Exactness in lesson planning is the clearest indicator of highly effective instruction. Great teachers don’t waste time on “just because” activities; everything is intentional from minute 1 to minute 45.
Every question, prompt, activity, assessment, and grouping is done with explicit rationale, and the teacher is purposeful in planning all aspects of a lesson to guide students towards new understanding.
We expect nothing less at 102. Classroom observation will begin next week, and these are the questions your observer may ask you:
How do you see the Thinking Generator working to get students thinking about precisely what they need to think about in order to learn the targeted objective?
What is the rationale behind the student grouping?
Do you believe this is a skill that requires more direct modeling? Or is it something that needs to be more experiential? How does this impact your lesson?
What pre-requisite understanding is necessary? How have you made sure students have it?
What are your next steps should you observe students struggling during the lesson?
What will tell you by the end of the lesson whether your students have understood what you taught?
WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS
A district principal of a large elementary once remarked that every dismissal is a small miracle, and I don’t disagree. However, forcing miracles to happen day in and day is basically what we educators signed up for, and nothing is accidental. Miracles happen because we made it happen.
Case in point: our dismissal.
From Mr. Borelli and Ms. Ferrari taking care of directing busing services to Ms. Sheerinand Ms. Weinstein facilitating late pick-ups with the incredible help of Ursula and Laura, this has been the smoothest opening week I’ve ever experienced. Thank you!
From Ms. Sheerin: The writing workshop I attended with Alex this week was not at all what I expected. It really got me rethinking my approach to teaching writing and I’m interested to see how this course unfolds and bridges creative writing with essay writing. It goes against so much of how teachers are taught to teach writing – so it might be just what we need.
From Mr. Borelli: Mrs. Smith has gotten class K-105 into mid-year form by the end of the first full week of the year! Her students have shown an immense sign of maturity, lining up in two straight lines, quietly waiting for the next set of directions from Mrs. Smith. They walk to each “landmark” with purpose. By having her students focused on her and having that attention reciprocated back to the students, the ease in which class K-105 enters the building to start their day speaks to what students can do with clear expectations.
From Ms. Weinstein: Ms. Susie Williams told me about a student in her class who just kept saying that he wanted to get better. She added, “When he said that, it made me want to be MY best for him and all of the other students and I can’t wait to do that.” It is this spirit that caught my attention when we met over the summer. Welcome, Ms. Williams – we are looking forward to seeing your best!
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
September 26th is Family Day. and we will begin at 4:30PM and closing at 7:30PM. The objective for this event centers around Focus Standards:
1.) Make clear to all families how important the focus standards are for the grade; (handout)
2.) The resources and strategies we will use to teach these focus standards;
3.) What we’ll do to make sure there’s really no child left behind (New 102 Personalized Learning Intervention System); and
4.) What parents can walk away with to support children (guides, websites, online platforms such as Khan, Matheletics, Lexia, etc.)
MONDAY PL: Please prepare for Family Day with your content teams. Review the PL calendar for specifics and check in with your APs should you have any questions.
THINKING GENERATOR WALK THROUGH 9/20: This Wednesday we will have our first Thinking Generator Walkthrough in anticipation of the first round of classroom observations. We will conduct at least 4 walkthroughs this year (we had 6 last year), and they are non-evaluative and are only used for planning professional learning.
EMAIL SET UP: Thank you to Ms. Arlequin for creating such a helpful tool to support email set up. And myapologies if I had accidentally not included you in our staff contact list thank you for your patience as we fine tune our new online system.
ATTENDING OFF-SITE PDs, leaving early, etc.: Any off-site PD must have written approval. Please email me and cc your AP, Ms. Mills (smills@ps102q.org) as soon as possible.
Should you need to leave the building for any reasons, please check in with me and your AP. APs will approve should I be unavailable.
In case of emergency, don’t wait. Go and tell me later.
First Day Photos are up at http://www.ps102photos.com. Thanks Pete for an amazing Ms. Joyce portrait!
mrkobot.com 