CMS students write letters to Thailand

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to meet two of our neighbors, David and Jo Lynne Johnson .  The Johnson's are both retired from their respective careers, but certainly not from living and teaching.  This past winter, they spent 2 months teaching English to middle-level age students in a small village in Thailand.  (Click here to see more of their travels.)  

Early in May, they not only came to CMS to share their story with nearly 450 6th and 7th grade students (which was about twice the size of the entire school in Thailand), but their dream of beginning a "pen pal" relationship between CMS students and their Thai counterparts. Today, we began this incredible relationship with our Thai friends.  Over 60 CMS students wrote letters to their Thai "pen pals" in hopes that returned letters will be received prior to the end of our school year, thus cementing the pen pal relationship and beginning what will hopefully flourish into an unforgettable cultural exchange between CMS and the students of this small Thai village.  

In addition to (hopefully) the students continuing to write back and forth, next September we plan to have either a book drive or a fundraiser to purchase pre-k and elementary books for this Thai village.  The Johnson's plan on returning to the school next winter, and would love to have the books as resources.

I want to thank the Johnson's for volunteering their time with our students and for sharing with us a rare opportunity to touch the lives of people from a different part of the world.

CMS 6th Graders - "The Green Generation"

Read the article in Home and Garden our our 6th Grade "Going Green" project.

"ED"ies Award in the Press

A link to the Portsmouth Herald article on CMS being awarded the "ED"ies award.

A link to the Exeter Newsletter article on CMS being awarded the "ED"ies award.

A link to the Exeter Newsletter article on CMS's Destination Imagination team.

CMS AYP Results Mixed

Earlier today the Department of Education released the preliminary 2008 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Report for all New Hampshire schools.  While I am very proud to announce that CMS made AYP for Reading in all subgroups, I am saddened to report that CMS did not make AYP in the area of mathematics.  

The No Child Left Behind Act states that public schools must make Adequate Yearly Progress in the content areas of Reading and Math.  To measure AYP, each state tests all students grades 3 - 8 and grade 11.  In addition to "whole school" performance, NCLB also recognizes specific subgroups that must make AYP, thus eliminating the possibility of a perceived high performing school "hiding" the performance of a subgroup of students within the much larger "whole school" data set.  There are several identified subgroups, most notable to CMS are "students with education disabilities" and "economically disadvantaged students".  In the state of New Hampshire, schools who have subgroups populated by greater than 10 students, are accountable for those groups.  Since CMS has more than 10 students in both of the above mentioned categories, it is held accountable for each.  Schools who fail to make AYP two years in a row in a content area, either as a whole school or on any of their subgroups, become a School in Need of Improvement (SINI).  Once designated a SINI, a school must make AYP two years in a row in that content area and in all subgroups to no longer be designated a SINI.  With that background, let's look at CMS's story:

Three years ago, CMS earned SINI status in the area of mathematics because of the performance of its students with educational disabilities.  Two years ago, that subgroup made AYP in math, however, economically disadvantaged students did not.  Last year, CMS made AYP in math for all subgroups, meaning that if CMS made AYP in math for all subgroups this year, we would no longer be a SINI.  At a Exeter Region Cooperative School Board Meeting early this year, I told the board that we were "cautiously optimistic" that we would make AYP.  Unfortunately I was wrong.  While our economically disadvantaged students did make AYP in math, our student with educational disabilities missed the mark.  Based on these preliminary results (there is an appeals process) CMS will continue to remain a SINI for at least two more years.

While NCLB recognizes subgroups for accountability purposes, we do not look at our designation as a SINI as an indictment on any one group.  We are a SINI because of our inability to make AYP in the content area of math regardless of the performance of any one subgroup.  We know from Dr. John Cronin's visit in November that our low achieving student- independent of subgroup identification - are not growing as fast as our high achieving students. In effect, the achievement gap at CMS is widening.  This AYP designation only corroborates his findings.  

The Good to Great Committee will be making its recommendations to the CMS faculty next week as to how to close this achievement gap.  There after, the committee will be presenting these recommendations to the school board.  I look forward to reporting about those recommendations in future blog posts.

CMS Wins "ED"ies Award

On a perfect New Hampshire spring afternoon, Dr. Barbara Gondek, co-chair of the "ED"ies selection committee announced to a crowd of more than 1500 students, teachers, administrators, school board, and community members that, indeed, CMS was selected as the 2007-2008 New Hampshire School of Excellence recipient. As the banner was unfurled from atop the school, representative from corporate sponsor McDonalds, outgoing superintendent Dr. Hanson, and the five CMS teachers who will be retiring this year (Ann Douglas, Chip Nelson, Gary Tilden, Joe O'Donnell, and Bill Taylor) rang the "ED"ies bell officially bestowing the title "Best Middle School in New Hampshire" upon CMS.

