The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
3 things I love most about my school are:
ReplyDelete1. I work in a small rural school and I love that our community is so involved with our school.
2. I love the visibility of our principal in hallways and classrooms.
3. I love the trust our administration puts in our faculty to teach creatively and have fun.
3 things I would love to grow at my school are:
1. I would like the staff culture to be consistent. It seems like it works in spurts and no one is ever on the same page. I could help in that by always being polite and positive when people complain about things going on at school.
2. I would like to see us be able to have more scheduled collaboration time with other grade level teachers. Very rarely do we get to discuss with others what fun and creative things they are doing to enhance student learning. This has been discussed in other meetings that we would all like some collaboration time but it feels l8ke it mostly falls on deaf ears.
3. I would like to see more field trips that involve student learning. Most of our field trips are for fun. I love the idea of kids getting out into the communities and seeing how things work. I think a lot of learning could be had. I think the only way I could encourage that is through dis ussions with colleagues and administration.
The three things I loved most about my school were:
ReplyDelete1. My eighth-grade team members were like my family. We shared our school lives as well as our personal lives which gave a wonderful feeling of love and support.
2. Physically, our school building was new and beautiful! We took pride in our school building and appreciated being in such a wonderful facility.
3. Having administration that was always available to help in any way they could was something I was so very grateful to have.
Three things at my school I would have loved to grow at my school were:
1. I would have liked to see staff culture grow to eliminate grade "cliques." I feel elimination of these groups would encourage more sharing of ideas and teaching practices.
2. I would have loved to see fewer "red tape" requirements that probably got filed away in a cupboard somewhere and was a waste of time that could have been better spent growing with others developing enriching teaching activities.
3. I would have loved to have more field trips that our school used to do quite often. Science museums, outdoor activities, etc. were really weeded out over the years.
There are many things I love about our school. I love sharing my job with my co-worker and friend. We split duties as Upper Elementary (3-4-5) teachers. I love the students; they're a wonderful group of kids, excited to learn. I love that our class sizes are small, so there's time for one-on-one and we get to know our students well.
ReplyDeleteThree things I'd like to see "grow": Our school building is falling down around us, and we don't have the funds to fix or rebuild. We need to get out into the public eye with this and convince our taxpayers we need help. Our class sizes are dwindling. Since Covid, we've had kids drop out under the guise of "home schooling", and some students have gone elsewhere to play sports that we don't offer. I'd like to find ways to lure these students back. Parent involvement is another "grow". It's getting better, but we still have several parents that don't engage with the school much at all. Reaching out to them more would certainly help.
There are so many things I absolutely love about the district in which I currently work. My role is a little different as I don't have a classroom because I conduct home visits. I do have a shared office space. The following 3 things are an integral part of our team and absolutely amazing:
ReplyDelete1. Respect; we are all respected as professionals and respected for the knowledge and talents we bring to the team.
2. Compassion; we are a family and truly look out for each other; our overall well-being is important to everyone.
3. Common goal; we are all working toward providing the best we can for all families we serve; all of the families are all of our families; for example, if a family one of us serves endures a natural disaster, everyone pitches in to help weather we have personally worked with that family or not.
Some things I would like to help strengthen include
1. Enhancing community connection; we have a wonderful system in place and have a strong foundation for community connections in most of the areas we service. I would like to push the limits and take that connection one step further. One way to do this is to set aside time to personally introduce and involve myself in various community activities.
2. Facility changes; we conduct home visits and only have office space together. When we are in that office space and shared meeting rooms the lighting is not optimal and there are fluctuations in temperatures that become uncomfortable, and seating is limited creating uncomfortable arrangements. I would like to look for ways in which these items could be changed at little or no cost to the district.
3. Scheduling; with all of us conducting home visits and coming and going from the office multiple times a day, it is sometimes very difficult to connect with and build relationships with others. New staff at times feel alienated. I would like to suggest some scheduling shifts that may help all of us stay connected.
The three things I love most about our school:
ReplyDelete1.) School pride. I truly believe all students, staff and administration are all pride of the school community that they represent. This creates strong comradery.
2.) Administration. The administration is great at supporting the staff and empowering them to be themselves. I think this gives a strong sense of ownership amongst the staff.
3.) The diversity. I think the diversity of our school is great. Students from all different backgrounds come together in our school community in friendship and support one another.
Three things I would love to grow at our school.
1.) Discipline intervention. I think this is probably an area of growth in most schools. One thing I can hopefully do to improve the process is build relationships and trust amongst the students that may struggle with discipline and accountability. Doing so may build a strong position of influence to hopefully improve behaviors for particular students.
2.) I would love to see our school grow in its creativity. I think in a large school this can be difficult and it can be easy to get caught up in the requirements of the district and school. I think a way for me to help be apart of this growth is to allow my own creativity to be shown and hopefully have influence amongst those around me. Also, encouraging others when they share ideas can help this area grow as well.
3.) Staff wellness. I think this is probably an area that every school can use growth in. Listening to staff, encouraging balance, time management and organization is essential to this. I think I can help this area grow by being in tune with the morale of the staff and finding ways to create energy for the staff.
The 3 things that I love about my school:
ReplyDelete1. My colleagues. I have the best support from my colleagues when it comes to problem-solving for students' academic and behavioral concerns.
2. Staff Wellness Plan. Our school has a staff wellness plan that you can take part in. It offers a variety of challenges for physical, and mental well-being.
3. Students. Our district has a huge ethnic diversity.
The 3 things I would love to grow would be:
1. Be more welcoming and understanding of student ethnicity and culture. Have more culturally based programs or groups.
2. Discipline Policy and Procedures. I feel that there is a disconnect when it comes to managing student behavior through write-ups (majors, minors, etc.). One system for everything would be nice instead of having every building use something different.
3. Curriculum. There is no curriculum for Special Education at our school, except for Self-contained students at the elementary level.
Of these 3 things I think I would make a bigger impact if I were to focus on the first one. I could create a group for the Native students who go to school here (since I am Native American). I know I could do more because of the resources I have and connections to people outside of the school.
I Love our students, and have a special place in my heart for the ones who seem to struggle the most. Of course I have to say I love my coworker, he used to be one of our students and now I get to work with him. The next thing I think about is the flexibility of my job. I work with our Talented and Gifted students so every day is fun and never the same depending on the project or activity.
ReplyDeleteThree things I would like to see grow or improved in our school are staff morale, parent involvement, and student attendance. The school staffs morale is an issue that I believe is due to a shortage of teachers and that we have to depend on our para-professionals to fill in. With this shortage there is no time to collaborate and support each other. This one is frustrating because I'm unsure what I could do to help improve this other then to encourage positive discussions and be there for my peers. Parent involvement has always been in need of improvement. We are trying different ways to encourage parents to come to the school and also take part in community get togethers. The last I think is the most important and that is attendance of our students. This year we have worked really hard to encourage the students to be in school and have tried to implement incentives to improve this issue.
