Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A CHEER For A New Year


As another year comes to an end (hopefully not in the Mayan sense of end) it is the perfect time for reflection. I have now been a principal in the same school for 6.5 years.  Over that time we have accomplished much.  I am incredibly proud of the students who have passed through the classrooms at our school.  I am also continuously impressed and amazed by the effort of the educators at the school.  Over the years we have transformed a good school and made it great. 

There are over 100 student-designed and student-painted murals on the walls of the school with positive messages.  These messages convey our core values (PRIDE: Pride, Respect, Integrity, Dedication, Excellence), our school motto (Do The Right Thing), inspirational quotes, and anti-bullying messages.  The school is a warmer, safer place due to this addition of the murals.  In addition to this physical change to the building, we have also evolved and progressed in other ways.  We now have student led conferences instead of traditional parent teacher conferences.  This system forces students to reflect on their own strengths and areas for growth and take more ownership for their education.  Everyone at the school, students and staff, set goals each year and develop plans to meet those goals.  Our advisory program has evolved over the years to the robust program that it is today.  Students have a home base at the school and there is time in the schedule for kids to connect with teachers, for teachers to provide interventions for struggling learners, and time for teachers to provide extension opportunities for those that are doing well and ready for additional challenges.  The advisory program brings the community closer together and each adult in the school has a group of students under their watch. With murals, student led conferences, and a robust advisory program we have made three major improvements to the school.

While PRIDE has served us well, I have recently been looking at other schools to see their mission statements, vision statements, and core values.  The Public Schools of Brookline, MA have a terrific site on the web http://www.brookline.k12.ma.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=89
Any school that has core values that include Collaboration, High expectations, Excellence, Equity, and Respect makes me want to stand up and cheer.  These core values align closely with my own and connect well to my vision for schools.  If designing a school from scratch I would include some of the things we already do such as advisory and student led conferences, but there is so much more.  Some of the highlights of this school I will list here. The school would be a fully functional professional learning community including data driven instruction. I would add technology integration including a 1:1 environment, flipped classrooms where appropriate, and on-going professional development for teachers to integrate technology in meaningful ways. I would eliminate homework that is anything other than practice.  I would extend the school day – not to pack in more academics but to slow the pace of the day and allow for the rich interactions that can take place between teacher and student.  I would design a report card that provided students and parents with more information. I would incorporate time for instructional rounds so teachers can observe and learn from their colleagues.  Similar to a teaching hospital, it would be a teaching school filled with interns from a local university.  Each of these items is a blog post waiting to happen to expand on what these things would look like in schools.

Hopefully I will find time in 2013 to blog more about some of these topics. 

Do any of these thoughts resonate with you?  Leave a comment and continue the conversation.

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