Newsletter November 9th-13th

News and Notes

Last Friday, we celebrated all the students with 90% or above attendance, and who received 20 or more credits for first quarter. In total, 103 students took part in the celebration. Of the 103 students who participated, 73 were on both list. I believe this is a significant number because, 73 students who consistently attended school, received the majority of their credits.

If we can continue to recognize students for their efforts in continuing to come to school, we may also be contributing to enabling our students to be successful academically. That being said, I do not think that rewarding students for coming to school is going to solve all of our student's problems; however, some students do not come from environments where they are recognized for any of their positive achievements/behaviors.

We as a Sem Yeto family can create a culture and environment that allows students to feel safe and rewarded for working hard at the little things. This can in-turn inspire/encourage our students to step out of their comfort zone, take risk educationally, and experience some measure of success in their lives. Please continue to recognize our students and stand in the gap!

The design for the Sem Yeto Facilities Master Plan will be posted in the office. Please stop by and provide feedback and suggestions on how we can improve the design. The input that we provide will be collected December 7th, and utilized to ensure that the plans meet the needs of our future students. No one knows what our students need more than we do; so please share your thoughts.

In the Tool Box

Strategic Goals: FormativeSummative =Rigor

Strategic Goals: Formative Summative = Rigor | Edutopia

Strategic Goals: Formative Summative = Rigor | Edutopia

Newsletter November 2nd-6th

News and Notes
This week,  our students will be involved in some great events. 3 of our students will have the opportunity to speak with Assemblymember Jim Fraizer. These 3 students will be allowed to ask the assemblymen questions and give their perspective on the state of public education. Another 21 of our students will be attending an assembly hosted by AHS with Judge Ladoris Cordell; and to end the week, we will host a lunchtime celebration for all students who had 90% attendance and earned 20 or more credits for first quarter.

Please continue to look for opportunities for our students to to be exposed to valuable information and influential people within our community. These opportunities provide a bridge for our students to positive role models and information that can encourage and enable  our students to set goals, and be successful in achieving those goals.

In the Tool Box
What is Depth of Knowledge(DOK); and how can I as an educator utilize DOK in the classroom?
These are questions that educators are asking about DOK, In an article written by Gerald Aungst, he explains how DOK can assist educators with increasing the rigor in their classrooms by providing rich environments where all students are learning at a high level. The article is very short, and provides some exercises for educators to try to gain a better understanding of the cognitive levels of the task being utilized in their classrooms. The article is attached below; enjoy!

This is Good!!

Newsletter October 26th-30th

News and Notes
Attendance for the month from September 7th through October 2nd was 96.57%! This equated to the second highest attendance rate out of all high schools. Our attendance goal for the year is 86% but at this rate, we will far exceed that goal. Please continue to recognize students for their positive behaviors, and build positive relationships with students.We had 31 students who received all 25 credits for the quarter, 42 students who received 20-24 credits for the quarter, and 102 students who had over 90% attendance rate.

The College and Career technician has revised the College/Career planning sheet that our students are all completing on their visit to the College and Career Center. The technician has stated that our students are well behaved and engaged the entire time they are at the center. The goal of having our students fill out this planning sheet is to get our students to begin to ponder their goals and future after high school. When students have a plan for their future, we as educators can then utilize their plan to assist us in helping students to see the vital role their present academics play in that plan. It can also assist us in making learning relevant and engaging for our students.

Whenever appropriate/possible please try to incorporate time into your instruction to talk about the importance of setting goals and preparing for the future; if we can make this a part of our culture, we can impact students mindset about being successful at Sem Yeto Satellite which will in-turn affect our overall school culture for the positive.  

In The Tool Box
A quote to share with your students: Do something today that your future self will thank you for.

Newsletter October 19th-23rd

News and Notes
Monday marked the start of the second quarter. Some of our students are doing really well in acquiring all of their credits required for them to get back on track. However, we still have some students who are not being as successful in this endeavor. In identifying the students you have who are not being as successful in acquiring all of their credits in your class, please continue to encourage those students and communicate with them and their families when possible.

The Will Walker mentoring program will begin this week.Will Walker will be meeting with approximately 35 students this Thursday in room H-7 during 5th period. Will Walker and all students will then move to room I-2 during advisory.

In the month of November, Sem Yeto students will attend two assemblies taking place in the Armijo Library. On November 5th Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell will be speaking to students from Armijo and 25 students from our campus about the juvenile justice system and how judges deal with teens in the system. She will be speaking on the impact that giving teens a second chance can have on their lives.

