PantherReport January 28, 2013

Celebrating Success
Last week I had two different people, for different reasons, ask me about the music programs at CHS.  The first word that popped in my head, was vibrant. My next thought was how fitting this word was since it is part of our vision statement - "To create a vibrant school community that exemplifies academic excellence and model citizenship".  I emailed Jennifer Hamilton asking if she would write a short description of the music program at CHS.  I just have to share with you all an abbreviated version of Jen's write up:

There are many opportunities for students to get involved in music at CHS.  There are many outstanding and unique performance opportunities, such as CHS' first full orchestra, solo & ensemble concerts, and upcoming percussion ensemble concerts.  

Jan. 24 CHS hosted the Ft. Lewis Jazz Ensemble from Durango, CO.  The concert was open to all students in the school and the performance and student participation were amazing, with about 300 CHS students in attendance.    On January 23, CHS held a solo & ensemble concert where many of the fine musicians in the CHS band were featured.  

CHS is hosting the regional auditions for the Northwest region on Saturday, Jan. 26, where approximately 1000 students from the Northern region of the state will be auditioning to participate in the Northwest Region Music Festival  (also hosted at CHS ).   This festival  is Feb. 15 - 16.  The CHS band is pleased to have Dr. Gary Hill, the band director at ASU, as its director.       

CHS is very excited to have their inaugural full orchestra for the very first time in the school's history.  This is a combination of the string players in orchestra with the top wind & percussion players from the band class (resembling a professional orchestra).  This is the first time that this kind of collaboration has occurred between these two ensembles on a regular basis (practices occur every combined lunch on Wednesdays).  CHS is very excited to take this group to the ABODA area concert festival, hosted at CHS on Friday, February 22.  The CHS symphonic band will also be attending this event.    There will be a pre-festival concert featuring both the orchestra and band at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, Feb. 20 (free concert open to all).  Our CHS Symphonic Band recently received straight superior ratings at the Arizona Band & Orchestra Directors Association Fall Concert Festival.  That is the highest rating available (unanimous ratings of A from all judges).  The CHS band is proud to have a long -standing history of superior ratings.  

On Tuesday, Jan. 29 all of the Sinagua Middle School band and orchestra students are  coming to CHS to spend the day with the CHS band and orchestra students.   This is one of several collaborative events that we hold with SMS throughout the year.  This  collaboration will culminate with a combined Spring Concert at SMS in the Spring.  

After this weekend, I'll have some GREAT statistics for you about the number of CHS students that have been selected for our regional music festival.   

Vibrant indeed!!! Thank you Jennifer Hamilton and Doug Riddle for creating the outstanding music programs at CHS. 

Curriculum & Instruction

I hope you have had a chance to reflect on, and incorporate the six elements of a highly effective lesson. As a reminder the six elements are: 

• Clear Learning Objectives
• Anticipatory Set
• Teaching & Modeling
• Guided Practice
• Checking fo Understanding (Followed by adjustments to instruction)
• Independent Practice

Education researcher and assessment guru, Dylan Wiliam states, by simply implementing these six elements in lesson planning and instruction, the gains in student academic growth can increase by 400%.  He also says that staying true to these components in our lessons will  prove to be  30 x as effective as the most popular current education initiatives.  

We will continue to focus our professional dialogue on these six elements as we work together in our efforts to improve student achievement. 

PARCC

What do we know about the new generation assessments?  According to the Arizona Department of Education roll -out plan, the PARCC Assessments will be going "Live" next school year  2013-14. If all goes as planned AIMS will be around for a few more years while schools enter the transition phase of AIMS to PARCC.  

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career, a.k.a. PARCC will eventually replace AIMS.  In our state PARCC is designed to measure proficiency of the Arizona Common Core State Standards (ACCSS).  ADE's time-line for implementation includes a three year transition period,  then in 2017 AIMS will be officially "retired" and PARCC will be in full implementation.  In the meantime state and local education departments are focusing professional development opportunities for teachers to be adequately trained and prepared to transition to the Common Core Standards.  It is my understanding that current Coconino County trainings and workshops are free and teachers can earn rectification hours and some courses are eligible for graduate credits.  Please refer to Gretchen Markiewicz recent e-mails for details about upcoming trainings. For comprehensive information about PARCC you can go to 

parcconline.org. 

Reminder

We have a Pep Assembly scheduled for this Thursday 1/31. We planned for Thursday, using Pathway time instead of disrupting classes on Friday. The assembly will take place immediately following ASP. ASP Teachers should accompany their classes to the main gym at the end of ASP period. 

