#cpchat

Week 13 at New Albany High School!

Dwight Carter Curriculum and Instruction, Focus on Students, Leadership , , , , ,

Staff News
Congratulations to Concord Counselor, Brandy Smith, and her husband as they are expecting their first child!

Substitute teacher Shannon Book shared with me the following information to let me know how our students feel about our Math Department:

Dear Teacher“I was subbing for Mrs. Morlan’s AP Calc AB class this morning and as the students were working diligently on a small group assignment, they started an impromptu discussion about how our math department is “stacked” (their actual quote) with talent. I overheard one student say, “Unfortunately, I got an A- that year but I learned so much I can’t complain.” The students named all of the teachers they had up to this point and they had great things to say about each one. Many of these kids plan to become engineers and, although they pointed out many people drop out of engineering programs after the first year, they felt they would be well prepared.

The best part about this conversation was it wasn’t prompted by anyone. It was a very candid and reflective conversation the students had on their own about the quality of education they have received at New Albany. Priceless.”

Students As Learners
Chemistry teacher Mary Cook facilitated a uniqueTeaching Cycle lab for her students a few days ago. It included formative assessment strategies that guided her instruction and required students to not just acquire knowledge, but also apply it to unknown situations. She states,

“College Prep Chemistry students are starting our unit on gas behavior and these lab stations are the first activity where students explore relationships between different variables by taking observations at different stations. After students collect observations, they identify the variables and constants for each station and then develop a particle level explanation and visual diagrams that support their collected evidence. Students then present their explanations at the particle level during white boarding group discussion to come up with the best explanation and visual representation (particle level and graphical). They then apply these explanations to more real world scenarios.”

BettsSpanish teacher Lisa Betts designed a lesson to help students apply the language to real-world scenarios during class last week. Following is a description of the activity:

“My students were given the task of creating a skit with at least a doctor, nurse and patient. The patient had to seek help for at least two ailments; the doctor and nurse had to gather information from the patient about what was going on, what symptoms s/he has, what occurred, what injury they might have, how it happened, etc. An exam had to be given to ascertain a final diagnosis, and then the doctor had to give some sort of course of action to help the person feel better. It was a total riot!”

Art teacher Juliette Montague’s students havegrowth-ahead made significant progress in their drawing ability! She recently shared a few artworks as evidence of student growth for her Student Learning Objective. I applaud the students’ attention to detail and perseverance. Check out this brief video that captures where students started and where they are now!

Veteran's Day Thank You Cards
Intervention Specialist Taylor Pinnick used Veterans Day as an opportunity for her students to send a care package to her boyfriend’s unit in the Army National Guard, who are currently deployed. Students from the Special Education Department at New Albany, from elementary school to high school, as well as SLC F in the 2-5 building, wrote letters and created cards to send to the unit. Students collected over 100 cards to send, as well as some special treats to help with the heat!
Veterans-Day-Pinterest-Pictures
Humanities teachers Sara Hric and Rachel Braswell celebrated Veterans Day by asking students to interview a current soldier or veteran and capture their experience. This assignment corresponds with their reading of Homer’s Iliad and The Odyssey where they are discussing the experience of the soldier/veteran. Students will also participate in a Socratic Seminar to discuss their findings. I observed a few groups of students perform skits about scenes from The Odyssey and a major part of the skit summary was to explain the connection to the soldier as they highlighted Greek values.

2015-16 School Theme
2015-16 School Theme
Fall Sports Wrap Up by Athletic Director Kevin Reed

