Principal’s Blog

102 Review, Issue 13: Preparing for Principals Meeting

Posted on May 22, 2018May 18, 2019 by mrkobot in Principal's Blog

December 11th, 2015

“What are you thinking?”

-All 40 district 24 principals to our students next Friday

Exciting news: 102 will be hosting the December principals meeting next Friday on the 18th, and all 40 principals from district 24 will be visiting our classrooms along with Superintendent Chan and her team. As a teacher I’ve always relished the opportunity to show the world what my students were doing and learning, and I am just as excited now as principal to open the doors of 102. Great things are happening here and people need to know about it.

In teams of 5-7 during periods 2-4, our guests will visit classrooms across all grades and subject areas to observe instruction at 102. To focus this work, I will be asking our guests to think about one question as they go from class to class: “What are the students thinking?”

Students learn best when they engage in activities that allow them to construct new understanding themselves through active inquiry and thinking, and not when they passively take notes or parrot information given by the teacher. It is crucial that you plan for every lesson, every day—not just next Friday—activities that facilitate the learning process via student thinking, discussion, and deep understanding. See Ms. Green’s exemplary practice of this approach below in the “Weekly Highlights” section.

Active student thinking is an effective approach to ensure core academic subject mastery, but it is perhaps the only viable method to help students develop a host of critical 21st century skills such as creative thinking, emotional intelligence, and teamwork. Our instructional focus for the school year reflects our commitment to support this work.

PS/IS 102 Instructional Focus

All students will acquire both core academic subject mastery as well as critical 21^st century skills by engaging in rigorous thinking tasks that explicitly target the development of metacognitive skills in creative thinking, problem solving, teamwork, emotional intelligence, and civic responsibility.

2015-2016: DEFINE thinking rigor through common tasks, assessments, and projects in each grade and subject area. Inquiry groups will research, create and/or select exemplar tasks for each content area in every grade.

2016-2017: DELIVER instruction that attends to the instructional shifts necessary in providing access for all students to engage in rigorous thinking tasks. Inquiry teams will review student outcomes to discover effective teacher practices in promoting CCLS and 21^st century skills.

2017-2018: DETERMINE a uniform set of best practices and curricula to support rigorous thinking in every lesson. Administration will align all school systems and expectations for teachers and students to create an environment designed for active learning through thinking.

We will come back in January to unpack this work in inquiry groups. More information to follow.

Weekly Highlights:

After assigning her students to use new vocabulary word “variant” in a sentence for homework a day earlier, Ms. Green expertly facilitated a small-to-whole class discussion activity to monitor student understanding and to scaffold learning for the students who need it. Patient and astute in her approach, Ms. Green guided her students to learn through discovery as they attend to her questions and counter-examples, building on one another’s understanding and thinking deeply about the term variant in meaning, form, and connotation. Her students were given the opportunity to construct new learning themselves and will have far greater retention than if they had learned by passively listening to a teacher’s explanation.

Things You Need to Know:

Staff Spotlight: The first installment of our “Staff Spotlight”is up! To help the community better get to know our amazing staff, students will interview teachers for this bi-monthly series. Please feel free to nominate a colleague you feel is deserving of the “Spotlight”. See here for an interview with Ms. Zwillickby Laura Umana of class 8-409.

Kind and Caring Wednesdays: The “Caught Being Kind and Caring” campaign is up and running. An initiative for students and teachers in grade 3-5, three students will be celebrated each week on “Kind and Caring Wednesdays” over the PA in the morning. Throughout the week students will be filling entries for classmates who have been caught doing something kind and caring, and we will randomly select three to highlight.

Write-Ups After Going on Trips: Please email me a blurb of any trips you take with your class along with some photos. 102 provides students with such a well-rounded and rich learning experience and I want to share your hard work with the community. I will use the write-up to create an entry on our website. See here for an example: http://ps102q.org/category/student-life/

102 Review, Issue 12: Strategic Planning and Magical Night

Posted on May 22, 2018May 18, 2019 by mrkobot in Principal's Blog

December 4th, 2015

“For some people, the term strategic planning brings to mind a disciplined and thoughtful process that links the values, mission, and goals of a school system with a set of coherent strategies and tasks designed to achieve those goals. For others, the term induces a cringe brought about by memories of endless meetings, fact-free debates, three-ring binders, and dozens of objectives, tasks, strategies, plans, and goals—all left undone after the plan was completed. As one frustrated administrator said to me, “When do we get to stop planning and start doing?”