Dates to Remember

1/28 S3 Mtg 3:00 PM Links Room

1/29 G BB @ home v. Bradshaw Mt.

1/30 PLCs

1/31 Pep Assembly 1:20 P.M. 

2/1 BIG BB Game CHS v. FHS @ FHS

2/2 Winter Formal 8:00 PM @ SMS

Planning Ahead

AIMS Writing ~  February 25         AIMS Reading ~ February 26

CHS Spring Open House March 14 5:30-7:00 PM

Panther Report January 22-25

Celebrating Success
School safety may seem an odd way to begin this section on celebrating success. As you know this subject is making headlines all over the country and the topic of conversation in many arenas. Dave Tessmer's email on Friday was right on.  It is hard not to think about how very fortunate we are at Coconino to have Ed Vesely. Not only is Ed keeping a close watch on safety and security during the school day he is every bit as conscientious about our safety every hour of the day. Just last week when we had a late night intruder in the training room following a basketball game there he was, Ed swiftly and gently aprehended the intruder and saw to it that he was taken away in a police car from Coconino.  This guy was not a gentle soul. The very next morning when there was a report that there was a guy in fatigues across the street from Coconino, there Ed was again. He discovered quickly that, this time the the guy in fatigues was indeed a gentle soul and could be quietly accompanied to the front office to visit with some old friends (He was a former CHS student with a disability). The list goes on, but I just wanted to take a minute to echo the sentiments expressed in the e-mail to express our sincere gratitude to Ed Vesely for caring so deeply about Coconino High school and keeping a close eye on the safety of our students and all of us.

Woo hoo and congratulations to Christine Sapio, Dave Thompson and our CHS Robotics team.  This Saturday they hosted the FIRST Tech Challenge Championship. The gym was filled and alive with 32 robotics teams representing four states. It was awe inspiring truly awesome!!!

Your PLC work last week was excellent.  Thank you to all of you who submitted your plans for this semester. The focused attention to how you plan to use assessments to determine if your students are learning is pretty cool.  I am anxious to see this work progress. As Tadd said in his message to you all, please keep us posted on your progress.

News From Administrative Council

• This year FUSD has implemented a Personal Leave Incentive Program.  This program is designed to decrease the amount of money spent on substitute positions in the school district.  This is accomplished by incentivizing employees (In positions that require a substitute) not take days off during regular work days.  You can click here to view details of the program. 
• This is the time of year that parents are making decisions about where their children will be attending school for the upcoming school year.  Our school websites have more views at this time of year and the school website is often the first place people go to seek information about school.  Many of you have updated your pages and have current information displayed, thank you. There are still a few who need to tidy up your page.  Please take a few minutes and be sure  your name and contact info is current and that the page does not say "under construction".  Also check that if dates are included on your page, they are updated and that all links are working. See Jen Parker if you need help with your teacher webpage. 
• The Teacher Performance Evaluation Committee will meet again before the end of this school year to review, examine and likely recalibrate the evaluation tool. Should you have thoughts, ideas or concerns, please let James Ingram know, as he is our CHS representative on this committee. 

CHS Info

• If you have not met with Cris, Steve or me to set up your Teacher Profile for observation/evaluation, please schedule a time to do so. Once your profile is set up you can schedule your observation date and time. This year you have an option of one or two full class period (55 min) observations. Teachers who have been teaching less than three years must have two formal observations. 
• AIMS Correction. In last week's blog I mistakingly listed AIMS Math for 2/27. Math AIMS does not happen until April 9.  (AIMS Science is April 10).  So AIMS in February is only Language Arts: AIMS Writing ~February 25  and  AIMS Reading ~ February 26
• Ed Vesely is working on scheduling a CHS Staff and Faculty work session about Identity Theft. The session with either be Wed, January 30 or Wednesday February 6.  As soon as the date is confirmed with the Flagstaff Police Detectives, Ed will let you know.
• Throughout the next few months there are a number of trainings and or workshops that CHS Admin will be attending. (Safety, Common Core, PLCs, PARCC, Grading and Assessments, STEM, S3, PBIS, just to name a few).  If more than one of us will be gone at the same time George Moate will be here in our absence. 

Dates to Remember

1/22 Boys Soccer @ home

1/23 Wrestling Match @ FHS 

1/24 Girls Soccer @ home

PantherReport~January 14,2013

Celebrating Success
Each semester the Arizona Department of Education allocates a small amount of money for schools to hire AIMS Tutors.  Last semester Lorena Vera-Trejo tutored 16 students with great success. Out of the 16 students tutored, 11 passed AIMS Math.  The 3 of the 4 students who did not pass improved by anywhere from 2 to 26 points. Congratulations Lorena and students.

