End of the First Quarter

Well...the first quarter has come to a close and we have not had a need for the Sheriff's office for the past few weeks!
It's been a while since my last post and much has gone on at the school.
I can thankfully say that we have filled our last vacancy. We had a self-contained special education opening that has been filled with a substitute since the 5th day of school. We have a teacher that returned to our area that had plenty of experience and is doing well in the class. The substitute that was in there already has another job lined up as we have a teacher on maternity leave...
The first quarter ended and we had parent conference day. The teachers worked extremely hard to make sure that all parents came up to the school for a conference to discuss student progress. Teachers were willing to meet teachers whenever time allotted, so there were some early morning and late evening congerences. Almost all parents participated in a conference...for some it was there first time at the school, but hopefully not the last.
We had a new program occur during the last week of October called Extended Learning Time (ELT). It was designed for students who had not met the state standard on our state test. These students were the only ones in attendance as all others had some time off. We had 48 students scheduled to attend and about 40 of them were there each day...the others will have to pay the price for non-attendance. The first day of ELT was similar to the first day of school. We had a great group of teachers who chose to work these extra school days and they did a fantastic job with the kids in small groups. That was the bright spot. We had some trouble with food-service (frozen french toast...yuk!) and transportation (only one student picked up on one of the bus routes). But the week was a success overall, thanks to the great work of the teachers and the hard work of the students!
Before the quarter ended, we had a very productive week at the school. Each grade level was allotted a 3 hour planning session with the entire grade level. The teacher assistants throughout the school covered the classes so that teachers could spend this time together. My coaches (math, literacy and technology) each spent time in the planning sessions. Teachers used a grade level planning lotus to show me what there plans were. This form was provided to me by my former principal. I need to give the teachers more direction on how to use it, but it was a great start. Teachers were appreciative of the time they were able to spend. My goal for the sessions was for teachers to plan common lessons and assessments. As we work through this, I hope that the planning sessions become an integral part of getting ready to teach students. I truly believe that if the teachers on each grade level will work together to plan common lessons and assessments, and then take time to review the results of the lessons and modify lessons based on results that all students will benefit from stronger lessons and more effective teachers. We will have another planning day at the beginning of December and then have one every five or six weeks throughout the year. We will establish professional learning communities with this effort.
2nd quarter began this week and have had 12 new students enroll...we are officially over 500 students now! We had a dinner to honor out students who made the honor roll during the first quarter and had about 200 attendees. Our second Family Night will take place in a week and a half and we hope to draw 350 (our first one had over 300)...
We had a great Veteran's Day celebration and program presented by our 3rd grade students and music teacher...we were able to honor many veterans who were in attendance, some of them our very own staff members!
I am off to my second round of principal induction training with the state department...it is hard to lead while away, but a valuable lesson to learn!
I hope