The three things I enjoy most about teaching at STARBASE:
ReplyDelete1. We team teach. I love the fact that there are two of us in the classroom at all times. This way the students get immediate help if there is an issue. If there is a discipline problem, there's always one of us to help the struggling student and the other can keep on teaching. The students don't have to listen to the same teacher all day, they get a variety. There are two of us to play off each other and make the learning even more fun for the students.
2. I love that we focus totally on STEAM. We have great computers, tablets, robots and science equipment for the students to work with. We have the time to set up experiments and activities that classroom teachers can't do on their own because of time constraints or budget. We follow state and national standards, but in a totally hands-on environment. The students love our program. Many say it is the highlight of their 5th grade year.
3. I enjoy that STARBASE is a National Guard sponsored program, so our students get the wonderful experience of spending a whole day at the Air Guard. They not only get to have fun experiments in our classroom, but they get to see an F-16 jet up close and personal, and spend time with a pilot and other Air Guard personnel. The focus is the use of technology and career opportunities available to the kiddos. They see inspirational, wonderful role models and this is often the favorite day of the 5 day experience at STARBASE.
Since we are a Department of Defense program, making changes is really out of my hands for the most part. However is possible, there are a few changes I would like to see.
1. I would like to see even more involvement with the military personnel since they are such great role models for the kids. We used to have a classroom at both the Air and Army guard. We were moved out of the Army guard classroom because the Army needed more space. We are supposed to be able to move back there. Those guard members used to help in the computer room, and spoke at the student's graduation. That interaction was priceless.
2. We have to follow a Nationally Mandated curriculum. I would like to see us once again be able to come up with our own lessons. We used to be able to do this, but some sites went totally off the rails, so all sites were required to teach the same thing. We are all trained professionals and I miss the opportunity to do our own curriculum. We do tweak the lessons as much as we are allowed to make them fit our student population, but writing our own would be so much better.
3. I would like to see professional development opportunities. We used to be allowed to go to NSTA conferences, state conferences, and other technology training. Now, we don't get to go anywhere. I feel staff become stagnated when those opportunities are denied. I miss the professional growth of interacting with teachers from other states and communities. We used to do a STARBASE conference for all the teachers from our 50+ sites. The networking was awesome and it was so great to interact with other teachers who were doing what you were doing. We need a staff development plan again. I think budget constraints is the biggest issue.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteI truly enjoy the students and parents in the district which I work. When I tell people that they are genuinely shocked. But, it's true. Overall the students and parents are wonderful. The special education teacher for 10-12th grade is right next door to me. I love that. We have a room in between connecting us. Honestly I do not know what I would do without her next door. We also have a fabulous school psychologist who is really good.
When I first started in the district I am currently in there was no curriculum for Special Education, nothing. This made it extremely difficult to do my job. There was no sense of understanding that this was imperative for student's who need tier 3 interventions. Another I am not a fan of is the fact that I teach Academics and Study skills during the same periods. This makes it next to impossible to teach math, help students, work on their goals and objective. The other area that I am not enjoying is the amount of meetings and professional development we have, none of it aligns with what we need in the special education department. It feels like we are checking off a bunch of boxes for the state, rather than truly developing ourselves professionally.
Three things I love about my school:
ReplyDelete1. My teaching partner and other coworkers. We work well together, help each other out, and have get togethers outside of school to build on positive relationships.
2. It has a small town vibe. I get to see former students daily. Some districts have such big schools, that they only see their grade level pod.
3. The paras. They do a fantastic job lending a helping hand with the kiddos in our classrooms. They are not given enough credit for all they do.
Three things I would grow:
1. Admin relationships with staff and students. Unfortunately, it's just not there in my building. I enjoy forming relationships with students and will continue to do so!
2. Negative attitudes from staff that have the "this is how we've always done it" mindset. Unfortunately there's a lot of negativity. I try my best to remember that I choose my attitude every day I walk into the building. I avoid the negativity as much as possible.
3. PD that is meaningful and up-lifting. There's not much I can do to change our PD meetings. I can only hope that one day we will be able to work with our grade level or in our rooms to work on things that would benefit our students.
Three things that I love about our district.
ReplyDelete1. I love the staff that I work with. I may not agree with all of my coworkers or understand their teaching styles, but I do know that everyone is there to help each other when needed and that their number one priority is the students.
2. I love that we are able to collaborate with not just our school, but all of our elementaries in the district. It helps us all stay on track and gives us a chance to share ideas and strategies.
3. In my school specifically, I love that we don't only think that teaching curriculum is important, but we also strive to make our students learn how to be a good person.
3 things that I would grow.
1. More work time. I feel like we are always rushed when it comes to grading/getting report cards done. We always have staff in-services right before grades are due and instead of giving teachers time to work on report cards, we are usually doing redundant things that are used just to fill time.
2. Getting more Guidance counselors. Right now, our students only get guidance class every other week and we only have 1 guidance counselor in our building. There is no way that our counselor has time to teach classes and be available for students who need to talk with her. I feel like it is important that students are learning how to share, be good people, learn how to communicate and learn to control their feelings. I feel like a lot of our behavior problems come from student who don't understand how to control their feelings.
3. Last is our substitute shortage. As a specials teacher I feel like we are getting pulled all the time along with paras to help sub in classrooms because we can't get subs to come to our district. We are by a district that is way bigger and can pay a lot more so I know that is part of it, but it is very disheartening that we can't keep subs.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDelete3 Things I love about my school:
1. I love the teaming approach to my middle school. While I know the middle school model is expensive, it feels so worth the investment for our students. The team approach to middle-level education allows students to experience the freedom of multiple teachers in different classrooms and different subjects, but the teachers still meet multiple times a week to discuss student progress and areas of improvement.
2. I love the principal in my building. He is very teacher and student-oriented. He works hard to develop programs that are meaningful for students and meet teachers where they're at with the huge workload. I'm grateful for a solution-focused administrator that doesn't kick the can down the road.
3. I love the encore program of my school. Each year, my students experience art, FACS, industrial tech: Robotics, and careers classes throughout the day. Students love these classes and get to incorporate a variety of skills and knowledge in these classes.
3 Areas of Growth for my school:
1. I would like to see improved parent involvement at my school. To help this, I call parents/guardians of any student that fails one of my tests.
2. I would like to see student behavior improve at my school. Over the last five years, students have felt more apathetic and disrespectful on more extreme ends of the spectrum. To help this, I can dive deeper into the Boys Town skills my school district promotes and ensure I'm doing all I can from a teacher standpoint to help guide students to a more productive school day.