We will implementing  AIMS tutoring again this semester. Lorena will offer math tutoring during Pathways and Ann Hurst will be tutoring for Reading and Writing after school. (Day and place TBA). If you have junior or senior students who you would like to refer for tutoring please give names to Lorena and or Ann Hurst (a.hurst@att.net ).

School Safety
In keeping with the recent attention to school safety and security and related policy, ADE is holding school safety trainings throughout the state.  Ed Vesely and I will be attending a two day training at NAU on January 29 and 30th. We will share the information we learn with you at an upcoming Faculty Meeting. If you have specific questions that you would like us to bring up at the training, please let us know.

Wednesday PLCs
Please submit your PLC plan for this semester and the notes from your team meeting to Tadd before the end of the day on Wednesday, January 16.

Thursday Pathways and Intervention
This Thursday, following ASP, students will begin their new Pathways or go to Intervention .  Please remember that if you would like a student to attend Intervention Study Hall you will need to give the student the light yellow Study Hall pass.

Dates to Remember (This Week)

1/14 Admin Council
1/15 Prep hour mtgs ~ Mini-Theater
        Boys J.V & V. Soccer @ home v. Prescott begins at 1:00PM
        Boys and Girls BB all levels @ home v. FHS begins at 4:00PM
1/16 PLCs
1/17 Senior Photo at the end of 3rd period
        Girls soccer @ home v. Page 
        Boys and Girls BB @ home v. Mohave 
1/19 Robotics Competition @ CHS. This is the largest competition in the state, over 32 teams will compete in the Arizona FIRST Tech Challenge. 

Dates to Remember (For future planning)

1/31 School wide pep assembly (Thursday during Pathway time)
2/25, 26, 27 ~ AIMS ~  2/25 Writing     2/26 Reading     2/27 Math

Panther Report January 7, 2013

Welcome back and Happy New Year.  

In keeping with the custom of ending an old year beginning a new one, it was helpful to have your thoughts, responses and questions generated from the staff survey as CHS Administration reflects on the past year and begins planning for next.  Weather the thoughts about the past year were good, bad or indifferent, it is our hope that we can enter the new year wiser and stronger from our experiences and sincerely believe the best is yet to come.

Wishing you a year full of new opportunities…of love, wisdom, encouragement and new found joys of being a teacher.

Please find below the questions and answers generated from you all that were not specified in the survey. 

CHS Faculty Questions

1.     How do we know what Pathways students are really interested in?

We are somewhat limited to the types of enrichment pathway options based on desire and availability of teachers to design and teach pathways. However, we have a fair selection with variety of 21 pathways from which students can choose.  Next year we would hope to have more Pathway options.

2.     What are the consequences for upper classmen with attendance, grade or behavior issues?  Should they be bigger than underclassmen?

Names of students with chronic absenteeism are submitted to the Coconino  County Juvenile probation department and parents receive a truancy diversion letter that defines the law (A.R.S. 8-201.15(B) and states the possible penalty of up to 30 days in jail and/or a $500.00 fine.  The ultimate consequence for students who have chronic attendance issues and or non-passing grades is ineligibility for a high school diploma and not graduating. We are currently exploring the possibility of creating an alternative schedule (For SY 2013-14) for students who can’t seem to conform to the traditional school day schedule.  If you have an interest in exploring or participating in an alternative schedule please let me know.

3.     Can we create a more inviting teacher's lounge?

This would be a good summer project.  Please let me know if you have ideas and would be interested in working on improving the teacher's lounge. 

4.     Would there be a possibility of exploring a standard code of dress or uniforms for students?

There is most certainly a possibility of exploring a standard code of dress or uniforms for CHS. If this is of interest to you, please let me know and we will form an exploratory action committee.

5.     How can we improve communications so teachers are more aware of disruptions in a more timely manner?

As Eric Freas would say “Boy howdy”.  This is truly an area in need of improvement. I think we all agree that valuable learning time is often wasted due to unexpected as well as anticipated disruptions. We do our best to limit announcements to the morning only.  Thursday Pathway time was intended to help decrease interruptions, but at this juncture I’m not sure if this has helped or hindered classroom time. We are committed to continue to find ways to remedy this problem.