Projects using Google Earth

Many of our students have been using Google Earth in their classes.  Below is a list and description of some of those projects.

Social Studies

Colonial Tour

Students chose ten topics from a list of historical locations and events. After creating a timeline, students conducted research answering a series of questions about each location or event. Students also found a graphic and learned to include the graphic in a placemark by using basic html code. Citations were included along with the factual information and graphic for each placemark, resulting in a tour of Colonial America. (Mr. Dobson)

Tourism Flyer

Students used Google Earth to explore points of interest in a variety of cities in Middle Eastern Countries. Then placemarks were created from researched information about their favorite point of interest. Tourism flyers were created in Microsoft Publisher highlighting interesting information about their point of interest to cast a positive reflection on Middle Eastern Cities, encouraging visitors to choose their point of interest. (Mr. Young)

Latin America

To introduce students to Google Earth, students visited a series of major landmarks in Latin America. A worksheet asking for the absolute reference and description about each of the landmarks allowed students to use Google Earth not only for exploration tool but also as an information resource.

(Ms. Tremblay)

European Timeline

Students created a timeline of five events in European history using Inspiration as a graphic organizer. After conducting research on their chosen events, they typed their information into paragraph form in Microsoft Word. Students then created a placemarks in Google Earth to correspond with their historic event, creating a tour to match their timeline. (Mr. Burke)

Russian Tour

Students work in groups with assigned roles to choose a Russian landmark, conduct research, and create placemarks resulting in a tour to share with students at the end of the project. The variety of landmarks chosen by different groups allowed students to learn about many areas of Russia while enjoying a Google Earth tour. (Mr. Leslie)

World Languages

French Menu

Students in French class visited restaurant locations in Paris and at least two other cities throughout France. After viewing a variety of menus from the restaurants in each city, students created their own original French restaurant menu in Microsoft Publisher. Using the dining selection from Places of Interest in Google Earth identified restaurants immediately for students and provided instant access to restaurant websites. (Madame Cooke)

Spanish Presentation

Students in Spanish class used Google Earth to visit landmarks in cities throughout Spain. Students worked in groups to research the Government/History and other official business, Art/Culture/Tourism, Geography/Climate and Daily Life/Population of one particular city. Each group created a PowerPoint presentation and presented the finished product to the class. One particular benefit of this project was that students discovered additional landmarks in Google Earth not discovered in initial research. (Senora Stigum)

The "ED"ies Committee Visit

On Tuesday, the "ED"ies committee made their much anticipated visit to CMS.  From my seat, I can say that the CMS community should be very proud of the work done by all CMS educators in preparation for the visit.  Additionally, parents and other community members should be beaming about the work and behavior of their children.  In addition to each committee member "shadowing" one student for a portion of the day, they were given a tour of the building by student representatives and several times during the day, the members of the committee were found having "side" conversations with students.   The committee was very impressed with maturity, poise and behavior of CMS students.  My favorite comment heard from a committee member regarding her time shadowing her student?  "You can't fake that type of engagement."

I can't say enough about how pleasant and complimentary the committee members were. While we were charged with showcasing CMS, in very short order, our presentations turned into conversations, as we all candidly discussed  middle-level education.  In some ways, it was reaffirming for me to hear from my peers from around the state that many of the challenges we face hear at CMS are being faced elsewhere.  We shared stories, examples and ideas.  In short, their visit was as reflective and informative for us as we hope it was for them.

Regardless of whether we win the award or not, the process of reflection, self-assessment and preparation for their visit was invaluable.  It gave us an opportunity to celebrate our successes and rededicate ourselves to those areas of need.  Further, with "company" coming, it gave us an opportunity to showcase some of our students' work in our classrooms and hallways.  As a result, the school looks incredible.  Some might be critical, saying that we just beautified the school for the visit, and yes, perhaps we spent more time than usual on displaying student work, posting pictures of students, and creating our 2008 NECAP data wall, but when it comes right down to it, these are all ingredients of great schools and if this "ED"ies visit gave us the opportunity to redirect our efforts, then it was worthwhile.  It allowed us to reflect upon "best practice" and that is always good for our students.

CMS will be informed of the the "ED"ies decision sometime in May.  This blog, of course, will announce the results as soon as possible.

