The first day of school (can it already be here?)

Wow, did Summer fly by or what? It is hard to believe that we are on the precipice of the 2008-09 school year already! It is always exciting to open the new school year. We have a lot of new faces around here. Over 160 new freshmen! Seven new teachers!

WELCOME!

We have nine new SMARTboards (to go with the six we already had), twenty five new computers in our business lab in room 33, 25 new computers in the library(and if I understand it right, a bunch more are going to show up soon due to a grant award Ms. Hill applied for! Way to go Ms. Hill! YEAH, WE ARE GOING WIRELESS!)

It is always great to see the students show up at the beginning of the year. Although they hate to admit it, most of them are ready for it to start. They always show up looking to see what we have to offer. Hoping to find the key to success, something to interest them, caring relationships, a routine to keep them disciplined, acceptance, affirmation that they are worthy, a helping hand. Lets not disappoint them! We must mentor them, engage them, excite them, facilitate positive and interesting learning environments for them, and most of all WE MUST CHALLENGE THEM! They want high expectations. They want feedback. They want to know how to correct their mistakes. They want a job well done acknowledged!

2008-09 will be a great school year! It is our responsibility to make it happen! We are up to this task!

What is our vision? What can we create?

I like to read a lot about education, technology, and reform. Today I was reading a blog on Leadertalk about vision and how the work of a generation of teachers is being overshadowed by NCLB and high stakes testing. We are positioned in this community to take a great step towards creating a school system that will shape our young people to be thinking, creative and well prepared individuals. As Paris 95 and Crestwood Unit 4 come together to create a cooperative high school, we have the opportunity to lead with a vision of what we want a school to be and make it happen. The following quote says very well what we need to consider:

Right now, there are too many people who want to put too much of the fault on the people in the system. That's the biggest legacy of NCLB -- the erosion of trust in educators. And that's criminal because we are squandering the good will and hard work of a generation of teachers. In the 1980 Presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan used the myth of the "Welfare Queen" as a major part of his campaign. Today, under NCLB, we have created the myth of the lazy teacher who, if only there was something to hold them accountable for the way they teach. The myth of that lazy teacher who could get students to achieve if only they worked harder is just that -- a myth. Are there bad, lazy teachers? Of course, but they are the vast, vast minority. Most teachers went into the profession because they wanted to make a difference. But our system is broken, and if you put good people in bad systems, the system will win more often than not. And as a result, we have lost the ability to negotiate the terms of our own profession. And that's what our current testing mania is at its root. It's a political tool. It gives politicians a number that they can use to compare schools to each other, and claim that one number can encapsulate all that a student have learned. And these tests now are determining student, teacher and administrator lives, when we know that the tests -- at best -- tell only a small part of a student's --and a school's -- learning. We need to tell a new story -- we need to articulate a vision of caring, student-centered schools where students are judged by the work of their own head, heart and hands. We need to talk about how the technological tools at our disposal allow us to fundamentally change the structures of our schools so that we can prepare students for the world they will inherit, but we can't do that as long as our assessment system is firmly placed in the past.

We need to articulate our vision for Paris' schools and it needs to be the shared ideas of parents, educators, students (they are often left out), local businesses and the community at large. The City of Paris has taken a great step in the right direction by securing the prison work camp property for the use of an educational facility! We need to follow that up by creating a vision and an action plan to create a school that will serve the needs of our community! We must look beyond what is being done now. Look for ways around current regulations that bog down the educational process in political dogma. Illinois law allows for the creation of Charter Schools that, with special provisions, are allowed to operate without the ties of some of the poor lawmaking that have made our system as bad as it is. It is an opportune time and we need to take advantage of it!

A great set of links for Technology Integration and SMARTboards!

I hope Skip Zalneraitis, who writes the itlc blog, does not mind me reposting his SMARTboard, IWB Resources entry here. These are some great resources for our teachers that are going to be using interactive SMARTboards for the first time this year. All of these links look very useful! THANK YOU Mr. Zalneraitis!

http://www.lynnreedy.com - “This site has been designed to provide technology resources to educators. Its focus is to assist teachers in the integration of technology across the curriculum.”

http://www.community.teqsmart.org/download.php - Tequipment’s Educator Resource Center

http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-us/ - Smart Technologies’ Educators’ Resources and Classroom Solutions

http://exchange.smarttech.com/ - “We’re turning this passion into the SMART Exchange, a community of teachers, administrators and SMART experts sharing ideas, expertise and enthusiasm to create extraordinary moments in the classroom.”
http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Teachers+Hub/default.htm?WT.mc_id=EdHomeHUB
- “Puzzled about what to do next with your SMART education technology products? There’s no need to be. Our Teachers’ Hub will help you put everything together – one piece at a time.”
http://www.interactivewhiteboard.net.au - “Interactivewhiteboard.net.au aims to be the leading authority on interactive whiteboards and their use in education in Australia. This website is not about sales of products. Rather its aim is to encourage and support teachers and other educators who are committed to interactive learning environments in today’s 21st century classrooms.” Here is the lessons page - http://www.interactivewhiteboard.net.au/lesson.asp.
InteractiveWhiteboards in the Classroom. This page was created with support from a U.S. Department of Education PT3 grant (”Join Together”, P342A030098).
Silvia Tolisano is teacher in Florida. She was born in Germany, and raised in Argentina. Her blog, Langwitches, is liberally salted with a great many links for SMARTboard activities. If you follow the right column in her blog down to ‘Categories’, find SmartBoard, and click it, it will aggregate all of the post she has written about SMARTboards or cited links to them.
http://Talking SMARTboards & Much More - Sharing ideas to use the SMARTboard in a Special Ed classroom. Find her ‘Categories’ on the right and click ’smartboard’.
http://smartboardrevolution.ning.com/ - ” All smart board educators, unite! Let’s share ideas, tips, and lesson files to maximize learning for the children. They are our future. Let’s teach them well and let them…something or other. I can’t think of anything right now.”
Teachers Love SMART Boards - James Hollis is SMARTboard sales and supportperson from Illinois, who I came across on Twitter. Jim corrects me below - “I appreciate that you listed my Teachers Love SMART Board blog and I just thought I would mention that I’m not associated with Smart Technologies in any way. I’m just a teacher and technology trainer trying to help teachers use SMART Boards more effectively.”

Keep the comments coming!

The series on our school improvement plan has generated several interesting comments. Although this blog does not publish the annonymous comments, they are certainly read, and the useful feedback that is generated becomes important data for various PHS committees. Several comments have become the basis for titles on the blog and will continue to do so.

THANK YOU AND CONTINUE TO GIVE US FEEDBACK!

PHS Improvement Plan Part V

V. Student Attendance and Hallway Behavior

We want to raise our attendance rate from 90.07% in 2007-08 to 92% in 2008-09. To do this we will monitor daily attendance and admits more closely in the PHS office. We have arranged administrative schedules to dedicate time each morning to checking admit status (students who have been absent) and following up on students absent the morning they are not in school. Use of the Student Resource Officer will be focused on home visits(with an administrator) for those students that are chronically truant.

Our staff would like to see improvement in hallway behavior as evidenced by fewer referrals to the office for between class infractions. Teacher and administrator visibility is the key for this effort. Teachers and administrators will be in the hallways before and after school as well as between classes. We have moved some of the locker assignments to reduce hallway congestion in the basement.

Incentives will be used to reward students with good attendance. Every month a drawing will be held for students with perfect for the previous month. Prizes may include free dance tickets, PHS athletics passes, discounts on yearbooks...etc... Individual teachers will also be allowed to give incentives in class for attendance. These may include dropping a lowest grade or increased size of note cards used on finals.