The New Albany Eagles completed another fantastic fall sports campaign with multiple awards, honors and team accomplishments. Coming off a 6th consecutive Ralph Young all sports award, all eyes were on the Eagles as New Albany athletics has become the envy of central Ohio athletic programs. Of the 11 fall sports New Albany offers, all but 1 finished with a winning record. 15 Eagle athletes were named to the First Team All OCC-Capital teams, 12 were named to the Second Team All OCC-Capital teams, 1 to the Third Team All OCC-Capital, 3 to the Special Mention All OCC-Capital and 11 were named Honorable Mention ALL OCC-Capital.
OCC Capital
The boys golf team wrapped up their 6th consecutive OCC title by completing an undefeated OCC season (28-0). The boys golfers also wrapped up a terrific season by finishing 3rd in the sectional tournament and 6th at the district tournament. Girls tennis head coach Marc Thomas was named OCC-Capital Coach of the Year and Junior singles player Alex Cash was Sectional champion and a state qualifier. Cash was also named to the All State Tennis Team and Player of the Year in the OCC-Capital Conference Senior Amit Greenshtein was named Player of the Year in the OCC-Capital Conference for boys soccer. Four Eagle athletes were named to All District teams:
Alex Cash- girls tennis
Maddy Largent – volleyball
MiCayla Nash – volleyball
Kiana Khorrami – girls soccer

The girls soccer team, under 1st year head coach Kelly Snead, had a great tournament run finishing as District Runner Up with a tough 2-1 loss to Upper Arlington in the district final.
Girls Soccer Team

Senior football player Alex Boffo was named an OCC football scholar athlete. Junior girls tennis player Taylor Selby was a sectional runner-up. Junior Christina Vitellas and Sophomore Makena Romagnano tennis players were sectional runners up in doubles while Junior Jessica Von Zastrow and Freshman Valentina DiLorenzo placed 3rd in the girls sectional doubles tournament.

Aside from the boys golf OCC title, the girls tennis team were OCC runners up. Football, girls soccer and boys cross country finished 3rdin the OCC-Capital. Field Hockey finished 4th in their league. Boys soccer, volleyball and girls cross country finished 5th in the OCC-Capital and the girls golf team finished 6th.

Despite the target on all Eagle athletic teams, New Albany ended the fall season 3rd in the Ralph Young all sports race with 45 points; 12 points behind leader Olentangy and 10 points behind Olentangy Orange. Congratulations to our fall sports coaches and athletes!

Upcoming EventsKiss Me, Kate Poster
Monday, November 16th- #CelebrateMonday; BOE Meeting 6:30 pm Mershad Auditorium
Tuesday, November 17th- #BowTieTuesday
Thursday, November 19th-Kiss Me, Kate 7:00 pm McCoy
Friday, November 20th- Kiss Me, Kate 7:00 pm McCoy
Saturday, November 21st- Kiss Me, Kate 7:00 pm McCoy
Sunday, November 22nd- Kiss Me, Kate 2:30 pm

Video Worth Watching
What Students Really Need to Hear

Be Great,

Dwight

My Letter To My New Staff #NAHSeaglespride

Dwight Carter Leadership, School Climate, Staff and Faculty , ,

July 30, 2014
NA LogoDear NAHS Team Member,

We are in one of the most exciting times to be an educator. We are facing many challenges, yet we have some of the best opportunities to engage learners, the community, and each other to continue to shape what teaching and learning can look like at New Albany High School.

New Albany High School: Over 130 Staff and Faculty (Staffulty), 1300 students, 2600 parents, and 1 focus: To be Great. What does greatness mean? Greatness is neither a destination, nor a moment in time, but it is a journey towards a consistent pattern of behavior that results in constant progress and achievement. We often celebrate great moments in our lives, like anniversaries, graduations, birthdays, victories, and other milestones. Schools should look for moments to celebrate students and Staffulty as often as we can with intentionality and purpose in order to create an environment where all have a sense of belonging.

I hope this letter finds you in good health, relaxed, and rejuvenated for a great year at NAHS. I appreciate your enthusiastic reception in April, as it was very welcoming. I enjoyed the Peace Week Kickoff ceremony and the other activities you invited me to in the spring! I am looking forward to getting to know you and learn more about the rich traditions and history of NAHS.

Meeting with the Principal
As the start of school is quickly approaching, I invite each departmentconversations-matter to meet with me, including Administrative Assistants/Secretaries, and Cafeteria Staff and Custodians, to discuss successes, your hopes and dreams for our future, and what steps we can take together to make NAHS even better. If you are able to attend, these will be informal conversations so there is no need to bring anything. I understand some of you may be on vacation during these times so if you can’t make it, we can meet at another time. Your family and personal time comes first.