3. I would like all professional learning communities to work the same as my PLC in my building. Oftentimes, teachers can get frustrated with their PLCs, and it feels unnecessary when the opportunity to share the work in a productive PLC is available for all teachers. To help this, I can assist in some professional development about how to be a strong member of a PLC can be effective for both teachers and students, as well as cut down on the workload for teachers.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteLove:
Faith Based: God is first. We start every class with prayer. Our goal is to prepare students to lead lives that will hopefully get them to Heaven someday and also prepare them for college, trade school and/or work. This helps us stay student focused.
Family Based: We believe that the family is the first and continuing educators. Also, we stress that the school is a family and we must care and help each other. Relationships are at the center.
Team Based: Our middle school operates much like the tribes in Brewer's 'O' school. The main difference is that the tribes are called houses. They meet each morning to start the day and discuss different housekeeping details such as announcements, birthdays, prayer, special intentions and different competitions. They also have their exploratory classes together as a house. The exploratory classes are different hobbies, jobs, skills and etc that the students may not be familiar with. It might be a card or board game, sewing, painting, cooking, trapshooting, Cornhole games, knitting or another area of interest. This is where they also have different speakers come in and talk about their careers. The Houses also have weekly competitions that they do. They have an end of the year competition and they also have an award for the house that earns the most points over the entire school year.
Love to Grow:
This area is much harder for me as I am only a substitute teacher. With that being said, I would say that I would love to grow a structured orientation for substitute teachers for when they begin subbing. I really had no orientation and simply learned stuff on the fly.
I would also love it if the school could offer some CTE classes centering around health careers. The school does offer these at the ATEC across town but would love to have it be available on our campus.
ReplyDelete3 things I loved about my school
ReplyDelete1. The administration was great to work with and very supportive
2. The community support was amazing in the classroom
3. My co-workers were great to work with and great sources of knowledge for projects
3 things I like to grow at the school
1. The first one was not just my school but in general I would like to see less work that just checks a box and is never looked at again after it is checked enough to make sure it was done.
2. I would like to see discipline be dealt with more consistently across the board. Overall, the administration did seem to do pretty good but there were the few students that always seemed to get special treatment.
3. Field Trips are one thing I would love to see more of. Community involvement was very good for getting them to come into the classroom, but it was a lot harder to get the students to go out and see them work in their area. I think this is one area that I could improve on by pushing more and more to get the field trips set up.
3 things I love most about my school:
ReplyDeleteCommunity: I work at a school in a small town, and I truly appreciate how involved and supportive the community is toward our school system.
Students: I love working with the students—they’re a wonderful group who are eager to learn and grow.
Teamwork: I value my teaching partner and enjoy collaborating with the staff. We have a strong sense of teamwork, and everyone is always willing to support each other when needed.
3 areas I would like to see grow in my school:
Professional Development: I would love to see more PD opportunities tailored to my grade level and offering graduate credit options. Often, we attend PD sessions that don’t directly apply to our needs. While I can only suggest this to administration, I believe it would be a valuable improvement.
Communication: I believe there could be better communication between administration and staff. Everyone gets busy with their own tasks, and messages can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. An occasional staff meeting could help improve communication and boost morale, especially if it includes sharing positive updates. I can contribute to this by continuing to communicate clearly with others.
Staff Wellness: I believe staff wellness is an area many schools could improve. It’s important to listen to staff, encourage positivity, and promote effective time management. I can help by being a positive voice and consistently encouraging these values among the staff.
Three things I love:
ReplyDeleteTeachers have autonomy in their classrooms.
School staff and faculty want the best for the kids.
Students and staff are safe and cared for.
Thing things I would love to grow:
Staff unity. I often feel like I'm teaching on an island. I think our other teachers are just trying to survive on their own island. I think building up our community of teachers and staff through interactions like staff lunch or potluck, breakfast etc would improve morale and relationships among us.
Consistency. I think we have difficulty with being consistent with expectations with our students. Students know that one teacher will enforce a policy and the next won't. I think administration being more 'in and around' classrooms would help with this.
Community engagement. I think outside of sports, our community is that aware of what goes on in our school. I think inviting more businesses and community members into our school and getting our kids out in the community would improve this!
Three things I love about my school:
ReplyDelete- I love the teachers and staff I work with every day.
- I love the students I work with.
- I love when students have an a-ha moment
Three things I would like to grow:
- a visible principal
- allow teachers to make learning fun
- an administration that believes in the teachers' abilities
Keeping a positive attitude and showing support for the teachers. Compliment teachers and students. Encouragement goes a long way.
Three things I love about my school:
ReplyDelete1. I love the staff I work with. They are the best!
2. I love that my school is small and everyone knows everyone.
3. We are a K-12 building and I love that Student Council plans fun activities for K-12 as a whole!
Three things to grow at my school:
1. The "good enough" mentality - There are a lot of times when students say "eh it was good enough." I always try and encourage students that just because it was good enough for what was needed we should always be trying to reach higher and making sure we are putting in 100% of what we are capable of.
2. Positive attitudes - we are going through some huge changes right now as a district and there is a lot of negativity from community and parents. The students feel this and are very involved. As a staff we are constantly talking about ways to keep the positivity high with the students and encourage each other.
3. More time to collaborate as teachers - I guess the only way to help move this process along is to suggest more time during Staff Inservice days for this
3 things that my school does well:
ReplyDelete1. We developed a walk to read program for grades K-5 for 30 minutes each day the students are put into groups based on skill needs. The groups are evaluated every 2-3 weeks & changes are made based on skill acquisition.
2. We are a small school so we know each other well & are willing to work together to get any job done. We care about each other & our school.
3. Our school goes the distance to help any child. Because we are a small school, the families are known & there is a deep connection for our students. We are very thorough in helping the needs of our students.
Things to work on:
1. Communication- I feel that many times some teachers are left out of conversations because they teach in another building or school & someone forgot to relay important messages. This leads to hurt feelings & feeling like they were not important.
2. Fun- I think we could use some fun times where everyone lets their hair down & we enjoy each other at a more personal level.
3. Fun with kids- sometimes we get so focused on the curriculum, that we don’t have fun with the students either during or after school hours. This also would build better relationships.
1. I would help develop a list of staff that should be included in various emails so no one is left out.
Delete2. I would suggest various speakers that create a fun environment. I would suggest activities like bowling, pickleball, and escape rooms for team building.
3. I would research what other schools have done with their students to build relationships.
What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school?
ReplyDelete3 things I love:
1) We acknowledge kids who are doing the right thing, whether it's someone who always does the right thing or someone who struggles often
2) We are full of teachers who do things to make learning fun and think outside the box
3) Student behaviors are not allowed to disrupt others' learning
3 Things to work on:
1) Our staff keeps to themselves. This is my first year at this school and no one introduced themselves or really said hi to me at our back to school week of professional development. It was really isolating
- Next year when I'm not the newbie to the school, I will go out of my way to introduce myself to new people and try to take others with me
2) There can be petty/blanket emails sent to groups of staff when it really only needs to go to one or two people, but we're too afraid of confrontation to do so.
