a team and supporting each other often and frequently. If we support each other every moment, we may not have to sacrifice June after all.
In summary, this year we get to close out the portfolio process for a second year in a row. It was a great experience last year. Through clear expectations, positive reinforcement, parents teaming with students and teachers, students teaming with teachers, and teachers teaming with students, we were able to have our highest promotional rate in the last three years. We need to continue to coach our students in preparing, editing, revising, and producing level three more or more work. If the student is not a level three student, we will be teaching him or her what level three work looks like so they can set goals of their own next year. In addition, we get to encourage students to come to school to achieve their highest attendance rate ever and the school’s highest attendance rate ever. If we echo the message everyday multiple times a day in a way that empowers our students to choose responsibility, then we will end our year on the highest point of achievement. This involves every one of us showing up for the remainder of the year with our “A” game. Definition of “A” game – thoroughly prepared, motivated to motivate others, ready to create breakthrough with at least one person each day, and checking in with at least five colleagues to make sure they are bringing their “A” game. It sounds so simple. I can be. It’s as difficult as you make it or as easy as you like it to be.
Next year? Next year planning is the best part of June. It is the time to create the most powerful vision possible. It is the school goals followed by the instructional and organizational efforts that will make those goals a reality. The dream would be to use some sort of phone booth, travel in time to a conference room, put the vision-goals-action plans together, and come back to the present with everything complete so we can concentrate on closing out the school year. If you have not figured it out yet, believe it or not, that is not possible. The challenge…We need to produce as much time as possible NOW to put as many of us in the same room to carve out a vision, set some goals, and put action plans together. Most importantly, we get to set those action plans moving with a nice chunck of accountability to each other to ensure success before we leave on June 27th. We want to be able to come back in late August picking up where we left off in June.
The cabinet has put a proposal together how we can close out this school year and plan for the next one. The key word to our ingenuity is “Empowerment.” We want to get as many people involved with the entire process. We understand, as much as we would want everyone to be involved with everything, it is not humanly possible. We want everyone carving out the organizational system and instructional initiative in June. We also know that is not possible. If we can generate teams to take the leadership role of the areas of need of the school, collect input from everyone, and deliver an action plan with “empowerment” as the nucleus, we believe we can successfully close out the school year on the highest achievement point possible and formulate the best action plans for next school year. We want everyone to be heard in one capacity or another. We will achieve this through strong communication, supporting each other, and working as a team.
The cabinet will be meeting with people individually and/or with teams. We will provide a list of deliverables in the clearest expectations possible, a list of resources available, and methods on how to request more resources. Each group will get to plan out a calendar for June to deliver action plans and set the action plans in motion. Examples of some of the deliverables we are looking to produce are class lists, curriculum maps, first unit lesson plans, student handbook, teacher rating criteria, marking period grading criteria, portfolio continuity, and more.
The key word is “empowerment.” The cabinet’s goal is get everyone involved in one capacity or another. We want everyone to realize they are vital piece to the success of the school whether a student, school aide, parent, parent coordinator, teacher, secretary, paraprofessional, etc. We will be counting on everyone to trust and own the process to create the best school possible. Destination: Excellence!
If you have any questions about the process, please feel free to speak to any cabinet member (Mr. Young, Dr. Phelps, Ms. McKinley, Mr. Fareed, and Mr. Michelman).
Yours Truly,
Jacob T. Michelman
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Principals Message - March 2012 Edition
Dear JHS 13 Community,
I hope you had a wonderful break. It was our first one where the state exams are right when we return to school. It should not have stopped us from catching up with family and friends. It should not have prevented us from taking care of our own needs such as catching up with sleep or even getting outside to relax or workout. We did offer Test Prep over the break. Great attendance would have been the entire school showing up but we did have a good number of students who went above and beyond to get a few days of test preparation in during break. Thank you so much to the wonderful staff who hosted the students such as Dr. Phelps, Mr. Demant, Ms. Ruiz, Ms. Murphy, Mr. Edgar, and Jacob Scott. Thank you to the parents who supported their children in sending them to the Test Prep sessions.
I am making the focus of this Principal’s Message the recent State Quality Review. There is so much we can take away from the preparation we invested into the process and the preliminary feedback we received from the reviewers. For starters, besides the assembling of binders which we all agreed was not the best use of our time, we had to do even more preparation in gathering evidence of the work we do with our students. In addition, we needed to re-launch some initiatives we put together last year with the improvements we gathered in the hibernation process. These responsibilities left us three weeks to do about three months worth of work. The cabinet agreed we were only going to commit our energies toward areas in which the school was going to be forwarded (not including the binders – as this was a requirement from the state in getting the quality review in motion).
The evidence gathering needs to transfer to our day-to-day work. We live in the great city of New York. There is no other system that has more accountability. If we are going to be successful here than we need to hold ourselves accountable with the day-to-day gathering of evidence that we are meeting the needs of our students. A huge catalyst for this is going to be the student goals we re-launched recently. It is going to be a tremendous amount of work that will be the connecting piece to teacher goals, progress grades, targets, differentiation in the classroom, and gathering evidence of meeting the needs of students.
In order for this to happen, we need to align the student goals to the pre-assessment results and develop targets accordingly. The key part to this is communicating those targets to the students and parents and creating a plan with the student on how to reach the targets. Ideally, parents are going to want to be a part of the development of the plan. From there, it is about assessing student progress toward meeting their goals. Then we fall into the continuous cycle of assess, target, and teach. With the amount of resources we have available, additional support can be provided through test prep classes, through one-on-one or group tutoring, through our afterschool programs, and through our collaborative in the classroom partnerships. The assessments and progress are tracked on a goal sheet in the classroom portfolio and in the online gradebook, which is accessible to students. Parents and students can monitor using the online access to the gradebook or by simply viewing the students’ portfolio.
