Category: Principal’s Blog

You’re doing a ridiculously good job. And I mean it.

The pressure for schools is real, and we need to keep that in mind as we keep chugging along to being the best ever. All schools face incredible challenges and educators step up accordingly, and yet it’s pointed criticism and threats they hear year after year. “Get better at THIS, you MUST do that, reflect on what you’re not doing, or else.”

Give us “else” because I’m not doing that. We’re going to reflect on what we have done and achieved, and recognize our work and to celebrate it. Scroll through our Instagram account and look at what we are doing compared to past years; You might scoff at me saying our goal is to be the best in the country, but like it or not you can’t deny we’re well on our way.

My top 10 102-proud moments after our first round of observations this school year:

10. First ever 8th grade Pep Rally (And the least chaotic one in the history of pep rallies…)
11. Attending Climate Team meeting that was more genuine and more productive than just about any school staff meeting could ever be.
12. Seeing kids use Khan Academy and attacking content and skills they didn’t pick up the first time the learned it in class.
13. Seeing kids debate about Tiger Rising.
14. Seeing kids truly read. (Note: You’re not reading if you’re doing it to find responses for a prompt. You’re taking a test.)
15. Seeing Ms. Mills and Ms. Tasca assessing their students on the water cycle not with a multiple choice test but by letting them decide how to explain the topic whether by drawings or song. And they did so brilliantly.
16. Seeing Ms. McCabe and Ms. Fishcetti give a 5th grade math problem with more steps than I can remember and then the students respond by nailing it, with pairs discussion every step as they go.
17. The middle school doing what they do, punctuated by the 7th grade team leaving no doubt who’s top dog in Queens as well as New York State.
18. The early grades not missing a beat in creating a lovely climate for their students while transitioning to much more rigorous curricula.

1 Hearing kids call me Ashe(y) on Halloween, which also happens to be the name of my dog.

So in light of the recently released State Report Card for 102 and as we prepare for our first round of inquiry, I have nothing to say except “thank you!”

HIGHLIGHTS

From Mr. Borelli: This week, Mrs. Brucia and Ms. La Manna opened their door to our Literacy Coach Mrs. Duke to develop effective guided reading groups.  One of the quickest ways to meet the needs of our students is to truly work in a collaborative, student-first environment.  Our 3rd grade students are a lively bunch and a key to minimizing undesired behaviors is to have a fully planned program.  Small group strategies and guided reading lessons not only impact student growth, but they allow students to know what skills they need to improve upon.  It’s a mini version of RtI within the literacy block.  When up and running, the students in 3-221 and 3-232 will look forward to their carved out time with their teachers, making learning purposeful and impactful.

From Ms. Mintiens: Ms. Hughes has been performing interesting, exciting, and interactive experiments with all of her classes.  She had 2-209 exploring oobleck.  They had to decide if oobleck was a solid or a liquid.  They were given water and food coloring and had to decide how much to add to their mix.

In 2-224 the students worked in teams to create the highest, free standing tower.  Some used longer sticks with marshmallows and others used shorter tooth picks.  The students used the experimental process and were surprised with the results versus their hypothesis.  Ms. Hughes successfully uses science centers to encourage team work, engagement, and the inquiry process.

From Ms. Mulé: Back in September, the 8th grade teachers took over the organization of Spirit Week.  We delayed it by almost a month because the planning was more intense than ever.  This week began with Pajama Day and culminated with Color Wars and the first ever Spirit Week Pep Rally.  The students planned and practiced all week and displayed their talents Friday afternoon in the gym, where 8-411 was declared victorious.  The banners were creative, the skits unique, the songs original and the trivia fun.  Thank you to Mr. McManus for your DJ skills and Mr. Gebhardt for photographing the event.  Thank you to all of the 8th grade teachers – Ms. Eliades, Ms. Green, Mr. Bai, Ms. Zecca, Ms. Gaffan and Ms.Chuang for all of your planning in making Spirit Week a success. It’s events like this that make 102 such a special place!

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Inquiry, ROUND 1: The first round of inquiry begins this Monday. Please see this list for your assigned group this round. We assigned non-1st or 2nd choices for some teachers; please see me should you have any concerns.

