Upcoming Events……

• Tuesday, June 15th……… Regents Examinations Begin
• Tuesday, June 15th………Board of Education Voting Meeting

• Thursday, June 24th……..Data Day Activities
• Thursday, June 24th……..Senior Awards Night
• Friday, June 25th…………Last day for teachers… Faculty Meetings in all buildings.
• Friday, June 25th………..Graduation at UB Center for the Arts

Notes and Thoughts for the Days Ahead…..

Business First……. …..

Business First released its lists of WNY schools this past week. I never get too excited by the lists. They are comparative of one school against another rather than against a standard. However, they are a data source that we can attend to. And being comparative, they provide a mechanism to gauge our continued growth and progress against.   The list of Districts establishes an “honor roll” of schools scoring over 90 points on an index. ELA 4 stars (19th) Science 3 stars (41st) Mathematics 24th (4 stars), Social Studies 19th (4 stars)As a District, Sweet Home dropped from 13th to 18th but we remain on the Honor Roll. All of our individual schools fell back somewhat. In the core subject areas rankings: ELA 4 stars (19th overall),  Science 3 stars (41st),  Mathematics 24th (4 stars), Social Studies 19th (4 stars).  All rankings are comparative against other districts and may rely on vey small margins to create hte lists thus masking actual performance.   This won’t  be a source of overreaction but rather a source of reflection on our program.

Data Day……This year’s data day is next Thursday. Every team needs to analyze data to determine the topics in their curriculum that need improvement. They should also identify the topics where the kids perform best. They should consider what in the instruction or assessment might be creating that strong performance in order to replicate it.  In areas of weakness, the learning goals needing improvement need to be specified and a strong assessment designed. From there, consider how to add more thought and engagement to facilitate deeper learning. One strategy that never misses is the use of a extended explanatory writing. Generating explanations requires lots of thought and connections between content.  Provide enough content, force connections and require students to expand their thinking- learning will occur.

Reflections on the Year……. …..

With less than two weeks remaining in this school year, I am again amazed at how fast a year goes by. I’ve completed my 22nd year in education and it really doesn’t seem that long ago that I was sitting in my first opening day meeting as a teacher in 1988.

In looking back on 2009-10, it was a year to be proud of- much was accomplished as we move forward in our quest to be the very best school district in Western New York.

• Literacy Collaborative-  We began in each elementary school to organize teams to focus on early literacy and the Marie Clay continuum.
• Expansion of Reading Recovery-   We expanded Reading Recovery to all four elementary schools to help our neediest grade one students.
• Literacy Coaching-  while there were glitches and hurdles to overcome, we added coaching as a vehicle to help foster more professional learning and help improve learning for kids. Thanks to Amy Zack and Margaret Connolly for all their hard work and to all the teachers kinds enough to offer some time to give us some feedback on the process.
• Math Benchmarking- We used DOMA and Aimsweb in the early grades to benchmark student progress in Mathematics. This broadens our use of Response to Intervention. A concept that Sweet Home is a leader in.
• Moodle
• Read 180 Expansion- Students in all four elementary buildings participated in Read 180- the Middle School being a fifth.  Read 180 is a proven intervention and most kids in the program make strong gains as readers.
• International Academy Graduation- The high school “graduated” its first class of sophomores from the International Academy. This represented a redesign of the High School Honors program to bring greater clarity, rigor and structure to the program.
• Senior Project-20 seniors completed a rigorous research experience that culminated in a 15 page paper and a public exhibition of their learning. A nice crowd viewed the work and talked to the kids at their displays.  This project is truly the beginning incarnation of our vision- a closing task that requires sound thought, deep learning, communication  and persuasion skills.
• Senior English- The menu choices to meet requirements for Senior ELA was streamlined and courses redesigned to add a measure of rigor. The course work was strong- both our own local courses and the NUSTEP/ Niagara University courses.  This sets a strong bar for our students and program to rise to.
• Freshmen Seminar- The High School completed its first year of its ninth grade course that helps get students ready for a new level of rigor, helps them learn about careers and career outlooks, provides a glimpse into college and helps the build a more cohesive plan for the future.  While there were some bumps, overall, the first year was quite successful.
• Teacher Rounds- Another three dozen teacher rounds were completed with Vic Klein this year. Some strong lessons were crafted and numerous teachers added to their teaching repertoire.
• Visioning For Our Future- Through our District CDEP team, we crafted a concrete vision for our schools and District’s future. It is a vision based upon increased rigor and expectation for all students, high expectations for student performance in State exams and local benchnark tasks.

Looking Ahead……. …..

Next year, we’ll begin our work to implement our District vision. We’ll take a look at graduation pathways and career clusters. We’ll be looking to add web-based technology delivery tools- aka Moodle – into our courses. We’ll implement the first “cornerstone tasks” in mathematics and will add common assessment tasks in Elementary Science. We’ll seek to expand literacy coaching to all four elementary schools and continue enhancing our work with the literacy collaborative.  We’ll continue our work to integrate technology into our curriculum through Model Schools projects. Finally, we’ll be seeking to establish anchor papers for writing at all grade levels and we’ll seek to map each unit in all courses in the middle and high school. We’ll also continue to build the effectiveness of our CDEP/ PLC teams and get them all spending some time on common efforts.

Raising rigor and increasing student production are critical next steps in our efforts as a learning community.

Saying Goodluck……. …..

Next week will offer a last class for some talented educators: Doug Fronczek, Dave Harrison, Maria Emmy, Lynn LeFauve, Pat Wattengel and Nancy Mendola. We thank them for all their hard work and dedication to Sweet Home.  We don’t say good-bye- we say good luck. We hope they will stay in touch- so good by isn’t the right sentiment. Good luck- as they begin the next phase of their lives.

And, for me, a special good bye. I have had the distinct pleasure of working very closely with Geoff Hicks during the past twelve years. Geoff is a man of intellect, vision, passion and loyalty. He has helpe our district and its kids tremendously. He has helped me more than he can know by pushing my thinking and challenging me to be my best. Many districts never have the opportunity to experience such leadership. Geoff- thanks for everything- its been fun.