Here is where it all comes together. If students meet their targets, then teachers meet their goals, students receive 100% on 35% of their grades, and students are one more step toward reaching proficiency as the goals and units are aligned to the common core standards or the state exam. The efforts have to be made in grading the assessment results in a timely manner (especially the pre-assessment), setting goals and communicating the goals, developing a plan with the students to meet those goals, and building lessons to forward all students in meeting their goals (differentiation and conferencing has to be eventually be built in to improve a teacher’s ability to meet the needs of his or her students).
The State Quality Review (SQR) determined we needed to improve our teacher management of behavior issues, expand the amount of opportunities teachers have to outside professional development, and to improve the number of strategies teachers have to meeting the needs of our students. Again, when the student goals are fully implemented, we will be able to identify a population of students who we struggle to help meet their goals. From there, we will need to expand our repertoire of strategies to meet those students’ needs. Colleagues or administration will offer some of those strategies, but a good number of strategies will have to be accessed through outside support. Some of those barriers for certain teachers will have to be management strategies for specific behavior issues. Regardless, the main component allowing us to measure progress but also identify staff needs would be the student goals.
I am truly grateful for the State Quality Review process. We were asked a great number of questions encouraging us to reflect on where we are today. It also gave us feedback (that will be elaborated on later down the road), which is a key element in improving in education in all capacities and levels. The SQR process gave us great feedback on how important student goals are to the success of our school. It is our responsibility to invest our efforts in using them to improve student achievement and close the gap of communication that exists between staff and students. Lets work together to put student goals at the forefront and align it to all of our responsibilities so we can ensure success for everyone. Two Tests! One Dream! To be the best, we must be a team!
Yours Truly,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
I hope you had a wonderful break. It was our first one where the state exams are right when we return to school. It should not have stopped us from catching up with family and friends. It should not have prevented us from taking care of our own needs such as catching up with sleep or even getting outside to relax or workout. We did offer Test Prep over the break. Great attendance would have been the entire school showing up but we did have a good number of students who went above and beyond to get a few days of test preparation in during break. Thank you so much to the wonderful staff who hosted the students such as Dr. Phelps, Mr. Demant, Ms. Ruiz, Ms. Murphy, Mr. Edgar, and Jacob Scott. Thank you to the parents who supported their children in sending them to the Test Prep sessions.
I am making the focus of this Principal’s Message the recent State Quality Review. There is so much we can take away from the preparation we invested into the process and the preliminary feedback we received from the reviewers. For starters, besides the assembling of binders which we all agreed was not the best use of our time, we had to do even more preparation in gathering evidence of the work we do with our students. In addition, we needed to re-launch some initiatives we put together last year with the improvements we gathered in the hibernation process. These responsibilities left us three weeks to do about three months worth of work. The cabinet agreed we were only going to commit our energies toward areas in which the school was going to be forwarded (not including the binders – as this was a requirement from the state in getting the quality review in motion).
The evidence gathering needs to transfer to our day-to-day work. We live in the great city of New York. There is no other system that has more accountability. If we are going to be successful here than we need to hold ourselves accountable with the day-to-day gathering of evidence that we are meeting the needs of our students. A huge catalyst for this is going to be the student goals we re-launched recently. It is going to be a tremendous amount of work that will be the connecting piece to teacher goals, progress grades, targets, differentiation in the classroom, and gathering evidence of meeting the needs of students.
In order for this to happen, we need to align the student goals to the pre-assessment results and develop targets accordingly. The key part to this is communicating those targets to the students and parents and creating a plan with the student on how to reach the targets. Ideally, parents are going to want to be a part of the development of the plan. From there, it is about assessing student progress toward meeting their goals. Then we fall into the continuous cycle of assess, target, and teach. With the amount of resources we have available, additional support can be provided through test prep classes, through one-on-one or group tutoring, through our afterschool programs, and through our collaborative in the classroom partnerships. The assessments and progress are tracked on a goal sheet in the classroom portfolio and in the online gradebook, which is accessible to students. Parents and students can monitor using the online access to the gradebook or by simply viewing the students’ portfolio.
Here is where it all comes together. If students meet their targets, then teachers meet their goals, students receive 100% on 35% of their grades, and students are one more step toward reaching proficiency as the goals and units are aligned to the common core standards or the state exam. The efforts have to be made in grading the assessment results in a timely manner (especially the pre-assessment), setting goals and communicating the goals, developing a plan with the students to meet those goals, and building lessons to forward all students in meeting their goals (differentiation and conferencing has to be eventually be built in to improve a teacher’s ability to meet the needs of his or her students).
The State Quality Review (SQR) determined we needed to improve our teacher management of behavior issues, expand the amount of opportunities teachers have to outside professional development, and to improve the number of strategies teachers have to meeting the needs of our students. Again, when the student goals are fully implemented, we will be able to identify a population of students who we struggle to help meet their goals. From there, we will need to expand our repertoire of strategies to meet those students’ needs. Colleagues or administration will offer some of those strategies, but a good number of strategies will have to be accessed through outside support. Some of those barriers for certain teachers will have to be management strategies for specific behavior issues. Regardless, the main component allowing us to measure progress but also identify staff needs would be the student goals.
I am truly grateful for the State Quality Review process. We were asked a great number of questions encouraging us to reflect on where we are today. It also gave us feedback (that will be elaborated on later down the road), which is a key element in improving in education in all capacities and levels. The SQR process gave us great feedback on how important student goals are to the success of our school. It is our responsibility to invest our efforts in using them to improve student achievement and close the gap of communication that exists between staff and students. Lets work together to put student goals at the forefront and align it to all of our responsibilities so we can ensure success for everyone. Two Tests! One Dream! To be the best, we must be a team!