Field Trips: Due to the changes in how school nurses deal with field trips, you should note any students in your class that cannot self-administer medicine and discuss with your AP to plan in advance. We’re not going to discriminate against students.

AiS: To better provide services for at risk students, ICT Special Education teachers will service a few periods a week to at-risk students on the grades that they teach. Rosters are being finalized and will be distributed tomorrow.

Traci Kaplan: The latest Staff Spotlight is Up. Thank you Ms. Gaffan for a job well done with teaching students how to publish real content.

Drew Dudley, the TED speaker In the video we watched on Election Day, poignantly pointed out that there is no one “world” for the Herculean leaders to change. Every one of us experience the world around us differently, and leading is simply about making this experience better for someone, one person at a time. It’s something all of us can do and have done.

However, some things can’t wait for us to change one person at a time. In a more recent talk, Drew Dudley brought up that the image of who we collectively perceive leaders to be can create devastating glass ceilings for those who think they don’t look the part. So who looks the part?  Take a look at the Google Image search for “CEO” if you don’t already know.

(NOTE: Google produces results based on popularity…the top results are the ones people click on first when they search for the term CEO)

Such social norms can be devastating and it starts early. Our students are amazing and more than a few can compete with the best from the country. But How many of them see themselves as leaders? How many of them truly believe they can set the limits to their own success? And how many of our students leave 8th grade thinking that there is even a remote chance they can become president?

Ability is nothing without the courage and will to use it, and our job as teachers is to help students acquire all three, even if the latter two will never show up on state test scores. We must be mindful to model each day that leadership doesn’t have anything to do with your gender, the color of your skin, or the neighborhood you grew up in. It’s up to us to show them that leadership is within all of us, that leadership is a mindset and a choice, and that leadership is simply the willingness to pay the price to do what’s right.

In short, leadership is this Angela Davis quote: “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”

HIGHLIGHTS

Ms. Mercado and Ms. Listl are off to a fantastic start in their ICT partnership in Kindergarten. With effective systems in place to set expectations for behavior and learning, students can spend all of their attention on the learning tasks at hand. To learn how to look closely and later write with details, students traced objects such as pointy leaves with their fingers in the air and describing it as they go. The practice builds upon existing knowledge (drawing) to support new understanding (recognize and describe details). With Ms. Keen Li teaching a third group, all students were able to enjoy small group learning. I can’t believe this is only the team’s first 40 days!

From Ms. Mintiens: Ms. Falesto and Ms. DelVecchio are spicing up the learning and putting the FUN in Fundations Word Study.  The two have been pulling students who need extra support in reading in grades K, 1, and 2- specifically focusing on word study.  They use the Fundations Curriculum with fidelity (utilizing the picture icons from the program) but also add their own activities that incorporate multi sensory learning in order to grab and keep students’ attention for a full period.  Some activities include using a word bank of sight words and students have to come to the chart figure out which words are missing a ‘bonus letter’. The students created words with their magnetic tiles. The two teachers created straws with the different sets of ‘bonus letters’.  One teacher called out a word and students had to hold up which bonus letter they heard. The two teachers play off of each other to model skills and ask students questions.  The energy is contagious!

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Academic Intervention Services will begin by the end of the month for at-risk students. A staff memo will be mailboxed this week with information on the students who will be receiving services as well as the criteria used for determining eligibility. Should any students whom you are considering sending home a December Promotion-In-Doubt warning letter are not on the AIS list, please speak with your assistant principal as well as guidance counselor.

Please use your Tuesday parent outreach time to schedule meeting with families. Now that you have some initial information on your students’ performance, you should be diligent in communicating with families to ensure all parties are on the same page and have a plan to support student learning. We lose trust with parents when they find out their children are not meeting expectations from a report card or during PTC, and we earn trust when they find out at a personal meeting arranged by you.

Ballroom Dancing, Paint Night, and Other Fun Times with Families. Now that Ms. Pimentel is up and running, we will begin planning a series of workshops/fun times with our families. Last year we had several amazing Paint Nights (thank you Ms. Holden and Ms. O’Donnell!), and this year we’ll add mother-son/ father-daughter/ father-son/ does it matter?! ballroom dancing with Ms. Eliades as the instructor. Let me know if you’re interested in coordinating an after school Parent/Student/Staff event.