6th Grade Going Green Experience

Many of our 6th grade students are completing an interdisciplinary research unit entitled "Going Green".  This unit employs student choice and differentiated instruction.  There were many possible topics of study that included Alternative Energy, Transportation, Arctic Region Study, Climate Change, Designing your own Green Home, Reduce Reuse Recycle, and Wacky Weather.  Students could investigate many aspects of each topic and choose a challenge level and a way to demonstrate what they learned in the form of a product.  

Students who choose "Alternative Energy" as a topic compared and contrasted benefits and drawbacks of alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, geothermal, and biomass.  Students attended a presentation with an alternative energy expert during the school day.  Some students choose to demonstrate what they learned through a power point presentation while others created models and one student even invented "solar house siding".  

Students who chose transportation investigated alternative ways to power motor vehicles.  These alternative methods included electricity, hydrogen, biodiesel, hybrid, ethanol, and natural gas.  Students attended a presentation by a biodiesel expert and Peter Zack from Maine Energy Education made fuel cells with students and displayed his hybrid car in the back of the school.  Mr. Zack was brought in as a result of a student contacting him for an interview.  He was so impressed with the project and our student, that he volunteered an entire day in our classrooms.

Students who choose Arctic region study investigated how diminishing polar ice would impact sea levels and wildlife in arctic regions.  Students worked with science teachers to create and analyze ice cores in an after school session.

Students who investigated climate change defined climate change and researched evidence of climate change including the causes, perils, solutions, and actions.

Many students were intrigued by the "Designing Your own Green Home" topic.  Students investigated what a green home was and how individuals can go about designing a zero-energy home.  Students considered location and house size, construction materials, heating, plumbing, electrical, septic, and appliances.  Students attended a presentation by Ms. Roe, a local green home and product expert.  Some students also chose to interview her further relative to their product while other students created model homes and noted features of interest.

"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" was another interesting topic where students explored the reasons for diminishing waste and presented ways that people are cutting back, re-using materials and turning materials into other products for consumption.  Students were excited to learn that Patagonia recycles fleece jackets and they were astounded to find that schools in Naples, Italy were closed because their landfills were filled and trash was piling up on the streets.  Many students started recycling programs at home and one student has created a compact florescent light bulb fundraiser where classmates can purchase energy efficient lightbulbs at a reduced cost!

The final topic of choice was "Wacky Weather".  Students investigated how climate change leads to extreme weather patterns and how our weather and temperatures are changing.  Students attended a presentation from the Mount Washington Observatory.  Students could choose to investigate effects on precipitation including floods, droughts, and heat waves, hurricanes, tornadoes and relate them to impacts on health, plants, and animals.  

Student learning was evident with the presentation of their products and the written response of their reflection papers.  Students were asked how the research has changed the way they think about the Earth and climate change and brainstormed changes they could make in their life to help the environment.  I believe that we have only begun to see the impact that this project will have on the students.  I am proud to say that they are stewards of the environment.  With Earth Day approaching, students are eager to find ways to make a difference.

Professional Learning Communities

Last week, 12 CMS teachers and administrators (all of whom are members of the Good to Great Committee) had the opportunity to hear Rick and Becky DuFour speak about Professional Learning Communities.  Many of those who attended reflected upon the two days.  Their thoughtful and thorough reflections can be read here. 

Politics and this blog

I was reminded by a member of this community that this blog is designed to invite discussion of middle school education, not to politicize and/or editorialize about local issues.  As a result, I have removed my recent post on the the experimental pod at CMS.  The comments of this member of our community were right on and I appreciate his/her reminder.  As always, I invite comments and if one so chooses, I can be reached at 775-8793 or tbaldasaro@sau16.org for individual conversations.  

-Tony

"Great" School Diagram and G2G Update

At the March 25th meeting of the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board, I unveiled the "Great" Schools Diagram  which was developed through the work of CMS's Good to Great Committee (G2G).  

By way of reminder, CMS mobilized G2G as a response to Dr. John Cronin's analysis and reportof the NWEA results of CMS  students from 2004-2006.  On page 12 of his report, Dr. Cronin referred to CMS  as "a reasonably good school with aspirations to become a great one."  That statement, which he said several times during his November visit, led to the genesis of G2G.

As G2G reviewed the recommendations of Dr. Cronin, page 10 of his report gave us some insight as to our purpose. It reads:

The grouping arrangements in place today work substantively better for high achieving students than low achievers.  In reading and language usage, the flexible grouping arrangement produced better growth for high achievers than the ability grouping arrangements.  Low achieving students have shown poor growth in the flexible grouping arrangement, but did not show substantively better results in ability grouped situations.  In mathematics, the current course assignments produce excellent growth with high achieving students in grades seven and eight, although growth has slipped this past year.  This assignment system has produced poor results with low achieving students and these results have declined further during the most recent school year. 