Yours Truly,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Principal's Message - February Edition 2012
Dear JHS 13 Community,
There are less than 35 Days until the ELA exam and Math exam. The urgency to prepare our students for these exams is increasing as the days go by. Our latest promotional assessment in January showed significant improvements from November. We are hoping the next assessment (March 6th and 7th) will continue to show progress. To ensure our students are ready for the exam, we need to be taking advantage of every second, minute, period, and program in our school.
We set up the Saturday Academy to support preparation for the exams. We have only been pulling in about 50 students. Our goal is to triple this population. We need the help of our parents to make sure our children are attending and are focused when they are there. We will continue to invest efforts into the recruitment so our goal is met. In fact, students with low attendance will be offered Saturday Academy days to reduce the number of absences he or she currently has. This could be the difference maker in catching these students up on the instruction they have been missing but also increase their chances of passing the state exams.
Everyone can contribute to improving our student results by investing efforts into several initiatives. The first is making sure our students are reading as much as possible. Whether it’s a magazine or a book, we need our children to be pushing through the article or chapter. We cannot settle for low-level books either like comic books or illustrated books. We need to build up our students stamina to read an entire piece within a limited amount of time. Parents, we can do this buy purchasing magazines related to your child’s interests. Teachers, reading can be moved into every lesson if we truly wanted it that way. Reading is exercise for our children, and they need to be in shape by April 17th.
The second is to develop as many opportunities during the school day or week to have students read and write. It could range between short response questions using the RAFT method or essays. Regardless, students need to improve their ability to convert their thoughts into written words. This comes from repeated opportunities in classes throughout the day and constant feedback on how to improve. This will help students perform better on both the math and ELA state exams. Parents can encourage their children to read and summarize or write a response from one of the character’s point-of-view, write a journal, write a reaction to an article, or even write a letter to a family member. Computers help in motivating our babies to engage in the writing process.
The third is student feedback. If you are not giving back at least two to three assignments per week or posting assignments on your bulletin board with teacher feedback, then you are leaving the students to figure out how to improve on their own. Obviously, leaving it to a 11 to 14 year old child to find out on their own what is the correct way to critically think, analyze, predict, etc…then we are setting them up for failure. Students need to be receiving clear and thorough feedback as much as possible. This should not be only left to “x’s” and checks letting them know if an answer is correct or wrong. There should be written feedback or the use of a rubric to communicate areas of success and how the student can improve. Parents can read through their homework assignments or proofread any writing they do for personal reasons or for work. The feedback is gold in forwarding our students for the state exam.
Again, the urgency to prepare our students for the state exams is now. If you are not investing your time into better supporting our children, then you need to begin as soon as possible. This is not a task only for ELA and Math teachers. It begins with parents making sure their children are reading and writing at home. It continues with any teacher of any subject using data to drive instruction, providing opportunities to read and write during class, and giving students as much feedback as possible.
Sincerely,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE SCHOOL GOALS ARE? STATUS UPDATE
35% INCREASE OF STUDENTS MEETING PROFICIENCY IN ELA AND MATH
The latest exam results from the ELA and Math mock exams will be our last clear picture of what our students know. It is our responsibility to take this information and address the areas our students need to improve. We need to prioritize according to the expectations of the state exams. There are certain skills and content which will be stressed more than others. It does not make sense to reiterate skills and content that will barely be covered on the state exams. We have to use our time wisely. Since we are unable to go over every single standard in a short amount of time, we need to identify our prioritize according to areas of weakness and the expectations of the state exam.
The exam this Tuesday will be the last chance for our students to get a practice testing environment before the actual test. It is important for us to identify students who still struggle to complete the test in the allocated time. We can explore ways to create more time for the student or get the student support in using his or her time more efficiently.
92% ATTENDANCE
We continue to fluctuate from 89% to numbers as high as 95% for daily attendance. Our students who take a day each week are holding the rest of the school from reaching excellence. The school has made these students a priority.
We have been setting up contracts, meeting with students, and referring families to the Administration for Children Services to combat excessive absences. We will continue with these efforts when students have over 13 absences. We will need the community to further promote attendance by urging students to get to school on time and to make students feel welcomed when they return from an absence. We will not be able to improve our daily percentage if we do not work as a community to improve our attendance. We are currently at 91.7%. This is 0.3% below our goal for the year. Please take the time to speak to a student who struggles to come to school.
CITY-WIDE SURVEY ACHIEVING “ABOVE AVERAGE OR HIGHER” ON AT LEAST 80% OF THE CATEGORIES
Several committees have been working hard to assess our current status with communication. It has been a very interesting process. We have identified every constituent and who they speak to in our community. To further the process, we have conducted several surveys to get input from as many constituents as possible. For instance, the parent survey administered at the beginning of the year showed a need to improve the conference process. Too many parents were sitting and waiting to meet with a teacher. For the February conference, we adjusted the appointment process. Parents were given a schedule upon entrance. This reduced the wait time significantly. By having a strict schedule, conferences were more targeted and parents were able to meet with all of their children’s teachers.
The recent teacher feedback showed an improvement in clear expectations of the discipline code. In fact, the results were doubled revealing a clearer understanding of how the system is organized. We will continue to use the surveys to improve the school. Thank you to everyone who has filled one out or is about to fill out one.
PARENTS – IF YOU HAVE NOT FILLED OUT A CITY-WIDE SURVEY, YOU NEED TO DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. IT IS THE GREEN ENVELOPE YOUR CHILD MIGHT HAVE PUT IN HIS OR HER BAG.