- I've gotten a lot of random practice this year in tough conversations and learned to not take these conversations personal. It's much more beneficial to go the source directly, and I'd appreciate it if I were on the receiving end as well
3) My school does not have a lot of diversity
- There's not a lot I can do about this, I can't change who attends our school or that EL kids have to go to a neighboring school to receive services. What I can do, is thoughtfully incorporate people from many diverse backgrounds and experiences in our work so that students are still exposed to people who live lives different than their own
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDelete3 things that I love most about the school.
1. I love that my school is in a smaller town
2. Coworkers everyone will help any one.
3. Student involvement within the school they are always helping out when they can.
3 things that we can grow in out school
1. I would like to have more open lines of communication some times we don't know what's going on that day until its time to start.
'2. Student attendance, I feel like certain students I might not see for quite some time so if they could come consistently it would really help them.
3. Student fun days- like a track and field day or some sort of a positive reward for the students that have been putting in a lot of great work to really enjoy themselves in our school.
What I love most about my school:
ReplyDelete1. We have many gifted and passionate teachers, who I can tell truly care about their students.
2. We have strong communication systems in place for staff, students, parents, and the community.
3. We have a teacher organization that works hard to advocate for teacher concerns and gives us a voice with the school board.
What I would love to grow at my school:
1. I would love for more opportunities to focus on a positive school culture/climate, where students feel emotionally safe. I can help by having one-on-one check-ins with students about their academic and personal growth, as well as offering anonymous journaling prompts to get a baseline of student mental health.
2. I would love my school to provide more options for students to experience authentic learning, like field trips. I can help by exploring our community online and reach out to Spanish speaking restaurants, stores, and organizations who might be willing to have Spanish classrooms visit their place of business.
3. I would love my school to model cleanliness and respect for their building and environment. I can help by creating a recycling themed unit and have a day where we pick up trash in our parking lot.
What I love about my school is the intimacy that comes with teaching in a small town. We have one building for K-12, so we literally get to watch our students grow up. Additionally, because it is a small town I am able to make connections with students that I wouldn't necessarily get to in a larger district. As an added bonus, I grew up in this same small town, so I can make extended connections - I went to school with your aunt; your brother is in my son's class, etc. In my school, I also have some amazing colleagues with more teaching experience than me, so when I have questions or need advice I have many people I can turn to. Finally, I feel supported by my principal and dean of students. Any student issues I have are addressed promptly and I feel like both people in those positions have been in my shoes as a teacher so they get it.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I would like to improve in our school would be student buy-in. So many of our students see school as a waste of time and they take their education for granted. I could try to make school a "fun" place to be so they would enjoy it more - (I'm totally open to suggestions here!)
Another thing I would like to change would be parent buy in. There are many of my students' parents that I have never met, they don't come to school activities and their kind of reinforcing that lack of importance on education their students have. One thing I know I could do right now to improve this is be a more frequent communicator with parents. This is on thing I know I need to work on.
Finally, I feel like the communication within the district could improve. There are many things that happen that I hear about as a parent before I do as an employee.
Three things I love about my school is our feeling of family among the staff, the willingness of staff to jump in and help out where needed, and our guardian support.
ReplyDeleteThree things I would love to grow at my school are the importance of literacy, the impact of libraries, and an actual zero tolerance policy for bullying. In our school district, math comes first … always. I would love to help create a school-wide literacy movement where reading and books are encouraged across the whole building in every subject. I would love to have something similar to DEAR time where even the teachers stop to read. Second, I would like to help our staff and guardians see how impactful libraries can be by sharing with them our successes and neat projects we do. A small way to do this would be to send “posts” to our admin and district leaders asking them to add the photos to our social media accounts. Lastly, bullying in schools is something that I whole-heartedly feel needs to be dealt with with a more serious approach. We tell kids not to bully, and we teach them how to recognize the signs and ask them to step in. However, it still happens constantly. I cannot change how our administration handles those bullying, but I can encourage more students to stand up and do the right thing with positive reinforcement.
Since I am not currently teaching I will do what I love about my daughter's school.
ReplyDelete1.It is a Christian school offering education with a Christ centered world view. They emphasize service and community along with fostering strong moral foundations.
2. There is high parental (and grandparent) involvement through volunteering at the school and supporting the students as a whole to be successful.
3. I love how many field trips the kids get to go on in their classes. I know from the district I taught in, they were only allowed one per year and that was because it wasn't fair for the schools with affluent PTOs to send their kids on multiple field trips vs. the schools with no parental involvement who didn't get to go because they didn't have parents funding it.
1. I think the school has a tendency to do things certain ways because it's the way things have always been done.
2.The school doesn't have a lot of diversity. When you go to a Christian school and pay tuition you are going to get a homogenous group of people. My youngest daughter is not white and there are some non-white students but they are still coming from what many people on the outside looking in would consider to be privileged.
3. I would like to be able to meet the parents at each grade level. The school has a sense of community but yet it's still divided by what your child is into... a certain sport, marching band, etc. In elementary, we don't have a good time to meet parents. It would be fun to have more school events like Pizza-Bingo, etc.
Well, if I'm going to make a suggestion to have an event such as, Pizza-Bingo, I better be willing to organize and divvy out the tasks.
Three Things I Love Most About My School:
ReplyDeletePlay Based:
I love that our school allows me to incorporate play as a foundational part of learning. It respects the developmental needs of young children and fosters curiosity, creativity, and social emotional growth.
Strong Focus on Social Emotional Learning:
We take the time to help our little ones understand their feelings, make friendships, and resolve conflicts peacefully.
Creative Classroom Environment:
I was allowed to paint and decorate my classroom to be full of color, texture, and warmth. It’s the space where children can explore, imagine, and feel safe to be themselves.
Three Things I Would Love to Grow at My School :
Outdoor Learning and Nature-Based Experiences
I can start by integrating more nature walks, sensory play, and outdoor storytelling into my own class routine. I would love to get other teachers involved and advocate for a small garden or outdoor classroom space.
Creating a Calm Down Corner in Each Classroom
I can model how to use one in my own room, create visuals, and offer to help others set up their own. It’s such a powerful tool to help children self regulate.
Stronger Transitions Between Preschool and Kindergarten
I can initiate conversations with the kindergarten teacher, align parts of our curriculum, and prepare children through visits and shared activities.
What I Love Most About My School
ReplyDelete1. Positive Attitude of the Staff
What I love most about my school is the positive attitude of the staff. We’re supportive of one another and work well as a team. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know my colleagues and having those little conversations throughout the day. Everyone’s been willing to listen, offer advice, and share ideas when needed. Even when things get tough, we do a great job lifting each other up and keeping our spirits high.