This leads to the general conclusion that decisions about grouping per se may not have much to with the results produced by the middle school.  The school employes flexible grouping arrangements for reading and groups by achievement in mathematics.  These "conflicting" arrangements have both worked relatively well for high performers and both work very poorly for low performers.  Thus simply making a change in grouping arrangements, whether toward or away from ability grouping, without a constellation of changes that are targeted more directly at improving the quality of curriculum and instruction, is unlikely to make much difference.

With the declaration from Dr. Cronin that a change in grouping would not appear to have an effect on the performance of students at CMS, G2G focused on the "Constellation of Change" about which he wrote and spoke.  Our discussions, both with the committee proper and the faculty-at-large have led to a focus on three key domains:  Curriculum, The Holistic Well-being of Students (which includes the social, emotional, academic, and physical well-being of our students), and the Constancy of Purpose that Dr. Cronin spoke of so eloquently at his presentation (See the "Great" Schools Diagram to see how the three domains intersect). Moreover the G2G committee has come to the conclusion that in order to provided a high quality education for each student, the three domains must be acutely balanced.  Specifically, if any one of the three domains is deficient the ability of the school to deliver high quality education will be compromised. 

With the "Great" Schools Diagram model in mind, G2G is now involved in a couple of processes.  First, trying to determine how well each domain is currently woven into the fabric of the school.  Are we lacking in any of the three domains?  More than one?  All three?  Further, can specific reasons be determined as to why any one or some combination of the three domains are deficient?  Is there a domain (or 2?  or 3?) in which CMS is outstanding?  Why are we outstanding?  Is there a common trait between those areas in which we are outstanding that can be replicated?  Which leads to the second process.  Developing action plans to address deficient domains and replicate those that are outstanding.  More will come of this process on a later post.

What Are the Purposes of Assessment?

Source

1.  Student Learning:  Assessment is a way for educators to measure progress, strengths, and areas of growth.  Many teachers assess their students using a pre-test, mid-term, and post-test to gauge student learning.  This may take place throughout a unit or the entire school year. 

 

2.  Improvement of Teaching:  Teachers use assessment to determine what is effective in their teaching practices; what is working and what needs improvement.  A variety of assessment tools may be used in order to determine what types of instruction are most beneficial in meeting the needs of students. 

 

3.  Communication:  Assessment should serve as a means of communication between educators, students, administrators, and parents.   Parents and students often look at assessment to see WHAT is being learned, HOW progress is being measured, and the TYPE of instruction being received.  Educators and administrators use assessment to evaluate teaching practices and to determine if there are gaps in the curriculum.   

 

4.  Program Evaluation:  Assessment can prove a good measure of one’s program, revealing evidence of the effectiveness of that program, throughout the year, assessment can offer direction to the program and modifications can be made to increase both student and instructional success. 

 

5.  Program Support:  Consistent assessment can be used to validate one’s program.  Data gained is objective and can show evidence of goals and objectives being met by both student and teacher.  With clear data presented, a strong measure of program support may follow. 

 

6.  Motivation:  Assessment shows progress.  When improvement is shown, students feel positive about their learning environment.  Documented assessment can offer proof of growth, thus enhancing students’ motivation to perform to the best of their ability. 

Do We Kill Creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson's February 2006 speech at TED is incredible, thought provoking, and inspiring.  For those that have not seen it, please take 25 minutes out of your day to watch.  It makes you think about how we educate our students.  

Designing Presentations

I've been following Ben Wildeboer on Twitter for a bit.  He has provided more resources for developing and delivering effective presentations.  I'm afraid that students simply assume that the sign of an effective presentation is that it used PowerPoint.  On the contrary, the use of PowerPoint can, in fact, take away from your presentation.  Ben's collection of "Wisdom Bits" provides a number of resources for teachers, parents, and students to use when designing effective presentations.

Cell Phones in Schools

During his presentation last Tuesday, Ray McNulty told of a high school he visited where the largest category of discipline referrals was cell phone infractions.  (Cellphones were strictly forbidden in this school.)  When he asked the students about their use of phones, in addition to the chatting with and texting friends (which neither he, nor I, can excuse) the students spoke of using their phones as watches, timers, calendars, and to communicate with parents.  The most creative use, however, was one student who used the camera on her phone to take pictures of her homework assignments and class notes that were written on the whiteboard.  Those all seem like logical (and educationally justifiable) uses of relevant technology.  

Will Richardson recently blogged about a conversation he recently had with high school students in a New York City public school.  The most fascinating point to me was how anyone can "google" on their cellphone by texting a question to 46645.