Below is a list of dates and times that I have set aside for us to meet:
Friday, August 8th: 9:00-10:00 AM; 10:15-11:15 AM
Monday, August 11th: 10:15-11:15 AM; 1:00-2:00 PM
Tuesday, August 12th: 9:00-10:00 AM; 10:15-11:15 AM; 1:00-2:00 PM
Wednesday, August 13th, 9:00-10:00 AM; 10:15-11:15 AM; 1:00-2:00 PM
Thursday, August 14th: 9:00-10:00 AM; 10:15-11:15 AM; 1:00-2:00 PM
Friday, August 15th: 9:00-10:00 AM

Department Chairs, please call or email Sherrie Kauffman to set up an appointment. Again, this is not mandatory or an expectation, but simply an invitation for us to talk. Please let Sherrie know the room number where you want to meet.

Staff and Faculty Family Picnic!
Please mark your calendars and make plans to attend the 2014-2015 Staffulty Picnic on Sunday, August 17th at Jefferson Community Park in Gahanna from 4:30-8:30 PM! The building administrators will fire up the grill and provide the burgers, hotdogs, and brats, as well as the beverages and paper products. You will receive a Google Doc for you to RSVP and let us know what side dish you will bring. You are encouraged to bring your spouse or significant other and children for a fun and festive time together as a NAHS Family! If you have any games, such as Corn Hole, Badminton, or Volleyball, please bring it.

New Years in August!
Traditionally the start of a new year is celebrated on December 31. Many people spend that time either celebrating, praying, reflecting, and resolving to do things differently in the future. But, why wait until December?

We are ringing in the 2014-2015 school year with a “Happy New Year” celebration the first thing in the morning on August 25! To help welcome our students, you are invited to join us outside along the front sidewalk leading to the E Lobby and at the at entrance doors at the bus loop to enthusiastically greet students as they enter the building! If you are interested in joining us, we’ll gather at 7:15 AM. Together, we can make it a very memorable start to a new school year!

School Theme
NAHS You MatterIn order to foster an even greater sense of community and build upon the traditions of NAHS such as high academic honors, athletic championships, quality performance and visual arts, House, House Games, Peace Week, and Senior Seminar, I would like to introduce the use of an annual theme. The purpose of a theme is to convey a message within a story. The theme will be our annual mission in that it will highlight our approach to teaching, learning, school culture, and the celebration of our success. The stories we create and tell this year will focus on creating community.

This year’s theme is “YOU Matter.” Together, we will create a sense of oneness and make every effort to show each individual student and Staffulty member how important they are to the overall success of NAHS. “YOU Matter” focuses on the whole person, including academic success, attendance, attitude, participation in athletics, the arts, and school sponsored activities. More information will be coming throughout the year. In the meantime, I encourage you to spend some quality time the first week of school establishing positive relationships with students. The following are a few examples of how to incorporate our theme this year:

● Create a class blog and post a topic on the board for students to write about as a bell ringer. Sample topics include, “What is one challenge you have overcome in the last week?,” “What have you done to make someone else’s day?,” “What is one way you can make a positive difference at NAHS this week?,” and “Who are two students you have met this week and what did you learn about them?”

● Place a blank name tag on students’ desk and ask them to write an adjective of how they feel that day. For example, “Hello, I am grateful!” Then take a few minutes and ask for a few volunteers to share their adjective.

● Random Act of Kindness Cards can be distributed throughout the first quarter as a way to tangibly let someone know they made a difference.

I have a special request. It would be a welcoming sight as our students, parents, and guests entered the building if they were greeted by a large bulletin board of pictures of our Staffulty. However, instead of the standard school picture, you are invited to drop off to Sherrie a 3X5 or 4X6 picture of you and your family, or you doing your favorite hobby, to be added to our Staffulty collage. For example, I may submit a family photo we took for my daughter’s first birthday. Be creative and let your personality shine!

New Staffulty and Changes
We have added a few new members to the team and we are excited to have them with us!

