Joel’s Journal for May 5th, 2014
It is Staff Appreciation Week!
Hello Awbrey Bulldogs,
This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week and I’d like to take the opportunity to thank ALL Awbrey staff for your work and dedication, which is absolutely what makes our school the wonderful place it is. We at AP, we celebrate this as a week of STAFF appreciation. I know kids and families really do love and appreciate the hard work you all do here every day of the year. Awbrey staff ROCKS! Our Social Committee have been working hard to make for a week of fun and celebration.
• Schedule of Events for the Week
Teacher Appreciation Week All Week, OAKS Testing Continues.
May 5 (M)
1:30-2:30, Joel and Kristie in Financial Closeout Meeting (Office)
2:30-5:00, Joel to Elementary Principals’ Meeting (Ed Center)6:30-8:00, Awbrey Park PTO Meeting (Staff Lounge)
May 6 (T)
3:00-4:00, May Staff Meeting (Room 13)4:00-5:30, Joel to Equity Committee Meeting (Ed Center)
May 7 (W)
7:30-8:15, Joel to Student Support Meeting in (Arwen’s Classroom Rm. 4 )
8:30-4:30, Joel to District office for Classified Bargaining (Ed Center)
May 8 (H)
3:00-4:00, CLIC Meeting (Room 13)
6:30-8:00, Cookies and Engineering Family STEM Night (Gym and Cafeteria) Please come and help out.
May 9 (F)
Regular Day
Some items of note this week:
• Helping out on Thursday’s STEM Night- Please do consider helping out with the STEM night. It should be a fantastic evening of fun activities and learning with families. The sign up sheet is in the Staff Lounge.
• May Staff Agenda – Agenda for the Staff Meeting
1. Connections -10 minutes
2. Taking it up action plan and update on our capacity in the area of equity. -10 minutes
3. Saphier focus from our CLIC Leaders- Conversation about 14-15 planning. 20 minutes.
4. Math Opportunity brought to us by Jamie Tait. 10 minutes
5. Work Sample and Writing Sample Conversation and Decision- Prioritization for 3,4,5 work samples. 10 minutes
• Title 1 Newsletter – If you’d like to know what’s happening in Title 1 from the district perspective, here is the latest Title 1 Newsletter that went out to all Title 1 Coordinators and principals. This month’s issue is mostly a lot of coordinator compliance tasks, but there are a couple good short articles included, one is “A High-Level Classroom Checklist” and the other about “Responding Effectively to Incorrect Answers.”
• More District Admin Updates – The new 4J Chief of Staff position has been announced. See David Brewer’s email below for details. I haven’t heard the duties of this position yet, but I imagine it will be something of a Deputy Superintendent, like Tom Henry and Jim Slemp used to fill.
Dear Colleagues –
Human Resources is proud to announce our new Chief of Staff. Charis McGaughy will be taking on this key position for our district beginning July 9, 2014. Charis has had a “life-long commitment to public education” and eliminating the achievement gap. She started her career as a classroom teacher and went on to earn her Master’s degree in Public Affairs. She has worked at the state level in both Texas and Tennessee. She returned to school and obtained her PhD in Educational Policy, Leadership, and Organizations. She has spent the last 7 years as a director at the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC). Her vast background in practice, policy, and research as well as strong oral and written communication skills will serve our district very well. Charis is passionate about supporting our mission to provide each student with an excellent education. She is a former 4J student and a current parent. Please join me in welcoming Charis McGaughy to 4J.
David
David Brewer
Interim HR Director
• Should educators look beyond technology, student engagement? – In this blog post, George Couros, a division principal in Alberta, Canada, reflects on the myth that technology is the magic formula for student engagement. He suggests educators are the key to student learning and they should aim beyond engagement to empowerment. “If we can develop meaningful learning opportunities that empower our students to make a difference, our impact will go beyond their time they spent in our classrooms,” he writes.
• 5 apps to enhance students’ social learning skills -“ Although it might seem counter-intuitive for educators to turn to apps and online gaming to enhance students’ social learning skills, we believe that when used in tandem with personalized instruction and an engaging curriculum, social learning games can be incredibly useful,” writes ASCD EDge community member Ryan Thomas. In a recent blog post, Thomas shares five apps that can help enhance students’ social learning skills.
• Study challenges stereotypes about female performance in math, science – On average, girls outperform boys across all subjects in school, including math and science, according to a recent meta-analysis by the American Psychological Association. The largest performance gap was in language, and the smallest occurred in math, the analysis found. “This contrast in findings makes it clear that the generalized nature of the female advantage in school marks contradicts the popular stereotypes that females excel in language whereas males excel in math and science,” the researchers wrote.
Have a great week, everyone!
Joel