2. Classroom Freedom
I really appreciate the freedom we have to teach what we want and how we want. It allows for creativity and flexibility in the classroom. Our administration treats us like professionals and trusts us to create meaningful, engaging lessons for our students. That kind of trust goes a long way and makes a big difference.
3. Supportive Community
The support of the community is another thing I love. I teach in a small, rural town where the school is truly valued. The community shows up—whether it’s passing referendums, attending extracurricular events, or showing up at school board meetings. That connection between school and community helps create a strong, united environment for both students and staff.
What I Would Love to Grow at My School
1. Interdisciplinary Units
I’d love to see more interdisciplinary units happening. These kinds of lessons encourage critical thinking, creativity, and communication—skills that students will need in the real world. When students can connect ideas across subject areas, they aren’t just learning content; they’re learning how to think and solve problems from different angles.
2. Community Involvement
I’d also love to see more opportunities for students to get involved in the community. Giving back is important. Some simple but meaningful ideas could be organizing litter cleanups, helping the elderly with yard work in the fall, making holiday cards for nursing homes, or even going to visit them. It’s a great way to build character and give students a sense of pride in their community.
3. Student Mentor Program
Lastly, I think a student-to-student mentor program would be a great addition. Our middle and high school are in the same building, so it would be easy to connect a 6th grader with an upperclassman. It could really help ease the transition from elementary school, while also building a stronger sense of community and belonging within the building.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of things to love about my school, but if I put it into the top three it would be:
1. Conversations are always students centered: When making any decisions academically, socially, or emotionally, the student(s) best interest is in mind.
2. Data driven: I've worked in schools in the past that collected data, but my current school has taken a lot of time to focus on the "what to do with it" instruction.
3: Fun coworkers: Our school does fun really well. Whether it be an event for kids or a game that is just amongst the staff, we are constantly laughing and engaged.
Three areas of growth in our school and how I could help the process would be:
1. Outreach to community members: I think to strength our school community is having our students be active members in local programs. I have always wanted to find a near by nursing home and or church group of older people that would partnered so my students could read to them.
2. Family outreach: With many of our families speaking different languages and many of them not fluent in English, it can feel challenging to reach out and connect. I think that something I can do next year is send out quarterly updates about our classroom and have some of the bilingual students help create ones in their native language. Also bringing in families for small ceremonies and having them participate in classroom activities.
3. Moving around assistants: Our school throughout the year is constantly changing. From students joining and leaving and different times of heightened behavior, it would be nice to reexamine where supports are placed. I could help move this along by discussing with administration and logging data on the help that is being served.
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The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteThree things that I love most about my school is:
1) Freedom to implement material and teach how we want as long we meet our standards. Our administrators have trust and faith in us teachers and treat us as professionals.
2) We always have each other's back. I teach in a small rural town and our community is amazing when it comes to supporting teachers. We have the best PTO that goes above and beyond to make us teachers feel important and valued.
3) The importance of family. My school values family time and the importance of allowing teachers time off during the day to watch their children in sports or other school activities. There have been many instances where my children play a school sport during the day and they usually always find someone to cover my class so I can watch my children.
Three areas where we could grow:
1) Too much testing. I know that testing and collecting data is important, however, there is so much data from a variety of testing platforms that isn't necessary. I think students get burned out on testing which the data then becomes unreliable and inconsistent. If we could focus on one or two platforms and find an average, this would be much more useful and help with more focused group instruction.
2) Teacher burnout: teaching in a small rural school with funding that is being cut more and more each year, means teachers are taking on more teaching roles and responsibilities which is causing teacher burnout. One way to help this is to group two classes together to teach art or computers. That way, we are still able to offer these specials to our students on a regular basis. Teachers could alternate weeks or months, which would give teachers a break throughout their year, and this wouldn't cost the district money to hire those teachers.
3) Staff Collaboration: Our students get out early every Wednesday for teacher PD. I think it would be beneficial to use 1 day/ month of PD for staff collaboration. As a 5th grade teacher, I would love to collaborate with the MS staff (we are all in the same building), to find ways to merge our students for a group project or some mentoring to better prepare the students for middle school.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteThe three things I love most about my school:
1. Community - Our school has done very well to develop community among staff, but also with parents and community partners.
2. Individuality - My administrators have always been very supportive and encouraging with allowing me and our staff as a whole present and develop curriculum and projects that we are passionate about.
3. Technology - My school has implemented technology in useful and practical ways in the classroom and provided training to go along with it. This has made me feel much more comfortable working with new technology.
Three things I would love to grow at my school:
1. Staff care - I would like to see the staff shown more appreciation and team building and encouragement from administration and each other. I loved the "drops" that Hamish implemented in their school and could share this with our staff and help start it.
2. Collaboration - I would love to see more collaboration between building staff and time allowed to do that. Also, opportunities to visit and learn from other school districts. I could help with this by simply asking my administrators for it and doing whatever I can to support making it happen.
3. Family First Climate - I would like to see a better climate in which staff feels like their personal lives and families are important. An improved climate would allow for staff to take time off when needed for important events in our lives without being made to feel guilty about it. I can help foster this climate by being supportive and available for my colleagues and going to our union reps to negotiate days into our contracts.
What are the three things you love most about your school?
ReplyDelete1. We have many connections in the community with groups and businesses that help out the school with things such as school supplies, backpack programs, a food pantry, and providing our English Learners tools to help them be successful. We also have a foundation for scholarships that is very unique. It was started many years ago and generous people and businesses continue to grow it. Just this year alone, our seniors took home roughly $242,000 in scholarships through the foundation. It is truly a blessing to our students!
2. Teachers and administrators are generally supportive of each other in many ways.
3. We have everything we need in our classrooms as far as technology goes and have a great technology coordinator that is willing to help teachers integrate new things into their classroom.
What are three things you would love to grow at your school?
1. I would like to see more staff collaboration. One thing needed to help that along would be time. It seems like good things happen when we get time, but we just don't get enough of it.
2. Create a curriculum for homeroom to grow a sense of family.
Currently, that class period is mostly for working on school work.
I feel like incorporating other things into it could help foster togetherness and time for more life lessons. I could help this along by trying some things in my own homeroom and see how it goes, then encourage others as well.
3. More use of data to drive instruction. We have a wealth of data, but not enough teachers use it to better things for student learning. I have started working on this with our staff by encouraging using state interim tests to help drive instruction. I would like to continue to try to grow this.
What are the three things you love most about your school?
ReplyDelete1) Leader in Me - This program has encouraged and allowed our students to take ownership and be a leader in our school. It's been really inspiring to see our students grow in this way at the middle school level and carry that mindset into high school.
2) Our school uses the Wilson Reading System to help students with Dyslexia. I'm thankful that they have something in place to truly help those who struggle with reading the most. They are some super smart kids and deserve the help.