MOVING AT LEAST 25% OF OUR SPECIAL EDUCATION POPULATION TO A LESS RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
Students continue to be brought before the Child Study Team for a less restrictive environment. Special education is only supposed to be a temporary placement. If we do not devote time to helping students step into a regular education setting, then we are holding them back from reaching their full potential. We are urging parents and teachers to identify ANY special education children who are great candidates to move to a less restrictive environment. That could include a self-contain student to Inclusive (ICT), a SETSS student no longer receiving those services or even cutting down the number of days, or a mandated student for counseling. Its about teaching the child to excel in an environment where there is less support. If we are not making this a priority, we are risking these students futures as they could be devoured in high school by the quick reduction of supports when moving on from middle school.
If you have not done it yet, please refer a student to the Child Study Team to be placed in a less restrictive environment. If the child is not moved, there will at least be a plan to make it happen at a later date. Make a difference today.
There are less than 35 Days until the ELA exam and Math exam. The urgency to prepare our students for these exams is increasing as the days go by. Our latest promotional assessment in January showed significant improvements from November. We are hoping the next assessment (March 6th and 7th) will continue to show progress. To ensure our students are ready for the exam, we need to be taking advantage of every second, minute, period, and program in our school.
We set up the Saturday Academy to support preparation for the exams. We have only been pulling in about 50 students. Our goal is to triple this population. We need the help of our parents to make sure our children are attending and are focused when they are there. We will continue to invest efforts into the recruitment so our goal is met. In fact, students with low attendance will be offered Saturday Academy days to reduce the number of absences he or she currently has. This could be the difference maker in catching these students up on the instruction they have been missing but also increase their chances of passing the state exams.
Everyone can contribute to improving our student results by investing efforts into several initiatives. The first is making sure our students are reading as much as possible. Whether it’s a magazine or a book, we need our children to be pushing through the article or chapter. We cannot settle for low-level books either like comic books or illustrated books. We need to build up our students stamina to read an entire piece within a limited amount of time. Parents, we can do this buy purchasing magazines related to your child’s interests. Teachers, reading can be moved into every lesson if we truly wanted it that way. Reading is exercise for our children, and they need to be in shape by April 17th.
The second is to develop as many opportunities during the school day or week to have students read and write. It could range between short response questions using the RAFT method or essays. Regardless, students need to improve their ability to convert their thoughts into written words. This comes from repeated opportunities in classes throughout the day and constant feedback on how to improve. This will help students perform better on both the math and ELA state exams. Parents can encourage their children to read and summarize or write a response from one of the character’s point-of-view, write a journal, write a reaction to an article, or even write a letter to a family member. Computers help in motivating our babies to engage in the writing process.
The third is student feedback. If you are not giving back at least two to three assignments per week or posting assignments on your bulletin board with teacher feedback, then you are leaving the students to figure out how to improve on their own. Obviously, leaving it to a 11 to 14 year old child to find out on their own what is the correct way to critically think, analyze, predict, etc…then we are setting them up for failure. Students need to be receiving clear and thorough feedback as much as possible. This should not be only left to “x’s” and checks letting them know if an answer is correct or wrong. There should be written feedback or the use of a rubric to communicate areas of success and how the student can improve. Parents can read through their homework assignments or proofread any writing they do for personal reasons or for work. The feedback is gold in forwarding our students for the state exam.
Again, the urgency to prepare our students for the state exams is now. If you are not investing your time into better supporting our children, then you need to begin as soon as possible. This is not a task only for ELA and Math teachers. It begins with parents making sure their children are reading and writing at home. It continues with any teacher of any subject using data to drive instruction, providing opportunities to read and write during class, and giving students as much feedback as possible.
Sincerely,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE SCHOOL GOALS ARE? STATUS UPDATE
35% INCREASE OF STUDENTS MEETING PROFICIENCY IN ELA AND MATH
The latest exam results from the ELA and Math mock exams will be our last clear picture of what our students know. It is our responsibility to take this information and address the areas our students need to improve. We need to prioritize according to the expectations of the state exams. There are certain skills and content which will be stressed more than others. It does not make sense to reiterate skills and content that will barely be covered on the state exams. We have to use our time wisely. Since we are unable to go over every single standard in a short amount of time, we need to identify our prioritize according to areas of weakness and the expectations of the state exam.
The exam this Tuesday will be the last chance for our students to get a practice testing environment before the actual test. It is important for us to identify students who still struggle to complete the test in the allocated time. We can explore ways to create more time for the student or get the student support in using his or her time more efficiently.
92% ATTENDANCE
We continue to fluctuate from 89% to numbers as high as 95% for daily attendance. Our students who take a day each week are holding the rest of the school from reaching excellence. The school has made these students a priority.
We have been setting up contracts, meeting with students, and referring families to the Administration for Children Services to combat excessive absences. We will continue with these efforts when students have over 13 absences. We will need the community to further promote attendance by urging students to get to school on time and to make students feel welcomed when they return from an absence. We will not be able to improve our daily percentage if we do not work as a community to improve our attendance. We are currently at 91.7%. This is 0.3% below our goal for the year. Please take the time to speak to a student who struggles to come to school.
CITY-WIDE SURVEY ACHIEVING “ABOVE AVERAGE OR HIGHER” ON AT LEAST 80% OF THE CATEGORIES
Several committees have been working hard to assess our current status with communication. It has been a very interesting process. We have identified every constituent and who they speak to in our community. To further the process, we have conducted several surveys to get input from as many constituents as possible. For instance, the parent survey administered at the beginning of the year showed a need to improve the conference process. Too many parents were sitting and waiting to meet with a teacher. For the February conference, we adjusted the appointment process. Parents were given a schedule upon entrance. This reduced the wait time significantly. By having a strict schedule, conferences were more targeted and parents were able to meet with all of their children’s teachers.
