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. 

Do your kids learn differently than you? YES!

Ever wonder how your child can listen to their iPod in one ear, their cell phone in another, while they IM and study for their french test all at once?  They learn and work differently than previous generations.  They are, as Ian Jukes says, master multi-taskers.  Take a look at this blog post to learn more.

What do we do on "Inservice Days"?

Often times, people come up to me and ask what goes on during those mysterious "inservice days". Well, Tuesday was one of those days and I thought it would be worth sharing  a bit about the program.

The entire SAU professional staff met at the high school for two presentations. Ray McNulty, Senior Vice President, International Center for Leadership in Education and Dr. Stephanie Spadorcia, from Lesley University both spoke to the group about literacy, specifically, 21st Century Literacy. After their presentations, all faculty returned to their respective schools, broke into small groups and discussed how what they learned in the morning could be applied to their classroom everyday.

I'd like to share my thoughts about what Ray and Stephanie shared with us, respectively.  I'll report some of the general remarks of the staff on a later post.

First, I'd like to comment on Dr. Spadorcia.  Her presentation focused on four current issues:  scientifically-based educational practices, response to intervention, high-stakes assessments, and the widening of the achievement gap.  More specifically, she addressed how effective reading instruction can address all four of those issues.  She made the argument that the "Whole-to-Part Model of Silent Reading Comprehension" can be one such strategy.  Ultimately, she said, the ability to read and comprehend silently is of vital importance to today's learner.  If you think about it, it makes sense.  How often do you read aloud and/or are read to once you reach high school and beyond (Although she does believe that all students should read aloud and just be read to not read aloud themselves at upper grades - it is actually more difficult to read aloud and comprehend as you increase in skills no matter the age.  Students need to hear words multiple times before they can pronounce it correctly - think of the first time your biology teacher wrote the work deoxyribonucleic acid or adenosine triphosphate on the board.  In fact, she specifically said, "Oral language, hearing others read aloud, and discussions are the most effective means of supporting vocabulary growth".  She credited www.nifl.gove/nifl/pfr.html for that research.)  She really punctuated the fact that students need to be skilled in the area of silent reading comprehension if they are to be literate in the 21st century.

Dr. Spadorcia broke silent reading comprehension into what she called the "three legs" of the reading table.  They were Word Identification, Language Comprehension, and Print Processing Beyond Word Identification.  She said that just like a table, if any one of these three parts are missing (or undeveloped) the ability of the student to read at grade level is unstable.  She then spoke of several practical strategies to increase proficiency in all three areas.  I would encourage all of you to review her presentation to learn more about those strategies.  Early feedback from the teacherswas that they were glad she shared strategies that could be used the following day in their classroom.

One of the most interesting things I learned from Dr. Spadorcia is the importance in blending strategies from both phonics and whole language instruction. In short, she said that neither way, in and of itself is the one right way to teach reading, that students need to employ both phonics and whole language strategies to be proficient readers.

Ray McNulty shared with the faculty his belief that education systems need to change to adapt to the needs of 21st century learners.  He spoke of the "false proxies" we have created to signify learning such as finishing a course or textbook, listening to a lecture or getting a high score on a standardized test.  He emphasized that teaching and learning are two separate entities and that learning should focus on meaning, engagement, inquiry, exploration, personalization, collaboration and trust.  Mostly, he stressed that educators need to become agents of change. Instead of reacting to change (i.e. NCLB & Standardized Assessment), educators need to be proactive and author and cultivate those changes that are needed to help students compete in a global economy.   He spoke passionately about the idea that what has worked in education in the past will not necessarily work today (or tomorrow).  The needs of society today are much different than they used to be.  For example, our students are immersed in what he called "millennial-oriented Technology" (blogs, wikis, tagging, IM, Myspace and Podcasts for example).  Many students talk of "powering down" when they enter a classroom and "powering up" when they leave. He distinguished between digital immigrants and digital natives.  Immigrants work at conventional speed, natives a twitch speed.  Immigrants like linear problem solving, natives like random.  Immigrants read text first, natives "read" graphics first.  Immigrants are "work" oriented, natives are "play" oriented.  Couple these observations with the fact that the skills needed in todays workforce are changing, that employers are looking for workers who can solve problems, communicated effectively and in diverse manners, apply technological skills to access, apply and create new information, are leaders, and who have a thirst for lifelong learning, self direction and renewal and schools, for the most part, are not only missing an opportunity to capture a fleeing school population, but also to prepare students for 21st century work opportunities, opportunities that are quickly going over seas.