3) I'm grateful for my co-workers. They are encouraging, fun, and enjoy being around each other. I used to work through my lunch. Now, I don't want to miss a lunch session with them. I'm thankful for that respite and encouragement.
What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
1) I would love to start the house system at our school. A co-worker and I recently had the opportunity to attend the Ron Clark Academy Experience. Wow! I can continue to pursue having meetings with people on our staff who would also be interested in getting this rolling.
2) I would like to have a middle school speech program at our school. I thoroughly enjoy speech contest in Iowa and there are so many great life skills that can come from it. My next step would be talking to the administrator about getting the go-ahead to start this.
3) Parent involvement. Sometimes it feels like we want to keep parents at arm's length. I would like to brainstorm ways with other staff on ways we can bring parents in and get them involved. Hopefully that would transfer to more community buy-in and support.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteThe 3 things I love most about my school are
1) Student diversity
2) supportive community culture
3) Commitment to students both academically and emotionally
3 things I would love to grow at my school include:
1) Cross-curricular collaboration- Action: Initiate a project with the math or science department (e.g., budgeting or nutrition in FCS tied to math skills) and invite co-teaching or shared planning opportunities.
2) Professional development centered around real world skills- Action:Offer to present at a staff PD session on how FCS supports life-readiness, and share ideas on how other teachers can integrate practical applications into their subjects.
3) Student leadership- Action: Create student-led “life skills workshops” or peer-led demonstrations, where students take initiative in teaching their peers skills like meal prep, sewing, or budgeting.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteThe three things I love the most about my school is:
1) My principal trusts me in my teaching and encourages me to be me. He is appreciative of my efforts at school and in our community and he lets me know it. He really is a supportive administrator that wants the best for his students and teachers. He understands that relationships come first. I love working for my principal.
2) I love our facilities. We are so lucky to have the facilities that we have in our small community.
3) I love the teachers in our math department. We are a group that gets along really well. There is no drama or gossip and we try and do what is best for the kids.
The three things that I would love to grow are:
1) Implementing PLCs in the high school. We have it in our middle school and I am always so jealous when my husband comes home and tells me the things they are doing/able to collaborate on and work on as a team in the middle school.
2) I would love to grow SATs in Milbank. We used the have them in Aberdeen and I felt they were useful. We only often meet as a team for students that are on a 504 or IEP and I feel we leave a lot of students fall through the cracks because we aren't all communicating as a team with the student, teachers, administration, and families.
3) I would love to grow a math tutoring time. Right now another teacher and I give up our lunch period to be able to have students come in and work on their math/get help if they need. That is our choice - but it would be awesome to implement a way to offer a time that is during the school day that is not our lunch to be able to focus on math help/intervention.
I think the biggest thing I can do to help the process along is to go talk to my principal. He is always willing to hear ideas. Not only do I need to talk to him - but I would need to have some sort of plan in place showing the logistics and how this could work - especially the math help/intervention time.
ReplyDeleteThe three things that I love about my school are:
1. My co-workers are all actively engaged in creating positive learning environments.
2. I am blessed to have wonderful students who work hard.
3. My administrators allow for creative, independent teaching.
The three things that I would like to grow:
1. One thing that I would like to grow is more opportunities to collaborate and share ideas with my coworkers. I will invite my coworkers to come to my classroom once a week.
2. Another item that I would like to grow is more professional development opportunities as a staff. I will suggest book studies that will help our staff have genuine conversations.
3. Lastly, working together to brainstorm ideas for field trips and authentic lessons because we have limited opportunities for these activities. I will work with local businesses to generate money to create these wonderful opportunities.
Three things that I love about my school :
ReplyDelete1. I love that all of the staff is willing to help out where ever needed.
2. My 2nd Grade team has worked really well with each other.
3. The students I work with.
Three things I would love to grow in my school:
1. Parent Involvement-I can hopefully help improve this one by making more attempts at building those family relationships.
2. Communication
3. Collaboration - I would love to see more collaboration between building staff and time allowed to do that.
I love my team! They are helpful and we work really well together.
ReplyDeleteI love teaching in the same school as my daughter and being able to go check in on her whenever time allows and see her.
I like how we are a smaller school with only 2-3 sections of kids in each grade level so it’s pretty easy for me to know all the kids in my school and form relationships that way.
I wish all of our teachers got along better. When I started, everyone seemed very tight but recently some things have gone down and it’s created a separation amongst some staff.
Discipline- I wish it would be more universal. It seems that some kids can get away with more than others. We do have a new admin coming in so maybe that will change this year?
Substitute teachers- I’m sure this is everywhere but I wish we had more so our Paras weren’t getting pulled to go teach a different grade. It is hard to not have them in our rooms for Kindergarten. I’m not sure how I would be able to fix this problem!
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteI will have to base this on my previous school.
Three things I loved:
1. Small class sizes. Really gave me the opportunity to get to know my students faster.
2. The fact that we are 1:1 in middle and high school. The use of technology can bring experiences to the classroom that would otherwise not be available.
3. My middle school team. For the most part, we were generally on the same page and were consistent between our classes.
Three things to grow:
1. More teacher collaboration. This school is still very much teachers in their own silo. I would love to see teachers working together - have projects that overlap. I did manage to work with the English teacher on a couple of projects as our topics occasionally overlapped.
2. Communication. Not everyone were on the same text lists or email lists. Frequently things got overlooked and then put together at the last minute. I tried to make sure the cafeteria ladies were in the loop, as they were not on emails.
3. Discipline. So much valuable teaching time was lost to discipline issues. The students didn't care and weren't afraid of any consequences. The relationships I built helped some, but there were so many problems I just couldn't deal with.
The three things I love about our school:
ReplyDelete1. The sense of community I have with the high school teachers and my supervisor. I know that I can bounce ideas and ask for advice without the fear of being judged.
2. Our students. Our school is small (I think K-12 is about 250-260 students) so we have a lot of opportunities to get to know each other.
3. The community. With the school being so small, you really get to know the community pretty well!
Three things I would love to grow:
1. Communication between levels. While I get to talk to the high school teachers often, I don't really get to talk/collaborate with middle school and elementary. I think this would go a long way in boosting school pride if we could work together across grades.
2. Consistency. Our students need to know that we are going to be consistent in rules that we have or the way we react to situations. We as teachers and administration need to be on the same page when it comes to consistency.
3. Time to collaborate or work on improving our lessons, adding fun, changing things up. So many of our in-services are planned for the entire thing, and not all of it is relevant to the here and now. Often, if we want to collaborate, it is outside of school or cutting into family time to try to plan.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteThree things I love most about my school are:
1. The staff and students I work with.
2. The opportunities to be part of building and district teams.
3. The fact that our District Superintendent comes through our building frequently and stops in to say hello and asks how things are going.