The recent teacher feedback showed an improvement in clear expectations of the discipline code. In fact, the results were doubled revealing a clearer understanding of how the system is organized. We will continue to use the surveys to improve the school. Thank you to everyone who has filled one out or is about to fill out one.
PARENTS – IF YOU HAVE NOT FILLED OUT A CITY-WIDE SURVEY, YOU NEED TO DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. IT IS THE GREEN ENVELOPE YOUR CHILD MIGHT HAVE PUT IN HIS OR HER BAG.
MOVING AT LEAST 25% OF OUR SPECIAL EDUCATION POPULATION TO A LESS RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
Students continue to be brought before the Child Study Team for a less restrictive environment. Special education is only supposed to be a temporary placement. If we do not devote time to helping students step into a regular education setting, then we are holding them back from reaching their full potential. We are urging parents and teachers to identify ANY special education children who are great candidates to move to a less restrictive environment. That could include a self-contain student to Inclusive (ICT), a SETSS student no longer receiving those services or even cutting down the number of days, or a mandated student for counseling. Its about teaching the child to excel in an environment where there is less support. If we are not making this a priority, we are risking these students futures as they could be devoured in high school by the quick reduction of supports when moving on from middle school.
If you have not done it yet, please refer a student to the Child Study Team to be placed in a less restrictive environment. If the child is not moved, there will at least be a plan to make it happen at a later date. Make a difference today.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Principal's Message - January Edition 2011-2012
Dear JHS 13 Family,
The school year is moving along brilliantly. We have just passed our mid-year mark and we are closing in on the state exams. All interventions are in place and we have are clear plan on how we expect to prepare our children for the state exams. In short, we have Saturday Academy fully running. During Saturdays, we are concentrating our attention on improving attendance and matching specifically what needs to be taught to give our students the best chance to reach proficiency (scoring 3's or 4's). Our next intervention is one-on-one or small group tutoring. We have gathered a substantial number of people to provide small group and one-on-one during the school day. This allows for us to give targeted help to a good number of students who are unable to devote extra time to preparing for the state exam outside of our regular hours. Finally, we will be expanding our after school academics to include tailored instruction to assist students in catching up on topics we covered during the school year which will be crucial in performing well on the state exam. These initiatives will forward our school to do well this coming April on the tests.
On another note, our school has been placed on the School in Need of Improvement List. Because we were only able to produce 15% proficient students on both the ELA and Math exam, we were identified for needing additional support by the state of New York. Two of our school goals are to increase our number of proficient students by at least 35% on both the ELA and Math exams. We are confident that if we execute the plan described in the first paragraph and provide strong support to our teachers in improving their teaching, we will achieve both goals. The bright side of being placed on the list is we receive feedback from experts on how we can continue to improve our school and we get additional funding to pay for our programs at the school. In other words, our students are in great hands.
On February 13th, we will be launching our Positive Behavior Campaign. Our Positive Behavior Campaign will be used to continue to improve the culture of our school. Some of the initiatives the campaign has included are the surveys given to staff and parents. Our latest push has been the zero-tolerance for horse playing. Finally, we revised our discipline code to simplify the system so the expectations were clear to both staff and students. The purpose of hosting a launch ceremony is to increase student and staff buy-in so they can be a part of the process of shifting the culture of the school where everyone can be successful. A great way for parents to be a part of the Positive Behavior Campaign is to learn the discipline code so everyone can communicate the expectations of proper conduct to our children. Another way, if time permits, is to attend our events or stay in communication with the school to check on our babies. Finally, the number one way for parents to support thePositiveBehavior Campaign is to teach our students how to express themselves and how to engage in a productive conversation with adults and with their peers.
At this point, parents should have received three progress reports, and two report cards. All these documents are essential in staying on top of our students' achievement and making sure they meet promotional criteria. Every child must pass ELA and Math class AND both state exams. For the 8th grade, they must pass all of their core subjects. If any child has failed a class twice, then this marking period is important. That means the child has to earn at least a 75 to increase his or her chances of being promoted at the end of the school year. In addition, EVERY CHILD MUST HAVE 15 OR LESS ABSENCES IN ORDER TO AVOID SUMMER SCHOOL OR BEING HELD OVER. Many parents have been doing a wonderful job staying connected to the school by calling me, calling the school, e-mailing, or even stopping by. I want to encourage for more parents to take advantage of our open door policy. Test the power of involvement by finding a way to make a difference. Two tests! One dream! To be the best, we must be a team! Destination! Excellence!
With Love and Dedicaiton,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
The school year is moving along brilliantly. We have just passed our mid-year mark and we are closing in on the state exams. All interventions are in place and we have are clear plan on how we expect to prepare our children for the state exams. In short, we have Saturday Academy fully running. During Saturdays, we are concentrating our attention on improving attendance and matching specifically what needs to be taught to give our students the best chance to reach proficiency (scoring 3's or 4's). Our next intervention is one-on-one or small group tutoring. We have gathered a substantial number of people to provide small group and one-on-one during the school day. This allows for us to give targeted help to a good number of students who are unable to devote extra time to preparing for the state exam outside of our regular hours. Finally, we will be expanding our after school academics to include tailored instruction to assist students in catching up on topics we covered during the school year which will be crucial in performing well on the state exam. These initiatives will forward our school to do well this coming April on the tests.
On another note, our school has been placed on the School in Need of Improvement List. Because we were only able to produce 15% proficient students on both the ELA and Math exam, we were identified for needing additional support by the state of New York. Two of our school goals are to increase our number of proficient students by at least 35% on both the ELA and Math exams. We are confident that if we execute the plan described in the first paragraph and provide strong support to our teachers in improving their teaching, we will achieve both goals. The bright side of being placed on the list is we receive feedback from experts on how we can continue to improve our school and we get additional funding to pay for our programs at the school. In other words, our students are in great hands.
