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.

Effective Presentations

Many students (and families) use Microsoft's PowerPoint or Mac's Keynote to create multimedia presentations.  While these tools can be an effective way to present a message to an audience, they are, often, used improperly.  The result is a muted or confusing message to the audience. Check out this blog from JuiceAnalytics.com entitled 8 Ideas for Making Better Slides on how to make more effective presentation slides.  I particularly like point #6.

A Time of Giving

A special "thank you" those who donated to the "Adopt a Platoon" program spearheaded through the students in the S.A.I.L. program.  4 large boxes (over 100 lbs) of much needed supplies will be mailed to Iraq to support American troops.  A collective "hats off" to the students in the S.A.I.L. program for thier outstanding and inspirational effort.

Good to Great

As was written of a December, 14th post, CMS is dedicated to continual improvement .  On December 11, 2007, the faculty of CMS began this process.  The focus of the meeting was on the statement made several times by Dr. John Cronin (NWEA) during his visit to CMS.  The statement was also written in his formal report.  The statement was:

"CMS is a good school, not a great one."

Toe begin the process of moving to "greatness" the faculty engaged in a cross-grade, cross discipline discussion to answer/discuss the following questions:

1.  What can we do and/or stop doing to move CMS in the direction of greatness?

2.  How can a school's greatness be measured?

Notes/data were collected from those discussions and CMS administrators, through an iterative process, looked for not only general themes, but also the frequency of such themes.  A summary of discussions was posted and all CMS faculty were invited to provide additional comments and or edit the summary.  The following are the themes that emerged through that process.

1.  Most groups commented about the over-reliance, over-use, and general amount of standardized testing CMS engages in each year.  Generally, teachers like having data for a variety of uses, including, but not limited to instruction, placement, IEP evaluation, and recommendation for high school, but the disruption caused by standardized testing is wearing on the faculty.  There seems to be a general need for assessment, but in a more reasonable, pragmatic way.

2.  All groups expressed their desire for common planning time for curriculum groups (e.g. all 7th grade social studies teachers).  The idea that common planning time can help CMS move from Good to Great is consistent with current educational research.  Rick Dufour was able to lead Adlai Stevenson High School in Illinois from poor to high quality partially because of their use of common planning time.  More can be read about common planning time and the development of a professional learning community at the following websites:

http://www.mesd.k12.or.us/si/dufour_PLCs.pdf

http://www.allthingsplc.info/

3. Several groups made comments regarding the elimination of non-teaching duties (e.g. lunch duty, hall duty, etc.).  The general thought would be to provide more time for teachers to collaborate, plan, etc.  Two comments in particular best expressed the faculty's sentiment:

"Take away duties for teachers not related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment."

"Stop (Remove!) extraneous duties that take up time."

4.  Several groups expressed support for a systemic model of support for those who are struggling with their academics.  The general idea was similar to the Response to Intervention (RTI) model implemented in many schools.

This theme is consistent with Dr. Cronin's report in which he highlighted the growth achieved by our high achieving students is not seen in our middle achieving students and especially in our our low achieving students.  This achievement gap, as measured by NWEA, between our high achievers and our low achievers is widening!  RTI (or similar program) may be a strategy CMS can employ to reduce that gap.

5.  There was a large contingent of comments expressing the feeling that the CMS faculty is "spread too thin."  It was pointed out that there was a certain irony in the fact that Mr. Baldasaro asked faculty to identify those items on their plates which needed to be removed and in the next breath announced a new "Good To Great" steering committee.  The duality of those events was noted.

Generally, this concept was similar to what Dr. Cronin proposed when he spoke and wrote of "constancy of purpose" and the need to develop a comprehensive long-term improvement plan.  While we prefer the idea of a long-term vision (Good to Great) using short, measurable goals based on that vision, there is a general belief in having a "constancy of purpose."

6.  There was a lot of discussion about the CMS curriculum.  Within this theme, there were many sub-themes.  They were:

More sharing of curriculum.

"Slimming" of the curriculum.

Eliminate obsolete curriculum items - concentrate on key concepts.

Greater adherence to curriculum and grade level standards.

Vertical (6th to 7th, 7th to 8th grade) alignment of the curriculum.

Consistency across grade level content areas.

"High Accountability for all students."

Generally, the conversations centered on the amount of curriculum concepts that needed to be "covered" as opposed to the quantity of the curriculum.  This is a classic "depth over breath" discussion.  Robert Marzano would call for a "guaranteed and viable" curriculum for all CMS students as opposed to a curriculum spread so thin teachers are racing to "cover" it.

7.  A couple of groups discussed the grading and development of more consistent school-wide grading policies.  There is already a group of teachers meeting on a regular basis to discuss the possibility of standards-based assessment and the use of formative assessment in the classroom.  Although that sentiment was not discussed widely during the Good to Great meetings, it has been talked about generally at CMS.

8.  Almost every group discussed the importance of the emotional and social well-being of CMS students - something of an addendum to the discussions related to concerns of becoming too focused on data.  While the focus of the afternoon was on curriculum, instruction and assessment, it is clear through the development of this theme in so many groups that there is a concern on the part of the teachers about the social and emotional well-being of CMS students. Further, there is a belief at CMS that if we are educating the "whole" child, then one can not focus solely on "academic" growth.  There is an interesting study by Kristen Bub (an advanced doctoral student at Harvard) on the connection between behavior and grades.  You can read more here.

9.  There here a couple of comments regarding the supervision and evaluation of teachers.  Two comments centered on the "informal" walk-through process, that teachers felt as though a 5-10 minute walk-through did not provide adequate time for an administrator to make a judgment and provide feedback.  There was also a discussion in at least one group on the importance of feedback for teachers and a suggestion that others in the department (i.e. peer coaching model) complete observations to offer constructive feedback.

10.  There were a number of miscellaneous items that did not fall within a "theme".  They are quoted below:

• "Stop letting the school board 'push' us around.  Need to be more direct and less defensive at school board meetings - things that are going well need to be voiced.  School board needs to hear that emotional rigor is important and that it is part of our mission statement.  The administration is being passive with the board.  The board needs to be told that they aren't looking out for all students."
  
• "[Need] a true "curriculum" coordinator."
• "Observe/visit other 'great' schools to find out what makes them great."
• "Define a 'great' school from administration/board."
• "No attendance policy, no accountability for kids, passing times for kids, no bells, clock differences."
• "Emphasize thematic learning"
• "Stop scheduling like we are a junior high school."
• "Parent Portal - time consuming, takes away from preparation."
• "Current goal setting process is too restrictive/dictatorial and pointless."
• "Teachers have meetings without agendas to be creative and attentive."
• "Is the 'Good to Great' committee just another example of 'whack-a-mole'?"
• "Stop feeling tied to textbooks/old instruction."