Three things I would love to see grow at our school are:
1. PLCs becoming student and data focused. I could request our PLC review data rather than whatever other task is on the agenda.
2. Use our data to guide our instruction. I could ask more questions and find out if teachers are following the daily or are they going back and reteaching and is it working and how do you do that when it is expected to keep moving on in the daily lessons?
3. Consistency.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteThe 3 things I love most about my school are:
1. My principal - she is a genuine leader, approachable, and inclusive.
2. The community involvement from families.
3. Student well being is at the heart of everything we do.
Areas of growth:
1. More leadership opportunities for students - my children attend a different school in the district and have so many leadership opportunities in their building. I would like to share some of those ideas with our admin and counseling team and work to implement some of those in our building.
2. Consistency - at times it does not feel like the rules are applied fairly to all students and staff. Although I try my very best to treat everyone equally, I do need to continue to push myself to do just that.
3. Discipline/consequences - we are a fun school, and I would consider myself a fun staff member. I need to work harder to hold students accountable for misbehavior that I witness.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDeleteThree things I love about our District:
1. Importance of mental health
2. Students reaching their potential
3. Support of staff
Three areas of growth:
1. Consistency between our elementary buildings. Even though we follow the same guidelines, things are different as well as expectations and it causes some negative feelings towards staff.
2. More communication between Admin and staff. I feel like our Admin get together often, but we as teachers don't know what is going on most of the time until last minute.
3. Using the data to better support our students to help them be successful in the classroom. We use many different practices of data, but how is it benefiting and guiding our students is something I'd like to see happen more often.
Three things I love most about my school:
ReplyDelete1. The staff and the students. Specifically the staff who put on events and activities to support the students and allow them to have fun.
2. Getting a lunch break that lines up with 4th, 5th, 6th and some special teachers
3. Our PK-12 is all in one building
Three things I would love to grow at our school:
1. Communication throughout the building. This year, we have had some financial struggles and decision making that were not communicated well throughout. Sometimes something happens at recess weren't communicated and parents would come to me and I would have no idea something happened. I think a way to help with this is to simply ask the questions when we have them instead of talk about them amongst ourselves.
2. Using our programs/data to drive instruction. Nebraska has their own set of standards, so not all curriculums line up, then we are asked to meet NSCAS goals along with MAP goals that don't always line up with one another. We get the backlash when scores aren't met in one test even though they are on another test. It would be nice to have something consistent, although test scores aren't everything, but that is a whole different topic. Along with better training on reading the data to help us drive our instruction.
3. Scheduling. While I love being in a PK-12 building, it makes scheduling difficult because our school also need to be added on to. We don't eat lunch until 1:00 because we have one tiny lunchroom to get everyone through, then we share specials teachers throughout the building which also makes scheduling challenging. We have one 30 minute special a day (not enough in my opinion) and have our students from 9:30-1:00. That is a lot of time to keep students engaged in learning and a long time for me to wait to use the bathroom. I would like to see administration take our thoughts into consideration when making the schedule, since expanding the school isn't an option at the time.
Things that I love:
ReplyDelete1. Visibility and engagement of students with principals
2. Amazing support staff
3. The students
Three things that I would like to see grow:
1. consistency between each school building
2. collabaration as related service staff are spread throughout buildings
3. All staff to understand what related services are
I am hoping by being a school staff member this year and not a contracted staff person, that should help all three of those things. I think being allowed to give a small presentation at our Special Ed meeting about what related services are and are not would also be a good positive way to grow everyone's knowledge.
3 things I love:
ReplyDelete1. The teachers all work together for the benefit of the students.
2. The students are authentic
3. great support staff to work with
Three things to grow:
1. More training with technology
2. Better communication with admin expectations
3. More help from admin in classrooms
The thing I could do better is to ask for help when I need it. I need to be more vocal about the needs of my classroom and asking for more training when I need it.
3 things that I love:
ReplyDelete1. I love that the only other colleague in my department loves to learn new things and that she is willing to share what she learns and her advice with me.
2. I love that almost all of my students are respectful on any given day.
3. I love that my administration has my back and they enforce the rules in the handbook.
Three things to grow:
1. More training with technology.
2. Setting boundaries with the students who like to disrespect the learning space in a respectful way.
3. Taking pride in the atmosphere of my classroom by daily organizing and straightening so my desk and classroom aren't chaotic.
To address #3, I can backward plan when I want to leave the classroom and subtract 15 or 20 minutes to reorganize and reset the classroom. I could also lay everything out for the next day. When that is finished, leave knowing that I am fully prepped for the next day. #self-care. Carry it through the WHOLE year. Be relentless about it!
Three things you love about your school:
ReplyDelete1. my coworkers
2. the family atmosphere that is present within the school
3. the students
Three things to grow:
1. how we use technology and not switching platforms every 2-3 years. I could bring ideas on different resources that could be use over different content areas or provide feedback on the platforms that we are using.
2. more opportunities to bring the outside world into the classroom. I could start researching on how to bring the real world into our history classes and getting it approved through the district ahead of time to get someone in to share their thoughts and ideas with my students. If bringing someone in is not an option, we could look into using Zoom or Skype.
3. Belief/views of our administrators to be the same: not their thoughts conflicting with the other principals. It makes it hard to know what they want from staff in different situations. Talk more openly about the frustrations that is experienced by many of the staff members instead of staying quiet about the ideas. There is also not always a black and white answer and they deal with that each day with a variety of students.
Already in place that are working:
ReplyDelete1. The teaming concept. Each grade level has three teams that serve as a family atmosphere.
2. PLC process/-identify what we need to teach.
3. The ability to try new things in the classroom without fear of judgement.
Things that could grow:
1. Discussion and in depth training covering practices on trauma/poverty informed and student mental health
2. Visibility of administration
3. More authentic experiences such as field trips
I could do a better job in reaching out to business leaders to see what opportunities are available. I teach in Sioux Falls. I am going to try and reach out to the Outdoor Campus, Sanford, and Avera to see what they can provide for field trip and learning opportunities.
The three things I love about my school…
ReplyDelete1.) My principal is always available and willing to listen and help out. He is always walking through the halls during passing periods and during class time, checking on what is going on and interacting with the students.
2.) My fellow team members are a great resource, personally and professionally! I don’t know what I would do without my team members, we are there for each other.
3.) Teaching in a small school allows for small class sizes and being able to connect with each student. Students can connect better with each other and I am able to make connections with them too.
Three things that I would love to grow at my school are…
1.) Getting all three teams (6, 7, 8) to collaborate (honestly) on the needs of students as they move on to the new year. I often reach to the previous and teachers for information on students and I get the same response, “he/she is a good kid”. I would like to hear what things worked well in the past and what did not go so well. I will continue to reach out looking for some little bits of info.