On February 13th, we will be launching our Positive Behavior Campaign. Our Positive Behavior Campaign will be used to continue to improve the culture of our school. Some of the initiatives the campaign has included are the surveys given to staff and parents. Our latest push has been the zero-tolerance for horse playing. Finally, we revised our discipline code to simplify the system so the expectations were clear to both staff and students. The purpose of hosting a launch ceremony is to increase student and staff buy-in so they can be a part of the process of shifting the culture of the school where everyone can be successful. A great way for parents to be a part of the Positive Behavior Campaign is to learn the discipline code so everyone can communicate the expectations of proper conduct to our children. Another way, if time permits, is to attend our events or stay in communication with the school to check on our babies. Finally, the number one way for parents to support thePositiveBehavior Campaign is to teach our students how to express themselves and how to engage in a productive conversation with adults and with their peers.
At this point, parents should have received three progress reports, and two report cards. All these documents are essential in staying on top of our students' achievement and making sure they meet promotional criteria. Every child must pass ELA and Math class AND both state exams. For the 8th grade, they must pass all of their core subjects. If any child has failed a class twice, then this marking period is important. That means the child has to earn at least a 75 to increase his or her chances of being promoted at the end of the school year. In addition, EVERY CHILD MUST HAVE 15 OR LESS ABSENCES IN ORDER TO AVOID SUMMER SCHOOL OR BEING HELD OVER. Many parents have been doing a wonderful job staying connected to the school by calling me, calling the school, e-mailing, or even stopping by. I want to encourage for more parents to take advantage of our open door policy. Test the power of involvement by finding a way to make a difference. Two tests! One dream! To be the best, we must be a team! Destination! Excellence!
With Love and Dedicaiton,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
Friday, February 3, 2012
Look Who Was on the News Cheering on the Giants!!
Principal Michelman makes a bet with a Middle School in Boston. The students of J13 were heard by students over 200 miles away with the help of Skype! Channel 7 and 4 had the story.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Principal's Message - December Edition 2011-2012
Dear JHS 13 Family,
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a restful break and a rewarding holiday. It is always important to take time to be with family and to service our bodies with relaxation and some necessary sleep. Hopefully, there were enough family and/or friends surrounding parents to care for young ones. Everyone needs time. Thank goodness for my in-laws, I was able to sleep in at least one morning. As usual, being away from school, I missed everyone. Its not the same in the morning when there is no one to say “Destination: Excellence!” with. As much as I enjoyed catching up with family and friends, I greatly enjoy being around all of you. Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder.
The best part about getting back is we get to pick up where we left off. We have an exciting second half of the year (Technically, the second half begins on January 17th). We will be closing out the second marking period in two weeks. Just in the month of January, we have several significant events taking place. For starters, we have the 1st Marking period celebration of the Principal’s List, Honor Roll, and Honorable Mention. We will also be bidding farewell (for now) to Mrs. Vargas who will be giving birth some time this month. While we say good-bye to her, we also welcome our newest staff member, Mr. Monte Brown, who will be taking over her program. On January 24th, we will be taking our second promotional assessment. Just like in November, it will provide further validation in June for students in meeting promotional criteria. It is imperative every student is present for this exam. It will be essential evidence for any student to be promoted. Finally, on January 31st, we will be officially launching our Positive Behavior Campaign. Our motto of “Be Responsible, Be Respectful, Be Safe” will be plastered all over the walls. We will be teaming with Jets wide receiver, Plaxico Burress, to kick off the celebration right. He will also be recognizing the 17 most improved Students from the first marking period to the second.
Instructionally, we have three months to prepare for the state exams. By collecting assessment results, we can determine whether or not we are doing enough to move our students. We have committed to a 35% increase in proficient students this year (students scoring a level 3 or 4). For ELA and Math, these targets are very achievable. According to our data, we are behind in reaching those goals in both subjects. With this information, we have to determine what needs to be done to reach our achievable markers. For instance, in early November, we identified two groups of students who had scored poorly on a math unit assessment. We were able to provide additional instructional time for those students so they could continue with the new content but catch up on what they missed. Its efforts like this that will guarantee higher student achievement. City Year, our Regis Interns, and our Test Prep Classes can be further utilized to provide intervention services for students who need to be caught up or to reinforce skills to secure students are on course to reach proficiency. In addition, we are starting our Saturday Academy the last week of January. Although it will be open to all students, there will be a population of students who will be mandated to attend. More information will be sent out in the next few weeks. We will continue to use the data to determine our use of resources and action plans with test prep and shared reading.
On a last note, but not at all less important, winter is upon us. It is vital that we stress the importance of students coming to school. We will need all efforts from all adults (Parents, family members, guardians, teachers, staff, crossing guards, etc…) to get our students to attend. If it’s cold, then we need to bundle our babies up. It should not deter anyone from coming to school. If a child is sick, then lets get him or her to a doctor to make sure the absence is excused. I need to remind parents, calling the school to let us know a child is sick does not make it an excused absence. Although we appreciate the phone call, please make sure the child is brought to the doctor. One day away from school is missed information or missed opportunity to excel. “Two tests! One Dream! To be the best, WE MUST BE A TEAM!”
Yours Truly,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a restful break and a rewarding holiday. It is always important to take time to be with family and to service our bodies with relaxation and some necessary sleep. Hopefully, there were enough family and/or friends surrounding parents to care for young ones. Everyone needs time. Thank goodness for my in-laws, I was able to sleep in at least one morning. As usual, being away from school, I missed everyone. Its not the same in the morning when there is no one to say “Destination: Excellence!” with. As much as I enjoyed catching up with family and friends, I greatly enjoy being around all of you. Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder.
