Ready, Set, Go!

We have had a great 1st Six Weeks at Curtis Elementary!  After ending our first grading period, we are ramped up and ready to keep moving.  Teachers have worked hard to assess students, and now they are ready to dig in and close gaps.

A large part of improvement is to know where students are so that teachers and students can set and readjust achievement goals.  Many hours were spent over the last few weeks to determine what students know and what they need to know.  Now teachers are ready to differentiate instruction so that every student can set a target for his or her learning.

Over the last few weeks, I have had many great conversations with teachers on how they will set up their student data binders.  Allowing students to track their own data and set their own goals is an effective way to help close achievement gaps.  Students see for themselves what they need to learn and how they need to learn.   Student data folders can empower students to own their learning.  It becomes less about, " The teacher gave me this grade." It becomes more about, " I still needing to learn how to multiply double digit numbers by single digit numbers."  Student data folders, if used effectively, can make a huge difference in changing the learning culture in the classroom.

By allowing students to track their learning data, teachers and students can have meaningful conversations about what the student is going to do about the learning.  It also allows teachers to reflect on what they will do about instruction.  It allows for teachers to individualize instruction.  The learning process is NOT about the teaching.  It is about the learning.  Student data folders help students to be part of the conversation.  It allows them some voice and choice in how they will learn, and it allows student to own their learning. 

Here are some resources for learning how to utilize data folders as a tool for students to own their learning.

Education Week Teacher

The Leader in Me Blog

Restorative Practices

It  has been a great three weeks of school as we start the 2017-2018 school year, and we have been busy.  Students and teachers in every classroom have worked to create a positive classroom environment.  One of the important characteristics to a healthy community is respect.  Students are learning about how to respect one another.  Students and teachers are also learning how to respect each other through Restorative Practices.

Restorative Practice includes strategies for helping students understand positive relationships. Having healthy relationships impacts our lives.  Knowing how to respect others will have a positive effect in every aspect of our lives.  Developing these skills through Restorative Circles is a large part of how we understand one another.  Teachers hold Restorative Circle meetings or Class Meetings with students.  During this time, the instruction centers around respect and understanding.

 Students and teachers talk about how they are feeling.  During these meetings, problems are solved.  Students are able to learn how to have a positive relationship with others.  They are able to connect with others and see how much they have in common with others.   Restorative Circles also help students learn ways to react to different situations which helps to improve their social awareness.

Educating students is not always about Reading, Writing, and Math.  We do so much more than that at Curtis Elementary.  We care about kids!  Staff members are charged with how to develop each student and help them be a positive citizen.  Curtis Elementary staff is challenged with helping students understand how to work through conflict and restore relationships.  That is how they will sustain healthy relationships throughout their lives.  Curtis Elementary is challenged with helping to improve our society by teaching our students about how to develop positive relationships and changing lives one child at a time. Why do we do this? ...Because Kids!

Learning Together is Fun!

Last week our Curtis staff got together for our annual Curtis Retreat.  We had a fun-filled afternoon learning together because our differences.  Developing a positive culture is important in creating a team!  This is something that our Curtis team does best!  We had a great time together.

This year's theme is, "Making the Difference."  We want to encourage our classrooms to include challenges that cultivate problem solving, collaboration, collaboration, and creativity.  Maker's Spaces provide this opportunity.  Teachers can create these spaces for students in the their classrooms as well as accessing our Innovation Lab for class challenges throughout the year.  Our challenge in meeting the  needs of students is to individualize learning and embrace their differences.  At the retreat, our teachers worked in teams to complete a challenge.  Little did they know, some were more equipped than others.  The members of each team all have different experiences, talents, and passions.  Working together collaboratively, they were all able to contribute in their own unique way to complete the challenge together.

Each team had many of the same items to complete the challenge, but some of their items were a little different.  Some teams' directions were in another language while others may not have been able to talk while planning to execute their challenge. 

Like teaching and learning, not every student starts on the same playing field.  Some may be more equipped with certain talents and skills than others, but ALL students have talents.  Allowing students to collaborate to solve problems is important to learning.  Student-centered learning helps to break barriers allowing students to think differently to achieve a common goal.

Learning needs to be fun!

Our learning space on Thursday night was not quiet.  It was teeming with familiar sites and sounds of learning.  Staff members were communicating ideas, laughing, and working with their hands to complete the challenge to make something float!    Learning is messy!  There were materials flying all over the place.  Student-centered learning helps to engage all learners and encourages collaboration, a skill most important to success in life.

Curtis Elementary teachers had fun last Thursday night!  A Team that plays together, stays together!  We are committed to embracing differences in students' learning styles and differentiating learning for every child. 

We will know our students, individualize learning for each of them, and ensure that every child makes progress.  We accept the challenge to make learning fun leading our students to success.

Because Kids!