Assistant Principal-Kristy Venne (former Dean of Students)
Dean of Students-Todd Keenan
Director of Special Ed-Sheila Saunders
Mandarin Chinese- Sammie Si Zhao
Receptionist-Lynn Guthrie (former Instructional Aide)
School Counselor Secretary- Shannon Gominez
Spanish-Hannah Macko
Special Ed-Dawn Psurny
Special Ed- Eric Jablonka
Wellness- Dominique Alexander
Welcome Center Registrar- Robin Davison (former School Counselor Secretary)

Important Dates
August 11th -New Student Orientation – Monday, August 11th 9:00-11:00 AM
August 17th- Staffulty and Family Picnic-Sunday, August 17th 4:30-8:30 PM at Jefferson Community Park in Gahanna
August 18th- Schedule Pick up for Seniors and Juniors: 9:00-Noon and 1:00-4:00 PM
August 19th- Schedule Pick up for Sophomores and Freshmen: 8:00-Noon and 1:00-4:00 PM
August 20th- Opening Convocation/District In-Service-no students
August 21st- Professional Learning
August 22nd- Staff Work Day
August 25th- First Day of School

I look forward to serving as your Principal!

Be Great,

Dwight

Reflections From A Student Teacher: Edcamp Columbus

Dwight Carter Curriculum and Instruction, Staff and Faculty , , , , ,

At Gahanna Lincoln High School, we have a number of student-teachers every quarter. I take this as a compliment to the quality teachers we have and the desire for colleges to have their student-teachers learn from great practitioners. I’ve been every impressed by one young man from The Ohio State University named, Johnathan Duff (@mrduffedu), because of the way he engages students in the classroom and for his eagerness to learn. He attended Edcamp Columbus, so I’ve asked him to share his experience with us:

edcamp columbus.png2

On Saturday March 1, 2014, the second annual EdCamp Columbus was held at Gahanna Lincoln High School’s Clark Hall. As a student teacher working in Clark Hall, I could not pass up the opportunity to engage other educators and to further my professional development in the very building I have been working in since August.

EdCamp Columbus comes out of the EdCamp movement that was started in Philadelphia in 2010. EdCamps are opportunities for educators to come together, share ideas and discuss what matters to them, and become drivers of their own professional development. EdCamp labels itself as an “unconference.” Rather that having a pre-determined schedule with session identified well in advance, the sessions held at each conference are determined by the attendees the day of the event. Have a topic you want to present or to discuss with fellow educators? Find an open slot on the day’s schedule (a.k.a. The Big Board) and write it in. Other attendees will see your proposal and those who are interested can attend. It is as simple as that.

A focus of my student teaching and my work as a Masters of Education student at the Ohio State University has been on making connections between my students’ service, their learning, and their understanding of civic engagement. I teach 5 sections of Government and work with all Seniors who have to complete a service component called the Service Activity Project. From a young age, service has always been very important to me. My focus on service learning has allowed me to align a personal passion, the reality of my classroom, and the research I am doing for Ohio State. Coming in to EdCamp Columbus, it was my hope that there would be a session related to service learning or civic engagement. As the time before the first session dwindled, openings remained on the Big Board and there were no sessions on service or civics. Seeing this as an opportunity, I decided to embrace the spirit of the “unconference” and proposed a session entitled “Connecting learning and service towards critical civic engagement.”

I was very happy to find out that I was not alone in my interest on these topics. The session was attended by a range of individuals – elementary teachers, high school teachers, government teachers, science teachers, and even a district’s technology specialist. Gahanna Jefferson Public Schools were well represented with GLHS science teacher, Jason Hardin, and Jefferson Elementary teacher, Ashley Sands, both attending and actively participating.

What is great about EdCamp is that sessions can be more of a discussion than a presentation. To borrow educational terminology, EdCamp is “attendee-centered” rather than “presenter-centered.” I kicked off the session by introducing myself and why I proposed the session – I am a pre-service teacher who is passionate about service and works with students who are doing service. I am interested in ways to connect students’ classroom learning with their service with the aim of getting them to think more critically about their role and engagement in society. Towards this end, I designed a service project in which students spent a Saturday conducting home repairs for an area senior. While successful, I am interested in other ways to improve my practice of connecting learning to service and civic engagement. Other session attendees shared their background and interest in the topics before we turned to the issues at hand.