The best part about getting back is we get to pick up where we left off. We have an exciting second half of the year (Technically, the second half begins on January 17th). We will be closing out the second marking period in two weeks. Just in the month of January, we have several significant events taking place. For starters, we have the 1st Marking period celebration of the Principal’s List, Honor Roll, and Honorable Mention. We will also be bidding farewell (for now) to Mrs. Vargas who will be giving birth some time this month. While we say good-bye to her, we also welcome our newest staff member, Mr. Monte Brown, who will be taking over her program. On January 24th, we will be taking our second promotional assessment. Just like in November, it will provide further validation in June for students in meeting promotional criteria. It is imperative every student is present for this exam. It will be essential evidence for any student to be promoted. Finally, on January 31st, we will be officially launching our Positive Behavior Campaign. Our motto of “Be Responsible, Be Respectful, Be Safe” will be plastered all over the walls. We will be teaming with Jets wide receiver, Plaxico Burress, to kick off the celebration right. He will also be recognizing the 17 most improved Students from the first marking period to the second.
Instructionally, we have three months to prepare for the state exams. By collecting assessment results, we can determine whether or not we are doing enough to move our students. We have committed to a 35% increase in proficient students this year (students scoring a level 3 or 4). For ELA and Math, these targets are very achievable. According to our data, we are behind in reaching those goals in both subjects. With this information, we have to determine what needs to be done to reach our achievable markers. For instance, in early November, we identified two groups of students who had scored poorly on a math unit assessment. We were able to provide additional instructional time for those students so they could continue with the new content but catch up on what they missed. Its efforts like this that will guarantee higher student achievement. City Year, our Regis Interns, and our Test Prep Classes can be further utilized to provide intervention services for students who need to be caught up or to reinforce skills to secure students are on course to reach proficiency. In addition, we are starting our Saturday Academy the last week of January. Although it will be open to all students, there will be a population of students who will be mandated to attend. More information will be sent out in the next few weeks. We will continue to use the data to determine our use of resources and action plans with test prep and shared reading.
On a last note, but not at all less important, winter is upon us. It is vital that we stress the importance of students coming to school. We will need all efforts from all adults (Parents, family members, guardians, teachers, staff, crossing guards, etc…) to get our students to attend. If it’s cold, then we need to bundle our babies up. It should not deter anyone from coming to school. If a child is sick, then lets get him or her to a doctor to make sure the absence is excused. I need to remind parents, calling the school to let us know a child is sick does not make it an excused absence. Although we appreciate the phone call, please make sure the child is brought to the doctor. One day away from school is missed information or missed opportunity to excel. “Two tests! One Dream! To be the best, WE MUST BE A TEAM!”
Yours Truly,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Principal's Message - November Edition 2011-2012
Dear JHS 13 Community,
We are quickly approaching the holiday vacation. This is when it will be essential for us to know how close we are to reaching our school goals. With our focus on attendance, the ELA exam, the math exam, culture and community, and improving our support for Special Education students, meeting our goals will continue to transform our school to an ideal learning environment. With our goal of 35% increase in proficient students for both ELA and Math, it is imperative we do not wait until the exams to find out how well our students are being prepared.
We have built our unit exams to be our system to assess student progress in getting ready for the state tests. These unit tests include key standards identifying what our students need to be able to do to be successful on the state exam. By teaching and assessing these key standards we can monitor our children to see if they are ready to take the state exam. For teachers, by using progress measurement and the unit test as such a large portion of the child's grade we can clearly see how well we are preparing our students for the state exam. For parents, you can look at your child's grades especially on tests to see how they are going to do. With the numbers in front of our face, we can be proactive about the results we are seeing right now. There are so many support systems available at our school. If we identify a child who needs key concepts to be re-taught, we have the resources to do so. With our test prep classes, after school programs, partnerships, SES providers, and hard working staff, we can make sure every child is prepared for the state exams.
Our recent learning environment survey yielded great progression from last year. Teacher satisfaction has improved and parent satisfaction has greatly improved. The feedback we collected from teachers brought light to several improvements that needed to be made to our discipline code and some issues with communication. Our teacher surveys showed gains in 100% of the areas inquired in the City-Wide Survey. Our parent surveys collected from every parent who attended our parent-teacher conferences revealed that 92% of our parents feel that their child is safe at our school, that their child is supported, and the school promotes learning with positive messages and displaying student work. Over 88% of our parents believe the school has a positive vibe, their children are being academically challenged, and teachers are holding their child to a high standard. Our next step is to survey our students. We are anxious to work out the collection process so we can continue to improve the school.
Attendance team has built several new systems to promote higher attendance. One initiative is posting the attendance of the previous day. Although it may seem minor, it has reiterated the importance of attendance. It has built a culture of awareness which is an essential step in improving the attendance. We currently are at 92% attendance. We will be working rigorously to battle the winter drop we face every year due to illnesses and students avoiding the cold. We are asking all parents to be aware of your child(ren)’s attendance to make sure no school days will have to be made up during summer school. We will continue with our strong communication and reiteration of the importance of attendance. We will move into individual student contracts to provide additional support and to review steps with the family of what needs to be done for the student to be promoted to the next grade level. The reality of the situation is if students are not attending school, then they are not learning. If they are not learning, then they will not be ready for high school or even college. Our vision is for every child to get into the high school he or she prefers.
Last year, out of all of the students performing at a level one on the state exam, 70% of them were special education. With those results, it is urgent we make some significant changes to help our special education.