6.     Can we put a cap on class sizes?

The current student teacher ratio for secondary schools in FUSD is 32:1.  Maintaining this average is a challenge and requires a delicate balance between providing a comprehensive and appealing course of study for our students and overall equality of class size. Singleton and specialized classes can skew the average quite a bit. We do have to be careful with what we offer and continue to strive to distribute our students as evenly as possible. Another factor that plays into class size is teacher compensation. FUSD Governing Board is working very hard to raise salaries for next school year.  With this on the horizon we can anticipate that our average class sizes will not decrease.

7.     Can we not have PLCs or faculty meetings on the Wednesdays that grades are due?  Can one Wednesday a month be a teacher work day?

Our early release Wednesdays are intended for collaboration time however I will be more careful not to schedule meetings or professional development sessions on those Wednesdays that grades are due.

8.     When will we use PLCs to renew and work on common assessments?

Collaboration time for second term will be devoted to the question;  How will we know students have learned what we want them to know and be able to do?  This is where the assessments come into play. We need to ensure that our classroom assessments are tightly aligned to the content in our classes. Spring semester PLC time will be driven by this task.

9.     What should “singleton” teachers do during PLCs?

Please see me if you are a “Singleton” teacher and have not been participating on a collaborative team this year.

10.   Can PLCs be focused on single subject area collaborative teams?

Ideally collaborative teams should be structured for a single subject.  This works best when teachers teach a single subject, however at CHS we have a number of teachers who teach more than one subject.

11.   How do we plan to measure the success or benefits of modified block, Enrichments and Interventions?

The ultimate measure of the success of the modified block schedule is improved student achievement.

12.   How can we fit vertical alignment in PLC time?

When the foundations of our work in our PLCs are strong and solid we will move to vertical alignment.

13.   How will we know if PBIS is working?

The premise behind PBIS is that positive behavior is recognized, rewarded and reinforced at every opportunity.  Instilling a strong sense of responsibility and pride in doing the right things - Both students and adults fulfill their responsibilities, not out of threat or fear, but because they understand the importance of doing so. We are on the right path, but we’re not there yet. In anticipation of positive results from a collective effort to implement PBIS, we will know it is working when overall student behavior improves. One measurement tool we have in place is the use of the minor infraction forms. The data collected helps us gauge the success of PBIS.

14.   Is the block schedule here to stay?

If the modified block schedule is found to contribute to improved student achievement it will likely remain.

15.   What do we know about the balanced calendar?

We know that the balanced calendar will not be implemented for SY 2013-14, but is still a consideration for future FUSD school calendar.

16.   Would it be possible to allow students with A’s or B’s the choice to leave school on Thursdays instead of Pathways?

Allowing upper classmen earning As and Bs the option of leaving school early on Thursdays makes a lot of sense.  Cris and I have proposed this idea to central administration for a possibility for next school year. I’ll keep you posted.

17.   Is there a template for lesson plans?

During prep hour meetings on Tuesday, January 15, I will share a sample lesson plan framework.

18.   Can we just do study halls in classrooms instead of sending students to interventions?

We are working toward making this happen.  For spring semester this year we have created smaller subject area study halls.

19.   Can ASP be better structured?  Possibly a study time, content specific?

Yes, ASP should be more scripted.  We will work with department chairs to refine ASP for next year.

20.   What is the absence policy for student athletes and how is it enforced?

The simplified version of a complex policy is in order for a student to play in a game they must be in attendance at school in at least four of the six classes on the day of the game and, if the student misses two classes the absence must be unavoidable and excused. Implementation of this policy is the responsibility of the coach.

 21.   Are the new common core standards going to require that we redo EIOs and COs?

  No, but we might need to add to them. 

Thank you for taking the time to generate the questions and responding to the mid-year survey.  We will continue to focus our energy on all the things that matter most in order to stay true to the vision of creating a vibrant school community that exemplifies academic excellence and model citizenship. 

PLC info for this week...

• Wednesday PLC time:  In an effort for more autonomy during PLCs I will not ask you to complete a template for your collaborative team work. I do ask though, that you spend time this Wednesday 1/9 outlining your plan for collaboration time on Wednesdays for second term. Please include how your team will utilize your end of term common assessments to develop benchmark formative assessments. If your course does not yet have a common assessment, your team should address how you plan to create your common assessment. Please plan to meet this Wednesday in your PLCs between before 2:15PM at which time we will have a brief faculty meeting to discuss details about Thursday ASP, Interventions, Study Hall and Pathways. 

Again, welcome back and have a great week!