In short, it was a thought-provoking, perhaps even thought-challenging lecture.  I encourage all readers to view his presentation and to visit the institute's website.

Teachers take a pie in the face for Pi Day!

To celebrate Pi day, Mr. Wiggin - the 8th grade math teacher on the VIP team - hosted not only a pie eating contest, but gave students an opportunity to throw a pie in the face of their teachers. Additionally, the winner of the pie eating contest won the grand prize, throwing a pie in the face of Assistant Principal, Mrs. Faulkner.  Congratulations to Mr. Wiggin and the VIP team for a spirited and well-deserved celebration.

CMS Finalist for "ED"ies Award

As indicated in my last post, a team from the CMS community traveled to Concord on Tuesday, March 4th to deliver our presentation as to why we should be the NH Middle School of the Year for 2007-2008.  On Friday, March 7th, Mr. O'Malley received the call from the "ED"ies committee that CMS has indeed been chosen as a finalist.  On April 15th (yes...tax day!) members of the "ED"ies committee will be spending the day at CMS to see our school in action. 

Many people have asked about the process and the number of schools who were in the running.  I don't really know that exact answers to any of those questions.  However, what I have been able to surmise is that approximately 6 schools were asked to come present to the committee.  I believe 3 of those schools are being visited.  

None the less, we are very excited to host the committee.  We think they will be amazed by the professionalism of our staff, the dedication of our students, and the support of our community. If we are chosen as the NH Middle School of the Year for 2007-2008, it will be the result of the CMS community!

CMS Invited to Present to the Eddies Committee

On Tuesday March 4th, 10 members of the CMS community traveled to Concord to present its case as to why CMS should be the New Hampshire Middle School of the Year for 2007-2008. CMS was chosen from a larger group of New Hampshire middle schools to develop and deliver a presentation laying out why it should be awarded the "ED"ie  award for middle school excellence.  The committee will decide whether or not we make it to the next step.  If we do, we will be hosting the committee at our facility for a day later in March.  We certainly hope they come to visit. Needless to say, we are extremely proud of our school and would love the opportunity to "show it off".  

By the way, CMS has history with the "ED"ies as Karen Whitmore, CMS 7th grade English teacher, was chosen as the New Hampshire English teacher of the year for 2006-2007.  

If you would like to read our application, please click here.

We'll keep you up to date.  For more information, contact Tony Baldasaro at 775-8793 or tbaldasaro@sau16.org.

CMS Faculty Discusses Good To Great

On January 30th, the CMS faculty met in small discussion groups to continue the discussion about self-improvement and the move to "Greatness".  A summary of those break out groups can be viewed here.  Currently, the Good to Great Steering Committee is reviewing these reports.

A summary of our NECAP results has been posted.  Please visit here to see those results.

NECAP Results

The NECAP results were made public January 29, 2008.  We'll have more to say about how CMS students performed on them, but to have a look at how CMS students have historically performed on the NECAP, please click here.  There are three separate spreadsheets.  The first is the "whole" school.  The second represents our students who have Individual Education Plans (IEPs).  The final spreadsheet shows how CMS's economically disadvantaged students have historically performed on the test.

The Good to Great Steering Committee has developed the following agenda for the early release day on Wednesday, January 30, 2008.  

12:30 Meeting begins in the Auditorium

12:30 - 12:45 - Brief overview of the work of the Good to Great Steering Committee and of the goal/purpose of the day.

12:45 - 1:45 - Discussion break out groups.  Each group will be facilitated by 2 Good to Great steering committee members.  Discussions will focus on four keys areas:

    A.  Sharing of “What Makes a Great School?” brainstormed list. (see below)

    B.  Common Planning Time

    C.  Social & Emotion Needs of CMS students

    D.  Curriculum

Topic A was developed by the Good to Great steering committee.