Throughout the session, discussion flourished. As a group, we discussed the service requirements that exist in our schools and examples of service learning that we have participated in. Vibrant discussion was held around civic education and how it needs to start at a young age and extend beyond just the social studies classroom. The concept of the “common good” is not something that is limited to the study of the social world and thus work towards it should not be limited to social studies.

An item that became a major focus of the session was student choice. Rather than the focus and design of the service being determined by the teacher, attendees agreed that students should be involved throughout the process. Asking students “What do you care about? What do you want to work on?” will empower them and make their service and the learning that accompanies it all the more meaningful. The role of the teacher then becomes to guide and scaffold them through the process. Teachers also play the important part of helping students reflect on their service. Teachers should guide students to reflect before, during, and after their service. This can be done through discussion, writing assignments, and the strategic use of technology. It is important that the reflection that is done is critical and challenges the students to reflect on their lives and the nature of society and its institutions.

As the session was attended by a diverse group of educators, the topic of cross curricular collaboration was heavily discussed. Just as civic engagement can incorporate multiple content areas, so too can service and it need not be compartmentalized – government, science, and english teachers (just to name a few) can all collaborate. Ideas such as having students research the need and causes of the need of service, working with students to write grant proposals, using various mediums to document and tell the story of service all provide opportunities for skills from various content areas to be incorporated into service to others.

EdCamp sessions were blocked out in 50 minute time slots. By the end of our 50 minutes, the discussion was in full swing and participants were not ready to wrap up. It was decided that to continue our conversation, we would move our discussion online by creating a shared Google Doc. Herein lies the great value of EdCamp – not only do we get to come together with like minded educators to share ideas, but the conversation does not have to stop there. Bring a group of passionate educators together and the learning community they develop will extend beyond the Saturday they spent together in Clark Hall.

I applaud Johnathan for not only taking the time to attend his first Edcamp, but for having the courage to lead a session. This is an excellent example of what the Edcamp experience is all about!

Be Great,

Dwight

They Have A Voice

Dwight Carter Curriculum and Instruction, Focus on Students , , , ,

Vintage-Microphone-Wallpaper-music-28520386-1280-1024Students at Gahanna Lincoln High School never cease to amaze me. Last week, we held our second annual performance of, Diaspora: Voices of An Ever-Changing America. It’s a culmination of student talent, from monologues to spoken word and hip hop dancing. The purpose is to highlight the contributions African Americans have made to the culture of America.

Four staff members worked closely with students to organize the entire show: English teacher, Donja Bridges (@donjab); Dean of Curriculum, Tia Holliman (@Ms_Holliman); School Psychologist, Johnel Amerson; and Family Consumer Science teacher, Keah Germany. They collaborated with students to create a shared vision for the program, develop an action plan, and select the performances. They wanted to not only educate the audience, but to entertain. It’s awesome to see what students can do when they have an authentic audience, supportive staff members, constant feedback, and time to practice.

I was thoroughly impressed by all the presentations and asked two students to share their original poems with me so I could include them in this post. They have a voice. They have something to say, and they want to make a difference. The first poem is by senior, Cymone Turner, and it’s entitled, I’m A Beautiful Colored Girl:
I am beautiful
I am amazing
I am good enough

You think I’m being cocky no I’m just giving back the gallons of confidence I deserve being colored. What am I saying? We’ll let me break It down for you.

I look out into the world today
I see different colors races shades
All mixed together in this beautiful concoction we like to call the 21st century
Why is this such a big deal?
Ha well because back in the day my skin wasn’t right. It wasn’t acceptable.
I was nasty
I was disgusting
I was dirty
I was a foul beast
Now do I look like beast to you?
I mean I might bite but it won’t hurt for that long
Ha it wasn’t right to be Not white
Dark as night
Not shining bright
But your little chocolate bite
It was whack to be black
But I’m telling you it’s lame to be ashamed
I can’t help my skin I was born in
I can’t help that I am black
I’m happy to be Black
Matter fact I’m happy to be Cymone.