-Douglas Reeves, In Leading to Change/ Making Strategic Planning Work

It took a great deal of collaboration and effort, but our 102’s inaugural celebration of the International Day for People with Disabilities on December 3rd was a massive success by any measure. Initially pitched as a information booth during parent teacher conference, the event morphed over the months into a full day extravaganza completed with levitating students, balloons that turn into doves that turn into bunnies, a school community united in wearing blue, a dance performance, free iPads, fresh popcorn, and even a movie-worthy-against-all-odds-come-from-behind-overtime win by our first ever girls basketball team. It was a truly magical day for the students in Ms. Meenan’s ASD class, and I am fiercely proud of our school community in coming together for a great cause.

However, when compared with the challenge of planning and implementing instruction to support high-need students, sawing a principal in half no longer seems so impossible. Impactful inquiry work involves attending to endless variables and thinking about the unknown, and as a result can be a frustrating process for the very same reasons that give it potential to be transformative. Your feedback from November 23rd tells us as much. You tell us that you are supportive, sees potential, but that you need more structure and guidance. Out Professional Learning Committee is already making the necessary adjustments to better support this work, and we will briefly meet next Monday, December 7th to clarify expectations. All teachers please report to the auditorium after dismissal and you will be released to engage in inquiry work with your respective teams.

Weekly Highlights:

Ms. DeVito lead her students in the 2nd grade ASD class to perform a dance number in front of a packed house, and they captured the hearts of everyone in just a few hip shakes. The dance—no longer than maybe 3 minutes—must’ve involved months of practice, patience, and most importantly, compassion from their teachers. Thank you Ms. DeVito for exemplifying the qualities all our students should aspire to develop.

Things You Need to Know:

Discipline: Please inform your direct supervisor immediately–cc’ me if via email—to report student misbehavior outside of the classroom. We need all staff to be alert in protecting the orderly climate here at 102 and our assistant principals would appreciate your help in identifying target students and their behavior.

We are also working on a referral form for misbehaviors that take place in the classroom, and we hope it will clarify to the community how teachers and administrators are to respond to different types of incidents. This work is grounded in the recently revised discipline code, and you should review it if you haven’t already done so.

After School Program: We will be offering after school programs for ELA and math and you should email me ASAP if you are interested in teaching. All teachers are welcome to apply.

Smartboards: I will be reaching out to the teachers who have expressed interest in piloting new technology. Some existing Smartboards will be removed from these classrooms and can be repurposed for another classroom. If your Smartboard has any issues please let me know immediately.

102 Review, Issue 11: Asking the Right Questions in PLC

Posted on May 22, 2018May 18, 2019 by mrkobot in Principal's Blog

November 20th, 2015

“Why did students struggle with this? How do we re-teach it?”

After 46 days of instruction, it should be clear to teachers who are their struggling students and what they each struggle with the most. However, knowing “who” and “what” is only one half of the equation in planning effective interventions for students in desperate need of them.

The article “Asking the Right Questions in PLC” argues that teacher teams should ask and answer four key questions when analyzing student outcomes:
– What do we need to re-teach?

– To whom do we need to re-teach it?

– Why did students struggle with this?

– How do we re-teach it?

Over-stressed and often lacking time to meet with colleagues, it’s easy for all of us to focus only on the first two questions and not allocating sufficient time to fully address the “Why” and the “How”. As we dig deeper to find ways to support students, consider the following questions when analyzing student work:

– What do you think made some items difficult for students?

– What are some possible sources of confusion?

– What do students’ wrong answer choices tell us about their errors and misconceptions?

– How did we originally teach this concept? What worked? What didn’t work?

– What are the best strategies for addressing the misconceptions?

– What are the best curriculum resources?

– How do you think students will respond to an alternative instructional approach?

As we continue to plan for and deliver interventions for struggling students both during the regular school day as well as before/after school programs, we must be mindful of the fact that giving more of the same is not effective intervention. What didn’t work the first time will most likely not work the second or third time around; there’s a reason why each student struggle and intervention is all about finding out why.

Weekly Highlights:

Ms. Zecca, leading the charge once again in directing our school play, is working tirelessly to teach, model, organize, and support our amazing group of young actors’. It’s a tremendous undertaking to put a play together with professional adults, and I cannot imagine the weight Ms. Zecca carries AFTER a full day of incredible math instruction. Ms. Zecca, I bow to no one but you and Simba.