Topics B, C & D were the most discussed topics from our Good to Great break out sessions in December.  

1:45 - Debrief and whole group discussion in the auditorium

To learn more about what the Good to Great steering committee has identified as qualities of great schools, please visit:

 http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dvqrj85_10f2t9wffv

Over the course of two meetings, the Good to Great Committee began developing its vision of what a great learning community looks like.  Below is a list of traits that the committee believes all great learning communities share.  While this list is dynamic in that it is open to review and revision, as the committee continues its discussion of school improvement, these are the traits in which we will continue to consult to expedite our growth toward greatness.

A great school…..

 

 

    a.     fosters/encourages openness and support amongst all community members.

    b.     inspires students’ engagement.

    c.     has a clear vision and prioritizes initiatives accordingly

    d.     celebrates its greatness as well as improvement through self-reflection and   evaluation.

    e.     values(?) accountability within the community.

    f.      focuses on student learning.

    g.     supports individual needs of community members.  (what does this mean?)

    h.     has a clear decision-making process.

    i.      teaches the learning process, encouraging depth rather than breadth

    j.      employs adults who model intellectual curiosity

             k.     uses differentiated instruction and assessment strategies proficiently

    l.      collaborates with other professionals and parents

             m.     uses current research to inform decisions and policies

             n.      recognizes the value of interdisciplinary learning

             o.     maximizes resources

             p.     values relationships

Good to Great Committee Minutes

January 9, 2008

 

Attendance:

 

Tony Baldasaro                          Tom O’Malley

Carrie LaDue                           Diana Perry

Sarah Cook                              Chris Mazzone

Lauren McGrath                        Karen Whitmore

Carol Trecosta                          Liz Moran

Angela Bellantone                       Janet Prior

Tom Powley

 

Absent:

Monica Greenleaf                     Kim Houghtaling

Dee Whall                               James Reilly

Jeanne Mantarian

 

Discussion:

 

1. Co-chairs: Tony Baldasaro and Monica Greenleaf

2. The implication of the committee’s name. Tony has received varied feedback, mostly from teachers giving examples of how we are already ‘great.’ Yes, we do have “pockets of greatness at CMS,” but we are not necessarily great as a whole organization.

3. Concern: The achievement gap (as indicated by the Fall 2007 NWEA test results) shows an achievement gap between the highest and lowest achievers that is growing.

4. Task: We need to develop a ‘plan’ for Dr. Hanson to present to the Board by April 2008. The plan should illustrate how we, at CMS, envision our path to greatness (keeping in mind the 3 R’s: rigor, relevance, and relationships.)

5. Round-table ideas shared:

·      Despite a perceived ‘fear factor,’ we need to strive for candor among the staff and among our committee.

·      We need to support the ‘relationship’ piece as we strive toward academic greatness.

·      We need to be mindful of ‘mixed messages’ that are at times perceived by the staff and seek clarity of purpose.

·      We need to focus on coming up with solutions, rather than focusing on problems.

·      We (most likely) will require a commitment to funding more support staff to cover areas like lunch duties, study halls, etc., if we are to maximize common planning time within the content areas.

·      We may need to be ready to shift paradigms and throw out what we think we already know/believe about what’s best for students.

·      We need to commit the funding and time required (during the regular school day) to provide academic support to those students who need it.

·      We need to examine and list what we already do that we consider to be great and prioritize its value.

·      We need to define ‘great’ and determine how we will know we have achieved greatness.

6. Task: Tony will initiate a forum on First Class for G2G committee members to facilitate communication.

7. Next meeting:  Tom has provided release time on Monday, January 14 at 1:30 p.m. in the conference room or the cafeteria. Tony asks that we try to arrange internal team coverage for our last period class, but he will help with coverage, if needed.

