Update ~ October 26-30, 2015

Celebrating Success (hopefully)

Current Academic Interventions at CHS SY 2015-16

·      Block Algebra Class (For 9^th grade students coming from middle school with an F in math)

·      Success 101 (For 9^th grade students coming from middle school with three or more Fs)

·      Administration and counseling (Cris and Barrett) have developed and are teaching a series of lessons designed to promote academic success.  Lessons are taught 1 x per month in the block algebra class.

·      Follow up w/ current 10^th grade students who were in Success 101 the previous year. Thursday intervention group with these students.

·      Math and ELA interventions during Thursday Pathways and Wednesday early release.

·      Math Opportunities during lunch every day (Students are hand picked to attend based on academic progress. )

·      Hired ELA and Math Interventionists to help analyze student performance data, design and deliver interventions. Current focus is Algebra 1 and 10 grade English.

·      Development of the academic intervention team comprised of admin, teachers and interventionists. Meets weekly.

·      Intervention team participating in professional development to learn about successful intervention systems and ways to implement effective interventions. 

·      Intervention team visiting schools around the state with successful intervention systems in place.

·      Department Chairs participating in a book study on the book Rigor is not a Four Letter Word. By Barbara Blackburn

·      10^th grade ELA teacher and intervention team have developed a system for promoting concept mastery.  Formative Assessment results are used to group students for targeted intervention.

·      Admin review of three-week progress reports.  All freshmen students with two or more Fs have are called for individual conference with a CHS administrator.  (Same for seniors following 9 first quarter grades)

·      Student Skill vs. Will analysis by teachers of core classes. Intervention team s designs appropriate interventions based on whether the student’s low grades are a result of Skill vs. Will.

·      Following first quarter grades, adjustments have been made with student schedules.

·      Counselors are examining student academic progress and in the process of designing group counseling interventions to support student success. (Coming soon)

·      P.E. Department working to incorporate academic study hall for struggling students.

·      Link Crew: Upper classmen form connections with Freshmen students to help with the transition from middle to high school.

·      Although the Tier 3 behavior intervention (ISS) is intended as a behavioral intervention students are required to use their time in ISS to make up missing work.

These are the interventions we know about.  Knowing that there are more, we would like to hear from you.  What interventions or remediations do you as individual teachers, and/or Collaborative Teams employ?  Inquiring minds want to know:)

 Informal Observations 

As I mentioned in the Panther Report back in August, we are using the The Thoughtful Classroom Teacher Effectiveness framework to guide our informal walk-through observations.  Our focus for the next nine weeks will be  Presenting New Learning. The question, "How does the teacher present new learning and provide opportunities for students to actively engage in content?" will guide our walk-through observations for November and December.  We look forward to spending time in your classrooms as the semester continues. 

Halloween 
The good news is that Halloween falls on a Saturday this year. The additional good news is that it is spirit week at CHS and Friday is School Spirit day.  In spite of the good news,  we will inevitably have students who want to express their inner child and come dressed in their Halloween costumes on Friday. School dress code still applies; no full face paint, masks or head coverings of any kind will be permitted.  Thank you!

End of Fall Pep Assembly
In keeping with the CHS tradition, we will have a fall pep assembly this Friday, October 30. The schedule for classes will be as follows: 

1st hour:  7:50-8:35

2nd hour:  8:40-9:25

3rd hour:  9:30-10:15

4th/5th hour:  10:20-11:05

Combined Lunch:  11:05-11:35

6th hour:  11:40-12:25

7th hour:  12:30-1:15

Assembly:  1:20-2:20

*Please accompany your classes to the gym and 7th period prep teachers please be in the hallways at 1:15 to help direct students to the gym.  THANK YOU!

College Application Campaign
The halls are alive with all kinds of College, Community College, University and other post high school learning institutions.  The pennants, banners, posters and decorations look great. Thank you Laura Locke and the interior design class students for all your work.  We are looking forward to the door displays in the next few weeks.  The college Application campaign is a national campaign to encourage all seniors to complete a college application. The dates for this event at CHS are November 4 and 5. Doors will be judged on November 5. 

Have a great week!

Please acknowledge that you have read this post by clicking here.