From Mr. Borelli: This week Mrs. Giampapa, Ms. Beceiro, Mrs. Chin, and Mrs. Foley put a Problem of Practice to the test. The ReadyGENvocabulary portion was not engaging enough for their students to create the link between seeing the word and knowing the word. Working together outside of our Monday PLCs, the 1^st grade team, including Mrs. Khatibi and Mrs. Pera, have implemented several methods to move away from the passive “3,2,1” assessment to an active classroom where students are discussing attributes of words like “proud” and “enormous” through the use of small group Circle Maps, visuals, and pushing students to have a rationale for their thinking. Each one of these classes looked different in their approach and in their results due to the authenticity of feedback from students. This was a great demonstration of purposeful planning and the willingness to seek new avenues of learning to bring out the best in our students.

From Ms. Atkins: Mrs. Le Roy invited Ms. Allen’s class into her classroom to share her “African Animal Dioramas”. Mrs. Le Roy shared her “Thin and Thick” question formulation strategy with the visiting class and the teachers then created student groups where host students guided their guests in a question and discussion session.

Mrs. LeRoy and Mrs. Allen teamed-up to incorporate strategies that engage students to learn through purposeful discussion and collaboration. Their teamwork exposed students to diverse perspectives allowing them to learn from various points of views.

From Ms. Mulé: Ms. Merjave is working with class 6-309 to create a content based project in the computer lab. Not only are the students in the class researching Inventions of Ancient Civilizations, they are learning how to put this information together on a PowerPoint presentation. In this lesson students not only acquired information they could apply in the Social Studies class, but added to the foundation of math skills that will prove useful in the coming years.

Things You Need to Know:

Attendance: As a professional courtesy, please try to email me as well as your immediate supervisor when you find out you have to take a sick day. We understand the many things that may prevent you from coming to work, and we want to appropriately plan for your students to learn in your absence. Please try and email us when you call sub-central to give us some time to coordinate coverage. Thank you for your understanding.

Thesis Throwdown Thinking Thursday: I’ve heard through the grapevines that a challenge will be broadcasted to a class Monday morning. Stay tuned!

102 Review, Issue 10: It’s Still About Student Thinking

Posted on May 22, 2018May 18, 2019 by mrkobot in Principal's Blog

“Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.”– John Holt

Congratulations to Ms, Winter and Ms. Green’s classes for participating in our first Thesis Throwdown Thinking Thursday! Students from both classes worked on their own time throughout the week, communicating endlessly and even memorized both sides of the argument. And they did all this not for a grade, not to be compliant, and not because they wanted to please authority. They did it because they enjoyed thinking and learning is fun. Please seek out Ms. Winter and Ms. Green if you are thinking about participating and want to learn more about the experience—I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to share.

You should reach out to Ms. Duke if you’re interested in participating in future TTTT; she has prepared several topics for each grade level and you are also encouraged to come up with your own. Especially for those of you who do not share my love for 90s music, TTTT is an amazing opportunity not just in pushing student thinking but also for winning free snacks. Which is important.

I urge you to reflect on this week’s quote as you plan lessons in the upcoming weeks. Try to shift your attention away from thinking about what you’ll say or do during the lesson to planning tasks and student experiences that can lead students to the intended learning. The human brain simply does not engage in learning when it passive; Learning is a complex process that begins and ends within the individual and no amount of “Do you understand?” and repeating a concept will get a student to understand if s/he is not actively thinking. Humans are not computers—we can’t just upload thinking skills to one another. No matter charismatic or shy, authoritative or collaborative, math or ELA, the most effective teachers in a building are always those that never stops pushing their students to think.

Things You Need to Know:

December 3rd is the International Day of People with Disabilities and our ASD Horizon class is leading several initiative to raise awareness for those who are differently-abled and not disabled. We have two magic shows that day—one at 5:30PM and one at 6:30PM and you are welcome to purchase tickets to attend. Staff are excluded from the raffle. Please remind students in your class to wear blue on December 3rd to support our very own 102 students in Ms. Meenan’s class with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). More information will follow in future announcements.

Morning Announcements: Thank you for your patience as we work out the kinks as we shift to a more student-centric approach to our morning announcements. Please be mindful of the days when your students are assigned to be the pledgers and have them go directly to the office from the yard on that day. We want to make sure announcements are completed by 8:30AM and the pledgers must be in the office by 8:25AM.