8. Next agenda:

• To develop a vision for the committee’s purpose

• To brainstorm what a great school looks like

• To plan appropriate tasks for the January 30 Early Release

CMS University

A Professional Development Opportunity for

the Faculty of the Cooperative Middle School

Workshops available:

Date	Workshop	Description
01/17/08	Rigor & Relevance	How do we achieve rigorous and relevant learning in our classrooms?  Learn to apply new skills and knowledge to real-world problems without sacrificing academic rigor.  To register for this workshop, go to: http://cmsu1rigorandrelevance.eventbrite.com
01/24/08	Lesson Planning	Review how to plan effective lessons that will meet the needs of all learners and how an effective plan can lead to effective instruction.  To register for this workshop, go to: http://cmsulessonplanning.eventbrite.com
01/31/08	Questioning Techniques	The art and science of effective questioning techniques.  How to challenge your learners through the use of higher-order questions.  Focus will primarily be on Bloom's Taxonomy.  To register for this workshop, go to:  http://cmsuquestioningtechniques.eventbrite.com
02/07/08	Maximizing Instructional Time	Strategies to maximize learning from "bell to bell" including class starters, effective transitions, checking for understanding, and closure.  To register for this workshop, go to:  http://cmsumaximizeinstructionaltime.eventbrite.com
02/14/08	Effective Use of Para-Professionals	How to entrust and maximize additional adults in the classroom.  To register for this workshop, go to:  http://cmsuparaprofessionals.eventbrite.com
02/21/08	Formative Assessment	How do you assess FOR learning, not of learning.  The use of assessment to guide instruction.  To register for this workshop, go to: http://cmsuformativeassessment.eventbrite.com
03/06/08	Homework	The who, what, where, why, when and how of homework.  To register for this workshop, go to:  http://cmsuhomework.eventbrite.com
03/13/08	Assessment & Grading	How's my kid doing in school?  What do our (your) grades mean?  To register for this workshop, go to:  http://cmsuassessmentandgrading.eventbrite.com
04/10/08	Exhibition of Best Practice	An opportunity for all to see the best practice of our colleagues.

 

Times:

Each workshop will be from 2:30 - 3:30 in the East Wing of the CMS Library.

Limited Availability:

Each session is limited to 12 attendees.  Sessions may be repeated if demand is great enough.

Registration:

Workshops will be filled on a first come first serve basis and are only available to the CMS faculty.  Please use the above links to register.

"It's the Economy Stupid."

James Carville first said it 15 years ago when he was a campaign manager for then Governor Bill Clinton.  His point was simple.  George Bush was beatable, despite the perception that he was unbeatable having just ended the cold war and been successful in pushing Iraq out of Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War.  Carville's point?  Bill Clinton was a better choice because while President Bush was gaining success overseas, he wasn't taking care of the U.S. economy. President Bush's presidency will always be notable.  It was when the Berlin Wall was torn down and America's presence in the Persian Gulf was intensified, but to folks in America at the time, jobs and a healthy economy were more important.

I bring this up because as CMS begins the process of moving from "Good to Great" it is important to always remember the singular power of an effective teacher practicing effective instructional practices.  It is the single most important determinant of children's success in school.  A single, caring teacher can have a greater positive impact on a student's life than any program, curriculum alignment, policy and/or federal mandate will ever have.  

The 2007 McKinsey Report (Which I first read about at Ewan McIntosh's edu.blogs.com) studied successful schools from around the world.  Their research identified three "things" that mattered most in those top schools that were identified as such.  They were:

1.  Getting the right people to become teachers

2.  Developing them into effective instructors

and

3.  Ensuring that the system is able to deliver the best possible instruction for every child.

In other words.   Education is a people business.  Successful schools hire high quality people and then provide the support needed for them to continue to develop their craft.  As CMS moves from "Good to Great" these three "things" that all successful schools have in common should be kept in the forefront of our minds.

Learning is free!

As people find new ways to access high quality curriculum (aside from that delivered at school) there is no doubt that the internet and its endless amount of information has had a profound effect on the ability of people to experience learning anytime, anywhere.  For the most part, that learning has been somewhat unorganized, perhaps even haphazard as people surfed the web looking for items of interest.  Now, however, more formalized courses are available.  Certainly, online courseware and virtual schools and academies have popped up at the k-12 level, but little had occurred at the university level.  Until last year.  Once available to only the very talented, the curriculum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, through a program called OpenCourseWare, is open to everyone for free.  Interested people can access lecture notes, readings, tests, and other video postings.  Read an Associated Press article about MIT program here or visit MIT here.