The second poem is by junior, Adam Davis, and it’s entitled, Real Life:

I’ve been thinking all day there’s a lot on my mind
And see I would rather say
It in the booth because in person I might hurt somebody’s feelings
And I’m not saying names I’m just speaking how I’m feeling
The truth hurts you can die if you lie
So I try not to reply
To those guys with wicked eyes
I can feel it when our hands shake
I’m not for you
If your man folds under pressure he’s not loyal
See he was just trying to make it to his house wearing a hood
But some how he is misunderstood
But July 13th the jury didn’t understand
That George Zimmerman was a grown man
And that Trayvon didn’t need any hands to help with his own plans
The sky’s the limit I am reaching for impossible
If Obama can be the president then anything is possible
And I’m just speaking for myself I know what I can do
But as long as you have God on your side there’s no stopping you
Young kid with a lot of heart
I was blinded by all of America but its ok because I hear them talk
I hear the whispers in the dark
And since they like to act they can play ground no park
When the sun shines that’s when the bees out
When it rains that when the killers and the thieves out
Blacks get treated like rats that’s why the Government throws cheese out
I was taught to rise above or he is out
And its a sad way of living
Some young brothers is dead some of them locked in prison
Some of them have jobs some of them don’t yet
Some of them still ride some of them switched sets
I’m just a diamond in the dirt
Forget all my people cause family comes first
I wish that was true
But that’s a lie too
Because I have a couple of cousins hating on what I do
How do you think that makes me feel?
Stuff real I have a lot of enemies I’m alone in this field
Death disrupts the streets so I’m thinking about my will
I am sitting at this table breaking bread into a meal
My mind is going crazy so I think that’s why I’m numb
And America being perfect is something its far from
I’m never happy cause I’m living in a stressed world
I’m from where people is dying and they stress girls
I wish I could bring Trayvon back
God if you listening run and tell that
And tell America that the justice system is all wrong
But life is like music its an end to all songs.

The audience was moved by Cymone and Adam’s words because they spoke with such confidence and authority. Their passion was evident and their message pierced our hearts. I am proud of the staff members for creating the conditions for not only Cymone and Adam to use their voices, but for all the participants in Diaspora. #glhsfamily

Be Great,

Dwight

Among Experts

Dwight Carter Curriculum and Instruction, Leadership, Staff and Faculty , , ,

Professional-Learning-NetworkI attended the Ohio ASCD Conference on Tuesday, January 16th and heard former State Superintendent, Stan Heffner, deliver a compelling keynote presentation. He shared the three main correlates of successful schools: instructional leadership, a positive school climate and culture, and frequent monitoring. An example he gave of effective instructional leadership is when teachers share best practices. He said,

“The best professional development in the world is when teachers can collaborate and share ideas.”

I couldn’t agree more. For example, still to this day, the best professional development I ever experienced was being a facilitator for our school’s Critical Friends Group, which was a group of teachers who were given four periods a month to research curriculum, instruction, and assessment strategies, review lesson plans, and reflect on our daily work. It was energizing, relevant, and job-embedded professional learning. I’ve been able to recapture this through the use of social media, but it’s still not quite the same.

One of my goals as a building principal is to use our staff meetings as learning opportunities because it’s one of the few times we are all together at the same time. Admittedly, I have not been as successful with this as I want to be. However, the other day at our staff meeting, the teachers were engaged in meaningful conversations about their best lesson from first semester. Assistant Principal, Tim Gagliardo (@TimGagliardo1), did an outstanding job facilitating this activity. He used story, imagery, and video to introduce the activity. He shared a powerful scene from Dead Poet’s Society to set the stage.

Following the video and introduction, we divided the staff into groups of 8 and asked the following questions:

What was your best lesson/unit from first semester?
What did you enjoy most about it?
What did the students enjoy most about it?
What did the students learn and why?