Technology Inventory: We are looking to purchase some new technology and I am looking for teachers who are willing to take the lead on adopting the next generation of interactive education products. These products include interactive flat panels (TVs instead of projectors), table-tops (for younger students), polling clickers, as well as integrated software that allows for immediate assessing and feedback. If you have a Smartboard that needs replacing and you’re willing to learn, please email me ASAP and we’ll discuss further. Feel free to read about some potential products here: https://www.prometheanworld.com

ClassFlow has potential.

Afterschool Program for ELA and Math: We are still in the planning phase for our Afterschool Academy and you should reach out if you are interested in teaching. In addition to supporting students who need it most, after school is a precious opportunity for us to pilot curriculum, lessons, and systems and you should take advantage of our Afterschool Program to test out your theories and collect the necessary data.

11/16 Professional Learning: Please meet with your inquiry group to continue your research next Monday. Keep in mind that learning is fluid, and you are always free to edit/ chance your focus as you see fit. Often times I would start with a problem only to find a great solution for a wholly different area. Make it meaningful for you and your students—that’s all that I ask for.

Please email me the titles of any books you’d like to purchase for your inquiry research. Once I approve you can purchase them on your own and I’ll reimburse.

Website: Our website www.ps102q.org has a new look and continues to be a work in progress. Check it out and let me know if you think of ways you or your students can contribute.

Enjoy your weekend!

102 Review, Issue 9: It’s All About Student Thinking

Posted on May 22, 2018May 18, 2019 by mrkobot in Principal's Blog

“When we think about learning, we typically focus on getting information into students’ heads. What if, instead, we focus on getting information out of students’ heads?”

-Pooja Agarwal, Henry Roediger, Mark McDaniel, & Kathleen McDermott

No matter the grade or department, I was consistently impressed by the high-level discourses taking place in each of our inquiry groups. The Problems of Practice 102 generated were thoughtful, meaningful for students, and perhaps most importantly, seemingly impossible to solve. Some may argue that thinking and talking about complex issues that do not have pre-packaged solutions—is a poor use of time. I believe in the contrary: Inquiry focused on authentic and complex problems of practice give us the space to engage in discussion, think critically, take risk, and to self-reflect. In short, it lets us learn.

Much like the children we teach, we are more intellectually engaged in rigorous learning driven by real needs and requiring real thinking. I don’t know what will happen at the end of each inquiry cycle; some teams may succeed in bringing about transformative change, and while some may fail. The only thing I’m certain of is that at the end of each cycle we will have engaged in deep thinking and reflection about our practices, and we’re better learners, and thus teachers, for it.

Weekly Highlights:

In schools, some achievements are very public while others may largely go unnoticed. Ms. Bagni’s wok may be of the latter category. Meeting one deadline after the next to submit documents to the DOE for compliance purposes, Ms. Bagni has done an incredible job balancing incredible amounts of paperwork, learning to work in a co-teaching setting, and leading her team as the ENL coordinator. Thank you, Josephine.

Ms. Gaffan’s leadership in her work with student council has, on the other hand, been very noticeable. Student council has taken up the morning annoucement duties and it’s so much better to hear students speak than have their principal grumble in the morning. Additionally, student council has been active during Parent Teacher Conferences talking to parents, giving directions, and even providing interpretation services.

Ms. Gonzalez was able to secure a position at District 79 and today is her last day. My work in D79 serving high-needs students has been one of the highlights of my life, and I hope you will find the experience equally rewarding. Good luck, Massiel!

Things You Need to Know:

Assault Near 102: One member of our families was assaulted near Grand Ave. and Van Horn st. while on his way to pick up his grand child from the school audition after school. The suspect is still at large and I have been contacted by both the victim’s family as well as the police. There may be reporters visiting the school in the coming days and I ask that you respect the privacy of our students and to say “no comment” when questioned by reporters. I will update everyone as things develop.

Lunch forms: We need to collect all lunch forms. The office will be informing you later this week the students in your class who has yet to submit lunch forms and please remind the parents to do so if you see them in person. Our Title I status depend on the number of families qualifying for free/reduced-price lunches, and this matters a great deal. Take a look at the amount of Title I funds allocated in 2015 to nearby schools within the district:

24Q049: #31,841

24Q113: $7,581

24Q128: $758

24Q102: $694,420

Yes, it’s not a typo. If it seems like 102 has a bigger treasure chest than other buildings it’s not because we have a magician working in our budgeting department. It’s because our families need support—let’s get it for them.