Newsletter November 16th-20th

News and Notes

At the end of last week, we participated in POD’s with Patricia from West Ed. Our Social Science and Science department teachers from both Sem Yeto and Sem Yeto Satellite participated in the collaborative professional development. It was great to see how teachers from both sites utilized the opportunity to collaborate on lesson planning to ensure that content rich, and engaging lessons were formulated. The entire process was very demanding; identifying/planning ways to engage students at different levels of Depth of Knowledge as a collaborative team was a new experience for some of us. The process that the staff participated in, highlighted the extensive intentional planning that needs to be present to ensure that lessons are meeting the level of rigor and student engagement required for students to be successful in the 21st century educational arena. It was great to visit the classrooms of the teachers who were involved in this collaborative effort, and observe the finished product. Our staff took some risks and tried some things that were outside of some of their comfort zones, and for this they should be commended!

Suspension data from October is in, and we went from 42 days of suspension in October of 2014, to 16 days of suspension in October of 2015. This is a significant drop in the number of students suspended for that period. Now the question becomes; how is this drop in suspension rate affecting our school culture for the positive, and identify what (if any) are the strategies we as a school are implementing to enable students to make positive decisions centered around them being more successful in achieving their academic goals.

Next week is Thanksgiving break. Please take time to relax, and reinvigorate yourselves. There will be a small luncheon during lunch on Friday, November 20th for the entire staff.

In the Tool Box

There is Always something to be thankful for. Be thankful, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!