Once the groups were created, a scribe was assigned per group, and questions posted, the room was energized by the examples being shared, questions asked, laughter, and positive reinforcement. Some examples shared by the scribes are:

Geometry teacher, Tyler Winner, uses Lesson Summary Sheets to increase students’ meta-cognition skills. These were created because numerous students and parents were unaware of their poor grades 2nd quarter. This Summary Sheet has increased attendance to the Pass Room as students can earn 1% on assessments if they get teacher help outside of class. This is helping students develop good study habits and helping the teacher to keep students more accountable.

A.P. Literature, Chris Wagner, helped students put their egos aside and avoid just looking at their essay grade by having students rank all the essays in class. Essays were listed by ID numbers instead of names to keep anonymity and help students to be more critical. Students were very engaged and paid attention to their peer feedback!

English teacher, Becky Rice, designed a lesson devoted to helping students find independent reading material in Honors English 10, which has led to a Google Doc the class uses to share book recommendations and a blog about favorite reads!

One teacher has implemented “Listening Quizzes” to help students pay attention better in class and not just regurgitate what’s in the book or notes, but participate in class discussions more.

Chinese teacher, Mike Kralovic, does a lesson on bargaining. The classroom is set up with little shops and the students are taught how to bargain for the items they want. This exposes them to the language and culture.  While they are doing this they call it “Barguing.”

During the Industrial Revolution unit, American History teachers had students look at an invention and figure out why that invention was needed, how it was inspired, and where will it be in the future.

Choir teacher, Jeremy Lahman, uses SoundCloud to record student performances and then posts it on Twitter. The students can assess themselves and this increases engagement because they have a large authentic audience.

There were many more examples shared and it was exciting to take some time to celebrate what is going on in classrooms every day at Gahanna Lincoln High School.

Be Great,



Dwight

Guest Post by English Teacher, Matt McGregor: The Best Meetings Ever

Dwight Carter Focus on Students, Leadership, Staff and Faculty , , , , ,

At Gahanna Lincoln High School, we’ve been moving towards becoming a Professional Learning Community and not just doing “PLCs”. It’s been a challenging process in that time is the obvious obstacle. However, a group of teachers has modeled exactly what we want to make happen systemically. I’ve asked English teacher and National Guard Veteran, Matt McGregor, to share his insight on why PLCs are effective for our English 9 teachers.

I believe people working together can solve problems, problems that would be insurmountable to individuals working alone. I have witnessed this phenomenon firsthand in wildly different careers in my life, from the battlefields of Iraq to public education. This idea, in education, is often expressed as Professional Learning Communities (PLC). I define PLCs simply as teachers working collaboratively in order to improve student learning. As with most ideas, one can find studies that support the idea of PLCs and studies that claim the opposite, but in my experience, PLCs are an extremely effective strategy for increasing student achievement.

I have been in the Ohio Army National Guard since 1998. The Army runs meetings very well. We had a meeting agenda and template for every meeting I attended. Entire Army manuals have been written to help in planning and running meetings. When I joined a PLC at our school in 2010, the group consisted of some of the most caring, talented teachers I’ve ever met. However, they did not have experience in how to run a successful meeting. These meetings were ineffective and didn’t accomplish much. I was in the midst of getting my Masters in Educational Leadership and was reading Creating Dynamic Schools Through Mentoring, Coaching, and Collaboration, by Judy Carr. Carr had an example agenda that was similar to some of the Army templates I’d used. I adapted it and created an agenda on a PowerPoint for our next PLC.

PLC1I showed up early for that next meeting, set up, and asked to run the meeting, and they humored me. We began by creating a goal for the PLC and then discussed ground rules for all of the meetings. After the ground rules were in place, we assigned roles and responsibilities, decided on when the first common assessment would take place and what it should focus on, and planned for the next meeting. At first this structure was uncomfortable for the group, but we agreed. This was all accomplished on time, and we were walking out the door at 50 minutes. One of my colleagues, who has taught at GLHS for eight years, informed me after the meeting that it was the most productive meeting she’d ever attended.
PLC2

Teachers were enthusiastic for the next meeting. This organization wasn’t anything I had invented; I simply implemented proven practices I’d learned.