It is that time of year again!  The start of a new year is always exciting! I try to wrap things up around the house before the start of school so that I can focus on teachers and students. In the last days of summer, I have been working to take care of some things around my house.  I love doing yard work, but sometimes things don't go as smoothly as planned.  Last weekend I was tasked with eradicating some tough black algae in my pool.  It just came out of nowhere!  Or did it?  A week before I awoke to scattered spots on the pool plaster, I had to take my water to get tested.  Distracted by other things, I did not treat my pool as expected and just did not get around to it.  At the end of the week, I was about to begin the treatment and to my surprise, I had a bigger issue - the black algae.  This issue cost me a couple of days of hard work scrubbing and vacuuming the pool. And the really fun part -  cleaning the filter.  All of this could have been avoided if only I had not allowed myself to be distracted.

In between the scrubbing, we decided to test all of our sprinklers to see if the system was working well.  This task took most of the day.  We found a few sprinkler heads that needed replacing and some were watering the sidewalks and not the grass.  The thing that took most of the day was finding a station not working.  There were some sprinklers that were not coming on at all!  My husband and I worked several hours trouble shooting a station which included a couple of trips to Home Depot for parts.  After several hours, we concluded that we were not even working on the right station!  Since we did not have a blueprint for our system, we were just shooting in the dark to determine which station watered different parts of the yard.  Finally, after all day in the hot sun (the hottest day of the summer) we found the right station to repair so that we could fix the valve.

I tell this story about my Saturday because it reminds me of the job we do in education.  My Saturday caused me to reflect on some key duties that I have as the principal of Curtis Elementary.  It is my key responsibility to make sure that everyone in the building is focused on the right things.  The work we do at Curtis Elementary is important.  We are all about meeting the needs of students no matter how diverse those needs may be at any given time.  Here are a couple of the key lessons that I learned from working in the yard.

 1.  Don't Get Distracted!

Sometimes in education the same thing can happen.  We will all have the best intentions to keep everything running smoothly and things distract us.  The next thing you know, there is an unforeseen problem.  It is like spinning plates.  While busy spinning one plate, another one falls.  IT is difficult to keep them all spinning at the same time.  Going back to the pool issue, I am reminded that we have to be focused on the right things all of the time!  As a principal, it is my responsibility to ensure that staff members and teachers are focused on the right things, and I do not take this responsibility lightly.  Not only do I need to focus on the culture of our school, but I also must keep quality instruction at the forefront of everything that we do.  It is all about the students!    As with the pool, if we are not focused on the right things at the right time, we will have to spend precious time treating a problem or it will come back twice as big.

Algae can run rampant just like perceptions can blow up!  We always want to have a positive perception with our parents and community.  We do not want our community to perceive that we do not care.  Developing positive relationships with our parents is crucial.  Having a positive relationship with parents and students goes a long way.  If we nurture our relationships with parents, it is easier to find solutions together to help their child when academic or behavioral issue arise.  The most important relationship we must cultivate is with the student.  Students know when a teacher believes in them and cares.  It is important that there is a relationship with the student in order for him/her is ready to learn.   We also must stay focused on the learning standards that need to be taught to students.  If we teach TEKS to the appropriate depth and rigor that our state standards outline, we do not need to teach to a test.  Our students will be ready! We will not have to sweat it when state testing season begins.   We are about quality learning - not testing.  Not getting distracted and staying focused on the "right" work is good for students.


2.  Focus on the Students' and Teachers' Needs!

We are all different!  Teachers are different from one another and have different talents, learning and teaching styles.  As the principal, I must take these unique differences into account during professional development.  One size does not fit all!  I must take on a coaching role to work with teachers to do all I can to help them to be their best.  It is the same with students.   Kids are different too!  As educators, we must tap into students' passions and talents in order to increase academic achievement.  We must DIFFERENTIATE!  This is such an easy term that rolls out of our mouths, but it is really difficult.  We must provide an individualized education for all students.  Not every student needs the same thing.  It is like those sprinklers that were spraying the sidewalk.

It does not matter how much water you are spraying, if it isn't hitting the grass nothing grows.  The same thing goes with learning.  If teachers are cranking out awesome lessons, but they are not pointing the right stuff to the right kids, it is wasted energy and effort.  We need to point our

sprinklers in the right directions - using the right instructional strategies for each student instead of just spraying it all over the room and hoping some of it lands on a student helping him/her to learn and grow.  We need to make sure we are working on the right station or valve when there is an issue instead of wasting time working on the wrong problem.

I am committed to ensuring that Curtis Elementary provides quality instruction for every student.

It is my job to learn, to lead, and to encourage.  The work we do at our campus begins with me.  I am excited about the year ahead of us and more determined than ever to make sure we are laser focused on building relationships and improving  instruction every single day Why?    ...Because Kids!