2.) Better use of professional development time at the beginning of the year. Celebrate the start of a new year, and not always focus on testing data, what standards are being taught and what ones are not. I like the idea of field trips for staff to see what educational things are around your area and how to bring that into the classroom.
3.) More time to celebrate the efforts of the students…rewards days! A break from the usual routine. Time for the students to be acknowledged for their hard work or even just a time out to relax. I have used the little breaks during testing time and it seems to reenergize the students and allow them to relax.
Three Things I Love About my School
ReplyDelete1. Our building has a lot of people and resources I can utilize to help students with emotional and material needs
2. Our building principal believes in the importance of family and encourages us to enjoy our weekends and spend time away from school on the things that matter most in life such as family and friends.
3. I am on several teams who feel like family. These individuals are there to celebrate the joys in life and provide support during life’s difficult times.
Three Things I would Love to Grow at my School
1. One way I would like to see our building grow is by having a consistent attitude of joy. One thing I can do to help this process along is to try to find a bright spot in a situation when other staff members are being negative.
2. Another way I would like to see our building grow is by developing a greater sense of community involvement. One thing I can do to help this process along, is by working on projects to get my class involved in the community. I can have my students make and deliver cards to the nursing homes in our community.
3. A third way I would like to see our building grow is by creating a more positive atmosphere, especially when it comes to discussing students who are challenging behaviorally. One thing I can do to help this process along is to encourage the use of and model the 2 x 10 strategy, where an adult visits with a particular student for 2 minutes a day for 10 days to build a relationship. I have used this in the past with students who I found to be challenging, and it completely turned around my experience with them in class.
Three things I love about my school:
ReplyDelete1) The students, we truly have amazing students who deserve everything we have.
2)The history of our school. We are the oldest building in our school district and we just celebrated 100 years of the building. I attended the school when I was in 5th and 6th grade. There is a lot of love within those walls.
3) I love that my school is trying to bring family engagement activities back to the building. After Covid we took a long time to get back on track and I am hopeful that we can continue to enhance these activities because they mean so much to our kids and families.
Three things I would like to grow in my school.
1) I would like to grow the culture of my school beginning with the teachers.
2) I would like to grow a book club at our school.
3) I would like to grow a climate that brings fun back into our school.
To grow our school in these areas I know I can play a role in all three of them. The one that is most crucial for me this year is growing the culture of my school especially with the teachers. We had a bad end to the year with gossip and negativity. My goal is to make sure that I am working to actively stop rumors when they start and to try to always look to the positive side of a situation. It is easy to get caught up in negativity but my goal is to try to always be the most positive one in the room.
Three things I love most about our school:
ReplyDelete1. My coworkers and our staff in general. We are a tightknit group that celebrates and commiserates with each other.
2. We have diversity at our school that leans into one of our school pillars of belonging. With so many different perspectives and needs within our student body, every day is unexpected and fun.
3. Our admin is generally very supportive of trying new things. From new classes and clubs to differentiation in the classroom, they are usually supportive first and constructive afterward.
Three things I would love to grow:
1. I would like to increasingly provide a safe place for student academic intervention. Our school does a nice job with offering study halls over lunch time, but there is little accountability to get those who are required to attend or to entice those who are not required but would benefit just the same. We have the structure but not the student consistency. I'm not sure of a fix, but I plan to become more vocal about presenting intervention as an opportunity, not a consequence. I also want to ensure students understand this is the main route to recovery or a safe place to get their work done.
2. I would like to grow non-required course participation. I teach a few AP classes that are not required to graduate. While many students would like to sign up for them, it's a year long commitment, and they don't get a required social studies credit out of it. I know some states are making this happen, but I don't see South Dakota going in that direction. My plan is to make these classes a destination that students want to use as an outlet and not a requirement. They want to be here, not because they have to, but because it's fun.
3. I would love to grow our district's overreliance on standardized testing. There is so much pressure on end of semester tests, yet very little do these scores determine if a student passes or not. We change them very little after looking at the data, and then we continue on with little direction. While I don't think they will go away any time soon, I have the most success when students have fun in class. I plan to not discuss semester exams until the end of each term and instead focus on making learning relevant through a variety of activities in class.
The Truth & The Fallacies of School Improvement: What are the three things you love most about your school? What are three things you would love to grow at your school? For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
ReplyDelete3 Things I love about my school:
1. The staff at our school are very welcoming and easy to collaborate with! We all get along very well.
2. The students here at our school are great! Most students are willing to work and accomplish their goals!
3. I love how our school has so many resources/staff that are willing to help in any way. Principals and instructional coaches are a huge asset in terms of helping a teacher!
GROWTH:
1. I would love to see our district communicate to every teacher/staff better. Most teachers would like to be in the know if a situation or an issue occurred. My goal is to share as much information as I can to staff that are new to the district...especially when it comes to rules and procedures.
2. I would love to see our other buildings in the district collaborate more. Whether this is at inservice or a district wide meeting! To accomplish this, I'll probably pull a teacher or two aside and ask for their input.
3. I would also love if we could more community involvement. That way we could get funds for the classroom or specific field trips! I'd probably bring a speaker so that businesses know we're thinking of them!
3 loves about my school:
ReplyDelete1 The staff are fantastic. We have an uplifting, accepting, helpful, and growing middle school staff. I am blessed to be with such great human beings with the same passion, energy, and knowledge (of their content area) and me.
2 I teach at a private school so the parents and even the grandparents are more involved then when I taught at the local public school.
3 The students, for the most part, come prepared to learn. Their energy and excitement keeps me going.
3 Growths
1 Better communication with parents. The staff does a great job. I expect the student planner to go home each night to be signed or initialed. I put notes in the planner, something the student(s) have done well. The parents miss out on that.
2 We're starting a mentoring program this year. I'm very excited to see how this develops. I have a new staff member and first impressions were very good. We plan to do a number of things together with our 2 classrooms.
3 We're going to go on more field trips and more interactive learning. I'm on that committee so thrilled this is underway.
What are the three things you love most about your school?
ReplyDelete1. I love the entire staff. Everyone is always kind, welcoming and helpful!
2. My principal. He is always willing to go above and beyond in giving you help or help a person improve their classroom with its needs.
3. The parents. We have the best parents who are always willing to pitch in and buy things for my classroom if I need anything.
What are three things you would love to grow at your school?
1. More planning time. I feel that the planning time is lacking which would help benefit students growth.
2. More collaboration within subject areas. As a music staff we barely see each other and I feel that would benefit the music program greatly.
3. I would also like to see the music program grow and be respected for my school. I would like it to be force like sports.
For each of the the three things you would love to grow, identify at least one thing you can do to help that process along.
I am going to try and get a trip planned for my students to perform at a large venue to get students excited and to take ownership and pride for their accomplishment.