We learned as a group that first year, not just about our teaching styles but about ourselves asPLC3 well. We had disagreements but always came to a consensus. As a group, we created four common assessments based on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) from scratch. We collected and analyzed data from those assessments and then compared our data side-by-side with PowerPoint and a projector. Through the data, we discovered the strategies and curriculum that were most effective and replicated them, and as a result, our teaching changed. We were able to eliminate redundancy and focus on what students were and were not learning. We specifically and purposely addressed these issues. We also learned to trust each other.

I’ve found there is one question to ask in order to see how much a PLC is truly accomplishing: “What do you do for the students who have already learned the material?” As teachers, we all know it is very easy to focus on the students who aren’t achieving acceptable results. It is another beast entirely to design curriculum for students who already know the material and want to be challenged, and are sitting beside students who don’t. We don’t pretend to have all the answers, and that last question is an issue we will be addressing ad infinitum. But we are and will continue to address it. We have an amazing group of very smart teachers who truly care about students. We can accomplish anything.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

I couldn’t agree more.

Be Great,

Dwight

Connecting With New Teachers

Dwight Carter Leadership, School Climate, Staff and Faculty , , , , ,

connecting-with-othersA couple of years ago, a second year teacher stopped by my office after school and asked if we could talk. The look on her face had me concerned so, of course, I welcomed her to have a seat. I thought she was going to share her concerns about student behavior or wanted help to solve a problem. Man, was I was wrong. What she said to me made a lasting impression…

As soon as she started to talk, tears started to flow from her eyes and she apologetically said, “I accepted a position in another district.” I shallowed hard because I was completely shocked. I felt blindsided, and immediately started to ask myself where we went wrong, where I went wrong as the principal. She said she needed a change, that she didn’t always feel supported or heard. Her comments were difficult to hear, but I appreciated her honesty. It was at the point that I vowed to myself to do everything within my control to prevent this from happening again under my watch as building principal.

One of our goals at Gahanna Lincoln High School is for every student, teacher, and parent to have a sense of belonging. It’s a lofty goal and we take it seriously. Losing that young, promising, and passionate teacher showed me that I, we, needed to do a better job of connecting with our new teachers. We hired 17 new teachers this school year; some with zero years of experience and a few with 4-6 years of experience. Nevertheless, I decided to meet with them once a month in an informal setting to simply give us an opportunity to connect, share, reflect, learn from each other.

It’s key to keep these meetings informal. There is no agenda, the teachers don’t have to prepare anything, and they aren’t assigned anything to do. We just talk. We first met in our Library Media Center in September, but decided together to meet at Panera, which is on our campus, for the rest of the year.It’s been amazing to hear their stories, their reflective thoughts about their craft, their suggestions on how we can get better, and to see how they support each other.

Admittedly, not all of them come each month and I’m fine with that. It’s simply an invitation to attend, not a mandate. I have asked a few questions to guide our discussion, but most of the time we go where the conversation takes us. Some of the questions asked are as follows:

*What has been the most successful thing you’ve done so far?
*How are you taking care of yourself physically?
*What do you do for fun?
*Have we lived up to what we promised you?
*What’s one thing we can do differently?
*What are you planning to change second semester?

Once I ask a question, I simply sit and listen. It’s great to hear their responses and how they build on each other’s comments. Before we concluded our most recent meeting, I asked, “Are these meetings helpful?” Following are some of their responses:

*“I think they are fun. I look forward to them each month.”
*”It’s good to see and talk with people outside your department. It’s good to learn from others.”
*”You make us feel like we are important to you.”
*”It’s good to hear what the other new teachers are thinking.”

I appreciate their time, their honestly, and their commitment to the GLHS Family! I can only imagine how much better we will be as we progress through the second half of this school year. If you have any ideas of how you connect with new teachers or suggestions to make this process better, please feel free to comment.

Be Great,

Dwight

Photo credit: http://www.erelationshipcoaching.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/connecting-with-others.jpg