Our special education goal is to move 25% of our special education population into a less restrictive environment. The concept of special education was developed as a temporary setting. Unfortunately, the setting has become permanent for too many students in our school system. Our vision is to improve the goal setting process for the Individual Evaluation Plan (IEP) and use the benchmarks as a determining factor of proper setting. If students continue to meet their goals or are certain to reach their goals, then they will be referred to the child study team. After a thorough review process, a decision will be made to mainstream with potential support or reduce the amount of support by provided during the week depending on the current setting and the progress the child has taken. We believe the more students that move to a less restrictive environment, the higher they will perform on the state assessments.
As you can see, we are progressing toward reaching our goal. We have strong action plans to ensure success. Our school was recently given SINI Status which is a “School In Need of Improvement.” With our recent dip in scores, it is understandable how we have been placed on the list. I am confident with our latest initiatives and the incredible hard work of our staff and parents we will see a significant improvement. I am guaranteeing we will be rated above average in 80% of all the categories for all constituents on the city-wide survey. I am also guaranteeing we will be removed from the SINI list by next school year (2012-2013). Finally, we will improve at least one letter grade on the next Progress Report. If there was a way to be removed from the Persistently Dangerous School List in a single year, we would achieve that as well. Unfortunately, it is a mandatory two year status.
Our students are in great hands. They are buying into our motto “Two Tests, One Dream. To be the best, we must be a team!” They are stepping up to the expectations we have laid down before them. It is the responsibility of every adult to make sure every child is progressing to the next performance level on the state exams. Let’s accept this challenge in continue toward our destination of excellence. Thank you for all that you do and what you will do.
Yours Truly,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
We are quickly approaching the holiday vacation. This is when it will be essential for us to know how close we are to reaching our school goals. With our focus on attendance, the ELA exam, the math exam, culture and community, and improving our support for Special Education students, meeting our goals will continue to transform our school to an ideal learning environment. With our goal of 35% increase in proficient students for both ELA and Math, it is imperative we do not wait until the exams to find out how well our students are being prepared.
We have built our unit exams to be our system to assess student progress in getting ready for the state tests. These unit tests include key standards identifying what our students need to be able to do to be successful on the state exam. By teaching and assessing these key standards we can monitor our children to see if they are ready to take the state exam. For teachers, by using progress measurement and the unit test as such a large portion of the child's grade we can clearly see how well we are preparing our students for the state exam. For parents, you can look at your child's grades especially on tests to see how they are going to do. With the numbers in front of our face, we can be proactive about the results we are seeing right now. There are so many support systems available at our school. If we identify a child who needs key concepts to be re-taught, we have the resources to do so. With our test prep classes, after school programs, partnerships, SES providers, and hard working staff, we can make sure every child is prepared for the state exams.
Our recent learning environment survey yielded great progression from last year. Teacher satisfaction has improved and parent satisfaction has greatly improved. The feedback we collected from teachers brought light to several improvements that needed to be made to our discipline code and some issues with communication. Our teacher surveys showed gains in 100% of the areas inquired in the City-Wide Survey. Our parent surveys collected from every parent who attended our parent-teacher conferences revealed that 92% of our parents feel that their child is safe at our school, that their child is supported, and the school promotes learning with positive messages and displaying student work. Over 88% of our parents believe the school has a positive vibe, their children are being academically challenged, and teachers are holding their child to a high standard. Our next step is to survey our students. We are anxious to work out the collection process so we can continue to improve the school.
Attendance team has built several new systems to promote higher attendance. One initiative is posting the attendance of the previous day. Although it may seem minor, it has reiterated the importance of attendance. It has built a culture of awareness which is an essential step in improving the attendance. We currently are at 92% attendance. We will be working rigorously to battle the winter drop we face every year due to illnesses and students avoiding the cold. We are asking all parents to be aware of your child(ren)’s attendance to make sure no school days will have to be made up during summer school. We will continue with our strong communication and reiteration of the importance of attendance. We will move into individual student contracts to provide additional support and to review steps with the family of what needs to be done for the student to be promoted to the next grade level. The reality of the situation is if students are not attending school, then they are not learning. If they are not learning, then they will not be ready for high school or even college. Our vision is for every child to get into the high school he or she prefers.
Last year, out of all of the students performing at a level one on the state exam, 70% of them were special education. With those results, it is urgent we make some significant changes to help our special education.
Our special education goal is to move 25% of our special education population into a less restrictive environment. The concept of special education was developed as a temporary setting. Unfortunately, the setting has become permanent for too many students in our school system. Our vision is to improve the goal setting process for the Individual Evaluation Plan (IEP) and use the benchmarks as a determining factor of proper setting. If students continue to meet their goals or are certain to reach their goals, then they will be referred to the child study team. After a thorough review process, a decision will be made to mainstream with potential support or reduce the amount of support by provided during the week depending on the current setting and the progress the child has taken. We believe the more students that move to a less restrictive environment, the higher they will perform on the state assessments.
As you can see, we are progressing toward reaching our goal. We have strong action plans to ensure success. Our school was recently given SINI Status which is a “School In Need of Improvement.” With our recent dip in scores, it is understandable how we have been placed on the list. I am confident with our latest initiatives and the incredible hard work of our staff and parents we will see a significant improvement. I am guaranteeing we will be rated above average in 80% of all the categories for all constituents on the city-wide survey. I am also guaranteeing we will be removed from the SINI list by next school year (2012-2013). Finally, we will improve at least one letter grade on the next Progress Report. If there was a way to be removed from the Persistently Dangerous School List in a single year, we would achieve that as well. Unfortunately, it is a mandatory two year status.
Our students are in great hands. They are buying into our motto “Two Tests, One Dream. To be the best, we must be a team!” They are stepping up to the expectations we have laid down before them. It is the responsibility of every adult to make sure every child is progressing to the next performance level on the state exams. Let’s accept this challenge in continue toward our destination of excellence. Thank you for all that you do and what you will do.
Yours Truly,
Jacob T. Michelman
Principal
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