Bring your A Game will be speaking to our students about putting forth their best effort in everything they do on November 30th. Three 1 1/2 hr  sessions will be held throughout the day; and we will be rotating all of our students through this assembly.

It is exciting to see how these opportunities are manifesting themselves for our students. It is imperative for Sem Yeto to continue to establish a culture that enables students to become independent, critical thinkers, and right choice makers. When we couple these types of social/emotional interventions with truly rigorous and engaging lessons, our students will become the model for the 21 century student success story. Let's continue to move forward Yeto Family!

In the Tool Box
Here is a Kagan cooperative learning strategy that can be utilized with students during group activities  to assist you the teacher with checking for understanding, and  reviewing. This strategy can also aid students with  assisting one another with processing, helping each other, tutoring, and enabling students to get to know their fellow classmates. Enjoy!

Inside-Outside Circle
Students stand in pairs in two concentric circles. The inside circle faces out; the outside circle faces in. Students use flash cards or respond to teacher questions as they rotate to each new partner.

News Letter October 12th

News and Notes

October 16th marks the end of the first quarter. We will be having a BBQ towards the end of this month/ beginning of November to recognize all of our students who have 90% or better attendance. PBIS is in full swing on our campus! The entire staff is putting forth a great effort to recognize our students for being positive and doing the right things on campus.

Will Walker is a member of our community who will be working with SY and SYS campuses utilizing his mentoring program to work with a group of 30 students from each site. I will be providing Will with the names of students that I think would benefit from his program but would like to have your input to ensure that we are identifying our students who are most in need of this type of program. Will is looking for a mixture of students who may be acting out in class and not staying focused academically, and those students who are academically progressing but need some social/emotional interventions that his program will provide. The Will Walker program will begin this week. 

There is also another mentoring program that will be sending a representative to meet with Sherry and I this week called Bring Your A Game. The Bring Your A Game representative will be explaining the logistics of implementing the program at our school sites, and providing us with more details of the program that we will be able to share with the entire staff. Both of these mentoring programs will provide both sites with a valuable resource to enable all of our students to be successful--very exciting!

In the Tool Box

Here is an article that focuses on how to keep students engaged during class. Student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn, and progress in their education. Some of the practical strategies the article provides are: start with a good warm-up to avoid dead time in the classroom; build an arsenal of effective routines and activities; use movement to help with getting students focused; and teach students how to work in groups before expecting success. Enjoy!

Keeping Students Engaged During Class

News Letter October 5th

News and Notes
The IPR that our staff participated in last week went well! It was great to be a part of the collaboration that took place between the Sem Yeto and Sem Yeto Satellite campuses. The IPR data was focused on Attendance/Suspension, and Graduation/Credits. Some of the takeaways from the discussion were as follows:
Attendance and Suspension
Attendance goals for both campuses were achieved for the first month of school. However, over the past three years; on average, both campus were around the 80-85% range for overall attendance. These percentages are really low, and need to be improved.
Suspensions are up from last year over the same period of time on both campus. However, collaborative groups determined that more information is needed to determine possible solutions and intervention strategies to effectively be able to address the problem such as: how many students are accounting for the increase in the number of days of suspension, what type of offences were students suspended for, and were there any types of interventions attempted with students before suspending them?

Graduation/Credits
Currently, there are 279 seniors enrolled on Yeto campuses. Out of the 279 students enrolled, 177 of those students need more than 100 credits to graduate which represents 63% of all seniors. Over the past two years, both campus have maintained an approximately 80% graduation rate.
The collaborative IPR groups determined that it would be helpful if there was data identifying students credit situations upon beginning at a Yeto campus, and reviewing those students after being enrolled for a full year and beyond. It was also suggested by groups that data be gathered on the effect that holidays, midyear graduating students and new students who start at both sites mid year effect this data.

Where Do We Go From Here
During the IPR group discussions, some of the solutions (next steps) that the groups suggested were:
Identifying/Determining what the definition/identity of our alternative programs should be, identifying collaborative community opportunities to establish mentoring and work experience programs centered on the interest and needs of our specific students, and looking at ways to effectively engage students in learning in the classroom environment.

In the Tool Box
Here is an article that focuses on creating an effective student engagement environment in the classroom, and brings out the importance of planning for student engagement in the classroom. The article  provides a framework for getting started in the process; it speaks about 6 strategies that can be utilized when developing a course outline for the year: Authentic Learning, Inquiry, Collaboration, Integrating the Arts, Presentation and Performance, and Integrating Technology. Please enjoy and have a great week!

Planning for Student Engagement